Resupply in Germany

 

Ingolstadt Campaign Map on day one

Having spent so much time and effort working on supply and lines of communication for the campaign phase in Spain, I find myself back at square one for the three campaign theatre’s in Germany.

My campaign is designed to provide wargames, not to replicate the historical 1813 campaign. But just as I want my wargames to have a flavour of Napoleonic battles, I also want the campaign to have a Napoleonic feel about it. However I don’t believe that lines of supply played a major part in the historical campaign, or at least not to the extent that it did in Spain.

It goes without saying that supply was a major problem for every military commander throughout history, including in the 1813 campaign. But I don’t recall that the campaign in Germany was dominated by it, as it was in Spain.

It would be easy to create a complicated system of supply which would include living off the land. But I doubt that it would be worth the huge amount of effort required. Nor would I want it to affect the campaign objective of providing wargames.

I have decided that the most limiting factor will be the total amount of supplies available to both armies. This will be sufficient to allow them to fight for nine days, providing that they remain within a day’s march of the nearest garrison. They will also have to halt for a full day to resupply, which will prevent them from advancing nonstop. And finally each army will have to detach one infantry brigade to garrison each town within the area they hold. This will mean that the army which has won, and therefore probably suffered fewer casualties, will have to leave one brigade behind as they follow up the retreating enemy. The one retreating will collect the garrisons in the towns they a