I should begin to start taking on folks to play in a Napoleonic campaign soon. Format:
1. The battles will use the Campaign Leipzig game.
2. The campaign map is using a 10 km hex. I am building a map of of the 1813 campaign operational area for the campaign. I will control the movement of the units on the map with the players giving orders for the movement of their units.
3. The basic maneuver unit on the map will be Task Groups. All of the units in a hex will be noted on a Task Group chart. Your opponent will see a Task Group counter when they move adjacent to him. The composition of the units will be revealed based on a contact value which will be based on the cavalry strength of the opposing forces as well as the stance of the units.
4. Individual divisions on the march will be placed on the map.
5. Each turn I will send the phasing player the game file based on the current setup on the map. Extreme Fog of War will be in effect.
6. Leaders on the map will be Corps, Wing and Army leaders. Task Group movement rates will be based on the leader's initiative rating and nationality. And yes, there will be slow moving French columns and fast moving Allied columns. So the Allies do not have to worry about the French encircling their army using "their superior march rate." By this time in the wars only the Austrians were still clinging to a slower march rate.
7. Supply wagons will be used to portray forward supply depots. The main depots will be noted at the beginning of the campaign by the players. Changing your main supply depot will be possible but not expedient. A "Line of Supply" check will be done for units. Those out of supply would suffer in coming engagements. Less wagons, possible Low Ammo status as well.
8. Once the Task Groups make contact there will be battles. The defending player can ask to withdraw. This will be possible based on the cavalry matchup, terrain, river lines, etc. A Contact Table will determine if there is actual combat or if there was just a strong rearguard action. Losses will be listed based on the force matchups, etc. If the players actually want to fight rearguard actions that will be up to them (but probably not a good idea - I mean they would want to finish the campaign long before they see their great grandchildren grow up ...).
I am also up for "what-if" campaigns which also would include club armies fighting each other. For now I want to stick to the 1813 timeframe but the units could be purchased using points if the members like.
Battles could be fought out in one scenario or if the players like in a series of smaller "point of contact" type actions with the next action based on the result of the first. In this way a battle like Leipzig could be fought - multi-day actions with probably 1/2 the turns played as a result.
For large battles they could be fought as two separate "front" actions where the members of the same side would not know what is going on at the other fronts. Or again, just as one scenario.
I would like to push for the shorter scenarios to make this practical. I would want to avoid doing the "large map" type of scenarios if possible to keep the campaign interesting.
Thus I am not going to use the Campaign Front End as I earlier mentioned. Instead I will just pose to the players the sitaution, let them look at the game map and then wait for them to submit their movement orders and "stance" for each unit. A simple spreadsheet format will be used for orders. I would like to figure out how to build a "form" for Excel where all they do is use check boxes and enter in hex numbers for the TGs.
Transfer of divisions between the corps will be possible but I am asking that the brigades stay with the divisions. The exception would be for the battles where the players could attach cavalry brigade from a cav corps to a corps that has lost a lot of their cavalry.
Random events charts will cause divisions to not be present at the battle. Everything from "phantom enemy" to "slow marching commander" to "difficult subordinate" will be included. And of course Bernadotte may decide not to engage ... or Vandamme may decide TO engage! Will MacDonald stay behind the Katzbach or will he go out to do battle in a heavy downpour?
Again, I would like to reduce the amount of turns down to something like 30-40 per scenario at the most. Just to keep the campaign moving. If it means sending the players a march route map (for the hex where the conflict takes place) and ask them to mark the map up where they want to deploy their forces, then I will do it. I have been in campaigns where there were long scenarios and none of them finished. I would like to avoid that.
I am going to privately contact some folks for the first (free) campaign. If you are interested in playing in a future campaign you can send me email at:
wmp3662
<AT>
gmail.com
I will be happy to put your name on a list.
The campaign fee is up in the air right now. I want to make it affordable for you and practical for me. Something like 15 dollars per person probably would be my rate. It all would depend on the size of the forces, the number of players interacting with me and the number of new maps I have to build. I hope to build as many new maps as possible to support the theater of operations.
|
