Snappy Nappy

The Russian Conflagration of 1812

Campaign Introduction

by Russ Lockwood

Napoleon, master of Europe except for Spain, made one last reconnaissance at the Niemen River. Later that night, the first of 600,000 troops of the Grande Armee would cross and start the Emperor's most audacious gamble. About half were French, but all would fight, even the reluctant contingents of Austrians and Prussians. He figured the campaign would only take 20 days or so. After meeting and defeating the Russian army at the border, the czar would certainly sue for negotiations and the Continental system would be back in effect. Then, perhaps, the Emperor could turn to crush that motly force of British and Spanish troops in Spain, and cure his Spanish ulcer once and for all.

Mike (Napoleon, at left) marches to siege Riga, defended by Michael (Wittgenstein, center), while Keith (Davout, right) marches from one table through to another.

Across the Niemen and far behind Russian lines at the camp at Drissa, Czar Alexander pondered the wisdom of his staff. That Napoleon would invade was a certainty. Indeed, he had made every preparation for just such an event, including concluding a treaty with Turkey to protect his strategic Southern flank, ordering up manpower, and stocking his depots with massive amounts of supplies. The disasters of 1805 and 1807 were behind, and Napoleon would find it quite the different story invading the Motherland. The real trouble was that half his staff advised his to fight on the frontier and the other half wanted to withdraw--some back to Drissa and others all the way to Smolensk--and let the vast space of Russia swallow up the invaders. But that would be his decision.

Snappy Nappy: 10th Anniversary

So began another Snappy Nappy wargame. This time, it would be the invasion of Russia 1812. Previously, we had run campaigns for 1809 invasion of Bavaria, 1809 invasion of Italy, 1813 Spring campaign, 1813 Fall campaign, 1806 Jena-Auerstadt campaign, 1815 Waterloo, and a couple one-off scenario style wargames. Although I started tinkering with rules in 1993, it wasn't until 1994 that the Snappy Nappy version 1.0 set made its debut, so this was the 10th anniversary!

Sure enough, several design features make SN a different wargame than most Napoleonic simulations.

First: Snappy Nappy (SN) is an operational set of Napoleonic rules designed for playing a campaign in a day, not tactical recreations of individual battles. It focuses on simplicity and broad period effects, not complex minutae. Two-stand infantry and cavalry units represent brigades (or down to regiments or up to divisions), while one-stand artillery units represent 16-24 guns (down to eight or up to 30-40). The system is flexible enough for scalability. Those used to playing battalion unit games sometimes have a hard time trying to think at a higher level of command. SN places the player as a corp level commander, so the system doesn't worry about skirmishers, etc.

All charts are on one side of one page. It's a morale based system (not figure removal) that uses rosters to track losses of Morale Status steps--another fog of war effect. Modifiers for the 4Ms (musket, melee, morale, and movement) are kept to a minimum.

It also doesn't take many painted figures to create a command.

Second: SN is usually played across multiple tables. You can play on one table, but multiple tables give a better fog of war feel. In this case, our 1812 invasion of Russia, SN was played across one 4x7' table, one 8x7' table, one 5x9' table, one 4x8' table, and two 2.5x5' tables. That's 186 square feet of table space representing the land from the Niemen River to just east of Smolensk (Vyazma), and from Riga to Kiev.

On the map provided to the commanders, I do NOT indicate table edges (which usually rest on a river or swamp or thick woods). It's always amusing to watch commanders try to be gamers and worry about which table abuts another. Better players ignore trying to mesh tables and use the map as a map (gasp!). Expert players think about how long it will take them to get from one town to another and where to set up defense lines or the best place to press an attack. Snappy Nappy wants player to think like commanders, not gamers.

As another rude surprise to pull players out of a gamer mentality and start them thinking like commanders, I spin table orientation from table to table. North may face the furnace on one table, while it may face the stairway on the next one over. Better yet, moving off one table does not mean moving onto the next one over. In fact, I set the tables up to put as much physical basement space between "adjacent" tables. Add in players standing around and the stairway, and fog of war increases yet again. You may know who's on your team, and you may know what table he's gotten to, but you can't see the table and you certainly wonder whether a guy who can't hold his liquor will ever hold the flank!

Third: The ground scale is PROPORTIONAL between the operational and the tactical. In other words, when I create table top terrain, the scale is roughly 1"=1 mile. That's how you fit all those campaign-level areas onto tabletops. The idea is to slug the usual 12" per turn road move to 1 days marching. When you scale down to regimental level, I use 1" = 1/2 mile (perhsp even 1/3 or 1/4 mile depending on the area). When you scale up to divisions, as for this 1812 game, I scaled the terrain to 1" = 2.5 miles. Even with this scale, I couldn't quite fit in all the area between the Niemen and Moscow!

However, the actual stand size, firing charts, etc is tactically scaled to 1" = 150 yards. Infantry fire 1", a 12-pounder cannon will shoot 12", and so on. As for time scale, the usual operational movement is roughly a 1 day march (12 miles), while the "tactical" scale is roughly 1/2 hour to 1 hour or so.

Thus, by overlaying the tactical atop the operational, you can fight an entire campaign in an afternoon...and in my basement. Traditionally, we do campaigns using a map and then come together to fight out a tactical battle. With Snappy Nappy, it's all one continuous wargame. You don't have to worry about people turning in "map moves," you don't have to worry about setting up terrain when battles occur, you don't have to spend time fiddling with putting forces into the "perfect" set up, and you don't have to worry about continuing casualties over to the next map turn or battle.

Fourth: The wargame is played in real time. SN, like any other rules set, has a sequence of play. I co-ordinate the sequence across ALL tables for the first three turns--I've found that's how long it takes new commanders to learn the system. After that, EACH table runs its own sequence. When a force departs one table and arrives at another table, it conforms to the new table's sequence. As umpire, I will kriegspiel it on occasion, but overall, it's the simplest solution and rarely generates problems.

Fifth: As for commander communications, if they are on the same table, I allow them to talk freely. If they are on different tables, all communications are written and go through the umpire. I time stamp them and deliver them with a 10 to 15-minute lag per table. This forces the C-in-C to consider what will happen in the future, not just react to the present, and new orders can come at the most inopportune time. Sometimes that's very well handled. Sometimes, well...the fog of war extends its grip upon commanders.

When you take all of the above, Snappy Nappy offers a fast and simple, but I'd like to think subtle, to game out a campaign in an afternoon. It rewards smart play and punishes dumb play. Those who co-ordinate their three arms will do far better than those who toss troops into the attack willy nilly. Those who plan where to conduct attacks and defenses will do better than those who do not. Reserves are a good idea. Pulling troops out of a meat grinder to refit them is a good idea. Taking risks with your well-trained troops is better than doing the same with militia. Communicating back and forth between commanders is a good idea.

Many of the commanders for this 1812 invasion had played before. They held an advantage over those who had not, at least initially until a couple hours went by and exploiting the nuances became tougher. The commands wee equally split between veteran players and novices. The key to the campaign would be the over plan of the C-in-C, and therein hangs a tale...but I get ahead of myself.

More Snappy Nappy: The Russian Conflagration of 1812

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