Napoleon HITS Game Mar. 7-8

Maybe the third time is the charm.  We have not been able to play this scenario yet due to few players signing up.  Let's try this one more time.  We will also need 2 volunteers for CinC.



With the Allied conclave at the bucolic town of Emmerhagen postponed due to the nearness of French forces, the Russian 1st Western Army has withdrawn to the east.

Grand Duke Constantin's 5th korpus has been deployed as the rear guard.  He has fallen back over the ridge separating Azambuja from Santerem in order to more closely guard the army's line of communication along the Caminho Castel Branco.

The Emperor Napoleon, satisfied with the results of the battle around Emmerhagen has ordered the pursuit of the Russian forces.  Since his stepson Eugene's corps has been severely mauled in the recent battle, Maréchal Ney and his III corps have been tasked with following the enemy east and bring him to heel.

Tsar Alexander has become increasingly impatient with Feldmarschal Schwarzenberg's lackluster maneuvering of the Allied forces.  Russians do not retreat.  He has therefore just issued orders to his brother to stop, turn around and bloody the French nose.

This 3 hour battle will be fought on one of the Antietam maps, (Crampton Gap), so everyone will need that expansion pack.  The map has been modified to remove much of the forests and remove the speed and fatigue penalties due to the many wooden fences.  Their defensive bonus has also been eliminated.  The usual 3 mods, Road to Wagram, KS SOW Supplemental Maps and KS Napoleon mods will be needed.

The standing rule that no player can scout more than 200-250 yd. in front of their troops will be in effect.

In addition, crossing the central ridge can only be done via the roads.  There are 2 on the map, circled in red.  Note that the road from Golega to the top of the ridge does not continue down the other side, so it may not be used to cross the ridge.  Since the corps are fairly small, this rule is to prevent each army from finding some undefended place and making a dash across the ridge.

We will need a minimum of 10 players, (12 would be better).  Of course more players can be accommodated with brigade commands.  The CinCs will likely be busy, so it may be a good idea if they do not burden themselves with troops to command.

A doodle sign-up for the game can be found here: Doodle Sign-Up

I believe we already had two victims CinC's tagged for duty in this one?

That's good news!

I'll be a reserve CinC if no-one else volunteers (either side).   Would rather not though as, I will be tied up most of weekend on aged family member health issues.   Oh, and I can only play Saturday.............he says helpfully    .

Martin (J)

please be sure not to insult Feldmarschall Schwarzenberg too much - he had two oh so very wise rulers in his back all the time - both being seasoned military leaders, having fought oh so many campaigns

as for the fight - looks very interesting for my first battle - count me in!

If the start date & time for this one can be determined soon, we'll post it to the GCM site. If past experience is a guide, we'll likely get several players to join from that side, even if they don't sign up on Doodle.

I see Chromey has signed up which is great - is he ready to go? Could we test people before the day to save on delays?

We have been testing new players on the GCM side ahead of time whenever possible. (Roland, happily, tested fine in the very first try). If I can catch Chromey today in GCM I'll try to get him going too.

Based on numbers, I'd say we should run this scenario on Sunday at 19:30 GMT. Since Matt hasn't signed up, we'll need a French CinC. Nominations from the floor are now open...

I'll put together an ad hoc scenario for tomorrow. We can start that one at the usual 20:00 GMT.

Daylight Saving Time kicks in late Saturday/early Sunday this weekend for most of us in the U.S.

Saturday's start time would, of course, be unaffected, but on Sunday the game would be adjusted to begin in the Mountain Time Zone (for instance) from GMT-7 to GMT-6 (or, from 12:30pm to 1:30pm).

Please post for Saturday what map is needed, I do not have Antietam yet, hope to get it this month.

Thanks

Saturday's game will be on one of the Random Maps 6. You will not need to purchase anything.

Thanks!! Count me in then!

I should be able to attend both games - looking forward to it!

Tomorrow will feature the Austrians on the attack in honor of our newest member.

what a great honour indeed! - slightly overwhelmed here...

We need a Russian commander for Sunday as well remember.

EDIT: The Doodle is now showing more players for Saturday, including Martin J who has offered to command the Russians.

Should we revert to Plan A?

Since Morsey doesn't have the Antietam expansion, we really would only have 9 tomorrow for the scenario.

Avery Jones will be there tomorrow too. And Rogers said he might play as well.

this is gonna be great - I know it...

can't wait to hear my guys scream "VIVAT, VIVAT" and then the long line of "Kaiserlichs" advances straight towards the enemy...

me on my horse in front of my Brigade, getting shot first of course!

If Kevin's got anything to do with the scenario, you may well be more than "slightly overwhelmed"

There was an infamous scenario a few weeks ago where I played a detached French division. I had orders to go to X but chose to go there via a circuitous route using a side-road that concealed my march. I bumped into an Austrian division by way of the sheer bad luck of my C-in-C sending me a courier at just the wrong moment who was seen by an enemy general and followed as he galloped through the forests. My division had been found and I quickly formed my men on top of a significant hill because the enemy seemed aggressive.

He turned out to be very aggressive! I spent the next hour on that hill beating back attack after attack after attack. At the end of the fight I was down to less than half strength but the enemy division had destroyed itself in its desperate assaults on my hill. I felt very pleased with myself and was sure I had contributed to a French victory.

What I did not know was that behind this enemy division was a vulnerable column of their supply wagons that the Austrian victory conditions required to go from A to B right along a road next to the one I'd been using. By attacking me aggressively and occupying me for an hour just far enough away from that road it was not me who had won, but the enemy. That Austrian division facing me was destroyed but the enemy won the battle.

That courier being seen probably lost us the battle Such is how bad luck entwines around the feet of generals to cause them to stumble.

KS HITS games are full of incidents like this, where you think you are winning, or have even won when the complete opposite is true. You cannot get this level of immersion in SoW anywhere else.

EDIT: - just looking again I still count 11 vs 9 for Sat vs Sun, and that includes Martin J who we know is a guaranteed C-in-C (and we know how rare they are). In the past we've found that a good turn out on Sat usually gives us a much lower turn out on Sun as some players prefer to do GCM as well at some point over a weekend. I'm concerned your scenario will get passed over again Kevin

thanks for that fascinating account of this particular battle, Martin... very interesting...I do have say however that your CinC failed to specify his orders, if that particular mission objective was known beforehand  thus it's his fault
as for Grog's message: let's see - I have played a bit in the saddle and I am very much used to this perspective in my real job (as you hardly ever get a heli when you are an infantry officer ) - nevertheless I am completely new to the mod AND even more so - I am sure (just like in GCM) I will treat the game too much in a "military" way and not "play the game"
this will have to change if I am to take positions with greater responsibilities in the  rather far future!

why am I saying that?: just last night I was part of a battle that went against all rules and principals of military warfare: our center was crushed - our right engaged and me and "knight" were stuck on our left fighting for our lives, but holding on to good ground...
we started screaming at our adjacent division, which just informed us "I need to fall back because I am pressed hard" - I got rather annoyed as I would never leave my fellow soldiers alone, even if that meant the death of my command. (again not thinking "points for casualties" but "overall situation on the field", which counts for very little I am starting to get the feeling...)
Anyway - I was busy trying to keep the flank of "knight" as safe as possible - against a certain Mr Rogers a challenging task, but I was very lucky with one melee where one of my regiments completely routed two of his - in the end I had to abandon that undertaking anyway, because  knight's center started to crumble - my redeployed brigade supported his gallantly fighting regiments for a short while, but once we realized that we were completely surrounded we both decided to give up the good ground and get out while we could (we got even more annoyed because we - or at least I - felt rather abandoned by my teammates there)....
regiment after regiment of mine routed until I was left with only one and two guns in the end... from a military point of view we had completely lost the fight - the enemy had crushed us, surrounded us AND outmaneuvered us (not knowing how much of their regiments they had lost doing just that) - but the game runs with "points" and thus we still won the fight, because we were ahead in casualties and points coming from objective (including another flank march by a member of my team, who completely abandoned his teammates but captured some objectives in the rear which helped win the game for us - a conduct which I would order to court martial, as I believe this is the worst of behaviours - but in this game it made us win in the end )

so there you have the big difference between game and reality as perceived by a new player to the game who is not new to military tactics however...




it would appear that these HITS game are definetely more exciting that the average military exercise I get to take part in which usually looks like this (if I am lucky enough to actually get to go on the field and not drown in paperwork back in the barracks  - the army loves its paperwork!)

you have x company and your objective is x village/hill/bridge or you are tasked to defend this and that building - in turn the enemy strength is x .... your special ROEs are as follows: do this and that and contact your batallion CO for further orders...
or you get to do the usual "patrols" and counterinsurgency stuff - or even anti-terror missions - which are even more "boring" when it comes to a "training" approach - in reality they are rather different - but you cannot create such situations in training properly unfortunately...

very thrilling, believe me.... unless of course the press shows up and the attached APCs have forgotten to refuel and are thus unable to "perform" for the cameras
if only you knew how funny things can be sometimes -rather awkward actually

I do have say however that your CinC failed to specify his orders, if that particular mission objective was known beforehand  thus it's his fault

No, none of our team knew about the wagon convoy. What we were told was that the Austrians had a significant supply depot at a certain town. I was on my way to attack that town and destroy the supply depot (these were the French objectives). What that sadistic scenario designer Kevin didn't tell us was that a convoy of wagons had started in a far flung corner of the map, was moving to the town where the supply depot was, had to be loaded then sent away in the exact direction I was coming from. The French C-in-C and generals had incomplete information on what their exact task was. If they had moved briskly from the get-go to attack the town they probably would have hit it before the wagons arrived or been close enough to it to see the wagons leaving and make the correct assumption about them - but they didn't. The French main body got sucked into a force of Austrians covering the town and lost sight of their main objective. When they pushed the Austrians back and finally moved on the town it was too late and the wagons were by then going the other way.

There are infinite "attack/defend the convoy" wargame scenarios and they've been played for decades. I've played in probably dozens and this was one of the best. It was immense fun even though I was on the losing side. I know its a terrible cliche but that is key to enjoying KS HITS games - its not the winning, its the taking part. I fear some people prefer winning over anything else and sometimes that can lead you to miss the real flavour of this form of wargaming.

There are infinite "attack/defend the convoy" wargame scenarios and they've been played for decades. I've played in probably dozens and this was one of the best. It was immense fun even though I was on the losing side. I know its a terrible cliche but that is key to enjoying KS HITS games - its not the winning, its the taking part. I fear some people prefer winning over anything else and sometimes that can lead you to miss the real flavour of this form of wargaming.

just from the top of my hat I can't think of sooo many historical scenarios where a battle was fought over a convoy (on land that is) but I can see the reason for using this in a game...
as for your cliche attitude - you are not alone there: I can only agree and hope to find many players with your attitude here in the community!

If we have 11 today, then we will fight the scenario. Martin will be the French CinC and Pepe has the honor of being the Russian.

We'll play the Austrian scenario tomorrow.