1813 PBEM Campaign

It’s been a very quiet week for wargaming.

The PBEM campaign struggles on as we work our way through the campaign diary and the last few days of the campaign in southern Germany.   This is the only remaining phase of the campaign to be resolved.

There are two battles to be wargamed to decide whether the Austrian or Bavarian armies take and hold Stuttgart.   We have just finished the smaller of the two battles, but will not be able to make a start on the final wargame until after Christmas.

Then there is the campaign backlog to be posted on the campaign diary blog.   The blog is completed up to 31 March 1813, but there are still at least 15 entries to be completed and posted.   These include the summary of four campaign phases, plus four battle reports.  That lot will keep me busy up to the end of January.

Despite this outstanding administration the contribution of the players to the campaign has ended.  The last orders for the PBEM campaign have been received.   Only one final umpire report is outstanding. 

During the six years of the PBEM campaign I had to complete the administration of five campaign phases each week.  This involved orders from ten players each week.   Compiling and comparing five sets, one for each campaign area.   Resolving battles.   Writing umpire reports for each player.

So it is hardly surprising that my days seem very empty now.   There is still the outstanding administration to wind up the campaign, and that is preventing me from concentrating on the new solo campaign.  

All of the administration for the new solo campaign is done.   I have made the new maps, rewrote the orders of battle, and updated the background to the campaign.    But I do not want to start it until the current PBEM campaign is finished.

I had hoped to start the new solo campaign in January, but it now looks like it will be February.

1813 PBEM Campaign

I had expected that I would be able to complete the PBEM campaign by Christmas, and start the proposed solo campaign in January.    But the PBEM campaign is still going strong.

We are currently wargaming what will be the final battle in one of the two remaining campaign areas.    Wellington is trying to hold Zamora with one corps (including the light division) against two French corps.   Being a wargame the outcome is unlikely to be good news for the British.

That leaves just Southern Germany, where the French hold the campaign objective of Stuttgart.   If they can hold it for two more days they will win the campaign.   The Austrians are preparing to attack, but not yet in position.   So it is very unlikely that the final battle in this area will be fought before January.

Then there is the campaign diary blog to complete.  When the campaign had five campaign areas there was one entry for each area each week, plus the battle reports.   It was important to maintain a gap between the map campaign and the diary, to ensure that no important information was leaked.   So the diary is at least two campaign days behind the map campaign.

At present there are twenty blog entry to publish, which even without the Christmas break would be almost a month.

So it looks like the campaign will continue into the New Year.

I don’t really mind, I want to finish it off properly as it will remain as a record of the campaign.

The Next Campaign

My PBEM campaign is still running, but it is down to two campaign areas from five.   It is still providing battles for Jan and I to wargame, but obviously less now than previously.   So I need to decide what will replace it.

It is tempting to try something completely new, or to return to an abandoned project.   For example some years ago I fought a series of wargames based on Wellington’s Battles.   I enjoyed it, and considered doing something similar for Napoleon’s Battles.  But the latter were much bigger affairs, unlike the manageable battles fought in the Peninsula.

I then tried a series of campaigns based on Napoleon’s campaigns.   I started with Italy, with a campaign loosely based on 1796.   It worked quite well, but soon departed from history.   This decided me to attempt a fictional campaign, and the start of the (then) solo 1813 campaign.

I have spent most of the week considering how I could refight Napoleon’s campaigns, and decided that it would have to be fictional.   Given the soldiers and scenery I have in my collection it would have to start after the Italian and Egyptian campaigns.  

I don’t have a problem fighting the 1805 campaign with late Napoleonic period uniforms, but the size of the armies is a problem.   I have no intention of starting collecting and painting new armies, so my existing collection will have to make do.

Reluctantly I have come to accept that my current 1813 campaign is the ideal vehicle to produce interesting battles to wargame.  The whole campaign is based on my table size, soldier and scenery collection.   So it looks like I will stick with what I have, but convert is back to a solo campaign

It will also give me the opportunity to use my 18mm collection again.   Since the start of the PBEM campaign I have used the 28mm collection, because I wanted to post a visual battle report of each battle.   28mm is easier to follow than 18mm, at least with my photographic skills.

So next week I will look at how I can convert the current campaign from PBEM to solo, and in doing so reduce the amount of administration and rekindle my enthusiasm.