Too Much of a Good Thing

I run the PBEM campaign to provide interesting battles for Jan and I to wargame.   But you can have too much of a good thing!

The problem with running six mini campaigns side by side within the main 1814 campaign is that I have no control over when and where a battle will occur.   Each of the twelve army commanders chose when and where to fight.

Despite this lack of control on my part, it is unusual to have more than two battles to wargame at any one time.   But since our return from our Christmas break I have had six all at once.

That is not to say that all twelve commanders are fighting at the same time, one area has produced two battles at the same time.   This is because in one campaign area the four corps on each side are fighting over a very wide area.   The wargames table can only cover nine map squares, which is usually sufficient to cover all of the fighting on one day.  But in one case they are so dispersed that I have to fight two battles to cover the whole area.

Each battle usually takes one week to wargame.   Each one lasts a maximum of twelve moves, and we can usually fit a whole battle in each seven days.   Of course some end quicker, but can still take a week.

Its three weeks since we restarted the campaign after the Christmas break, and so far we have managed to wargame three battles, and have just started the fourth. So we are meeting our self imposed target.   But it is daunting to have so many battles waiting to be wargamed.

There is usually a break of two or three campaign days after a battle, that is two to three actual weeks.   As soon as one wargame is complete I can send out the umpire report and ask for the next day’s orders.   So everything does not stop until all six battles are complete.  And hopefully the next set of battles will be more staggered as a result.