Pre-Battle Mother Russia Roll
The Russian army took time to mobilize and was often committed to battle before all units had reached full strength. The Russians were also fond of fighting defensively behind entrenchments.
When pre-battle Mother Russia Roll rule is in effect, before the start of a battle, the Russian Commander rolls dice, equal to the number of his Command cards.
Please do the Mother Russia Roll before drawing Command Cards.
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• For each Infantry symbol rolled, add one block to a line infantry unit to bring it up to paper strength (four blocks), place a paper strength counter in the unit’s hex. The added block increases the unit’s combat die roll by one.
• For each Cavalry symbol rolled, place a Cossack unit (a Cossack unit has 2 blocks) on an empty hex (no unit) adjacent to any already deployed Russian unit.
• For each Artillery symbol rolled, add one artillery block to an artillery unit to bring it up to paper strength (four blocks).
Place a paper strength counter in the unit’s hex. The added block does not increase the unit’s combat die roll by one.
• For each Saber symbol rolled, place an available field works hex (only a field works hex that covers 2 sides of the hex may be placed) on a hex with an infantry or artillery unit. If the unit is already on a terrain hex, replace the terrain hex with an available terrain hex that contains the terrain and
field works.
• For each Flag symbol rolled, add one block to a light infantry unit to bring the unit up to paper strength (four blocks) and place a paper strength counter in the unit’s hex.
The added block increases the unit’s combat die roll by one.
-OR- For each Flag symbol rolled, you may choose to do any one of the above four actions, unless the action is prevented in the scenario’s briefing notes.
A maximum of one block may be added to a unit.
Normally in a scenario when the Russian army is already set up in field works, a Saber symbol rolled will not place a field works.
This is noted in scenario’s briefing notes as “Pre-battle Mother Russia Roll rule is in effect. Saber rolls have no effect.” Cossack cavalry may not be deployed on a cavalry roll when the scenario’s briefing notes state, “Cavalry rolls have no effect.”
Epic & Grand Battles
National Counters (2 & 4 player)
• The CIC will roll the Pre-Battle Russian Roll.
National Counters (6 & 8 players)
In an EPIC Napoleonics game with 3 players on a side, each player will have one Pre-Battle Russian Roll die. In addition, Pre-Battle Russian Roll dice listed in the scenario Special Rules are divided equally between the three Corps commander players.
When the Pre-Battle Russian Roll dice cannot be divided equally, the CIC will assign any extra dice to himself or to his sub-commanders.
In an EPIC Napoleonics game with 3 Corps commanders and a CIC player, each Corps commander will have one Pre-Battle Russian Roll die. In addition, Pre-Battle Russian Roll dice listed in the scenario Special Rules are divided equally between the three Corps commander players. When the Pre-Battle Russian Roll dice cannot be divided equally, the CIC will assign any extra dice to his Corps commanders.
National Counters (Grand Battle)
In a Grand Battle game, each Corps Commander will have or receive the number of Pre-Battle Russian Roll dice, Prussian Iron Will counters, or Spanish Guerrilla counters as listed in the scenario Battle Notes.