Played twice and both were absolute slaughters.
Game 1 went 15-1 to the French when a Cavalry Charge on their right and a Bayonet Charge on their left produced a 6-0 scorecard at the end of the first turn. From there it just got worse as the Coalition (with me in charge) just stood where it was and got wiped out. With only 4 cards and an unhelpful Courier Deck, we cheered when we finally played a card that commanded more than 2 units! The Coalition did not see a Left Flank card for the entire game so was obliterated and unable to respond (the Coalition left caused ONE block loss for the entire game). The Russians on the Coalition right were wiped out as the Young Guard just walked all over them. We find the Russian infantry are so weak that they are fairly unplayable. The Austrians tried a centre attack in desperation and moved forward 3 units and in very short order lost all 3 to shooting alone.
For Game 2, we increased the Coalition hand to 6 cards to make the game more playable and all the players randomly diced off to see what they commanded. I went from being Schwarzenberg to being Napoleon, and even with the Coalition holding 6 cards it was still a 15-3 whitewash. Whilst there were no Cavalry Charge cards played, the Young Guard Bayonet Charged their way through the Russians with ease, took the wood and annihilated the entire Russian contingent. The French right flank cavalry destroyed the artillery, light cavalry and even the Grenzers in Lobtau village! Again, the Austrians advanced in the centre with 3 units and, again, the French counterattack wiped it out.
The Coalition has some good troops in the centre but in both games the pressure is so great on the wings that none of them came into play.
However, we liked the Epic system and have done Quatre Bras and Waterloo as well. We have been playing on tabletop hex mats and using 6mm figures.
