Rally, Regroup and Reorganise

1 March 1813

On the first day of the campaign 3^rd French corps attacked 1^st Prussian corps west of Gifhorn.   The French won the battle, but lost 600 casualties.  The Prussians suffered 2800 casualties.

The corps which lost a battle have to retreat the following day, and to establish and maintain at least  one map square between them and the winners.

The winning corps normally moves forward to occupy the square in which the battle took place.  When it is for a town they normally move into the town.

2 March 1813

3^rd French corps have occupied Gifhorn.   1^st Prussian corps have retreated towards Weyhausen, taking with them 17 brigade (garrison of Gifhorn) and 3 days supplies from the depot there.  

Because the French have not pursued them, they can halt just west of Weyhausen.   They have established the one square gap between them and the French.   They have also placed the river Elbe between them and the French.

Both corps have moved, and consequently both still have their battle casualties, and also routed or shaken brigades have not been able to rally.   To do so they must remain stationary for one full day.

Both corps started the campaign with four days supplies.   They have used two days, and have two left.   The French are still within three squares of their depot at Meinersen, and therefore can resupply from there.   The Prussians have lost their depot at Gifhorn, and not yet established one at Weyhausen.   They are out of supply range of the nearest Prussian depot at Cremlingen.   However they do have three days supplies which they took with them when they abandoned Gifhorn.

3 March 1813

Both 3^rd French corps and 1^st Prussian corps have orders to rally, resupply and reorganise.   They have remained stationary, and are not in contact with the enemy, so they can do so.

Rally means that all shaken and routed brigades become formed again.  This is automatic and does not rely on a morale test.

Resupply is automatic providing they are within supply range (three map squares) of a depot with sufficient supplies.

Reorganise means that all infantry casualties, less 400 per brigade, can be moved to one brigade.  This is always the one with the most casualties.   There is only one cavalry brigade and corps artillery, so this does not apply to cavalry or gunners.  

In addition each corps receives replacement for their battle casualties.   Infantry brigades always keep 400 (10%).   Cavalry and artillery always keep 100 (10%)

The French had lost 600 casualties at Gifhorn.   This consisted of 400 from 9 infantry brigade and 200 from 3^rd cavalry brigade.   There are no brigades to rally, and all infantry casualties are in one brigade.  3^rd cavalry brigade receive 100 replacements, leaving the brigade with 10% casualties

The Prussians have suffered 2800 casualties, broken down as follows:

2 infantry brigade – 400

3 infantry brigade – 2000

1 cavalry brigade – 200

1 corps artillery – 200

All of the infantry casualties, less 10% of 2 brigade, are already in 3 infantry brigade

Both the cavalry and artillery have 20% casualties

But only one of them can receive 10% replacement each turn

1 corps artillery receive 100 gunners

This is because priority for battle replacements is artillery, cavalry and then infantry.

If 1^st Prussian corps can remain stationary, and avoid contact with the enemy, they will receive 100 cavalry replacements the next day, and then 400 infantry replacements each day until 3 infantry brigade is down to 400 (10%)

You will see from this that a corps can recover from a defeat, but not completely.   Each brigade will always carry at least 10% casualties

In addition the sooner the winner can pursue the loser, the harder it will be from them to recover.   However the winner can only do so if he has sufficient supplies.  

This has been a best case situation for the winner.   They started with four days supplies.   Issued one on the day of battle, a second to occupy the battlefield.   They could have pursued for two more days before they ran out of supplies.  But each day would take them further from their supply depot.   When they did run out they would lose 400 infantry for each day that they were out of supply.

The supply and reorganise rules are easier to operate than to explain.   When a corps is reduced to two days supplies they should either halt or prepare to resupply.

Each brigade that suffers battle casualties will be affected for the rest of the campaign.  Each 10% casualties results in minus 1 on all combat and morale tests.

So a simple, but non the less effective battle attrition system.

1813 Campaign Supply Rules

Until now the supply rules have been designed to force both armies to take steps to provide and protect their lines of supply.

Each corps starts the campaign with four days supplies, which is also the maximum that they can carry.   To resupply they have to halt, avoid the enemy and be within one day’s march of a depot.   As they advance they have to establish depots so that they do not have to retreat to resupply.

All of this was designed for a series of one off, stand alone, mini campaigns.  At the start both armies had sufficient supplies for four days, plus one days supply in their depot.

The new Regional Military Command system requires a change in this stand alone, mini campaign system.   However I still need a system which will bring a natural end to each mini campaign.

I am testing a new supply system which should bring about this result.

At the start of each campaign phase each army will have sufficient supplies for 10 days.   This translates as 40 days supplies (10 for each of the four corps).   As now, each corps will start the campaign with four days supplies.   The remaining 6 days per corps will be held in their depot.   This depot will be the nearest town to their location at the start of the campaign.

It will no longer be necessary for a corps to detach an infantry brigade to form a garrison.  I have found that these detachments add nothing to the wargame, and just reduce the number of figures available to wargame.

However as they advance, or retreat, they will have to establish depots to resupply. Each corps can establish as many as they want.  To do so they must halt in the town and avoid contact with the enemy for one day.

This means that each campaign will last a maximum of ten moves.   There will be a clear campaign objective, usually to take and hold a specified town.  

I have found with the wargame that having a maximum number of game moves (in this case 12) really applies the pressure to the attacker.   In my games it tends to take four moves to move within artillery range, four moves for artillery fire and the final four moves to move into contact and decide the outcome by musket fire and melee.   If the attacker allows too many moves for artillery fire he will run out of time to reach the enemy and fire and melee.

I am hoping that this principle will also apply to the campaign phase.   

1813 Campaign - Command and Control Information

Campaign Map for 29 October 1813

In the past I have tried to explain how the campaign administration is run.    It is really difficult to do so without seeing what I actually use.   The whole thing is too much to put on here, but this is an example of 1^st and 2^nd British corps on 29 October 1813.

On the map you will see that 1^st corps is attacking 7^th French corps at Ribadeo. 

2^nd corps is moving south to Ourense.

I hope to explain what is involved in the issue of those two orders

Order of Battle for 1^st and 2^nd British Corps

This chart only shows the two corps concerned, there is a similar chart for 3^rd and 4^th British corps.

1^st corps shows the commanding general as Stewart, who is an average commander

Each brigade is listed with the following information

Strength – at start of campaign

Class – A would be elite, B is average, C is poor

Fire – effective volley fire, A would be veteran, B is average, C is poor

Skirmish – skirmish ability, A would be riflemen, B is average, C is poor

Casualties – current casualties, always keep first 400

Garrison – if a brigade is detached for garrison duty

2^nd corps shows the same information

But note that three brigades are in rout

Current Daily Orders

There are only three British depots at present

Santiago has been captured by the French, and lost their 3 days supplies

Ourense is the new main depot, they have received 7 days and issued 1 days

Corunna starts with 1 day, it receives 1 day and ends with 2 days

1^st British corps starts the day with 4 days supplies

It does not receive any because it has orders to attack

It always uses 1 days supplies each day

It ends the day with 3 days.

2^nd British corps starts the day with 3 days supplies

It has to retreat because it lost a battle

Therefore it does not receive any supplies and ends the day with 2 days

Campaign Comments

This is the information which will decide what orders are given to each corps.

If you look at the map you will see that 1^st British corps is cut off from the main depot at Ourense, because the French have captured Santiago.

The only depot available to them is Corunna (covered by the symbol for 1^st corps)

If you check the depot you will see that Corunna has only one days supplies at the start of the day.   And that is the only depot available to resupply both 1^st and 3^rd British corps.

I appreciate that all of the above is quite complicated, and I hope that I have been able to explain it well enough for you to understand the command and control information available to the CinC when he writes his orders at the start of the day.

I trust that you will also see that Wellington took a big risk ordering 1^st and 3^rd corps to attack Ribadeo.   If they lost the battle they would still have 3 days supplies, but they would only have Corunna to resupply.  And that depot only receives one days supplies each campaign day.

Campaign Rules

So far as I know there are no popular campaign rules available commercially.  This may well be because every player has different ideas about how a campaign should be fought, even more than every wargamer has strong ideas about how battles should be fought.  

The campaign is vital to my concept of Comprehensive Wargame System.   Each of you will have a different idea of what you want to achieve.   Whether it is a series of skirmish games or an attempt to model a major campaign you will need some rules to control the campaign.

The purpose of my campaign is to provide interesting wargames.   It has been designed to produce a series of phases, which are mini campaigns.   Each will last about three months and will provide 4-6 battles to wargame.  

I will explain what I cover in my campaign rules.   This is not a template for everyone to use, because some aspects will be more important than others.   You may want a lot more detail in your supply system or prefer to wargame a siege of a walled town.

Like the wargame rules, the campaign rules are designed to provide the type of campaign that I want to play.   They are a little more user friendly than the wargame rules, because they include how the campaign works and the army organisation.

The remainder of the 12 rules deal with different aspects of the campaign, such as movement, supplies and combat.   There ae also specialist rules for milita and guerrillas, garrisons and siege of walled towns.

Great care has been taken to keep these rules as simple as possible.  Like the wargame rules, they have been written to provide the type of campaign I want to model.  I do not have to explain or justify any rule, if I like them that is sufficient.

However I have tried to model the general characteristics of a Napoleonic campaign, at least as I understand it.   I have kept logistics and supply simple, because I don’t want to have to spend hours updating charts.  However if you run out of supply you immediately suffer attrition casualties.  These will affect the combat and morale of the corps and brigades affected.

The campaign has been designed to produce battles which will make interesting wargames.  But there are many battles which I would not want to wargame.   A number of combat rules have been written to decide the outcome of these minor battles and casualties resulting from them.   They cover such things as uneven battles, corps v corps skirmish and cavalry brigade skirmish.

There are three aspects of the campaign rules which require a little more explanation.   First is how I control the length of each campaign phase.    Second how battle casualties and campaign replacements work.  Finally how the supply system controls the flow of the campaign

In the next blog I will explain campaign phases and how they work.

You will find my campaign rules here

http://napoleoniccampaignrules.blogspot.com/

New Campaign Rules

I have finally finished the new campaign rules, and have started a new blog for them.

http://napoleoniccampaignrules.blogspot.com/

This revision is in answer to requests raised during the current PBEM campaign for off road movement, more detailed supply, infantry detachments and sieges. None of this was covered in the original solo rules, on which the previous PEBM rules were based. The whole campaign started with the intention of providing wargames of one to four corps. I wanted to keep the campaign simple and easy to run.

It was soon obvious that converting to PBEM would mean major changes. Our interest in the campaign remained the same, but the corps commanders understandably want more choice and options.

I am quite excited about the new campaign. It will either be a huge improvement on the previous ones, or it will be a shambles! I have spent a lot of time working on the new rules, and tried to anticipate problems. But previous campaigns have taught me that once they are used by real players the faults soon appear. Despite this I think it is necessary to "up my game" on the PBEM, and I think that this will do it.

I am working on the final moves of the Hanover campaign, and I hope to be able to start the new campaign next week. All of the command posts are now filled, all of the administration is done and I just need to tie up the loose ends in Hanover before we start.