Here is the map again with the proposed starting positions of the formations listed in the previous posting.
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I am still in the process of deciding whether to use 'priority chits' for activating units, or the PW system I adapted for dice. If the latter, do I count Napoleon as an 'excellent' commander and the Prussian high command as 'poor' or 'average'? The one method keeps the Prussians reasonably competitive; the other will likely lead to a campaign as one-sided as historically.
I am also close to deciding that all formations include a commander, who counts +1 die for combat. Napoleon himself counts an extra +1 apart from the command of the formation he happens to be with. Commanders lost are not replaced, but, apart form the loss of the +1 combat modifier, does not affect the formation's ability to move or fight.
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| Marshal Bernadotte's I Army Corps: horse and foot leading with the Marshal; the artillery in the following hex. |
On the march, formations move in columns 2 figures or 1 gun wide. Cavalry occupy 4cm of road in depth, the foot 2cm and artillery 5cm. A formation like Marshal Bernadotte's I Army Corps occupies, then (in no particular march order):
4 infantry, 2x2 = 4cm
1 cavalry plus the marshal himself = 4cm
2 artillery crew = 2cm
1 gun = 5cm
Total: 15cm of road.
As the hex-grids are 10cm from side to side, that implies Bernadotte's Corps occupies a hex and a half on the march. I have calculated that each hex represents a distance of roughly 16km or 10 miles. The movement rates of 2 hexes per day for foot and 3 per 'day' for Murat's cavalry is, I accept, very generous, but I think it will make for a brisker campaign.
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| Prince Louis Ferdinand's command on the march. The gap represents the two sections occupying 2 hexes of roadway. |
If attacked on the march, the formation may count only what is in the leading hex for combat purposes, but the second hex 'reserves' may be brought up to join the leading units.
Hohenlohe's Army formation occupies:
6 infantry, 3x2 = 6cm
2 cavalry, 2x4 = 4cm
Hohenlohe himself = 4cm
3 artillery crew = 4cm
1 gun = 5cm
Total: 23cm
However, there is no reason why 2 of the artillery crew may not march alongside the Command figure
which would reduce the length of the column to 21cm - just over 2 hexes.
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| Prince Louis Ferdinand and Hohenlohe on the march |
Always tricky to balance the C&C of both sides when re-fighting a historical campaign, as generally speaking I think we all want both sides to have a decent chance of winning. Too one sided and personally I don't enjoy these. Brisker movement rates get the thumbs up from me so that the campaign doesn't drag, given all the other distractions we have these days.
ReplyDeleteSteve -
DeleteYes, that was what was worrying me: whether to go with history, or use the priority chits. The third alternative is simply IGoUGo but rolling for who goes first. I'm leaning heavily towards the priority chits as offering the more suspenseful plot...
Cheers,
Ion
I'm also a big fan of decent movement rates. Why not just standardise all the Corps as taking up 2 hexes on the march? Once formed for battle, they can stack up but only move 1?
ReplyDeleteMartin -
DeleteEach Corps occupies 2 hexes on the march seems to me a very reasonable option! But I thought that some notion of 'march order' might tend to offer options. The main bodies of Brunswick and Hohenlohe's commands in road march don't QUITE fit into 2 hexes, which means that to assemble for battle will require more than one day unless the head of the march stops for the whole day. A battle involving these formation might tend to take the form of a set-piece or an encounter battle. (I am wondering whether to do a one-off Auerstadt action using these formations, Davout's III Corps versus Blucher, followed by Brunswick's army, and see how the thing pans out. It will be at least a 2-day battle, rather than the single day it took historically...)
Cheers,
Ion
Your idea of stacking but moving one is very similar to something I have in mind. Rather than attacking 'off the march', a corps in contact with the enemy might bring up the reserve, and THEN attack with the whole body. I am still taking the view that an attack counts as a 1-hex move.
Cheers,
Ion
Whatever your final decision is Ion that needs to be your call. What is it you want from this exercise?
ReplyDeleteFollowing the real historical situation would (I expect) broadly give a historical outcome. Yet I can’t imagine giving all the commanders “free rein” would be all that rewarding - as Napoleon was a significant advantage/asset.
Maybe you should consider what events proved to be “turning points” and how/why they were important. But then give the Frenchies some bonuses/modifiers.
Cheers,
Geoff
Geoff -
DeleteWhat do I want from the exercise? Good question - because I'm not sure I can give a satisfactory answer. I think it goes to why I war game (and why I play chess, though my enjoyment of that game has been steadily waning from the obsession of my teens and early twenties). I like stories, and to tell myself stories.
But this is also part of an idea I have had floating around for a long time - 'map' games, in which whole campaigns might be waged upon one playing surface, at one sitting. At some point I'll be looking at the opening moves of the 1809 campaign, which also seems to offer something along these lines. The whole idea is to create a campaign narrative upon a three dimensional world in which the outcome need not be a foregone conclusion.
... I think...
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo,
ReplyDeleteI’m following this with great interest as I like the idea of fighting a whole campaign in a day, and this approach would work well with my existing Napoleonic collection.
All the best,
Bob
I think, Bob, with your Napoleonic collection you could undertake something a deal more ambitious as well! This is really 'my' 'Waterloo (Hundred minute) Campaign' tried out with a different setting. The scale is a little larger, though; possibly a little beyond my small table really. We'll just have to see how it pans out.
DeleteCheers,
Ion
Hi Ion- I do like your Napoleonic Figures - the little formations look splendid. Good gaming with this new campaign- hope you get a lot out of it. Regards. KEV.
ReplyDeleteTo achieve these little formations, Kev, I have to raid a larger one, to wit, my IV Corps, one of my two larger ones, which comprises 4 x 24-figure infantry Divisions, 1 x 12-figure light cavalry brigade, an artillery park of 2 guns and 8 figures, all commanded by a Marshal with his ADC - 118 figures in all.
DeleteHaving said that, for this type of game, they do have a little something. I'd make them bigger, but I have a feeling the main armies of Brunswick and Hohenlohe rather stretch the boundaries of the hex-grid areas.
Once I really get properly in amongst my 'War of the Nations',
IV Corps will feature at some point, and not on a gridded table.
Cheers,
Ion
Cheers,
Ion
I do think the Prussian C2 should be 'Poor' compared to Napoleon as 'Excellent' as this, with Austerlitz, really was Napoleon on his best form. To stop this being 'no-contest' don't let Napoloeon give an extra +1 combat, his job is really just making sure he has more on the day.
ReplyDeleteAlso you could dice for Prussian C2 each day with their rating changing depending on who was the last one to influence Brunswick. Perhaps 1-3 = Poor, 4-5 = Average and 6 = Excellent when Scharnhorst manages to get a word in edgeways?
Rob -
DeleteThanks for your comment! One of the activation possibilities I had in mind was my 'dice' variant of that used in many of the Portable Wargames rule sets. The French have 8 formations plus Napoleon; the Prussians 7 formations plus the King of Prussia/ Duke of Brunswick. The 'medians' are taken as 5 and 4 respectively. Dice are rolled for initiative (who goes first), and then another for each side in turn to determine the number of formations that can do anything. Roll high (5,6) one may activate median plus 1 formations; roll low (1,2) one may activate median minus 1. This system combined makes the thing - played solo - reasonably unpredictable.
Napoleon being an excellent commander might add 1 to his 'median' - which means I high roll would enable 7 out of the 9 elements to move - 8 if we permitted Napoleon to move with another formation, say, the Guard. Pretty sprightly. I'd probably leave the Prussians 'as is', but if I were to make their command 'poor', a low roll would have them move 2 elements only - 3 if we include Prussian high command - pretty sluggish.
Having said that, Napoleon was not prepared to take the Prussians too lightly, and concerned himself especially with the possibility of the Prussians waiting for him at the foot of the Thuringerwald passes ready to pounce upon his formations as they emerged into the plains northward.
So, tempting as the ideas are that we have discussed, I have decided upon the priority chit system, and give Napoleon his own combat bonus instead.
Cheers,
Ion