1813 Campaign

The first turn of our 1813 campaign finished up in rather dull style, but that was not unexpected given that all the players are still consolidating their forces and scouting out the enemy. It seems all of them want to gain some knowledge of what they're up against before committing any major forces (can't understand why...insert wry grin here). You can see a copy of the map below. Unfortunately, I can't add any unit icons since this is a public forum. Can't have the players peeking now can we? Generally speaking, the French army is holding the line of the river Saale and the Allied armies are arrayed to the east of that river. Once things start to heat up and the opposing armies begin running into one another, I can post game reports.

As our Napoleonic campaign is beginning, I've been tweaking the rules for not unexpected problems. Or, I should say, issues that had potential to be problematic. One such issue has to do with garrisons. Garrisons are a fairly new concept in our campaigns so this is a learning process. I've listed below some very recent changes in how garrisons are handled in combat etc. To see the rules in their entirety, click here.

4.1 Garrisons in Combat

A force made up entirely of Garrison Points may not initiate a battle.

An Engage in Battle card is not necessary for initiating a battle against a force made up entirely of Garrison Points. Simply move a force into the same town/city and declare an intention to attack the garrison.

If a force made up entirely of Garrison Points is engaged in battle by an enemy force, and the garrison is outnumbered by 4:1 or greater odds (in terms of opposing divisions), the garrison is removed from play and no battle is fought. For purposes of determining this ratio, divide the GPs by four, rounding down to the nearest whole number (i.e. 4 GPs = 1 division; 6 GPs = 1 division; 9 GPs = 2 divisions). A garrison of anything less than 4 GPs counts as one division.

If a force made up entirely of Garrison Points is engaged in battle by an enemy force (at any odds), the controlling player may opt to cede the town/city to the enemy without fighting a battle. The garrison is permanently removed from play and the ceding player loses NWPs for the size of the town/city lost (see National Will Point losses below). The margin of defeat for this calculation is based upon the size of the garrison in the ceded town/city: 1 division or less = marginal; 2 divisions = decisive; more than 2 divisions = crushing (see garrison size determination above).

One garrison point = 1 raw infantry unit + ½ raw artillery unit* + 4” Class III earthworks

* One (1) stand, or half-battery, of artillery.

Garrison units may be deployed anywhere in the defending force’s deployment zone during the

deployment process (although the earthworks need not be deployed with the garrison units). Half batteries may be combined into two-stand units. Garrison units in a town/city will constitute their own divisions (see above) with average commanders in any battle.