Designing my fictional 1813 maps of Europe

 

Map of Europe

Previously I explained how I created my 1813 armies.   All were designed to fit on my 6x6 foot wargames table.   I would now have to design my campaign.  

The most important part of a campaign is the campaign map.   It was essential that I would be able to transfer the battles on the campaign map to the wargames table.    Thus my 6x6 foot table had to be the building block of my fictional campaign map of Germany and Spain.    It took many years to develop my current map, or rather series of maps.

I started with a road map atlas of Europe and tried to make each square a wargames table.   This proved impossible.   I experimented with having the atlas as a strategic map, and a series of home made tactical maps.  It was a lot of work, and it never felt right.   It was impossible to recreate mountain ranges, rivers and keep major cities and towns as strategic objectives.

From the start my 1813 world would be divided into five theatres of war.   In Germany there would be north (French v Prussian), centre (French v Russians) and south (Bavarian v Austrian).   In Spain there would be north (French v English) and south (French v Spanish).

The campaign would have to be divided into an endless series of mini campaigns.   Each would be about the size of the Waterloo campaign.   Each would provide about 6 battles to wargame, and last about two months real time.

Eventually I came up with a fictional map, or rather a series of maps.  

Above is my map of Europe.  The map is divided into countries and then military Regions.   Regional borders are shown in purple.   For example there are four regions in Spain and two in Portugal.   Each region is divided into nine military Districts.   Each district is a mini campaign area.   The white lines show the five campaign theatres as explained above.   You will see that there are three regions in each theatre, providing a possible 27 mini campaigns.  Each square on this map is a mini campaign.

North Germany Theatre Map

Each theatre has a map showing the three military regions in much more detail.   This is the one for North Germany.  The 27 districts are shown in purple dotted lines.   Each district is a mini campaign, each smaller square is a wargames table.   This map shows the main terrain features, which are based on actual rivers, cities and towns.   The road system is fictional, red lines show major roads connecting regional cities, the yellow roads connect towns within a region.   There is one city for each District, which becomes the mini campaign objective.    Main rivers are shown, but do not follow their actual course.

Hannover Campaign Map

This map is used for the campaign movement.   It covers half of two districts, both Hannover and Brunswick, in order to show the main supply depot of both armies.   It would also be used if the attacking Prussians failed in their attempt to take Hannover, and had to retreat towards Brunswick.

Each small square is a 2x2 foot square on the wargames table.   There are nine tables shown, each has nine squares within a black dotted line.   Each table has a city or town, which would be the game objective.

This map is very detailed and shows not only the city and towns, but also villages villages and farms.   It also shows hills and woods.   Each square is numbered, which corresponds with the number of the table 2x2 foot square.   As well as the main (red) roads and secondary (yellow) roads, it also shows unmarked tracks (brown).

Hannover Campaign Map

This shows the deployment of both French and Prussian corps on the morning of 26 September 1813.   The stars shows the centre of the battle for Lehtre, with 2^nd Prussian army advancing to attack 1^st French army.

Start of battle of Lehtre wargame

This shows the wargames table at the start of the wargame.   The nine map squares have been transferred to the wargames table using the nine scenic terrain squares with the same numbers.  Each square has a terrain feature which can be used in the battle report.   The three squares at the top is the French reserve area.  The town in the centre is Lehtre, which is the campaign battle objective.   The three squares in the centre are the wargame objectives.   The side which holds at least two of the three will win the battle/wargame.   The three squares nearest to the camera is the Prussian deployment area.

The corps are shown in the same position as on the map.   At the start of the wargame the attacking Prussian army has been deployed on the table at the bottom of the photo.   This is to speed up the initial moves when the attacking army would have to march onto the table.   There is a gap of 20” between the two armies, longer than long range artillery fire which is 12”.

The campaign and its mapping system sounds very complicated when I try to explain it.  But I hope you will see from the above that it is really very simple.  Setting up the table from the map only takes about half an hour, and is just a matter of following the map numbers and corps symbols.