Snappy Nappy - Command and Control

    In preparation for our August 1813 "Campaign in a Day" event this Saturday, I thought I'd take a moment to review this aspect of the rules. On the one hand, at this level (1 stand = 2000 Infantry), you have only a single Command figure per Corps - no need to worry about Brigade or even Division structure!  In order to remain ":In Command" and have their full range of options automatically, troops must remain within the required distance of their Corps Commander, measured from any part of his stand to any part of the unit. For the French and French Allied states like the Confederation of the Rhine, Kingdom of Italy, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, this is 18"; same for the British, by the way. For Austria, Prussia, and Russia, this command radius is 12" (9" if 1808 and earlier; the Spanish and Turks are limited to 9" throughout the era). Units that are NOT within this radius must take a Morale Check. If they pass, they may move up to 1/2 the usual distance, and may change facing and/or formation. If they fail, their is no penalty (reduction in Morale level , as there would otherwise be), BUT the unit may not move or change facing!  It may fire normally, and may attempt to form a hasty square if charged by cavalry, but may not otherwise change formation. Simple but effective!

   Once the game gets beyond a single Corps, though, things get more interesting, Each army's Commander in Chief issues overall orders to his subordinate Corps Commanders. There are seven orders that can be given. In order of decreasing aggressiveness, these are

1) ATTACK: All units must advance towards the enemy, or be within 3" of a geographic objective.

2) PROBE: Half of the Corps units must advance towards the enemy, or be within 6" of a geographic  objective. The other half must be within 12" of the enemy or a geographic objective.

3) SCREEN: All units must be within 12" of the enemy or geographic objective.

4) MANEUVER: All units must attempt to stay 6" or more away from the enemy, and head towards a geographic objective.

5) DEFEND: All units must remain within 12" of a geographic objective.

6) WITHDRAW: All units must retreat from the enemy, and stay 12" or more away from the enemy.

7) RALLY: All units must start and stay over 12" away from the enemy. During the Rally Phase of the turn, all units may make one Morale Check. If they pass, they regain one Morale level; no effect if they fail.


    During the Orders phase of each turn (which is the first phase , the player may change his orders up or down from those issued by the C-in-C; French (and allied nations as above) and British commanders may change up or down 2 levels, Russian, Prussian, and Austrian commanders may change up or down one level. Regardless they may never deviate more than two  levels for British, French, etc from the orders issued by their C-in-C, or one level up or down for Prussian, Russian, or Austrian commanders. The Corps commander, may of course request a change in orders fro their C-in-C, which he may or may not grant, but regardless this will usually entail a delay of 15 minutes or more from the time of the request (by which time, of course, the situation may have changed). The orders phase is also the time for the player to send scouting reports to his C-in-C!

   For our campaign in  day, my plan is to use cell phones to handle this task. The players will send their messages to me as GM, and after a suitable delay, I will forward them to the C-in-C... and vice-versa. "Poorly worded, misleading, ambiguous, mis-typed (and auto-corrected!) messages are par for the course", as they say!

Final player map (altered from that in  Nafziger's Dresden book); 

note that I have altered the course of some rivers and moved some towns for the purpose of the scenario, so this map shouldn't be used for anything else!

Semi-Final Player Roster:

In best "no plan survives contact with the enemy" fashion  two players had to cancel at the last minute; I would say that this in keeping with the roughly 20% attrition I had half expected by the inevitable disruptions of real life, even though they will be missed.

ALLIES:
Joe F (Bernadotte) - mixed Swedish, Russian, and Prussian Corps
Barry F (Sievers) - Russian Cavalry Corps
????   (Schwarzenburg) Austrian Infantry Corps
????  (Blucher) Prussian Infantry Corps
????  (Wittgenstein)  Russian Infantry Corps


"FRENCH":
Roger D.(Oudinot) ? Bavarian Infantry Corps
James S. (Ney)  French Infantry Corps
Greg H. Saxon Infantry Corps
Peter D. (McDonald) ? Westphalian Infantry Corps
????      (Napoleon)  French Guard Corps

Rob P., Russ L, and possibly 1-2 other players from NJ to fill in the unassigned positions.

James S. did a nice, easy to use spreadsheet program for calculating the pionts value and % compositions of Corps for Snappy Nappy; it is in the files section of the HAHGS yahoo group in the Snappy Nappy folder.
I used it to quickly do two replacement Corps:

Austrian Infantry Corps, 1813
4  Landwehr (Militia Infantry)
4 Hungarian line/Grenz Infantrty (Seasoned Infantry)
4 German Line (Veteran Infantry)
1 Grenadier (Elite Infantry)
1 Horse Artillery (Veteran)
2 6# Foot Artillery (veteran)
1 12# Foot Artillery (Veteran)
1 Uhlan (Experienced Cavalry)
1 Hussar (Veteran Cavalry)
1 Cuirasier (Elite cavalry)

Prussian Infantry Corps, 1813
4 Landwehr (Militia Infantry)
4 Reserve Infantry (Conscript)
4 Line Infantry (Experienced)
2  Grenadier/Schutzen (Veteran Infantry)
1 6# Horse Artillery (Veteran)
1 12# Foot Artillery (Experienced)
3 6# Foot Artillery (Veteran)
1 Landwehr cavalry (Militia)
1 Dragoon (Conscript)
1 Hussar (Experienced)
1 Cuirassier (Veteran)

The Game is Afoot... for this Saturday!

Peter