Revised 1813 Campaign

Possible new campaign areas

We have got back into our current 1813 PBEM campaign, and are currently fighting the fourth battle of the Burgos phase.    The French have had a series of defeats and have lost the first three battles.   Unless they can reverse their luck and push the allies back the campaign must come to a close soon.

This is not a problem, because the campaign consists of mini campaigns, and Burgos is the ninth one since we started in 2009.   If I continue with the current system the next phase will be in southern Germany with the Austrians v a French/Bavarian army.   It will be the second one in Bavaria.

At this stage I always start thinking “what if”.   The campaign system has served me well, and has provided a steady stream of wargames and a nonstop campaign.   It has evolved from a solo campaign to a PBEM one, but the basis system has not greatly changed.   Each player commands one corps, with very limited options.

The PBEM has proved so much better than a solo campaign, that I am now considering allowing each player to command an army of four corps each.  Instead of one mini campaign it would cover all of France and Spain.

To see how it would work I have created a new map of Germany (above).   The three campaign areas are outlined in white.   Each player would command one of the three French armies, or alternatively the Prussian, Russian or Austrian army.   There would be another two, or possibly three, campaign areas in Spain.   So I would need a total of 8 or 10 players.

I think it would work well, and I am sure it would be more enjoyable for the players.   But it will place more responsibility of each of the players, and will create greater problems if one or more player drops out.

In addition it will make the campaign much more open ended.   Each mini campaign lasts about four to six months, and provides three to six battles.   When one side wins I just move on to the next campaign area.   I can easily adjust the rules and objectives to reflect the lessons learned in the last campaign.   All of this would be much more difficult if I change from a mini campaign to the full campaign.

So it is all very much a work in progress.   I will complete the map for Spain and then decide whether to stick with my present tried and trusted system, or to expand it to the full campaign.