New PBEM Campaign

I have started work on the next PBEM campaign, which will start when the current Magdeburg campaign comes to an end. I expect this will be in about two weeks.

The new campaign will also be set in 1813, and the objective will be to take the river Saale and the town of Halle.

There will be a number of differences from the previous campaign, including hidden movement.

If you would like to find out more click on PBEM 1813 Halle Campaign on the right. You will also find details of how to take part there.

Wargame Rules Amendment

Our rules normally allow only commander in chief to change corps orders. When a corps commander feels unable to follow his orders he is allowed to change them to Halt, but must then wait for new orders from the commander in chief.

This was designed to stop corps commanders reacting to something which happened in another part of the wargames table, and which he would not be able to do in real life. When this rule was adopted we normally fought larger wargames with four corps on the table.

Over recent months we have been fighting much smaller games, often with only one corps on the table. In these circumstances the corps commander had to be able to change his orders, and was allowed to do so for the use of one to three pips. A Gifted commander would require one pip, an Average one two pips and a Poor one three pips.

If the commander in chief is present during the battle he can still use his pips to change corps orders, thus allowing the corps commander to use all of his pips to fight his corps.

I have now amended the rules to show this amendment. The pages concerned are 2, 3 and 4.

Fuentes de Onoro - Again

In 1994 Jan and I paid our second visit to Fuentes de Onoro. Our first visit was three years earlier with Holts Battlefield Tours. This is one of those places you really want to be able to explore on your own. To stop and ponder and soak up the atmosphere. Like most Spanish villages it was deserted during both of our visits, and this just adds to the character of the place.

I also wanted to be able to explore the area behind the village, the Wellington ridge which was never used during the battle as the French attacks were all stopped in the village itself, though only just. The village is built on a hill, and at the very top of the village is the church. This was the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting, and changed hands during the battle.

You can read about both of our visits by clicking on Walking Napoleonic Battlefields on the right, and then looking down the list of labels until you find Fuentes.

I have been a little late publishing the battlefields blog this week, because I have been trying to move it to a new blog. This whole blog business has taken on a life of its own since I started earlier this year. First I had just the one blog, this one. I soon found that I was running out of space, so I opened a new one for our move to Spain and our life here since then. In particular it has photos of our regular hill walking in this beautiful area. Not long ago I found I was still running out of space, so I opened a new blog for the campaign, both solo and PBEM. There are a lot of photographs of the wargames, so I need the extra capacity. Now I find that the battlefields blog is the problem. We are less than half way through the battlefield visits I want to cover, and already this blog is 75% full.

I have opened a new blog dedicated to the battlefield visits. I plan to reorganise the ones I have done already, to make them easier to find. But I am having trouble "googling" the blog. Not much point in opening a new one if no one can find it. Providing I can sort this problem out I will post details of the new link here shortly.

Why so popular?

For a long time I have had a counter on each blog so that I have an idea how many visitors I get. On this blog, which is by far the most popular one, I usually get 30 to 60 "hits" a day. I have adjusted the counter so that it only records a hit when a new visitor logs in. If the same one skips between blogs it does not count. I was quite flattered that so many people were interested enough to log in each day.

However last week something very strange happened. Six days ago I had 302 hits. I thought it might be something to do with the PBEM campaign I am running on one of the blogs. But two days ago it was 304 and yesterday 515!! Even today it is 57 already, and it is not yet midday.

Obviously I am very pleased with my sudden popularity - but I am also very baffled. There may be a simple reason, perhaps something to do with the counter. But the other blogs all receive their normal numbers of visitors, so perhaps not the counter.

If anyone has any idea I would love to hear it. I appreciate that each of you are not aware that there has been an huge increase in visitors, and would not know why others are visiting. But if you have recently started to look at the blog perhaps you could indicate where you heard about it.

I am sure that we will quickly return to the 30-60 daily hits, so I might just as well make the best of my sudden rise in popularity.

Whatever the reason, thanks for looking in. Its nice to know its not all just for my personal satisfaction and that others find it interesting enough to call in now and then.

PBEM 1813 Magdeburg Campaign

The French cuirassiers are about to win a cavalry melee, fail their morale and end up sitting in front the the Prussian guns. The impending French victory is about to suffer a serious reverse.


The battle of Seehausen seems to be lasting forever. This is the latest battle in our PBEM Magdeburg Campaign. Its already lasted 12 moves, which is quite unusual for one of our wargames. And its also proved to be a very enjoyable game. But it now looks like going into a second day!

Because Jan and I now wargame together and rarely have anyone else involved I have become used to doing what I want when I want with the campaign. It suits me fine, because as soon as I get a new idea for the rules, or the campaign itself, I can change it immediately. So I find it frustrating not to be able to do so with the PBEM campaign.

Its been a great learning experience, but I am anxious to start a new campaign and include all of the new ideas I have had. However I found when I was running a weekly group back in UK that players don't like too much change too quickly. I have already changed the rules for this campaign once, and I do not intend to do so again until we start the new campaign.

I had hoped that Seehausen would end in a dramatic victory for one side or the other, but it was not to be. At the end of the first day, 12 wargame moves, either side could still win. We have already had reinforcements during the first day, and that has helped to balance the odds even more. On the 12th move the advantage was swinging to the French, but an unsuccessful French cavalry charge which failed, and left the horsemen sitting in front of the Prussian guns, helped to redress the balance!

On the campaign map both sides have a corps ready to arrive at first light on the second day. The two players commanding those corps have not yet had a chance to test their commands in battle. They have done all of the map moves with the intention of doing so, and I feel it would be really unfair to stop the battle just as they are about to enter it.

I left it up to the two CinC players, and they both want to continue to a second day, so that decided the matter. And this decision will result in a dramatic end to the campaign. I don't want to anticipate what that will be, but I am pretty sure that Seehousen will be the end of the Magdeburg campaign.

You can follow the battle with a daily report move by move by clicking on PBEM 1813 Magdeburg campaign on the right.

What Next

Everything seems to be going through a quiet patch this week, and being bored I have been thinking about what to do next.

The 1806 PBEM campaign in which I have been playing the part of Napoleon for a few months, looks like running out of steam. Its been weeks since we stopped our weekly turn system, and the long awaited battle seems to be a very confused affair. I had hoped to play a key role in the battle, but it seems to have started without me. And the little information I receive does not make much sense at all. Its always been difficult to keep track of what is happening, and this has gotten even worse as we got closer to the enemy. The last time a Prussian army appeared I asked for a map showing the situation as Napoleon knew it. This was at 1700 and there were no enemy nearer than one hours march away. I issued orders for a battle based on this map. A few weeks later (real time) I was told that I am under attack and the whole situation had changed, yet it was only 1705 (campaign time). I don't think I am cut out for Play by Email. In a club situation you can talk things through and understand what is happening, this element seems to be missing in this campaign.

Then there is a quiet period in my own 1813 PBEM campaign, as Jan and I wargame the second battle. At least in my own game I understand what is happening, and there is a lot. With daily movement no one will get much chance to become bored. Movement has halted whilst we wargame the battle, but I publish a move each day on the blog, so the players can keep up with what is happening. And the battle/wargame is so vital to the campaign its important that they can understand what is happening in the battle.

Finally the forum is very quiet. I am a little disappointed in the forum, because I had hoped that it would offer an opportunity to exchange ideas and suggestions. But as is often the case with internet forums, most of the membership do not contribute. Most of the members are very experienced wargamers if their introductory posts are anything to go by. But having written very interesting "hello letters" they then seem to disappear. And my attempts to provoke more exchange of ideas seems to have met with a deafening silence.

So I am scratching around for something to keep me occupied. I have started work on a new campaign map for my PBEM campaign. If the wargame goes badly for the Prussians the current one could end quite quickly, so I want to be ready with the next stage. It will also be an opportunity to introduce a lot of new ideas to make the campaign more interesting both for me and for the players.

Exciting news about campaign maps

This is an example of my campaign maps. Not very pretty, but very practical and easy to make. Each square is one of my 2x2 foot scenic blocks for my wargames table. The idea is that I can easily transfer the campaign map to the wargames table, and back again. Also if one side is pushed back I remove the nearest squares on the table which are no longer in sue, and add the new ones from the campaign map. Each square on the map has a number, and that is the same as the appropriate scenic square.

Last week I received an email from Ron Marshal, who has created a computer map based on my humble efforts. And it looks great. He gave me a link to his website where I could see the map. Unfortunately my screen is smaller than his, and the grid part of the map was not where it should be. Ron did explain is his mail that it was designed for a larger screen.

Apparently Ron is designing a a similar map system to my hand drawn one, but computerised, and he asked if I would be interested. Needless to say I was much, much more than just interested.

For some time I have been looking at map making programmes for the computer, but nothing I saw would allow me to make the grid system and then put rivers, towns, hills, woods etc just where I wanted them. Or perhaps they would, but I could not understand how. Most seem to be designed to produce map like effects, but that was not what I was looking for. And I am not helped by the fact that I have the greatest possible trouble understanding new computer programmes. I always have problems on the few occasions when I buy a game. It takes me months to understand the basics. I think it may be an age thing.

Anyway I replied to Ron at once, but that was about a week ago. He did send a holding reply, but it apparently busy out earning a living!

I am not sure where it will all lead, but it would be very exciting if I could produce my a map of Europe similar to my strategic map, but with the ability to "zoom in" to something like my tactical map. I am sure that it would take a long time to produce, but I am very hopeful that it might be possible to make a start.

If I ever master the art of map making you will be the first to know.

Meanwhile I eagerly await another contact from Ron!