"Italy campaign 1796 - setup" Topic

I take you through the journey of crafting a campaign from a mere idea to all the parts mostly done fixed together with metaphorical hot glue. But with lots of nice maps!

To the blogpost

Really interesting. I've got Hyde, and am slowly working through it. In many ways it seems like an update of Tony Bath's classic, although I've recently been reading old articles on the early Hyboria so my post-covid addled brain may be blurring them a bit. I've painted my Napoleonic Austrians and French for the 1809 Danube campaign but I think the Italian campaign of that year would make a great campaign too – a bit more manageable, with lots of interesting terrain. I'm thinking about similar issues to you and also considering doing it as a solo project, but I'm way behind where you're up to.

I note the OP's comments on the Hyde book. Worst book that I've bought in some time and that's saying something. Does anyone have other suggestions for relatively simple and workable campaign rules?

I understand your sentiment AussieAndy. The campaign rules given by Henry Hyde are simple at first but lose themselves in a lot of unnecessary and vague detail later on. They also lack structure. But look at the 'Debacle on the Danube' example on page 512. These rules are very close to what I came up and used way before I knew about them.

If you want something else that's simple but with interesting decisions I can recommend Scharnhorst as well. Its in the Blücher rulebook (so not free) but together with the online available 100 Days amendments you can easily do a bigger campaign.

Check out William Sylvester's "Solo Wargamimg Guide" for a simpler, more streamlined approach to setting up and running a campaign.

You can ignore the fact that it says solo on the tin. The solo rules are only a couple of paragraphs out of the entire book.

Overall, it does a fine job with their preliminaries, but there are a lot of holes in the book. He leaves quite a few areas unexplored. Fortunately, these are additions by subtraction, as the missing pieces allow you to personalize and expand on his rules to your heart's content.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Although I like the "Solo Wargaming Guide" very much, I did not suggest it because it has the same problem. It is not a fully fledged campaign system. But it lends itself very well to more freeform campaigns in my opinion.

Nice looking map and campaign. I am painting up 10mm armies for the 1792/3 period. I plan to game the Italian theatre as well.