Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Campaign map movement to contact


I was asked about possible movement options to result in a combat, which I found quite difficult to explain.  So I thought it might make for an interesting blog post.

Campaign movement for infantry and artillery on roads is three squares per day.   Off road is two squares per day.   Off road on difficult terrain (mountains or woods) is one square per day.

Movement must be north, south, east or west.   


A corps can only move into a square adjacent to the enemy to fight a combat.

The above map shows the movement options open to 2nd Austrian corps.   If they enter square 20 they must fight 9th Bavarian corps, unless the Bavarians retreat to avoid combat.  

You will see from the arrows that 2nd Austrian corps cannot move into squares 15, 10, 14 or 13.




In this map 2nd Austrian corps has been ordered to advance and engage any enemy they encounter.   They can only “see” an enemy up to two squares away, in this case square 20.   9th Bavarian corps is too far away to “see”.

2nd corps are allowed to move a maximum of three squares on a road.  So they could move squares 07-20-06.   However they can only enter 06 to fight with the enemy.  

A corps can move a maximum of 12 hours each day, and it takes four hours to move through one square.   So they would arrive at the junction of squares 06-07 at the end of the 12 hour day.   They would not have time to engage in combat.  Consequently  they would have to halt in square 20.

The next day they could attack Holzkirchen, providing 9th Bavarian corps did not retreat.  If they enemy did retreat they could occupy Holzkirchen.   If the enemy halted in square 04 they would still have four hours to attack them.

The concept is easier to operate than to explain, but I hope I have made it a little clearer how moving to contact works with our campaign rules?



4 comments:

  1. Your explanation made movement perfectly clear. Thank you.

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  2. Thanks for the additional explanation Paul! That's quite clear. I like how neatly everything from the campaign system translates to the tabletop, including ground and time scale as you demonstrate here.

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  3. Hi irishserb

    Glad it made sense.
    We have used the campaign for so long (about ten years) that it is all obvious to me
    But I am never sure how clear it is to anyone else!

    regards

    Paul

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  4. Hi Yuri

    Transfer from the map to the tabletop was always a critical part of the campaign
    It certainly makes it much easier to set up a wargame.

    The games are more interesting because they start with existing campaign casualties
    Also it is a good deterent to risking troops on the table if you know they will go into the campaign, and appear again on the next wargame

    regards

    Paul

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