1806 Campaign... a discovery

Whilst hunting around cyberspace looking for maps suitable for war games campaigns I discovered this gem.  It was an account of a war-gamed 1806 Campaign in Prussia, played, I believe, as a kind of kriegspiel.  There is probably a back story I couldn't find, but the narrative beginning from this link is enthralling:

Pawnderings on Games: 1806 Campaign

I really have nothing to add to this.  Enjoy!

Prototype 'Offset Oblong' Campaign Map

Draft campaign map of the Crusader operation, 1941, on a
single sheet of A4.  Note the oblong cells.

In my last posting I spoke of a campaign map I started to make for a game based upon the Crusader Battles in the Western Desert in November-December 1941.  The two pictures here show how far I got with the thing - including the mistakes and additional notes - even an idea I had at the time of transforming (by eye alone) the oblong cells into hexagons.   

Same map with a 'desert' special effect.  This map was
redrawn, double-sized onto 2 A4 sheets.

The campaign was to be 'bathtubbed' - based on the Command Decision rule set, but further scaled down.  The inspiration for this was the campaign game Barbarossa 25, in which the whole Operation Barbarossa was scaled down by a factor of 25.  This included time and ground scale.  Now, Command Decision already involves a scaling down of 1:5 in vehicles, with a two-figure infantry stand representing roughly 50 men,   So Barbarossa 25 implied a scaling down of 1:125 in vehicles, and each infantry stand represented roughly 1250 men.

This was achieved not by a method that would have looked like Not Quite Mechanised or Megablitz; but by having 1 war games Division standing for 25.  On a hex map of Russia, each cell represented an area 1 km across instead of 25.  The time scale was harder to design, so the designer (Frank Chadwick) settled on 2 days  representing 1 month.  I think I would have made a different time scale, but that's by the by.

My idea I called Crusader 5 - scaling down by a further factor of 5 from the Command Decision rule set. 1 tank would therefore have represented 25, and one rifle stand about 250 men Here are a couple of samples of my projected ORBAT:

15th Panzer Division (General Neumann-Silkow)
      Panzer Regiment  8:
          HQ: 1 cmd (command) PzIVF1, 1 recon (reconnaissance) PzII
          2 Companies each with: 1 cmd PzIIIH, 1 PzIIIH
      Infantry Regiment 15:
          HQ: 1 cmd stand, 1 kubelwagen, 1 staff radio truck, 1 recon m/c (motorcycle) MG stand,                           1x50mm AT (Anti-tank) gun with towing vehicle,
                1x7.5cm infantry gun with kettenkrad tow.
           1 Company, with 1 cmd stand, 3 rifle stands, 1 MMG (Vickers) stand, 1xSdKfz251/10
                3xSdKfz251/1 half tracks.
           1 Company, with 1 cmd stand, 3 rifle stands, 1 MMG stand, 4 trucks
           1 m/c Company, with  1 cmd stand, 1 kubelwagen, 3 m/c stands, 1 MMG m/c stand.
      Artillery Regiment 33:
           HQ: 1 cmd stand, 1 FO (Forward Observer), 1 radio truck, 1 kubelwagen:
           Battery: 1x15cm howitzer, gun crew, 1xSdKfz7 tractor.
           Battery: 1x10.5cm howitzer, gun crew (ds - double sized stand), 1xSdKfz11 tractor.
           2 AT Batteries, each with :  1x50mm PaK38 AT gun, 1 gun crew (self command), 1 truck or                    halftrack
           1 AA Battery with: 1x8.8cm  FlaK, 1 gun crew, 1 SdKfz7 tractor:
           1 AA Battery with: 1xSP 20mm Quad or 37mm AA.
      Aufklaerungs Abteilung (Recon Unit) 33:
           1 cmd SdKfz250/1, 1xSdKfz222 a/c (armoured car), 1xSdKfz231 a/c, 1 m/c stand,
           1 recon infantry stand, 1 SdKfz 250, 1 37mm or 50mm AT gun.
      Engineer Company 33:
           1 cmd engr (engineer stand), 2 engr stands, 3 light trucks.

          

2nd New Zealand Division (Major-general Freyberg)
       HQ: 1 cmd stand, 1 light truck, 1x2pr p/m (portee mount)(31Bty), 1 Bofors AA ('X'Bty):
       4 and 6 Battalions, with:

            HQ Coy: 1 cmd stand, 1 car, 1 recon bren carrier (carrier), 1 3-inch mortar stand, 1 carrier,
                1 engineer stand, 1 MMG, 1x 2pr portee mount (32/34 Bty), 1 Bofors AA (41 Bty)
            3 Rifle Coys, each with 1 cmd stand, 3 rifle stands.
     5 Battalion, with:  

             HQ Coy: 1 cmd stand, 1 car, 1 recon bren carrier (carrier), 1 3-inch martar stand, 1 carrier,

                1 engineer stand, 2 MMG, 1x 2pr portee mount (33 Bty), 1 Bofors AA (42 Bty)
            4 Rifle Coys, each with 1 cmd stand, 4 rifle stands.
      Field Regiment:
             HQ: 1 cmd stand, 1 FO stand, 2 cars, 1 staff radio truck, 1 survey troop stand.
             3 batteries (4th, 5th and 6th), each with 1x25pr gun/howitzer, 1 Quad tractor, 1 limber, 1 gun                   crew (ds) 

      7 AT Regiment: (31-34 Bty, attached as above).
      14 Light AA Regiment (attached, as above)
      Engineer Company: 1 cmd stand, 3 engr stands, 1 car, 3 light trucks
      Divisional Cavalry:  1xcmd MkVIB light tank, 1 recon MkVIB, 2 recon carriers.
This 'Division' had a transport pool rather than unit-organic transport.  Whether this transport pool was large enough to uplift the whole Division, I'm not sure.  I'd be inclined to limit the pool to something like 20-30 vehicles - enough to carry two of the three rifle battalions, say.

I was going to include an Italian formation in this rather self-indulgent article (probably Ariete Division), but my Italian ORBATS seem to have disappeared.

Unfortunately, at the time this was too ambitious a project for the resources I had available, or was likely to obtain in any reasonable time.  Too bad...