Leipzig day one is in the books

 The Leipzig game was played out last weekend.

Table layout was on Friday evening, taking from 3 pm to 8 pm to have everything arranged for game start on Saturday.

Saturday, game was run from 9:30 am, with main crew arriving at 8:15 am.

My eldest son and I were among those who were awarded a "Legion of Honor"

  

my new Legion of Honor medal
joining the two others I have
on my ADC to Marshal Berthier Dolman

Play continued to 5 pm, where 7 full turns had been played with an average of 55 mins per turn.

Sunday was a re-start, arriving at 8:15 am again, and a 'day of action' completed at 11:30 am, we took time to record information carefully, then pack out was done by 2 pm.

Photos and time-lapse are being reviewed and a gargantuan blog post will be coming later in the coming week.

I simply wanted to thank everyone who took part in the event and to crow about the lead organizer Nate, the terrain master Cod Sticker, and the troops marshal Malcolm.

Leipzig Awards

 Being presented at the May 16th game day, these two awards are for key organizers of the game event.

Both are being named Viscount(s) of Leipzig.

Malcolm, for providing the majority of the forces on the tabletop.

Rob, for doing the work of making the terrain that the entire battle will take place on.

A bit of theme fun

the general 'medals'

 I have decided to make up a set of 'player medals' to help ID the players on the teams ... no guarantee it will work, and it will be a bit of theme fun along the way.

I have also a set of real metal medals that Jeff Huddleson left for me to sort out - they had been collected up for some games that Jeff was doing down in California in the 1990s and early 2000s, so this would certainly count as a good reason to use them up.

Control Board

 Oftentimes, when a busy game is planned, the last thing that gets attention is the time/control tracking.

For Napoleon's Battles this is something that cannot be skipped, simply because the detail going into the scenario is so rich that even the arrival times are closely tracked.

a sheet of coroplast made out for the Leipzig game
16 October 1813

I have had a number of sheets of corrugated plastic (coroplast) that I have used for different things at different games, often it is the turn/time tracking device.

At the recent Shiloh game, I started to include more details on the board - intending to use it more as a scoreboard as well as the time/turn track.

This time for Leipzig, I have put all the different effects I have learned into the tracking data.

I have even made a couple of 'high contrast' clock faces (seen just above the turn track board and the word LEIPZIG) that I can use in the future for games ... I'm taking a look at a possible set of turn counters in high contrast as well, for use in the time-lapse shots.

Supporting forces

 I have made 34 draft teams in 15mm for ACW games, I can substitute them for the same job in the coming Leipzig Napoleonic game.

the grouping of draft teams and
wrecked artillery in 15mm that I
plan to bring to the coming Leipzig game

I'm bringing along some of the supply wagons and wrecked artillery for use in the coming game also.

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.