As trailed in a previous post, I've been thinking about getting another campaign going. The options were both to be set in the War(s*) of Austrian Succession: Italy or the Austrian Netherlands. I plumped for Italy, and specifically, the northern theatre, as I want to make more use of the Piedmontese and Spanish armies I painted. I realise I could say the same about the Dutch, but it's 2:1 The Austrian Netherlands can come later.
* I prefer "Wars" as I see it more as a, sometimes loosely, connected set of conflicts. The Habsburgs and Bourbons continued to fight after the end of the Prussian-Austrian conflict (1st and 2nd Silesian Wars). The Spanish Bourbons were already fighting the British when the Silesian Wars kicked off, and for a couple of years, the British were 'auxiliaries' of the Habsburgs in the Low Countries. Similarly the Anglo-French colonial conflict had a life of its on.
This campaign will be different from my previous foray into the WAS in Italy as that was for the whole of the war and the whole of Italy. Also it was really a hex map game with figures for counters. This new campaign will be more like the recent Saxon campaign with point to point map moves and actions fought out as table top games with figures.
My first step was to map the map. I've basically traced modern Italy, mostly the Po valley from west of Turin to the Gulf of Venice. As well as the Po and other major rivers, I have marked in key roads and towns. Each town being a day's march apart.
It's a bit rough at the moment. I intend to shade in the Alps and the Apennines and sea. Many towns (dots) have been left unnamed simply for legibility purposes. Actually, also because where roads cross the mountains I've spaced the towns closer together so the same distance takes twice as long to cross. There is very little scope to cross the mountains laterally as evidenced by the road network and my main focus is on the Po valley. There are different options for east-west movement - decisions will be diced for at each nodal point based on a rough assessment of probabilities.
Two key things to work out now:
- Orders of Battle
- Campaign objectives and scope
The Saxon campaign had a very limited window - based on the weeks leading up to the end of 1745 and it had to be completed within my time off at Christmas and New Year. The Po campaign will have more time, both in historical setting and in playing time. My immediate thought on objectives is the Spanish aim to recapture Milan and Parma from the Habsburgs. But it will be more complicated than that as there are 3 (possibly 4 or 5) other parties:
Austria: obviously wanting to keep Milan and Parma
France: generally helping Spain (as they were ruled by the same family firm) and weakening Austria in the context of France's struggle for hegemony in the Low Countries and Germany
Piedmont-Savoy (aka the Kingdom of Sardinia): to remain independent and to stop Spain taking Milan and avoid being surrounded by Bourbon territory.
Naples: part of the Bourbon family firm. The ruler owed Spain a favour for help in recovering the Naples for them in the War of the Polish Succession
Britain: traditional foe of France and Spain, and ally of Austria on the basis of my enemy's enemy....
The hard part will be setting an end point. If Spain captures Milan and Parma, will the game be over or will Austria have a chance to grab them back as they wouldn't have just given up, unless they reached exhaustion point. And that would at least partly depend on what was happening north of the Alps.
Other bits and pieces to ponder:
Sieges will be abstracted - I'll probably adapt the siege section from my previous Italian campaign. Though I might be tempted to try Siege Works.
Intelligence: who knows what and when. Some simple scouting points maybe.
I will also have to adopt a mechanism for ensuring rest days are taken, and a way of tracking these.
Battles will be played out using Twilight of the Soldier Kings or WRG 1685-1845 depending on the scale.
Last but not least, I will think about some simple supply rules.
So more thinking to be done!
I do like the map you have mapped. Most interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Thanks Alan. Your comment caused me to look at the map again and it reminded me of other players in the drama: Genoa and Modena (both allied to the Bourbons historically.
DeleteChris
Looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds Chris:). I'm currently reading 'Olmutz to Torgau' from Helion books, covering the SYW from 1758-1760 and was thinking about your last campaign and what this books reveals about the logistics involved in real life. Some things that struck me so far:
ReplyDelete- Weather can turn roads into quagmires overnight, especially minor roads or those not well kept. Hence why troops needed several lines of march.
- Supply trains could destroy roads, even relatively well kept ones, even before rain etc might arrive. A relief train for the siege of Olmutz was around 20km long and had about 3,000 carts.
- The Austrian Croats and Pandours really came into there own in the mountains, with their ability to move in the rough terrain and knowledge of it too. The Prussians in contrast really had nothing like it to counter them.
- Playing on home ground gave the Austrians much better intelligence than the Prussians, which allowed them at times to get the jump on Frederick and chums.
- Rest days might be required to allow the supply columns to catch up, as much as giving the troops some rest.
I'm sure there's more, but for my sort of narrative games, I doubt I'd ever go to this much effort for a campaign, but you never know...
All excellent points Steve. The attack on a supply train is a tempting feature to add. Maybe the way to do it without creating masses of admin is to have random events and instead of just saying a train has been ambushed I can fight it out à la Siskovics (sp?) at Domstadl.
DeleteRegarding rest days, the other reason I picked up from Duffy (on the Leuthen campaign I think) was to bake bread for the next few days. They carted the bricks and iron on campaign with which to build large ovens every few days.
Chris
Interesting you mention bread Chris, as I just read today that old Freddy was delayed a day or two setting out from camp due to a delay in the bread being delivered, as it was quite some distance away from the front as it were. Again I think it was at the front of the baggage train so that it could be set up before anything else. Very clever the design of the ovens though.
DeleteI think having a random events table is a good way to go, unless you fancy doing some small actions for something a bit different, as it can cover a whole host of things.
I forgot to mention the issue of the quality of troop replacements at the start of 1758, that again hampered Freddy from doing some of the things he might have wanted to. IIRC Sam Mustapha's 'Maurice' rules had a neat campaign system that tracked unit quality as the campaign progressed, with some units moving up a level, other down and so on. Something I mean to do but never quite get around to it!
I think I will ignore troop quality Steve, apart from elite companies, especially variable quality. Got to keep it simple.
DeleteChris
Great work a good start to the campaign, it will be occupying a good deal of your time 👍
ReplyDeleteIt certainly has the potential to occupy a lot of time!
DeleteChris
Instead of you doing the work on the map try throwing it at AI?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest Mark I can’t be arsed. There’s the learning process involved, trial end error and whatnot. By the time I’ve done all that I’ve finished it by hand. It may look like a dog’s breakfast but it’ll do.
DeleteChris
It looks fine mate - I was thinking of saving you some time, but I do get “can’t be arsed” cos there is some fiddling about before you get the hang of it. Crack on bro.
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DeleteLooking very good, Chris. I'm particularly interested in how you avoid making your campaigns a button pushing, admin exercise.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the challenge Richard. Unless I want some abstract way of generating battles, I can’t see how to avoid admin. I tend to use spreadsheets as trackers. If I think about format properly in advance it provides an acceptable level of admin.
DeleteChris
Very interesting Chris and I am looking forward to further updates on how you plan to run the campaign.
ReplyDeleteI do like the idea of random events for both sides as they could cover a number of admin issues. So adding colour but reducing the admin work.
Yes, that’s the beauty of it. With up to half a dozen ‘factions’ the thought of handling logistics is mind-boggling.
DeleteChris
Looks like you have put quite a bit of thought into designing the campaign already, Chris....but more still to consider......
ReplyDeleteAye. I took the ‘rules’ I wrote a couple of years ago and marked up what I need to change and there’s more to change (and new) than stays the same.
DeleteChris
Sounds good Chris and sensible to flesh out the overall plans scope and approach before diving into any of the detail. I really like your map too!
ReplyDeletePiedmont/Lombardy is a geographically challenging place to campaign in!
Best wishes, James
Yeah. I had a think about it again today and realised that I needed to do some more reading, and also work on the scope a bit more and think about how much time I have available…..,
DeleteChris
Looking forward to seeing how this plays out, Chris! And nice to see the Italian theatre get a look-in for this period, it wasn't just 'the cruel wars in higher Germany...'
ReplyDeleteI think your Saxon campaign seemed to have a sort of semi-programmed structure where you tried to follow the historical movements of the armies but rolled dice for orders at specified decision points, with modifiers to reflect more or less likely outcomes? That seemed a pretty good mechanism to use.
Yes, that's an apt description of the Saxon campaign. I don't have access to an almost day-by-day account for the Italian campaign and the temporal scope is much larger. But my approach to working out how to run the campaign is following the same path. It'll be less tightly controlled, probably, with more in the way of random events (a feature of the wider scope). Still doing the 'research' though.
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