Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

One of the things I would like to do next year in my spare time is correct the issue of all of those Prussian 2 gun sections. I will merge them into two 4 gun Brigade battery sections. I prefer the 4 gun solution rather than 8 guns (like the Austrians) in that it gives the Allied player more flexibility with the "battery" while at the same time reducing the amount of small gun sections by half.

So instead of this:

B Blücher/Adv Gd
.......
U 2 6 C X 102 13 Schorlmmer's(a)HAB
U 2 6 C X 102 13 Schorlmmer's(b)HAB
U 2 6 C X 102 13 Schorlmmer's(c)HAB
U 2 6 C X 102 13 Schorlmmer's(d)HAB
(number of guns in bold text)

You would see this:

B Blücher/Adv Gd
.......
U 4 6 C X 102 13 Schorlmmer's(a)HAB
U 4 6 C X 102 13 Schorlmmer's(b)HAB

And the good news is that I am only see this happen in 3 areas in the "Begin_Campaign_1806.oob" file.

I would rename the OB file to be "Begin_Campaign_1806_NEW.oob and then make the changes. Then open each scenario file in the Scenario Editor and remove the batteries from the map using the older OB and save the file using the same file name. Then put ALL of these scenarios into their own folder and do a mass OB file name change in their headers using Ultra Edit using the newer version of the OB. This way existing scenarios are not affected but new ones will use the new OB file.

I would do this with all of the OB files in the game. I may be able to do the changes in Ultra Edit quickly without having to go into the editor and manually removing the units from the map or reinforcement group. Just a matter of knowing their Unit IDs.

I would want to check with Rich Hamilton on this but I think this was a major complaint about the game. Too many small 2 gun sections.

Note: when we put out Jena in 2006 I didn't have Ultra Edit on my system and thus a change like this would have been a lot of work. Now its just a matter of finding the time to do it. I did a similar thing with Austerlitz but it was MUCH more time consuming.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Just wonder what batteries we talk about.
You want to change the "normal" artillery units and not the battalion guns or?

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The battalion guns too. So each of the regiments that has those 2 battalion guns present ... I combined them into 4 gun sections. I felt that 8 was a bit much.

Splitting up the Austrian Brigade guns (8 guns) into 4 gun sections in the other games (start with Eckmuhl .. end with RBR) could be something I do later on.

Sample from Eckmuhl.oob:

U 8 5 B E 48 0 Med Brig Bty

would become:

U 4 5 B E 48 0 Med Brig Bty(a)
U 4 5 B E 48 0 Med Brig Bty(b)

The H&R team already did something like this. I would also split up the huge battalions into two parts. Warren Bajan said that they fought that way. That would be any battalion over 900 men.

This would be for an ALT OB and not the default OBs. Would mean duplicating the scenarios. I might do it just for the big battles like the full Eckmuhl Campaign in one battle, Hunt for Davout, etc.

Also: I have asked Scott Ludwig to check in Bowden's 1806 campaign that Military History Press published (translation by a French speaking helper) for the gun battery names or when a name is not given for the battery number. The Jena OB (and the rest) lack these in places. I noted that the Reserve 6lb & 12lb guns are just called "Foot Battery." I believe that like the Austrians they should be called "Hvy Position Bty #3" or "Med Position Bty #6."

There are at least two reserve artillery brigades in the Jena OB. Here is the one from the East Prussian Corps:

B Art/EPC
Begin
L 3 4 190 Art/EPC
U 6 6 B K 101 12 Foot Battery
U 6 6 B K 101 12 Foot Battery
U 4 6 A I 101 12 Foot Battery
U 4 6 A I 101 12 Foot Battery
U 4 6 A I 101 12 Foot Battery
U 4 6 A I 101 12 Foot Battery
U 4 6 A I 101 12 Foot Battery
End

The top two batteries are 6lb guns thus probably "Med Position Bty" and the rest are 12lb guns or "Hvy Position Bty" more than likely.

If Scott cannot find anything then maybe you have some information on the Prussian OB for the game names?

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

On a quick look I see that I have the 2 OOBs from Nafziger, 806JBH & 806JBG, then the Lettow-Vorbeck books on 1806 afaik also with the proper OOBs in it. So if you need something I can take a look.

In regards to the battalion guns, I know that they are cumbersome from a gaming perspective(maybe this new mass move feature gets rid of that) but the point about them is that they make the Prussian army larger and more clumsy. They were usually ahead of the battalions and if any trouble came like a broken axle it basically stopped the whole column till they had thrown the gun off the road. A lot of "work" but not much effect in the field, that is why there is such a large number of captured guns in 1806, a battalion going against 2 guns is just easier then 4 guns, especially when we do not have separate melee values for the various calibers.
Napoleon learned it in 1812 too that battalion guns are useless and you may should leave them like that.

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So are you saying to just remove them from the game or leave them as is and let the players decide? That they were not merged into 4-6 gun sections?

Makes me wonder about the Austrian 8 gun Brigade batteries .... they were 3lb guns too.

Maybe its just not worth fixing. Just fix the names for the reserve guns ....

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Afaik the Prussian bat. guns were not merged, standard was to put 1 gun on each end of the bat. when it formed a line.

The Austrian brigade batteries were that light? Just wonder as one source notes:
There was a total of 742 field guns
- 12 % were the 12pdrs cannons
- 60 % were the 6pdrs cannons
- 12 % were the light 3pdr cannons
- 17 % were howitzers

If the Austrian didn't attach them to regiments or bat. then on a brigade level such bigger batteries seem OK, especially with the large Austrian battalions.

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It depends. Some of them were and some were 6lb guns. There is a mix of both in the Wagram and Eckmuhl games.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)