I have been running a fictional 1813 PBEM campaign non stop for three years.
It is designed to provide interesting wargames, rather than to be a historical campaign.
There are five campaign areas, three in Germany and two in Spain, each with its own French and allied army.
The campaign is fought in a series of phases. Each phase is set in a different campaign area and lasts about four to six months. There are six command posts, three allied and three French.
The current one is set in Linz and is still going strong. But the time has come to start work on the next one.
There are two choices. I can continue with the current type of campaign, or I can change the whole concept.
If I continue with the 1813 campaign the next phase will be Hamburg. It is likely to be four commander roles rather than the current six. This is because I want to expand the campaign area for each commander and give them much more
freedom of choice.
The new campaign concept that I am working on will be as follows.
There will be five campaign areas, three in Germany and two in Spain. Each will have two armies of four corps each. Each player will command one army of four
corps.
All five campaigns will run at the same time. Each will have an objective of one town. Once a town is taken that will be the end of that phase of the campaign. A
new phase will start immediately, with a new town as the objective. Both players will be offered the opportunity to continue, but if they do not wish to do so I will look for a replacement player.
So the player commitment in time will be the same as now. About three or four months. But if a player drops out it will only affect his part of the campaign. I can take on the role if necessary until I find a replacement.
It should make for a much more interesting campaign for the players. Each one will have an area of about 80 x 80 miles to operate in. He will play the role of Commander in Chief rather than corps commander. He will have complete freedom to plan his campaign, and can move around the whole area as he wants.
He will not have to coordinate with two other players, but he will have to coordinate his corps. There will be time delays for movement of orders between CinC and the four corps. There will also be the opportunity for much larger
battles than at present.
I have not yet decided whether to change the campaign concept. The current one has worked well for three years, and has provided a lot of enjoyment and interesting battles/wargames. But I do feel that there is little room for improvement or change.
I have now reached the end of the early planning, and have dealt with anyproblems which I can foresee. But things always look good at this stage. It is when real people get involved that the flaws, errors and difficulties become
obvious.
Some of you may have been following my 1813 PBEM campaign, or at least heardabout it here. If not you can find the campaign diary blog here
link
I would welcome any comments or suggestions any of you may
have. Far better to discover any mistakes or weakness now, rather than afterthe campaign has started.
