parts preparation

 With so many troops and players expected this coming weekend, I wanted to make sure there were enough markers for use.

 I have casualty markers from two other game sets that I will bring and have created another 26 of the 1-2-3-4 markers and some disorder/rout markers.

markers, the new high-vis 'clock'
and a little cloth patch remains
from a special set of player markers
(watch here on Saturday to see some of them!)

 Gonna be a full three days, with travel on days 1 & 3, rounding out the time.

Point Values

In Napoleon's Battles rules point values are given in scenarios for locations, yet victory is first determined by whether or not the army morale is broken. 

  If the morale of the army is not broken, then point values become important.

The individual casting, each have a value to include into the total ...

sidebar 3

I have a sense that the Leipzig scenario, coming on May16, will not have a breaking of any army or allied section ... meaning points become important.

Details matter: arrival of reenforcements

The Napoleon's Battles Leipzig scenario includes a detailed list of arrival troops, times and locations.

defining the arrivals for the Leipzig game

I have copied that list and now added a 'letter' designation for each of them, with the intention of having that same letter designation on a tag next to the troops to be deployed and use that same letter on a control board and have my wooden letters be used on the tabletop.

   

the 'flat' letter "W" seen at the cross-roads here

I have a full set of these little letter stars, that I have used a few times on the tabletop.  For such a busy game anything that simplifies the organizing process will be of value.

the matching "W" in the upright version
seen here with the "Z" and "Y"

 

They have not had a lot of uses on the tabletop, yet, so it will be a good run this time around with so many troops and players.

Leipzig toolkit

 I am making further use of the metal pin & cubes stands I did up for the ACW games.

 

I was always planning on them having more uses, this is as good a time as any to put them on the tabletop.

 

This time around they will be used as location names and point values as well as control markers for the locations in the coming Leipzig game.

 

It is very likely that at least one of my 15mm buildings will also get out on the tabletop this time around.

Basing for Napoleon's Battles

 Just a little primer on the basing needs for 15mm Napoleonic soldiers when setting up for Napoleon's Battles:

the core of any army would be Infantry

Cavalry are the 'tip of the spear'

the man-killer, artillery

This is to prepare for the coming Leipzig game, on 15,16, 17, 2026.

Prelude to Leipzig

    Napoleon soon realized that his bluff had been called.  Far from driving the enemy apart and defeating him in detail, it now behooved the French Emperor to move every available man to Leipzig with all speed to forestall the arrival of two large enemy army groups from opposite directions.  From this moment Napoleon was without any doubt compelled to adapt a complete strategic defensive and to curtail even his tactical offensives.  As early as the 12th  he had sent Marmont with the VIth Corps toward Taucha near Leipzig in readiness to sustain Murat, who was still fighting south of the city; the Guard would be hard on his heels.  "All my army will be putting itself in motion; all of it will have arrived [near Leipzig] by morning of the 14th, and I shall be able to fight the enemy with 200,000 men."

  At three in the morning of the 14th , Berthier received his master's definitive orders for a general concentration on Leipzig.  Four hours later, Napoleon was writing Macdonald: "My Cousin, I hope the you will arrive here [Duben] in good time today.  It is necessary to cross the river at once.  There can be no doubt that during tomorrow - the 15th - we shall  be attacked by the Army of Bohemia and the Army of Silesia.  March with all haste, therefore, and if you hear a cannonade make for the sound of the guns.  The Army of Silesia is debouching by way of Halle and Zorbig."  This letter reveals that Napoleon had abandoned almost all hope of keeping his two major adversaries apart.  

 

However, the indications were that Bernadotte was still dragging his heels well to the rear of Blucher - although regrettably the Crown Prince had not, after all, fallen back over the Elbe - and the Emperor still hoped that his concentrated army would prove strong enough to defeat Schwarzenberg before Blucher could make his counterbalancing presence fully felt.

   ~ The Campaigns of Napoleon, Dr. David Chandler, 1966, pp. 919-922

 

The Battle of Nations
 is scheduled for May 15, 16, & 17, 2026

Nanaimo, BC, Canada 
There will be an After Action Report (AAR) here
at Murdock'S MarauderS 

more NEW game books (okay new to me)

 a fast trip to Vancouver recently allowed me the time to pick up two rules books I had meant to acquire for a while now, and also a new version of one I have had the older one of for many decades

first the new one:

version 3.0 from 2014

 

I have been doing DBA since the early 1990s, introduced to it by gamers in Winnipeg and Minnesota.

I have had versions 1.1, 2.1 and now 3.0.  Giving the quick glance at it, I think I will need to make a new measuring 'fork', otherwise all my minis will still work with the system - neat part is that DBMM stuff is also covered in this rules set (it looks like - I haven't read it all the way yet).

 

hardback Brigade Fire & Fury

 I have been playing this rules set, using others books most of the time and have been busy building my own game set of the full armies for Bull Run 1861 and Shiloh 1862; now started on the battle of Gettysburg 1863 armies, with the aim of having a full campaign set for 1863 (with all of the cavalry for both sides) and the intent to use games like Bobby Lee and Sam Grant for the strategic setup, then transition to an operational system (of my own devising), then to the tabletop - most likely with BF&F, thus the need to finally have my own copy.

softcover P&S

While "Black Powder" might have worked out as well, I chose to pick up Pike and Shotte, as Rob has been using these rules for many of the English Civil War games that we have run and many of the minis I have are from the Warlords set, it was time to have the rules set to go with them all.