From: Jim Burns, Editor in Chief, Unplugged Games Here is an easy way to make a difference this holiday season. Campbell's is donating a can of soup to the needy for every person that goes to their site and votes for their favorite NFL team. Go to the site and it is right there, very easy to do. It will only take a few seconds of your time to fill some empty tummies with warm soup this winter. Please forward this message to everyone in your address book too. Thanks. http://www.chunky.com/click_cans.cfm Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. From: Jean-Philippe Imbach Je fais pour le prochain numéro de Vae Victis (le numéro 37) un article d'une dizaine de pages sur le DEBUT de la campagne de 1870 (ie l'effondrement des armées impériales). From: Riccardo & Cristina Rinaldi Ciao Kevin, I have finally set up and played some turns of Bonaparte in Italy - the Castiglione scenario to be exact. Albeit, ahem, this was done solitaire on a Sunday morning I had a lot of fun. The game is rather simple but very subtle, and look forward to going back at it for some more VERY soon. I also wanted to let you know that I have taken advantage of your free shipping offer within Europe and ordered a copy of Last Days from UGG. Massimo (you've met him - his wife has just delivered a pretty baby girl) and I indeed look forward to its arrival, it sounds like we can play the Quatre Bras scenario in one evening. You should indeed advertize your German liason more often - I had completely forgotten it even existed! As to your next opus, HttK... can I ask a few questions? 1. You have seen my "gaming" table... are there one-map scenarios included? I mean, not just one or two? 2. I was very happy to see that in BiI you have provided alternate starting point for the campaign. But that way, if I cannot play the whole thing (hardly likely for the next hundred months), I always have to sacrifice the first few months. Maybe it is just a stupid question, but could you provide also alternate end points? I hope all is well with you, both personally and gamewise, and also that the transition away from CoA was as smooth as possible. Where will the next Nap tour carry you? [Editor's Reply] Like Bonaparte in Italy, Highway to the Kremlin provides the set-up for any turn, (23 June, 1 July, 14 July, 24 July, etc.). It is possible for the French to win outright before the second map section comes into play. If not, there are so few forces on the map that you can easily write everyone down in five minutes, fold both map sections vertically and place the two sections together. Still, you need to write-down information on the out-of-view regions, such as distance of your LOC. If the campaign goes historically, then at one point all opposing forces will be on the eastern map section except for Wittgenstein versus Macdonald in front of Riga. From: Manfred Skazel Some notes to my report on NAPOLEON AT BAY In my review of the game, published in the 'Manoeuverkritik,' in my enthusiasm I gave the campaign of 1814 more place than I have done in the historic overview of other game reports. Through it maybe the view of my readers were turned aside from the game, although my intention was the opposite. For the Design of the game contributes itself in an especially successful manner, that the reader will find himself in the history of the campaign when playing the game. As a friend of CoA's La bataille and The Gamers--games I admit that I place high claims at the game material. The map gets the best mark (an A if I remember the American school system correctly), but the printing and paper quality of the Counters, I personally felt that they do not fulfill me, however they meet their purpose (in 'Bonaparte in Italy' they are clearly better). This judgment and my above-mentioned opinion of the game design invites the impression that Napoleon At Bay is a game, that has an interesting subject matter and must have therewith its place in the game closet, but not necessarily for playing. Also here is exact the opposite the case. The game demands that one sets down a strategic goal or at least an operational plan. Especially as Napoleon, one must se, against which army or part of an army can successfully be fought a battle. To assemble the army before a blow one needs a plan and often there were weak or dummy units to cover the other enemy army (that's the courage not to cover all approaches). And you hope on a good die roll in order to have additional powers in the battle available, and to not suffer too many losses through attrition. Finally one marches against an enemy, whose strength and order of battle is not known. That reminds me of the situation of Napoleon at the second day of the battle of Arcis when he wanted to restart it, optimistically after the defense success the day before, additionally after strengthening with reinforcements. When the morning fog had lifted, he stood in front of the whole Austrian-Russian army -- surprise! Therefore in my opinion the game contains all elements for an exciting battle. Napoleon at Bay contains rules for the total campaign of 1814. To get familiar with the game more easily and more quickly one selects one of the seven scenarios, or replay the first scenario based on the example in the Standard rulebook. The preparations for play take between a half hour and one hour. One puts the leaders on the leader-manifest and wins therewith already the overview, who is involved in the scenario, who does not come and who comes as reinforcement. Here the alphabetical sequence is very useful. The leaders are placed on the army manifest if subordinate to another leader, or on the map. That goes quickly and simply by the hand because all start-hexes are printed into the fields of the manifest. Just so one proceeds then also with the units. They are placed on the army manifest and to be sure in the line with the name of the leader and the column with the corresponding strength at the beginning of the scenario. With the exception of the first, in both scenarios Napoleon's opponent begins the game with a force march movement of his grand units iof their die roll for initiative were successful. They can spend maximally 2 movement points for the movement. This is important in order to prepare one certainly for defense. With a lucky die roll, the approach of an enemy column can be stopped. And then it goes off. With each scenario, one can get into the entire campaign. The game therefore addresses newbies and Napoleon-Buffs that will find their challenge in the entire campaign. I would like to confirm my recommendation for this game therewith again. I have to clear up a misunderstanding. FAQs, Q&A, (that means questions & answers) are not Erratas. The game is so far flawless that the playing does not come to a standstill and playing means fun. Entirely the opposite experience of La Bataille, where many kernel elements are insufficiently described by a rule or quite not in the rules. Every written thing can be interpreted, each Cosimer knows the rule discussions certainly out of characteristic experience. Therefore clarifications in the questions & answers are welcome and for me they are often very helpful. Above all I appreciate it if the designer himself answers the questions of the players. From: Fréderic Bey Subject: Bonaparte in Italy We played Castiglione scenario. I was Bonaparte and Denis Sauvage was Melas. Denis conducted a hard direct attack against Mantova. He missed destroying Massena around Rivoli (I survived, because he missed two forced marches). On turn 3, Massena + Kilmaine were close to win a critical battle around 3117 (Melas lost 7 points). Afterwards things were cooler. The Austrians took Peshiera, but I concentrated my whole army around Vallegio del Mincio and Villafranca. Melas attacked two times but was repulsed. The Mantova garrison achieved a sortie against Serurier. At the end of the 7 turns, it is the only one of the 3 conditions that was reached by the Austrians. At the end of turn six, we knew that is was over for the Austrians. We played anyway turn 7 for pleasure. Very tight scenario... We spent a wonderful evening ! From: Des Darkin Can't wait for Highway to the Kremlin, just scarred that attrition may be a really nasty monster in this game ! Next is Spain I hope. I think this is avoided by many game designers because Napoleon was only there a relatively short space of time, and more importantly the struggle continued without him. I think it would be a great project. Not only do you NOT have Napoleon, if you are French, you have a hostile countryside, LoC always in trouble, your best troops are always being sent to other fronts and loads of interesting nationalities in your forces...that sounds like a real challange to me. (Think of the nice map too !) A comment on 1809. I bought the game and was actually initially put off by the size of the map area. I have always liked Struggle of Nations because you could actually get to grips with the majority of the campaign area on a reasonable sized map ( shame you never got to have Davout etc. involved though). I have always wished you had stuck to the same hex size as SoN with later games (and convert NAB), and have a project to try and turn my 1809 game to the same hex scale. This will mean using MS publisher etc, but I am hopeful that a working map can be made in a reasonable length of time. My real aim is to link SoN and 1809 maps, but I have yet to really test if that is possible. What software do you use to create your maps ? From: Mark Owens Excellent Newsletter and your discussion of the poor fellow with a 'bad' 1809 impression was also excellent. And when you look at the logistics, the roads and bridges take on new light. The campaign of 1813 only makes sense when you look at the layout of the roads, bridges, and, of course, the Elbe river. Something I've always appreciated in your games was this new understandings generated. 1807 had the same result. Its not obvious in 'campaign' histories that Napoleon was so dependent and determined to have Thorn and Danzig to supply his advance. [Editor's reply] Thanks for your thoughts. You are exactly right about campaign histories. They rarely talk about logistics, though occasionally they mention things. Sometimes you get the impression that the historians take such matters for granted; that they know about them, but prefer not to talk about them, perhaps for the same reasons that gamers don't like to deal with them. In our era of mechanized transport we forget what it was like to have to rely on horses and wagons. But Petre and the other great historians of the Napoleonic era were writing before the automobile! There is a good article on Napoleonic logistics in the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, by F.N. Maude. None of them, however, connects the crossing of the Elbe by the Prussians in early October, 1813 with the abandonment of Dresden. From: Steve Torkelson I've put together the Struggle of Nations game from pieces but I'm still missing the reinforcement chart and the leader counters. Is there any one willing for forward copies of them? Also, do you know where I can get a copy of "1809" by Victory Games? From: M. Wolfman As to what I like about Jena: everything. I have always been drawn towards more of a tactical scale in general. I am an old Squad Leader veteran. I still very much enjoy Richard Bergs' Great Battles of the Civil War series. I guess when it comes to Jena, one has to love the maps and the counters. However, there is more to a game than just a pretty package. The fact that it lies somewhere in that realm bridging grand tactical and operational makes for a very satisfying scale for me. I also loke the fact that combat is not mandatory between adjacent units, allowing for more flexability.The use of the off board movement chart for the Prussian. The cumbersome Prussian command structure. One really feels as if one has come face to face with the historical counterparts. I have played 1806 and 6 Days of Glory and enjoy them as well, but the Jena scale just seems to fit me like a glove. Drawback would be the amount of table area required, as well as time commitment. However, I now have the luxury of not having to worry about table space. On the other hand, I truly enjoy the stategic Napoleonic system you have developed with Napoleon in Italy, 1807, etc. As I have said before, I really like those games and hope you will continue to produce more campaigns (Ilm to Austerlitz, perhaps. Or 1813 along the Elbe?) [Editor's Reply] My problem with the Jena game is the mapedge. It is cut so tight that you have a solid line of units from one mapedge to the other. There was nothing preventing the armies from moving around outside of that area, in fact those off-map tracks show that. The designer has to be careful where he draws that line, how he 'enframes' the playing area. That act of cutting is the first and most important act of a designer. It shouldn't be just, 'how can I fit most of the historical battleground on the map.' Neither side knew where the decisive confrontation would take place. In Jena, you do. If you've played 1806, you see there are small task-forces with lots of empty terrain between them. That is how a Napoleonic campaign should look and feel. Back to OSG News December 2000 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Operational Studies Group. 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