"Commanders for New PBEM Campaign in Spain" Topic

I need six corps commanders for my new PBEM campaign which is set in north west Spain.

This will be the ninth phase of my long running fictional 1813 campaign

There are three French and three Anglo Spanish commands.

The objective is to achieve one campaign day per week. Players will receive an updated map showing their current locations, any enemy located, their current supply status and a current order of battle each Sunday. They will be required to submit their orders by Wednesday evening. There will be three campaign moves per campaign day and the umpire will notify them of any contact by email. They will have 24 hours to reply, and if none received their corps will carry on with their current orders.

There will be a campaign diary and an entry will be published for each campaign move. This will not affect the "fog of war", but it will provide a summary of what is happening in the campaign. It is intended that there will be three diary entries each week. The objective of the campaign diary is to provide a permanent record of the campaign and also to maintain player interest.

Minor contacts will be handled by the umpire, and the result notified to the players concerned. When there is a major battle it will be fought as a wargame by my wife and I. Wargames can take up to two weeks, but a full battle report will be published in the campaign diary.

The new campaign diary has a short summary of the main campaign and also the previous eight phases. It also has all of the maps used in the campaign and photographs of the six corps. You can find the diary here:
1813campaigndiary.blogspot.com

If you would like to apply for one of the commands you will need to join the Campaign Forum. This is a sort of notice board for the campaign. I notify members of any changes to the campaign here, and they can raise any questions or queries regarding the campaign. You will find the forum here:
link

After five battles, fourteen campaign days and five months the campaign ended on a high note with a "Baylen-like" battle which resulted in the loss of one of Wellington's three corps at the second battle of Pancorbo.

The campaign diary blog, which includes a detailed report on each of the battles, can be found at:
1813campaigndiary.blogspot.com

This was the second campaign in western Spain. Wellington had won the first when he defeated Soult and forced him to abandon Valladolid. The campaign diary blog of that campaign can be found at:
link

The six corps commanders had much more freedom of choice and movement in the Burgos campaign than in any of the previous ones. I played the role of both Wellington and Soult, but I only issued orders when I felt either side needed a new objective to keep the campaign on track.

I feel that it worked well. Apart from setting the objectives I had very little influence on the progress, or outcome, of the campaign. All critical decisions were made by the corps commanders, including the French decision to abandon Aranda and move north to support Burgos.

The French suffered badly in the first three battles, and had to abandon their forward position and retreat to the Bayonne to Madrid road. I may be wrong, but I got the impression that this early success made the allied commanders a little over confident. Certainly it was a lack of caution which led to the loss of 1st allied corps at Pancorbo.

The fourth battle of the campaign forced the northern French corps to abandon Pancorbo and retire north. This left the two southern corps cut off from Bayonne, and in danger of being attacked at odds of three to two.

1st allied corps sent their Spanish division, which had suffered least casualties, to occupy Pancorbo. Their British division, which had suffered heavy casualties, were held to the west to recover.

This allowed Soult (me) to take one division from the centre corps and march north to retake Pancorbo. The battered 6th French corps (which had lost Pancorbo) joined them in the attack which resulted in the destruction of 1st allied corps.

The progress of the campaign illustrates the advantage of PBEM rather than a solo campaign. In a solo campaign I would have had too much information to take the decisions taken during this campaign. The six corps commanders were all working in isolation and had to take difficult decisions based on inadequate information. It s easy for me to sum up where things went wrong, but it was much more difficult for them to make decisions with little direction from their Commander in Chief (me).

So thanks to all the players who took part. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as Jan and I did. Without your efforts it would have been a much less entertaining campaign.

There are still a few campaign diary entries to conclude the campaign. But I have already done most of the work on the next campaign. I hope to post details of the new blog later today and will be asking for volunteers to take on the role of corps commanders.

I'll be one of the corps commanders

F

ferg981

I have posted details of the new campaign on "PBEM 1813 Linz Campaign" thread.

Please have a look. If you are still interested you will need to join the campaign forum here

link

The forum is a notice board for the campaign. I keep everyone informed of any changes there. I also deal with any questions about the rules or the campaign there.