I have recently completed a solo campaign based on Wellington's battles. It was not an attempt to refight the actual battles with the historical orders of battle. It was rather to provide a series of wargames based on the actual battles fought.
I ran this solo campaign at the same time as my PBEM 1813 campaign, and the aim was to provide interesting wargames to fill the time between campaign battles. It worked well, and both Jan and I were sorry when it finished with a game based on Waterloo.
The obvious next step would be a campaign based on Napoleon's battles. But the more I worked on it, the more I realised it would not work. The battles are too big, and the terrain too well known. They are best tackled by a project to recreate each battle. This would involve making special scenery and painting new armies.
I want to use my current armies on the terrain I already have. I want to provide interesting wargames without a lot of effort to make new scenery or paint more figures.
The solution is to wargame the campaigns, not the battles, of Napoleon. Again it will not be an attempt to refight actual campaigns. It will be similar to my PBEM 1813 campaign, though to start at least will be solo and not PBEM. Each campaign will be stand alone. They will be staged on the historical terrain, with the historical objectives. The opposing armies will start in similar locations. But there the attempt to recreate the historical campaign will end.
I have long ago abandoned any attempt to follow the standard approach to Napoleonic Wargaming. Having spent more than 30 years following the usual pattern of trying to find the ideal rules and constantly rebasing and painting new figures I finally came to realise that I, at least, would never find the ideal set of rules.
Eight years ago I decided that I would restrict my Wargaming to a table 6x6 foot. Just big enough for two of us to comfortably move figures around. I then worked out how many figures I would be able to fight on that size table, with enough room to manoeuvre. I wanted to use 28mm figures, though I also have 15mm and 6mm. My calculation was 128 infantry, 16 cavalry and 4 guns per side.
I then reduced my collection to five allied armies and five French, each of the same number and type. Each would provide four divisions of just 32 infantry, 4 cavalry and one gun each.
I then wrote my own wargame and campaign rules based on this model. They would not suit all, perhaps not even most, but they do suit me. They give me quick and enjoyable wargames with enough flavour of the period to suit my needs.
So these are the tools with which I aim to fight all, or at least most, of Napoleon's campaigns. No huge collection of model soldiers or scenery required. Something that would be possible for almost any Napoleonic wargamers to aim for, even a newcomer.
It's a daunting challenge, and one I am really looking forward to. As far as I know no one has attempted such a campaign before. I plan to publish a blog of the progress of the campaign. I would like to think that it might encourage other gamers to attempt something similar, or perhaps just one of the campaigns.
I have already published the first few entries on the blog. A short introduction to the whole campaign. Then a slightly more detailed introduction to the first campaign, which will be the Italian campaign of 1796.
If you would like to have a look, and hopefully follow its progress, you can find it here
link
This campaign will take second place to my long running 1813 PBEM campaign. But I hope to publish a move at least once a week on the blog.