"The Next PBEM Campaign - France 1814" Topic

The planning for the next campaign is going well, despite constant changes in plan.

My first plan was a fictional 1812 campaign, based on the Austrians and Prussians joining with the Russians to prevent Napoleons invasion of Russia by attacking France in January 1812. I did a lot of work on maps and orders of battle before deciding to abandon the project.

I wanted to keep some link with the current 1813 campaign, and clearly that would not be possible if the next campaign was based a year earlier. So instead I decided that the next campaign would be based on the 1814 campaign in France.

The link works well. Napoleon has suffered more defeats in my fictional 1813 campaign than victories. He has lost both Hannover and Gera in the mini PBEM campaigns. So it is not unreasonable for him to call an armistice in late 1813 to allow him to build up his armies. The allies demand that he retreat to the river Rhine before they accept a cease fire. That is the background for the 1814 campaign.

The big job is to make new maps, in particular a new map of all of France.

There will be six armies on each side, so the orders of battle will be another big job.

It's a very ambitious campaign, much larger than any of my previous ones.

Each player will be an army commander and will command four corps. There will be twelve command posts, which is a lot of players to find.

There is a forum for the campaign which you can find here

link

First step is to outline the whole campaign. I have produced a map which is in the files section.

As the planning progresses I will post updates here on the forum and put documents and maps in the files section

Sounds mighty interesting to me.

Agreed! One of the best campaigns I ever was in was in a similar venue

Good luck and keep us posted

Allies and French are close to even in numbers?

I played in an 1814 campaign last century, based on the OSG board game "Napoleon at Bay".

I was the Ogre. After some glorious victories – the Wurttemburg Corps and then the Russian Guard Corps were each cut off and wiped out – the Allied swarm over-ran France and I was consigned to a small island in the South Atlantic.

Poisoned too, I might add.

korsun0 and Frederick. Thanks for the comments. I will be looking for volunteers to take on the 12 commands shortly and you would be welcome if you would like to take part

vistogames. This campaign is much different from the previous 1813 campaign. The aim is the same, to provide good wargames. But the commander role will be completely different. Each command will be army commander, with four corps per side. There will be six tactical maps, one for each pair of army commander. Each map will cover an area of 60 by 60 miles. Each army will start the campaign with the same numbers of brigades and total strength. But each army will have its own strength and weakeness. There will be no "supermen" and no "rubbish". Even the Spanish army will have its particular strengths, and the French army opposing them will be composed of local milita so there will not be too much difference is abilities.

There will be a small Imperial Guard, which I will control as umpire. They will be committed if, and when, things are going particularly badly for the French. It will be a one time only thing when they are committed.

There is also a mechanism for keeping each phase of the six campaign areas short. I expect that each player role will lasts about three months before one or the other achieves their objective. Then a new player can take over for the next phase.

Hope it all works. I have been working on it for months, and I THINK I have covered all the options. But as we all know the best laid plans go wrong as soon as the first shot is fired.

Hope you may be able to take part in the campaign.

Do you think it might be useful for potential volunteers to briefly outline some of the assumptions you make about Napoleonic Warfare when resolving your battles?

I don't mean to be critical at all, especially given the effort you put into your campaigns, but some might share my surprise that you never allow a weaker force to successfully defend against a stronger, for example. All for the sake of speeding up campaign play, I do realise.

Forwarned is forarmed as they say…

Thanks for your comments Sparker.

I know that you have been disappointed in your experience of my current campaign, and I welcome the opportunity to answer your very reasonable comment. However to do so I will have to explain the background to my campaign, rather than my assumptions about Napoleonic Warfare in relation to weaker forces against stronger ones.

First my campaign is designed for the specific purpose of fighting interesting and fun wargames with the model soldiers in my collection using my wargames table and scenery. All of the maps are designed to transfer to the wargames table using my particular modular scenery. Every map square can be replicated on the wargames table using one of my scenic squares. Every conceivable combination of battle can be fought as a wargame on my table. All of this imposes certain restrictions on the campaign which everyone taking part has to accept.

Second the campaign is a fictional one. It does not claim to be a recreation of the 1813 or 1814 campaigns. My campaign provide an interesting and familiar background to each of the wargames which it produces.

It was originally designed to be a solo campaign. I converted to PBEM to allow more interplay with other players and to produce interesting battles which I would not have designed for myself.

My 1813 campaign was fought as a series of mini campaigns, each in a different area with a different army. To prepare each campaign took about six weeks work. I hoped for about six battles/wargames out of each mini campaign.

Each corps started the campaign with two divisions of four brigades of infantry and one of cavalry, plus one battery of artillery. This was so that all players would have an equal chance of winning, and the one who used the best tactics or choose the best battlefields should win.

The weak link of course was finding suitable players. I tried to make the campaign aspect fun and challenging also. The problem is that I know nothing about the players when they join. Some are very knowledgeable and experienced wargamers, some are novices. Some want a complicated campaign experience, some just want to kill everything in sight. Some are happy to devote a couple of hours each week to planning their next move. Some get bored after two moves and I never hear from them again. The campaign had to be designed to be able to keep going whatever the players do.

In the previous campaigns I took on the role of Commander in Chief of each side. This was so that I could add some direction to the campaign, and moderate those players who had little interest or knowledge of Napoleonic Warfare or even wargaming.

Now we come to your specific comment. We use my own rules to fight the wargames. I know from experience that if a battle is fought with odds of two to one then the weaker side will almost always lose. Worse still, from my point of view, it will be a very boring wargame to fight. So I try to avoid such battles/wargames. They often result in the destruction of the weaker army, and this has a knock on effect on the campaign in general. Often the player who provokes such a battle will then abandon the campaign without warning and leave me to pick up the pieces.

I did not ban them in the campaign rules. But in my role of Commander in Chief I tried to persuade the corps commander to avoid them. If he refused to do so I then explained the above principles as Umpire and asked him to do so. If he still refused I would then suggest that he leave the campaign. It was not to speed up the campaign. It was to avoid causing it to end too soon and thus spoil everyone else's enjoyment.

I welcome any comments, and particularly constructive criticism. I try to amend the campaign rules to avoid them in future, and I have done so in respect of this particular problem. In the next campaign each two players will fight their own campaign with much larger armies. If one is destroyed early in the campaign it will only affect those two players. The remaining ten will carry on.

Sorry this reply has been so long winded. It's difficult to answer your comment without considerable understanding of how the campaign is planned and its objectives.

I will need a lot of volunteers to take on the role of army commander in my next campaign. If it is to work then it will have to be an enjoyable experience for them. I want to assure anyone interested that I will try to make it an enjoyable experience, and that you will indeed be free to fight your campaign as you want, even if you want to fight at odds of two to one. However you are likely to lose if you do so.

I have always made clear the objectives of my campaign. It is a unique campaign system which works well, and has done so for four years. However it is not a conventional map campaign with the objective of allowing a player to take on the role of Napoleon or Wellington. It is more like a large interactive board game, with the addition of each battle being fought as a wargame and a daily blog which allows each player to follow every move and every battle.

It will not suit everyone. But I hope that my rather long explanation will answer Sparkers comment and convince some of you to give it a go.

Yes mate, thats a good explanation.

And I wouldn't say I was disappointed. I enjoyed, and learnt, from the opening stages of the battle in not knowing much about the enemy's strength or intentions. Something thats often missing from conventional wargames…

Mate, I'd be keen to get involved!

korsunO

There is still about two weeks to go before I will be ready to start the campaign. I hope to finish the maps this weekend. Then I have to rewrite the campaign rules. I have to write a background and introduction to each of the six campaign areas. Finally I will need a new blog for the campaign diary.

In the meantime I have started a list of prospective players. I will offer command posts to those on the list first on a first come basis. Hopefully I will have twelve volunteers by the time I am ready to start.

First you need to join the campaign forum. This is a sort of notice board for the campaign. I will be posting regular updates on the preparation for the campaign, plus maps and orders of battle in the files section. I use this forum as a means of keeping everyone up to date on what is happening with the current campaign. It saves me having to send emails to each player about any proposed changes. You will find the forum here

link

Please confirm when you join the forum that you would like to take part in the 1814 campaign

Sparker

The new campaign is going to be a very different experience from the Linz campaign. Each commander will have much more freedom of choice and a much larger command to handle. There will not be a central commander in chief coordinating the whole campaign, each army commander will be free to use his own plan and suffer the consequences.

My role will be chief of staff to each army commander. I will issue a map and updated order of battle at the end of each campaign day. This will show friendly corps and any enemy contacted. It will also confirm the current supply state of each corps. I will also send a written report with intelligence from the corps commanders and suggestions for the army commander. He may accept or ignore as he prefers.

The role of the army commander will be as follows. Each day he will issue orders to his four corps. These will confirm the map reference he wants each corps to move to. They will also confirm what he wants them to do should they meet with the enemy. Finally he will have to order the construction of new supply depots should they be necessary.
He may confirm orders of march, when to resupply and which division or brigade to allocate reinforcements. But if he does not do so then I will as chief of staff.

The time frame will be one campaign day each actual week. If commanders do not submit their orders on time I will issue them as chief of staff. If a player is unable to take part for a week or two I will take over for him.

Each army commander will have a named town to take or defend. As soon as that is achieved that stage of the campaign will be complete. The two players can opt to leave the campaign at that stage, or they can opt to continue with the next objective. I expect that each stage will last about three months.

The campaign map will show exactly what the wargames table will look like. So commanders can choose good defensive positions should they wish. Terrain will delay movement, so good route planning will be important

The commander can order his corps to attack on sight, to recce or to halt if they meet with the enemy. So you will only have to fight when you want to, providing you give the appropriate orders.

The basic mechanism of the campaign is very well tried and tested. It has run for four years non stop and greatly improved over that period. The next campaign is much more ambitious than the previous one in size and scope. The role of the commander is the greatest difference. I am not at all sure how that will work, and it may need adjusting as it goes along. But providing that I can get, and keep, sufficient numbers to fill the command roles I can guarantee that it will be made to work.

Anyone who would like to have a go will be very welcome.

As explained above, the first step is to join the campaign forum at

link

Application sent….:)

korsunO

Application received and approved. I have sent you an email explaining what is involved in the campaign.

I have also done so for william999 who I assume has joined the forum from TMP

I now have seven volunteers to fill the twelve command posts. If anyone else would like to take part they would be very welcome. But it might be a good idea to do so sooner rather than later.

korsunO

The email I sent you at the email address you gave on your application to join the campaign forum has been returned undelivered. I have approved your membership. Is there a problem with your email. Can you post on the campaign forum so we can sort it out.

I have started a Campaign Diary Blog to record the progress of the campaign.

There are three entries so far.

First is a general introduction to the campaign

Second covers the campaign objectives and has maps to indicate the general allied plan of attack and the initial campaign deployment areas

Third covers the Brussels campaign area. This is the first of the six campaign areas. It concerns the Prussian attack on Brussels. There is a map showing the whole campaign area, with a smaller area outlined in white. This is the first phase of the campaign, which will be the Prussian attempt to cross the river Rhine and take the town of Neuss. There are also photographs of the Prussian and First French Armies.

Details of the other five campaign areas will be posted over the next few days.

I expect to post an entry on the campaign diary at least once a week once the campaign gets going. I will also post a battle report and photographs of each wargame fought

You can find the blog here
link

I have filled ten of the twelve command posts. I will start the campaign next week whether I get another two players or not, but it would be good to start with a full team.

The player commitment will be about an hour each week to write orders and I expect the first phase of the campaign to last about three months. There is no need for any previous experience of Wargaming or PBEM campaigns, but you would need regular access to a computer.

If anyone would like to join they should apply to the Campaign Forum here
link