Hehe .. pretty crazy indeed ;)
It is what you would call 'non trivial' for sure, but there are ways and means of tackling problems like that. The approach I am taking is to break it down into manageable chunks, and sifting out what is important from what is less important.
In terms of the size of the battle – yes its huge. There will be a lot of table space, and a multitude of miniatures involved no matter how you try and tackle it.
However – there is a lot more going on than just a simple smashing together of thousands of figures, and the challenge is to capture the underlying story on the tabletop, an have the players understand the bigger picture and chess game going on at that level. Thats what I am hoping to pull off here.
The story of Leipzig is a classic Kesselschlacht … an encirclement on a strategic scale, sort of like a Napoleonic version of Stalingrad. The Allies collectively have a problem of coordinating their actions to trap Napoleon in Leipzig. The French has the problem of keeping their options of breakout open .. and they start the scenario with many options.
But doing all this in the space of 2 days is a problem !!
The other major problem is structuring the game in such a way that players can easily grok what is going on, and understand how each tabletop event relates to the bigger picture. This is esp. true for newbies who will be in large numbers at the convention, and who we want to be able to easily join in the game at any point, and have fun running a Division for an hour or so.
Has to be spectacular and inviting rather simply intimidating. Have to make sure that they can move on after an hour if they like, ad yet have come away from the game feeling like they fully understood what was happening.
Here is the plan so far :
1) – Identify the main lines that the French can use to breakout of the trap of encirclement.
2) – Convert each of these independent zones of potential breakout into a tabletop action.
3) – Run the larger strategic situation off-table using a network of computers to track hidden movement of Corps.
4) – Fight out a number of engagements in parallel on the various table tops. Each major engagement should involve anything up to a couple of Corps per side, on a frontage of around 6 foot of table space. That is not too many figures when you think about it.
5) – Make sure that each multi-Corps engagment can be resolved in detail in the space of a 2-3 hour session at tops. Using Empire to do this probably sounds ridiculous as well … but again, the computer will make or break this.
6) – Translate the results of each engagement back into the strategic situation, and evolve things through to the next engagement. Setup and then play the next round.
Analysing the actual battle, it comes down to a few simple fronts, that all start out as small meeting engagements before they escalate into a general battle.
There is the main Southern Front fought out on a wide plain leadding all the to Leipzig. The Allies are here in number, and all the French can hope for is a delaying action.
There is the Northern front, with lots of hills, and the opportunity to cut Blucher off from his lines of communication. In the historical battle the French managed to do this, but Blucher went against the book and simply ignored this minor inconvenience. Vorwarts was his only option, and thats what he did ! This cost the French a chance of breaking out of the trap.
Then there is the critical section to the West, with the action at Lindenau. That is the only real bridge over the river that provides safe passage back to Paris.
In the historical battle, despite the hundreds of thousands of troops involved all around Leipzig – there was only a small engagement at Lindenau and the disastrous premature destruction of the bridge sealed the Grande Armee's ultimate fate .. and led to the total collapse of Napoleon's empire.
There are many aspects to the campaign that make for a great game.
I will have at least another computer setup for members of the public, to hop onto and read through a few simple pages / videos to get an understanding of what is happening in the game.
If they are interested, they can then run through a simple 15 minute 'officer training course' on that computer to get up to speed with what they need to know in order to run a command in the game as a Divisional commander.
When they pass the training course – the main system will then allocate them a command on the tabletop, and they can take part in the battle .. hitting the ground running as a fully qualified commander.
All being well .. take a short break, and they can then get involved in the next 2-3 hour engagement as a Corps commander.
So thats the plan. Will still need a LOT of figures, but not an impossible number.
In fact, at Lindenau, might even break that down further and fight it out at 1:15 scale if there is an assault on the bridge. That would be fun !!
takes a look at flexible roads made from long-lasting flexible resin.
