Sunday, November 4, 2012

"Crisis on the Danube, 1809" with Snappy Nappy (part 3)


    As a reminder, this game will be run at Ellis Con 2012 in less than 2 weeks, on Saturday, November 17th at the Eliis Technical School, in Danielson CT.    The convention runs from 9AM to 9PM, and cost is $10 at the door. The game itself is planned to run from 11AM to 5PM. Some of the background has already been covered in Part 1 and Part 2.

    So, here is the more or less final map for this "Campaign in a Day", with the tables marked, as well as the rough opening deployments of the two armies. As always, in the development process, some minor changes took place; I decided that the very long, narrow table between the  Gross und Klein"Laber"s  needed to be split into two separate tables, and that instead of one grid square being 12" of tabletop, it would be (roughly) 8" of tabletop... that is simply a practical matter - 8 foot wide tables are all but  impossible to use for the physical movement of troops!  Finally, I decided to eliminate the 2nd Austrian Bohemian Korps, which didn't really play a role in the action. I will keep it "in the Box", though, just in case Davout tries to gang up on the remaining Korp, in which case it will enter as reinforcements, but will not be allowed to attack Regensburg Ratisbon) itself. Click on the map for a much better look:






Some additional terrain notes:  The rivers Danube, Ilm, and Isar are everywhere unfordable. To avoid complications, bridges may not be destroyed (they were repaired pretty rapidly in the actual campaign when necessary). The river Abens is unfordable in and along Table C, but is fordable below that. The Feking Bach is fordable every where, as are the Labers; however, the Labers have very wet, marshy banks and thus harder/slower to traverse. Any table edges not bordered by a water feature are bordered by woods, even if not shown on the map. There is a large woods running diagonally across the rather open looking area on table "B"  which is not shown- damned inaccurate maps!  :-) In Snappy Nappy terms, The Labers will thus be "Severe" Terrain, and the others "Broken". All the woods and hills will count as "Broken" terrain as well.

The first two tuns of the game will be "synchronous", to help everyone get into the flolw of the game, and the feel of the rules. Thereafter, the action on each table will move as quickly nor as slowly as the players themselves, except that any new troops entering a table will conform to the sequence of play already in progress there.

Table A - Napoleon starts here, at Ingolstadt, freshly arrived from Paris! Also present is Vandamme's small Wurttemburg Corps.


Table B, between the Ilm, and the Isar, is where Massena's 4th Corps starts the game, near Pfaffenhofen..


Table C, between the Ilm and the Abens, is the starting point for both Lefebvre's 7th (Bavarian) Corps at Neustatd, and Lannes' ad-hoc Corps at Vohburg.


Hiller's VI Korps starts on table D, north of the Isar in the vicinity of Mooseburg, and Erzherzog L:udwig's V Korps begins on the road between Pfaffenhausen and Siegenburg, while on the French side, Oudinot's 2nd Corps will start near Au.


Table E lies between the Abens and the Keking Bach;  Hohenzollern's III Korps starts near Rohr, along with Erzherzog Karl himself.


Table F is north of the Gross Laber and East of the Feking Bach; Rosenburg's IV Korps starts near Lanquaid.


Table G is the vicinity of Regensburg; Marshal. Davout's 3rd Corps and Kolwrath's II Korps both start on this table. 


Table H is situated between the Gross and Klein Lauber streams; Leichtenstein's Austria Reserve Korps starts near Pfeffenhausen.


Table J is the Eastern half of the space bteween the Labers, and is empty at the start of the game.



Table I is the area North of the Isar near Landshut, and is also empty at the start of the game.


Thus, the stage is set, the players invited and the rules of conduct established; it remains only to cry Havoc, and let loose the dogs of war!




13 comments:

  1. The maps came up a treat Peter. It should be a fine mini-campaign.

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  2. Thanks, James! The maps were kind of a pain to do for such a very large area, but I think it was worth it!

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  3. The result of the map software is interesting. I may have to look at it. The Campaign Cartographer software I bought a few years back just had too high a learning curve for me.

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    1. Battle Chronicler is completely free. It isn't completely intuitive, but it isn't hard to learn. For a standard sized wargames table, setting up the terrain wouldn't take too long... the process is nearly identical to laying terrain out on an actual table.

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  4. Inspired by this fine work, I have rendered this entire campaign-in-a-day into Tabletop Simulator. My question to you would be: what did you give the commanders for a briefing map? Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. IIRC, I gave them the map of the theater from Chandler or Gill.

      BTW, I just visited and enjoyed your travelogue of visits to Regensburg, Teugen-Hausen, and Eggmuhl. I visited Regensburg briefly way back in May of 1974, when I was age 19 and on tour of Europe with the University band. It wasn't until I saw the famous bridge over the Danube that I recalled that Regensburg = Ratisbon, and it all fell into place! Unfortunately, I wasn't at liberty to travel on my own, and had yet to learn German, which took place 2 years after! Still, I found touring the Bavarian countryside by motorcoach inspiring vis a vis the events of April 1809!

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    2. Yep, it was the theater map from Gill: see
      https://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/2012/09/crisis-on-danube-1809-with-snappy-nappy.html

      BTW, I am, planning on doing a new and much bigger version of the events of April 1809 with Snappy Nappy locally in April/May 2020, and at Historicon in July 2020.

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    3. Thanks very much, and glad you enjoyed the articles. Next will be re: Aspern-Essling.

      Bigger campaign, you say? One day I must make my way back East...

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    4. July 2020 would be a good time! :-)

      Seriously;y, we will see how things work out, but I expect between 14 to 24 or so players and at least a dozen tables.

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  5. Because no good deed goes unpunished, I continue and inquire:

    1. Just so I'm clear, you don't show players the green overall map?
    2. Is there a ready way to distinguish on the map between villages, towns, and cities. I get that Ratisbonne is the later, but...
    3. And how do you manage messages? I will not be playing this live but attempting something of an on-line Ktiegsspiel. I've posted pictures of my (really your) tables over at the Facebook Wargamers group. Given this, if someone issues a message or an order, I thought to have it move at leader speed via a unit on the board. Thoughts most welcome.

    And Thanks,

    Jim

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    1. 1) Ciorrect, that is for the umpire only. It shows details of terrain, and how the tactical tables inter-relate.
      2) Sure; if you look at Map E, most are villages, but Abensburg and Kelheim are Towns; they have different icons.
      3) tyhe evnts we do arer in real time, with all tyhe tyables in vbiew of everyone, but with random orientations and relations one to another. After the first 2 moves, the action on different tables is totally asynchronous, and can go as fast or slow as conditions allow. Messages are written and given to the umpire. He imposes a delay of 10 - 20 minutes upon delivery of the messages, depending, by gestalt, on the distances between the parties involved. In your situation, having the messages move at leader speed (or maybe even twice leader speed) would seem suitable.

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  6. Hard to imagine how many games we've lost this year. Ah, well. How big did you perceive Regensburg to be in game terms? Looking at it differently, how many units would you let defend that? Also, do I read the overall map correctly that Kollowrath's boys are placed on the east (north?) side of the Danube? Seems a tough spot!

    Thanks very much.

    Jim

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    1. Regensburg is substantial. Davout left Colonel Coutard with 2,00 men of his Ligne regiment, and it was far too little. I'd figure up to 2 units/4 stands on each side of the Danube (4 stands is 8,00 men, roughly a Division).

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