Test Campaign 1 - Campaign Start Through Turn 3

 

Basic Game Overview

This was a test campaign so that I could experiment with the rules that I have been writing for a campaign level games that allows for battles to be fought using miniatures as a result of actions taken on the campaign map. This campaign takes place in the area around Bavaria (southern Germany or just north of the Alps). Both sides (France vs. Austria) have roughly equal armies with each side supporting three army corps worth of troops (See OOB section below). Units are represented on the campaign map as either infantry divisions (solid color rectangle unit marker), cavalry divisions (50% split white rectangle unit maker), cavalry screens (temporarily long grey rectangular magnets), and artillery parks (the unit marks with two sets of three lines).

The maps used are the Murat maps found here. These maps use a node movement system with links between nodes represented by roads. The distance between each node is considered to be the distance an infantry division can march in 1 day (or campaign turn). Cavalry divisions can march two nodes each turn. Artillery can only move 1 node each turn, unless the artillery park is made entirely of horse artillery at which point it can move 2 nodes. Units may force march 1 extra node each turn for a penalty to their combat effectiveness. This penalty can be recovered by resting for 1 turn.

All markers that have a flag and Roman numeral indicate either the Commander-in-Chief of the army (C-in-C) in the case of the numeral I, the armies point of communication and supply with the home country in the case of numeral II, or objectives that develop over the course of the game. These objectives are worth victory points, and those points can be earned through various means.

This set of rules is a work in progress and I have tried to keep changes rules mid game to a minimum. The only changes that I have made so far in the current game is to the “Corps Activation”, the battlefield area determination and that areas effect on cross country (not on roads) movement of troops to participate in battle.

1. Initially, “Corps Activation” was going to occur at the start of each campaign turn and required that each corps roll for activation so that it could move on the map with results either being a full activation, partial activation (only 50% of units in the corps could move), or a failure to activate (no units move). This was too tedious and there were issues with some units never moving, which was going to make time efficiency/game mechanics awkward in the long run. Therefore, I changed the activation rules to only effect tasking of new “Campaign Maneuvers” or “Re-Tasking of Corps”. At the start of campaign turn 3, each corps only rolled to receive orders with a full activation meaning the entire corps got the order and can move, two partial rolls totaled up over multiple campaign turns eventually lead to a full activation (in the meantime, only 50% of the corps can move), and a fail meaning the orders were not received (either by the full corps or the rest of the corps that has not moved yet).
2. The battlefield area was originally only going to only encompass the area surrounding each node. This proved to be too small an area for all of the unit markers being implemented. This also raised issues as some nodes are near each other, but roads to do not link the two nodes. As most armies in this time tried to stick to roads for long distance movement, I need a solution to allow for units that are close enough to the battle to be able to move towards the action. I decided to use a 1.5in radius blast marker from my Warhammer 40k materials to indicate the area that troops could march without roads to take part in the battle. Limits are in place to prevent units from crossing impassible terrain such as major rivers and mountains. Units that are within 1 node distance may march to the battle (either using normal movement or forced marches).

When battles occur, I will either be using the Blucher rules from Sam Mustafa Publishing or the General d’Armee rules from TwoFatLardies. Blucher will be for army sized battles and General d’Armee will be for divisional sized battles.

Note: There are many details of how my rules work that I am leaving out for expedience of time.

Order of Battle

Note: These OOBs are based upon either materials collected, research, or guessing. In the case of the French, the OOB is based upon the actual French formations that crossed into Bavaria in 1805 from Scott Bowden’s book “Napoleon and Austerlitz”. The Austrian formations are based upon units that were present at some of the battles surrounding the Ulm campaign and just picking names out of a hat. Austrian military practice did not lend itself to a strong level of consistency regarding unit formations at this time, which resulted in the makeup of divisions and corps changing quite often. Since this would make a tedious game mechanic to deal with, I have taken the army corps system bat and hit the Austrian’s with it enough times to make something work for me.

For brigades that say (cont.), these were brigades that were broken up in order to make parity of unit sizes more appropriate as regimental sizes were not consistent between nations, hence why a lot of the Austrian cavalry regiments are considered to be their own brigade at times. These edits were also made to make adaptions to the Blucher and General d’Armee rules work a lot better.

-French

C-in-C: The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

Note: The Bavarian divisions are attached to I Corps.

Note: 2^nd Cav Division is actually from the French Cavalry Reserve from 1805. This division is considered to be attached to the II Corps.

-Austrians

C-in-C: Karl Mack von Leiberich

Note: Due to a lack of information on the command structure of the Austrian army, I have left many of the Corps, Division, and Brigade commander names blank. Also this OOB does not follow the methods and organization of the Austrian army of 1805. This is all made up.

Campaign Start

The campaign starts with the French deployed to the North with about 50% of the army not yet having crossed the Rhine River. The French are deployed in multiple columns with cavalry screens deployed in front. Though the initial deployment appears to be dispersed in order to aid with movement across the map, a detailed view will show that the French I and II Corps will unfortunately be forced to cross paths just as they cross the Rhine, causing a bottleneck that will slow down movement (see Figure 2 for more detail on the French deployment). The French III Corps will not have this issue.

The Austrians are deployed in roughly a two-column formation as they come out of the Tyrol mountains with the II and III corps forming a larger and denser column marching in close support. The Austrian I Corps is deployed more towards the east.

The Campaign Map

Figure 1 - Initial Army Deployments

Objective Rolls

This part only happens one time at the start of each game. Before turn 1 commences, both sides role a single 6-sided die (d6) to determine what roll each side will take in the game. The French come out as the aggressor with the campaign goal of defeating or routing the Austrian army. This translates out to Frenching achieving a victory condition if they are able to rout or destroy 50% of the Austrians. The Austrians will take on the role of the defender, seeking to survive for a certain number of campaign turns. For now, that limit is set at 15 turns (Note: this being my first game, I am not sure if this is too many turns or too few).

Campaign Turn Phase Order

Each campaign turn will have the following phases. These phases are considered to happen simultaneously with each side completing the same phase before moving to the next part of the turn. There is an initiative roll to see which side makes the first move in each phase. (Note: I may work this into some of the game mechanics later to have an effect such as initiative winner having advantage on engaging the enemy or something like that.)

1. Roll Initiative.
• Both sides roll a d6, winner gets to move first.
2. Resting and Resupply.
• Both sides may choose to designate some of their divisions to rest and resupply. By doing this, units that are fatigued due to forced marches and at reduced strength may regain some of their combat effectiveness.
3. Issue campaign maneuver orders.
• Each side draws from a deck of cards, the number value of the card determines which maneuver the army will attempt to undertake. Each maneuver requires that a certain number of army corps be assigned to the maneuver. The maneuver type will create an objective that will help that side earn some victory points each time a maneuver is completed.
• In this game the maneuver limit is set to 2. Therefore, each side can only run two maneuvers at a time.
4. Roll activation.
• Once an army corps is assigned to a maneuver, there will be a roll for activation. This basically checks to see if the orders reached the corps commander or not. The presence of cavalry screens allows for some re-rolls of activation.
5. Move units.
• Both sides move units. Units moving into contact with enemy units will allow for the chance of a battle to happen. If the opposing sides wishes to disengage, they may try to move away from the contact area if involved army units have the available movement ability.
6. Commence battle.
• Battles are played out and fought using either Blucher or General d’Armee.

Turn 1

Turn 1 starts with the Austrians winning the initiative roll. Their maneuver pull ends up with General Mack ordering that the Austrian II and III Corps being assigned to concentrate in the area of Ravensburg for defense (Austrian objective III). They must take and hold this area of 8 campaign turns to achieve the objective. The Mack decides to not issue a maneuver to I Corps for the time being as he wishes to see what moves the French will take as the aggressor. The Emperor Napoleon decides to activate two maneuvers, first assigning the French I Corps to flank the Austrian lines with the intent of eventually cutting off the Austrian lines of communication. The objective will be to march and concentrate the French I Corps at Sargenz (French objective III). The French II and III Corps are assigned a maneuver with the task of pinning the Austrians in place by taking positions or engaging the Austrians around the area of Weissenhorn (French objective IV). 

Figure 2 - Initial Campaign Objectives

Problems arise as the initial orders are sent out, as the Austrian II Corps fails to receive its orders in spite of the presence of an active Austrian cavalry screen protecting against French agents. The elements of the Austrian III Corps are able to receive their orders and they begin marching to Ravensburg. The French have better luck as both I and III Corps receive their orders, but the French II Corps is unable to receive its orders leaving Napoleon rather irritated as he watches Marshal Marmont’s troops make no progress at all that day. The French I and III Corps begin marching towards their objectives. Both sides push some of their cavalry further out than the main body of the infantry with the hope of reducing congestion and possibly seizing objectives sooner. (Note: I made a small mistake and forgot to take pictures of the Turn 1 movements. Which means Turn 2 movements will appear as though both of the armies moved more than they should be allowed to move).

Figure 3 - Austrian Turn 1 Movements

Figure 4 - French Turn 1 Movements.

Turn 2

Austria continues to hold the initiative going into turn 2. The Austrian general Mack decides to assign another maneuver to the inactive Austrian I Corps, the maneuver orders I Corps to take and hold Donauworth (Austrian objective IV). With the new orders written and dispatched, only the Prince of Schwarzenberg’s Austrian II Corps makes any movement this turn as they continue to move towards Ravensburg. The French are more productive with both II and III Corps making progress towards their objectives.

Figure 5 - Objectives as of Turn 2

At this point the, the first elements of the Austrian II Corps achieved their order to begin concentrating around Ravensburg for future defensive operations. At the start of Turn 3, the counter will begin counting down until the objective is achieved. The Austrian general Mack decides to go with a broader line of defense that will cover both crossing points at the Ravensburg and at Ulm. To achieve this the Austrian III Corps will mass at Weissenhorn (shown in Figure 6 as the French objective IV).

Figure 6 - Austrian Movement Turn 2

The bottleneck situation starts to develop, and the French seek the best way to move two Corps across the Rhine River under the watchful and expectant gaze of their Emperor. The Marshal Davout’s French III Corps, unaffected by this issue make headway moving towards their object. The III Corps commander decides that the best way to achieve his assigned orders is to march towards Nordheim and then approach Weissenhorn (French objective IV) from the northeast. III Corps cavalry is sent out far ahead of the slower moving infantry and artillery to attempt to take possession the crossing point.

Figure 7 - French Movement Turn 2

Turn 3

At the start of turn 3 I implemented a new method for dealing with activation. From the notes that I had been taking of the game so far, I determined which Corps had received their orders according to the changes that I already discussed above.

At this point French took the initiative of the first time in the game, with all orders properly distributed to his Corps commanders, the only thing for Napoleon to do for the next several turns was watch the developing situation for any opportunities. General Mack’s army final finds it legs and gets fully underway, however by this time Jellačić’s Austrian I Corps is far behind schedule for taking their objective at Donauworth. General Mack is also starting to find a bottle neck of his own as most of Feldmarschall-Leutnant von Werneck’s Austrian III Corps is strung out on a march that will take several turns to allow for a proper concentration of such a large formation. Only Schwarzenberg’s II Corps makes any successful headway this turn as the Prince is able to finish concentrating his army in the area of Ravensburg and Friedrichshaven. (Note: there are force concentration limits that are in place for each node. Hence why every army Corps is not stacked up on a single node and why the Austrian III Corps did not all meet up at Ravensburg).

Figure 8 - Austrian Movement Turn 3

The French make progress with most of Bernadotte’s I Corps and all of Marmont’s II Corps across the Rhine River. At this point word reaches Marshal Davout about the strength of Austrian concentrations near the Danube River. Not wanting his cavalry to get caught in a surprise pincer movement, orders are written and dispatched as soon as possible to recall the cavalry from its advanced position. These orders will not take effect until the next turn.

Figure 9 - French Movement Turn 3

To be continued...