Solo 1813 Campaign

North Germany Strategic Map

I have completed the revision of the 1813 campaign to convert it from PBEM back to Solo.

There are still five campaign areas, three in Germany and two in Spain.   But in future I will run a mini campaign in each area in sequence.   The first will be set in northern Germany and will be Napoleon v Blucher.  

The strategic map shows the whole of north Germany, with the Magdeburg campaign area outlined in white.   Each square on this map is 15x15 miles, which is one days march, it is also the area of a wargames table.

When it was a PBEM campaign I had to be careful not to give too much information away to the players.  Now that it is solo I do not have to worry about that.  So the campaign diary will have much more information available both in the introduction and on the daily reports.   Hopefully this will make it easier to follow the development of the campaign

Magdeburg Tactical Map

This map shows the opening positions of the four French and four Prussian corps.   Each square is 5x5 miles and is one 2x2 foot square on the wargames table.  There are sufficient scenic squares to duplicate any possible map battle.   5x5 squares make up the wargames table.

The introduction to the Magdeburg campaign is now on the Campaign Diary Blog.   It includes a short summary of the 1813 campaign, shortened orders of battle for the French and Prussians and the campaign objective.   It also has links to much more information about the main campaign.  This includes detailed orders of battle, wargame and campaign rules.

Each mini campaign should last about 10 campaign days and provide 2-4 battles to wargame.   

I hope to provide sufficient information to allow anyone to fight the campaign themselves, using their own wargame rules. 

I also hope that the three or four weekly diary posts, plus the battle reports, will make it easier for anyone who would like to follow each mini campaign.

The Campaign Diary Blog can be found here

http://1813pbemcampaigndiary.blogspot.com.es/

Revision of Napoleonic Wargame Rules

I wrote these rules in 2011 when I started our 1813 campaign.   They are designed to provide the simple, fast moving and fun type of wargames which we both enjoy.   I posted them online as a blog so that players in the campaign, and anyone else wanting to follow the campaign, could understand how the battles were resolved.  

This is the first major update of the rules since they were written in 2011.   I am revising the campaign and the campaign rules, and it seemed a good time to do the same for the wargames rules.

These rules were never intended to be used by anyone else, and the style of writing reflects this.   So I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the blog has 32 members/followers and has had 34689 visits.   Many, indeed most, of those will be players taking part in the PBEM campaign.  But it is still a very respectable number for a set of “house rules”.

The rules have been used on our wargames table on most days since they were first written.   We normally play one campaign wargame each week, and each game lasts twelve moves.   So the rules have been well play tested.

They have stood the test of time with only minor adjustments.  

When the rules were written my wife and I were running a solo 1813 campaign.   

The rules were written to suit our armies organisation and the length of a campaign day.   For example each campaign day was 12 hours long.   Each wargame was 12 moves long.

I did not change the rules when we converted the campaign to PBEM.  

My wife and I fight all of the campaign battles as wargames.  I post a battle report of each wargame on the campaign diary blog, but I transferred what happened on the table into campaign language.   For example one casualty on the wargames table was translated to 10% casualties in the battle report.

The main reason for this rewrite was to amend all such references so that they would make sense in the campaign.   So, for example, one casualty has been replaced by 10% casualties

You can find the rules here http://napoleonicwargamerules.blogspot.com.es/