In January 1999 I tried out the Aide De Camp (ADC) service offered by the Solo Wargamers Association. This service offers a temporary opponent to assist with your wargame battle or campaign. This assistance can range from drawing up battle orders for one of the armies involved in a battle to providing a unbiased decision for a campaign situation. Over the past few months I have been playing a solo Franco-Prussian wargame campaign for which I have put together some solo systems for fighting the battles which have provided me with interesting games. Despite this the battle games still lacked an element of the unexpected and followed my own particular logical sequence which of course, even with random options, was predictable to me. In a word they were starting to get a bit boring. In the past I have abandoned a number of solo campaigns simply because I began to find them repetitive and predictable. It was due to these experiences that I decided to try out the ADC service. My request to the ADC service was for a set of battle orders for a battle which had occurred during my Franco-Prussian campaign. I chose to write the orders for the French army but I needed someone, an ADC, to write out the Prussian orders. In my request for help I included the following details: A map of the battlefield showing the area in which the Prussian troops can be located and the area occupied by the French forces. Army lists stating which forces were available to both sides. An idea of scales, movement rates and weapon ranges. Order sheets on which the battle orders for the various Divisions were to be written (see fig.1). A brief note from the C-in-C outlining the Prussian's overall aim in fighting this battle. This enables the ADC to set relevant objectives in the preparation of the battle plans. These were all the essentials which I thought would be needed by the ADC to write the battle orders for the Prussians. I also included a few extra items to add interest to the game for the ADC and myself. These were: Information about recent local manoeuvres which had led up to the battle. Copies of past wargame campaign journal notes to give the overall insight into the campaign strategy that has led to the battle. Labelled envelopes for sealed contingency orders (see fig. 2). The idea here was for the ADC to write orders for particular situations that may occur during the battle game. The situation is written on the envelope label and the response to this situation is written on an order sheet which is then sealed within the envelope. If the situation occurred as the battle was played out on the wargaming table I would open the envelope and reveal the 'secret' orders. Once all of this was done and sent off I immediately wrote the battle orders for the French on my own copies of the battle order sheets. Obviously its important this is done before you receive the reply from the ADC to ensure you both write your battle orders in ignorance of what your opponent's orders contain. The wargame that followed the arrival of the ADC's orders was one of the best wargames I have played for a long time. The battle itself turned out to be a fairly small affair considering all the troops available but the anticipation of a 'live and kicking' opponent and unanticipated tactics made it something special and fascinating. The 'secret' contingency orders in particular kept the element of surprise going right to the end of the game. There is an element of thrill in pitting your tactical wits against someone else which we solo wargames tend to miss out on. Another factor gained from the ADC experience was that of frustration which you so often read is experienced by historical military commanders. Opportunities to make decisive attacks or to hold a force back from an impossible task are lost because you did not foresee the situation when you issued your orders. With the ADC service we can experience the 'live' opponent and the 'fog of war' which I can certainly recommend for adding a bit of spice to an ailing solo wargame campaign. It takes a bit more preparation than a solo game, of course, but it is well worth the effort. My Franco-Prussian campaign battle of St Marc (see fig. 3) came about as the result of a failed attempt by the Prussians to storm Metz. This resulted in a series of French counter attacks which culminated in the French trying to cross the River Saar at Saarbrucken. Having failed to take Saarbrucken and its nearby bridges over the Saar the French had been forced to use their superior numbers to outflank the Prussian forces and cross the river on pontoon bridges. The Prussians manoeuvred to stop this outflanking attack and the battle of St Marc occurred as a result. My orders for the French forces were to hold their initial positions and bombard St Marc while repulsing any attacks until mid morning when an attack was to be launched from the southern pontoon bridge area (6) against St Marc. Once St Marc had fallen the forces entrenched on the hill (3) would move to attack St Jean to the rear. To support these attacks out flanking forces were to work there way around to the back of St Jean in an attempt to trap the Prussian forces. The orders received from the ADC for the Prussian forces were for them to dig-in around St Marc and St Jean and use their superior artillery to keep the French at bay. Guarding forces on both flanks would prevent the army being out manoeuvred and a mobile reserve would be available to support St Jean and the southern flank. Contingency orders permitted any flank threat coming around the south of St Marc (5)to be counter attacked by a strong force while relying on a weaker force to delay attacks coming from the Saarbrucken direction (4). Battle of St. Marc: 13 August 1870 Aide De Camp Order Sheets Aide De Camp Information Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #128 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com