All are Brothers

[bob48]

I'm very please that this game is to be published, mainly because its a very overlooked period (the Italian Wars of Unification) and also because it uses a variation of Herman Luttmann's excellent 'Blind Sword' system.

https://www.legionwargames.com/legion_AAB.html

[bob48]

Now available.

[besilarius]

The Italian Risorgimento, wars of Unification, are very intriguing.  The characters are so lost and confused.
Napoleon III had an utterly incompetent War minister who badly flubbed the move into Italy.  As one division commander reported by telegraph, "my troops are not where I was told they were.  No one can tell me where to find them.  No one is aware of our plans or any desired movements.  How should I proceed?"
Napoleon and his sycophants had lavish meals in which the War Minister read accounts of the French victories under the first Napoleon, while the army scrounged for food and shelter.
The Austrian army of Italy had some experienced generals, most of whom had earned their spurs fifty years before at Ulm and Wagram.  Young emperor Franz Ferdinand had expected Field Marshal Radetzky to lead the war.  Regrettably, Radetzky this mortal life a year earlier at the youthful age of 91.
Still, he was intellectually vigorous and with his adoring soldiers confidence, he very likely would have beaten Napoleon the Little.
Of course Radetzky was distracted by the fiery Italian princessa who delivered his fifth, or was it sixth, illegitimate child the previous year.

[bob48]

Yes, its one of those interesting, but quite little known chapters in history.

[bob48]

I’m very grateful for having received a copy of this game, as I’ve had my eye on it ever since it was first announced on the Legion Games website.

For those that are not familiar with the period, the game covers the battle of Solferino, one of the decisive battles in what became known as ‘The Second War of Italian Independence’, itself part of a series of wars in the struggle for Italian Unification.

The battle took place on the 24th of June, 1859 and is interesting for several reasons. It was the largest battle fought since the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and also it was the last time in history that the three national armies were led by their respective monarchs.

The ‘allied’ armies were as follows.

France; Napoleon III with some 131,000 men, approximately 10,000 of whom were casualties.

The Piedmont-Sardinian Army was lead by Victor Emmanual II consisting of some 39,000 men, 5,000 of whom were casualties.

The opposition;

The Austrian Army was led by the Emperor Franz Joseph I, and consisted of some 130,000 troops and which suffered an estimated 28,000 casualties.

Its was becoming clear by now that due to the advances made in both infantry weapons and artillery, that Napoleonic style linear warfare was a very bloody affair. This would be proven even more in other wars that followed, such as the American Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, and, even later, the Russo-Japanese war.

The Game;

Designed by Bryan Armor and published by Legion Games, ‘All are Brothers’ uses a variant of Herman Luttmann’s excellent ‘Blind Sword’ system. Its very similar to the original iteration as used in a couple of Franco-Prussian War games such as ‘At Any Cost’ rather than the variants used in the ACW series of games from revolution, or the Black Swan and Shattered Union games.
Anyone familiar with any of those games should not find it difficult to learn, as the basic framework of the game is very familiar.

Units are brigades and batteries, and the ground scale is 500 metres. Each turn represents one hour of time.

In the Box;

 A very nice 22” x 34” map, by Edmund Hudson.
2 sheets of 0.6” counters (352 in total) which are rather splendid, designed by Kim Kanger.
A 20 page rulebook and a 12 page scenario book.
No less that 9 player aid charts and combat tables.
3 dice and a few baggies.

Overall quality of the components is up to the usual excellent standard that we have come to expect from Legion.

There are several scenario included, and we are advised that playing time is 4-6 hours for the scenarios and 12+ hours for the full game.

Complexity is rated as ‘Medium’, and suitability for solo play as ‘medium-high’.

Once I have had chance to get it on the table, I will give some feedback on how the game plays and my overall impressions.

[bob48]

Playing this at the moment. Its amazing how well the Blind Sword system can be so easily adapted to cover various conflicts, albeit they are close in terms of time. This game is much closer to the original BS system that was used for several Franco-Prussian War games, rather than the ACW games that use the system as a base.

What I find interesting is that the changes, while quite subtle, reflect the differences between the ACW and European conflicts from the same period.

For example, the use of cavalry in the ACW is quite different from the way it is used in the other games.

On aspect of AAB that I like is the rule for Corps Demoralisation. Each corps in the game, which usually consists of 2 division, each with 2 brigades and its own artillery, a cavalry regiment, and corps artillery, is given a starting morale value. Each time a brigade size unit takes a step loss, the morale level is reduced by 1. Also, whenever a unit rallies from a morale hit, that also reduces the corps morale level. This is intended to show the effects of fatigue plus the fact that a unit can only take so much before the corps become unable to continue to conduct offensive actions.

It also obviously means that high morale units, such as the French Imperial Guard, with a starting morale of 10, will keep fighting much longer that some of the Austrian Corps which may only start with a morale value of 4. It also means that a player has to be careful not to burn out his best units too soon.

A very interesting game on a very interesting period which really does not get much in the way of game coverage. Highly recommended.

[bbmike]

How is morale tracked in the game?

[bob48]

Its incorporated into the turn track. Each corps has a morale marker showing its staring morale, although in some scenario's, the starting morale is lower than the counter value, so its then just a matter of moving it down the track as required. A very simple but effective solution.

You need to get this for MOWE, Mike :-)

[bob48]

Another interesting aspect of this iteration of the BS system is that although you can stack a maximum of 10 strength points in a hex, only 6 can fire. This is termed the 'front line' unit(s) so stacking order becomes very important.

For example; if I had a 4 strength artillery unit with a 6 strength infantry unit below it, then I could fire the artillery, and then 2 points of the infantry unit. Obviously, if the stacking order placed the infantry as the top 'front line' unit, it could fire all its strength points but the artillery unit would be 'masked'.

This, given the ground scale of 500 mtrs (547 yards) and units being mostly brigades, seems quite plausible, and it does sometimes present some interesting tactical situations since artillery attacked in close combat is, as you would expect, rather vunerable.

[besilarius]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebe0Z7k6YdA

Mostly on later period, but to get you in the mood to play Austro-Hungarian s.