End of Linares Campaign
My
Linares campaign has concluded with a Spanish victory.
The
campaign has lasted twelve days and produced five battles. The French won the first three but the
Spanish won the last two.
It
took four months to play the campaign, and proved to be one of the most
interesting yet. This is mainly because
of the new campaign rules for guerrillas, which added a new dimension to the
campaign. It was also very satisfying
that it had such a historical feel, and that the outcome was down to the
success of the guerrilla bands.
For
many years I ran the campaign as PBEM, and I loved the lack of personal control
due to having ten players each commanding an allied or French army. But after a couple of years I grew bored of
the same style of wargames which the campaign provided. The armies and nationalities might change
but the type of battle rarely did.
This
was because I allowed the players to make all tactical decisions, how else
could they get any enjoyment out of the campaign. But this resulted in a very limited number
of wargames. In retrospect I think that
this was because most players did not last long enough to learn the necessary
lessons. Most commanders only played one,
or two, campaigns. They had a limited
knowledge of the campaign and wargame rules, and could not be expected to
choose the best tactical deployment to win the eventual wargame.
I
converted to solo campaign about two years ago, and even for me it has been a
long learning curve. I amend both
campaign and wargame rules as a result of campaign and wargame play. This has proved particularly effective now
that I play the role of allied and French commander both in the campaign and on
the table top.
Most
of the rule change has been to prevent me from “gaming”, both in the campaign
and on the table.
In
the campaign the most important influence has been supply and resupply. I allow each corps a maximum of four days’
supply. It takes at least one, and
often two, campaign days to bring the enemy to battle. At the end of the battle the attacker will
usually be down to one or two day’s supplies.
If he runs out he is punished by attrition casualties. So even if he wins he is faced with the
problem of immediate pursuit and loss of attrition. Or wait to rearrange his supplies and await
resupply and replacement of battle casualties.
If
he loses he is in real trouble. He still
faces the problem of attrition casualties and resupply, but he has now lost the
initiative to the enemy who won the battle.
It
all provides an unexpected loss of control for me as umpire, commander and
wargamer.
It
also provides surprisingly fun wargames.
