The Battle of Meiningen

We wargamed the first battle of the solo campaign this week.

It was a small battle with one corps per side, each with one infantry brigade detached on garrison duty.

Set in central Germany, where 4^th Russian corps had orders to hold the town of Meiningen.    The 14^th Westphalian corps had orders to attack them.

This was just the type of battle which had produced most of the wargames in the PBEM campaign.   But this time I could manipulate the opening positions.

The Russians were deployed on the right bank of the river Weser, holding the main road and bridge from Kaufungen to Meiningen.   In the PBEM campaign the Russians would have been deployed in the same square as Meiningen.  However I moved them forward to cover the road crossing the river.

Instead of attacking directly over the main road, the Westphalians were ordered south to cross the river by an undefended bridge.   They would then be able to launch a flank attack on the Russian position.

The result was a surprisingly interesting minor battle.   The Westphalians finally won, but it could have gone either way.  

The full battle report is on the campaign diary blog

http://1813pbemcampaigndiary.blogspot.com

1813 Solo Campaign

Finally finished the two campaign areas in Spain.

All five campaign areas now completed and ready to start the campaign proper.

I will write orders for all ten area commanders, both French and Allied. 

The PBEM campaign ended with an armistice on 5 April 1813, and the solo campaign will start at the end of that armistice on 12 April 1813.

Napoleon has ordered all five area commander to commence attack the enemy.  

I have designed the five tactical maps to provide different types of terrain and I will try to avoid too many battles for possession of a town or city.   Because a city was always the campaign objective in the PBEM campaign we have had a lot of those already.

The Prussian, Russian, Austrian and Spanish armies are all on the defensive, and will leave the initiative to the French commanders.   However Wellington has ordered his army to launch a surprise attack, so the campaign in northern Spain will open with an encounter battle.

I am quite excited to be able to start the solo campaign at last, and I hope to have the first battle to wargame next week.

Scope of Solo Campaign

Campaign areas in Germany and Spain

It was my intention to campaign just one of the five available campaign areas at a time.   This would allow me to concentrate on the detail of the two armies involved.   However it did not take long to discover that just one campaign area would not provide enough battles to wargame.

During the PBEM campaign all five campaign areas were gamed at the same time.   This ensured that there was always at least one battle waiting to be gamed.    Sometimes there would be three or four waiting at the same time.   The result was that we never ran out of wargames.

I started the solo campaign with the Brunswick campaign.  This is set in northern Germany and has one French army attacking the Prussian Army.   The first battle was produced on day two of the campaign.   So far, so good.

But the campaign then had to be halted to allow us to fight the battle.   And I could not work towards the second battle until the wargame has been completed.

So I have decided to run all five campaign areas at the same time, just as I did in the PBEM campaign.   To do so I have to make four more campaign maps and produce the orders of battle and other administration.

After a busy week I have completed two more campaigns, both in Germany.

The Gotha campaign will pit the second French Army against the Russian Army.

The Bamberg campaign will require the Austrian Army to stop the Bavarian Army taking that city.   The Austrians have moved their base of operations from Vienna to Prague.   This will allow me to integrate allied armies in the future, should I wish to do so.

Next week I hope to finish the British and Spanish Armies in Spain.

Meanwhile for the first time in years my wargame table lies empty waiting for the next battle to take place.