The War of Liberation: 1813 Snappy Nappy campaign in a day planed

    We, i.e., The Hartford Area Historical Wargames Society (HAHGS) now have a confirmed date and venue to hold our next "Campaign in a Day" using the Snappy Nappy rules by Russ Lockwood; Saturday April 20th, 2013, at new gaming space of The Time Machine hobby store in Manchester, Connecticut. Set up of the tables is planned for 10AM; players should arrive no later than 11AM, and we expect to conclude by 6PM at the latest.

 Each player will command a Corps sized force, under the overall direction of one player on each side who will act as Commander-in-Chief. The players will communicate their orders (from the C-in-C's) to their Corps Commanders, who will in return report back on their findings and progress to the C-in-C, all though the aegis of the Umpire/GM (aka, yours truly). I am tentatively planning on doing this all by way of cell phone text messaging, forwarding the messages after an appropriate delay (depending upon the distance involved and presence of interdicting forces, etc.  The two C-in-C's will also command a Reserve Corps.

    The action will take place across at least six and probably 8-10 tables of various sizes, as both side seek each other out, maneuver, fight, and attempt to achieve victory!  The overall map and situation will be roughly based upon that of the second (August to October) phase of the 1813 Befreiungskriege (War of German Liberation). No attempt will be made to exactly recreate either the actual forces or terrain, bu rather the general situation. In part this is to allow us to accommodate as many players as may wish to be involved. The Snappy Nappy rules are easy to learn and play quickly, with plausible results. We are using 25/28mm miniatures and a "Bring Your Own Corps" format. The core members of the group probably have in excess of 10,000 Napoleonic troops between them, so we have plenty of troops available for use by those who don't have or want to bring their own (a Corps in Snappy Nappy, as defined below, will have less than 150 figures). A Corps can also be designed for you if you don't feel like designing your own... but IMHO, that's part of the fun!  The August 1813 time frame means that a large percentage of all Napoleonic armies can be fielded for the event - we already having players planning on fielding Corps made up of Russians, Prusians, Austrians, and Swedes on the Allied side (with plenty of room for more of any or all of these), as well as French and Bavarians on Napoleon's side - we have plenty of troops available for other French Allied corps including Saxons, Poles (Grand Duchy of Warsaw), Kingdom of Italy, Rhine Confederation (Wurttemburg/Baden/Hessen-Darmstadt), Danes and of course, lots more French!

1813 - Befreiungskriege (shown are spring moves)

    We had a lot of fun with our pilot event, the 1809 Crisis on the Danube that we ran back in November; there is plenty of information about that, and Snappy Nappy here in this blog. While it is not necessary to have or purchase a copy of the rules to play, you will probably enjoy the event more if you do. They are available from On Military Matters for $29.

Here is the format for the troops:

Each player is allowed  200 points per corps. 

No more than 10% of units may be Elite, and 20% MUST be Conscript or Militia (this is 1813, after all!)

ONLY the C-in-C's Corps may contain troops rated as Guards (Others might be called Guards, but won't be rated as such, i.e. minor states).

C-in-C is limited to 40% of units with Guard rating - others may be Elite (no limits) or lower; no Conscripts/Militia required (but not prohibited, either).

Say no more than 25% of units may be Artillery (limit 1 Horse Artillery for Infantry Corps)  and no more than 25% Cavalry, UNLESS the player builds a Cavalry Corps, in which case it may contain NO infantry and no more than 15% of the units may be (all Horse) Artillery. 

Remember that a STAND represents approx 2,000 Infantry, 750 Cavalry, or 24 guns!  SN only uses Corps Commanders - no lower level officers (or organization) needed. A stand typically has a frontage of about 2" +/- a half an inch; the number of figures

For those who don't have a copy, here's the SN Point system  (Points are per STAND; Inf and Cav have 2 stands/unit, Arty only one). The D10 score neede to pass Morale is the critical variable.... In SN, I wouldn't count on Militia to hang around long at all unless they are very, very lucky!

UNIT RATING	D10 Score to Pass	Infantry pts/stand	Cavalry points/std	Artillery points/std
Militia	9+	3	4	5
Conscript	8+	4	5	6
Experienced	7+	5	6	7
Veteran	6+	6	7	8
Elite	5+	7	8	9
Guard	4+	8	9	10

Any interested players (outside HAHGS as well as members) should contact me so that we can include you in our plans. The number of players will need to be equal on both sides; if there is an odd number of players, the extra player will be on the Allied side in view of their advantage in numbers historically. 

More to follow!

Peter