Once again we were graciously hosted by The Portal game store, in Manchester, CT, and once again the staff kindly opened the store an hour early for us, at 9 AM.
First, the empty tables with their respective Table Maps
Table N - Neiderburg; mark did the terrain for this one.
Table D - Friedland; I dd the terrain for this table.
Note the Millstream dividing the field, and the Sortlack woods.
Table F - Braunsberg, with a bit of the Baltic Sea showing in the corner. Another of Mark's tables.
Table M - Morag and Bischofsburg, by Mark.
Table S, Eylau, another of mine.
Table R - Rastenburg, by Mike
Table T - Tayiau, also by Mike
Table B - Bartenstein, another of mine
Table G, Angerburg and Gumbinnem, by Mark
Table E, Marienburg and Elbing, by me.
Table H, Heilsburg, by me
Table K, Konigsberg, by Russ (with Star Fort by Eric, flown in for the game [both Eric and the Fort]; Eric was a huge help setting up tables Friday afternoon/evening)
Table I - Insterburg, by James
The Transit Tables Table, with maps down...
and maps up!
Potential Floating Table #1
Potential Floating Table #2
The Transit Table Maps:
Table W - Augustow
Table U - Kwedina
Table L -Labiau
Table J - Gradjewo
Table V - Kovno
Table Y - Maryampole
Table O - Ostrau
Table Q - Suwalken
Table X - Tilsit
Table A - Vikmerge
Tables P, C, and Z led to nowhere, wasting 5 minutes to explore.
James conducts the quick review of the Snappy Nappy rules.
Russian players huddle for last minute pregame planning, the doughnuts forgotten for the moment. The Emperor was more evasive when it came to communicating his plans to his Generals and Marshals, saying something like, "We are French; of course we will win!".
A number of French and Allied commands started on Transit tables - Grouchy Table O (Ostrau), Lannes Table U (Kwedna), Tolstoy Table V (Kovno)
Snappy Nappy rules author Russ Lockwood (right) was rejoined this year by his freind Dan Burkley (who probably knows the rules better than Russ or any of us, LOL!). Photo courtesy of Arthur Kaye.
Russ is playing Dockturov, while Dan is playing Uvarov.
Gortchakov at Tayiau on Table T
Soult's Corps at Morag
Prince Golitsyn's Cavalry Corps at Goldap, Table R
L'Estoq at Konigsberg
Murat at Marienburg and Bernadotte at Elbing
Uvarov's Cavalry and Dockturov's Infantry Corps at Eylau
Marshal Davout at Niederburg
Marshal Ney's rather isolated Corps at Bartenstein
Dockturov arrives at at Friedland
Prince Essen at Heilsburg; the player could emplace 6" of earthworks anywhere on this table, except not on a road or bridge.
The Transit tables again, with labels. James prints these for us, and we tape them to the wall above Permanent tables to make it easier to find the right tables when needed.
Prince Bagratian's men moving out from Angerburg
Uvarov's Cavalry Corps on the move from Eylau
Prince Golitsyn's cavalry Corps advances upon Rasterburg
All quiet at Tayiau
Bagratian's Advanced Guard Corps arrives at Bartenstein to find Ney already gone.
Somehow the Cossacks missed this doughnut at Angerburg!
Lannes arrives near Marienburg, whilst Murat heads out.
L'Estoq prepares to leave Konigsburg, while scouting other areas and leaving a garrison to hold the vital supply center.
Ney arrives at Helsburg, and finds Essen waiting for him.
Bernadotte's French and L'Estoq's Prussians both arriving at Braunsberg.
Gortchakov's Russians leaving Friedland area.
Grouchy and Davout near Niederburg.
Marshal Soult at Bischofsburg
Here's the GM's Master Table Map again to track the moves...
At this point in the Campaign (after 2 moves), action is no longer simultaneous; each table proceeds at its own pace.
A great start to the day's campaigning. I love the way there is a structure to all this and a familiar format, in spite of the obvious differences between each campaign.
ReplyDeleteYes, the basic structure is similar, but over time many of the games have lead to improvements - Deployment zones, non contiguous tables, how to handle supply, Transit tables, Partisans, Naval aspects, and others. This year was floating tables and the use of the sand timers.
DeleteInteresting idea with the terrain cards. I’ll have to think about this for my TYW games 🤔
ReplyDeleteIn the event we only set up one, but very nearly set up a second floating table.
DeleteAlways interesting to see armies in march/transit column rather than simply deployed in battle array
ReplyDeleteLots of March columns for maneuvering in a Snappy Nappy Campaign in a Day!
DeleteWow, that's all very impressive... and a lot to take in. I'll have to revisit this post again tomorrow to digest things over a cup of tea and a sandwich.
ReplyDeleteExcited to see this progress.
It is a lot to digest; for the most part, the players may only experience a small part of it, and have little idea what is going on elsewhere!
DeleteIm always impressed by the sheer scale and logistics of your snappy Nappy campaigns!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
It is a LOT of work for sure; devising a campaign, the OOB, and maps probably takes about 40 hours, organizing and labelling the troops is probably about 12 hours, then there is setting up the individual; tables at home and packing them for efficient transport and set up, and, in my case, eventually putting it all back n place. Still very worth it, and probably generated over 120 hours of player game time, not to mention player pregame planning and discussion. .
DeleteDo the players get a copy of the GM's map without the boxes? I'm wondering how they figure out which way they need to march on the table they are on to get to the location/town they want.
ReplyDeleteYes the layers have the map without knowing where and what the tables are. So reading the map is an important skill. Once a player is on a table, the individual Table Maps (which are left on the table), tell the player(s) what connects to what. So, looking at the above, let's examine Table B (Bartenstein), where Ney started, in a rather isolated position. on both the Master Map and the Table B map. On the master Map, you can see that there are 4 roads leading to Bartenstein, and on the Table map, there are the 4 roads. The grey areas are Deployment Zones, from whence troops depart and arrive. The road exiting Table B to the Northwest is B1. Right next to it is H4. That tells the player that units departing from B1 will arrive at road H4 on Table H. Now look at the Table Map for Table H (Heilsburg). H4 is shown there, with the link to B1. That's where the troops will arrive. This is exactly how Ney marched in the first 2 turns of the game.
DeleteHow does the timing work, to synchronise games turns fighting on the tables and movement between the tables? Is there a delay while troops are in limbo between two maps?
ReplyDeleteThe short version is, after the first 2 moves, it doesn't. The detailed answer is more nuanced. There may or may not be a delay moving between tables; in this case, where the fighting actually took place over a relatively small area, there was not any delay moving between physical tables (in the 1812 Northern Front Campaign, there was a 20 minute delay moving North towards St Petersburg (or back). If a table has no enemy troops, then a 1 minute delay was imposed after each tabletop move (hence the sand timers). On most of the Transit tables, there was a 3 minute delay upon entering or exiting them, and a 1 minute delay to move from a Deployment zone to a town and vice versa. Finally, going off the map (any connection to tables C, P or Z) wasted 5 minutes before the troops, etc., could return back from whence they came. Finally, the size of the Deployment Zones varies; most are 8" x 3", major roads are usually 12 x 4", and difficult routes (defiles, tracks, interval major river crossings) can sometimes be as small as 4 x 3". Only as many troops as can physically fit in a DZ can enter/exit at one time.
DeleteFantastic Peter. This demonstrates the amazing effort that you and the others put in to bringing this together. You have/had an excellent 'subscription' of players too!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, James
Thanks, James. Of course all the prep work and planning would be nothing without the players! We have a substantial mailing list of past and future players.
DeleteI am always impressed by the scope of these Snappy Nappy campaigns Peter. Obviously, the forces are extremely bath tubbed to suit the strategic level of game play, but I think I would enjoy playing in this type of game - not all the time, but every now and again as something a "bit different" would be fun, I think. Looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Keith. Once a year is pretty much the limit in term of time and energy, although we might bring next year's "Saratoga, 1777" Campaign to HIstoricon 2028; we'll see. It's a unique experience, and could be done with as few as 6 to 8 players (see out first couple of events on the Campaigns in a Day page.
DeleteIn standard Snappy Nappy, an Infantry base is 2,000 men, Cavally 800 men, and an Artillery base about 36 guns!