DEPLOYMENT & REINFORCEMENT CARDS None of the commanders in these four battles knew what forces the enemy had or even which other friendly corps might be joining him. At Kulm, for instance, Vandamme thought Mortier and even St. Cyr might be joining him. Instead, he got Kleist coming up behind him. Also, he began the engagement thinking there was only one weak Alliued corps in front of him. He ended up with more than 40,000 in front of him. So the first thing the cards can accomplish is to keep your reinforcement schedule hidden either from you or the other player. He might hold cards delaying or denying you your reinforcements. Both players will start out with the Basic Deployment, but that can be reduced or augmented by a deployment card. The second goal of the deployment cards is to reveal how the off-map maneuvering of the various corps impacted on the battle, and to teach a bit of the history. Wargames have pretty much been tied down to the historical reinforcement schedule. In these four battles nobody really knew where the enemy was and in what strength. These cards can do more than just randomize the entry point and strength of the forces, because they can explain what each of those forces was doing before they arrived, why they arrived as they did, and that will give a good picture of how the battles fit into the overall big picture of operations... This is a hidden movement game, with Vedettes and leaders only appearing on map at the start of any scenario (flag-side up). Once opposing forces arrive within visual line of sight distance, all units are placed face up and the combat units join the leaders and vedettes on map, within a diamond-shaped area behind them. GAME START PROCEDURE: Each Player deals himself a number of cards from his deck. The deck includes FORCE cards, ARRIVAL Cards, STRENGTH cards, DEPLOYMENT cards, STATUS cards, and GAME cards. All Corps that historically appeared in the battle set-up on map unless the cards require them to appear as Reinforcements. Changes in force structure will be required by the cards. Each map has a deployment area (dotted line) printed for each side. Any Corps which is not singled-out for special treatment by the cards may be set-up freely within the deployment zone (which represents the terrain the corps could have occupied prior to the battle). CARDS 1. FORCE CARDS augment or deplete the given force OB. 2. DEPLOYMENT Cards determine the set-up. 3. STRENGTH Cards determine which units are Reduced strength. 4. ARRIVAL Cards determine the Order of Appearance of Reinforcements 5. STATUS Cards determine whether a Corps or Commander is. 6. GAME Cards impose other changes on the terms of the game itself. Every one of these cards will add or subtract several VPs to from the VP totals. Back to OSG News Feb 2005 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Operational Studies Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com