Technical Campaign Discussion (but not rules Q & As)

Starting a thread for techy campaign-related stuff.

I want to keep Ye King of Spaine Inn thread for in-character role-playing posts and news. I hope to clean out the techy stuff from there soon.

First posty then - late July turn is whizzing along nicely but several players have yet to respond with their orders or any letters (many have been forwarded on to people without a reply yet).

Waiting on:

Niall - Murcia
Baldwin - Cataluna

Mark - Dupont
Steve - Moncey
Berto/Davide - Duhesme
Sean - Reille
Ike - Bessieres
Stefan - Verdier
Josh - Joseph

In fact - the entire French team bar Martin!

Thanks to the Spanish players who've returned their orders so far. I am not sure still if we'll have any battles this turn until I know what the French are doing.

Typical French slacking.

Three sets of orders in tonight. Thanks folks.

I demand my name get a line through it at once!

You have been struck off out!

I am going to make a post about this on NORBSOFT!!!

Thanks!

I have this one ongoing

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/napoleonic-era/59415-peninsular-campaign-1808-1814-being-refought

Its in the Nap Mod forum so a post in the MP forum might also help.

LOL Digby I was poking some fun at Lil Mac but I have this thread marked now so I can get more info.

THX

I've submitted mine together with my excuses. I apologize if I was holding up the parade.

A question has come up about river crossings on the strategic map and are there any where none are shown.

The map is by necessity very simple and I am still operating with the idea that the ONLY useable river crossings are where roads are shown going across. There could be some secondary roads the French don't know of. How I am approaching this though is that where the master map shows a crossing, it indicates there are a number of crossings along that stretch of river, depending on which tactical map I use.

This is because I do not want MP battles where there is only one bridge. This applies to any river crossing game. If I do that the defenders just have to mass their guns around the one crossing with their entire army in support and play whack-a-mole on anyone who dares step across. For tactical interest and to make games more demanding there will always be at least 2 crossings, but I will always advise both sides where these are or at least strongly hint at other areas of the map that may be vulnerable, as I did at San Milan.

My late July orders - emailed as we speak sire

In response to your latest mail Digby, speaking for myself, I do enjoy your campaign immensely and I'll hand in my orders today. I'd be more active over the weekend but something has come up over the weekend. Great work and please do carry on! Maybe one day, we'll see a Digby ACW campaign too. I'm sure I'd enjoy that as much as this one.

Thanks for the kind words. Comments like yours make all the work worthwhile. I am seeing some amazing role-playing from everyone as well and want to thank everyone for getting into the spirit of things. There are some really cool and funny behind the scenes friction between some French commanders and some Spanish ones. I think when the British arrive there could be even more amusing friction there.

I'll have to publish some of the better e-mails I've received when we are done. I understand Burlington H. Grumble plans a biography of Marshal Murat!

My first campaign was an ACW one using a nodal point-to-point map. It was perhaps a bit too fictional for people's taste and the node layout while easy and appealing did have its limitations. It didn't last long, a half-dozen turns only before I realised it wasn't a smooth enough system.

I'm aware the community generally prefers ACW to Nap so I may do one in the future.

Right now, given how awesome Allessio's Marburian mod is I'm tempted to do a campaign using that. It really does feel like a different game entirely.

Lots to enjoy with this campaign. The Nappy mod is a nice change of pace from ACW; the subject itself is fascinating; and the personalities (both players and historical figures) are engaging. At the top of my list, however, is the continuity of events that makes this and other campaigns stand out. In single KS and GCM events, players can afford to be casual and even reckless in their decision-making. No one is forced to "live" the result beyond the few hours it takes to complete a scenario. This Campaign, which covers months of real time, compels each to think long and hard about choices. Both biff-ups and brilliant moves potentially follow players for a long time. More than any other single factor, this is the element that, IMO, gives it historical flare.

Anyway, it's a blast. Thanks for all the painstaking efforts and hard work in putting all this together. Those outside the event can't fully appreciate what they're missing!

I need to shift some personnel around. The Portuguese theatre will become active in August so two players are needed there with a third soon after. Stefan is going to take up Junot's role and either Neal or Baldwin (whoever claims it first) will be playing Wellesley. Whoever is left of Neal/Baldwin will take the third role soon after.

I have heard nothing from Maitland for several weeks. He was going to take over the Spanish Junta role but now that seat is open. There is a process already in motion to combine the many small Spanish armies into a smaller number of bigger ones with some armies converting to subordinate corps. This could allow players to continue in the corps commander roles if they want, but I will need one player to play the Junta(s).

The following Spanish army roles will become subordinate corps roles: Asturias, Castilla, Extremadura, Murcia, Granada, Cataluna. All players are welcome to continue in their current roles if you wish, but on the other hand if somneone wants the Junta role, it is open.

The role of French General Duhesme is coming to an end, I feel. His corps has been badly weakend in recent fights and attrition in the siege of Gerona and there is little for his troops to do now. Berto could take over the Verdier role. Berto? Please let me know. There is an ultimate fate awaiting Duhesme in any case and soon a player there will not be needed (he's going back to Paris).

We have 3 people who expressed an interest in the game who are not playing yet. I hope one of them will step up and volunteer to take over the Junta role which would suit a highly egotistical megalomanic to effectively move the pawns of Spanish armies around the map!

Any map command role will also suit a non Scourge of War gamer. There is no requirement to be involved in the online games at all, if that is not your thing.

Please respond here! Thank you.

Apart from Berto who is still on vacation, army lists and news updates have now been sent to everyone. The early August turn is running so please respond with your orders and any letters as soon as you can.

Many thanks.

A word about cavalry tactics.

Cavalry are taking enormous losses in the campaign battles. As an example the Army of Cataluna started the Battle of Ordal with 6 squadrons. Two battles later, after Barcelona, it has 2 left. Losses have been high elsewhere as well. Players have a tendency to hurl cavalry into melees at the first opportunity, even against fresh infantry and even against squares.

Even fighting fresh infantry in a line frontally will get you lots of empty saddles. You'll probably force the infantry back but if there's 400 of them and 110 of you they will recover and still be able to fight with their 300 remaining men while your 90 remaining cavalry will be almost useless because a unit that small will refuse to charge even if its morale is high and it's not fatigued.

There is an art to using cavalry correctly. Its a bit like a nuke. It can be very effective but when used, both sides get taken out. So its best use is as a threat. We have several experienced cavalry players now, Martin, Niall and Mitra are all good with mounted troops and I've seen Martin use cavalry in a way that secured victory for his side and resulted in negligible losses. Yes, the infantry on his side in that battle took a pasting, but there's 1000s more of them. They can take the losses that cavalry cannot.

Cavalry is best used to face off and neutralise enemy cavalry (this does not necessarily mean engaging them), and to chew up tired and weakened infantry. When infantry are weakened, even squares won't hold under a fresh cavalry charge but a cavalry commander, to be successful, must be patient. This isn't the way cavalry is being played in most of our games, hence the long butcher's bill.

Please take note. Battle C-in-Cs, when choosing players to command your cavalry make sure they are given to an experienced player and not to people without much experience with the Napoleon mod. The heavy losses have always been incurred where new players have command of them.

This has been a public service announcment by the "Out to Grass Peacefully" horses retirement home.

Some very significant events have taken place in August so far and marches with potentially major impact have been ordered but I can't report anything yet because several players have yet to issue orders. We also have more players too busy with work and/or family life to continue with map command roles, so there's a couple of key gaps in things at the moment.

I am in correspondence with some new people to fill empty slots in the French OOB (Junot and Moncey) and I could also use two new Spanish player-slots (Palafox - who since the lifting of the siege of Zaragosa has suddenly become very important again) and a Junta player. The Junta role effectively becomes Spanish C-in-C so any power-hungry control freaks out there - please drop me a line.

While I talk to people and try to get these posts filled, it would help me immensely to receive orders from:

Josh/King Joseph
Mike/Cuesta
Neal/Vives
Morsey/Belvedere
Kevin/Blake
Sven/Llamas
Baldwin/Wellesley

Thank you everyone.

Digby wrote:

"I am in correspondence with some new people to fill empty slots in the French OOB (Junot and Moncey) and I could also use two new Spanish player-slots (Palafox - who since the lifting of the siege of Zaragosa has suddenly become very important again) and a Junta player. The Junta role effectively becomes Spanish C-in-C so any power-hungry control freaks out there - please drop me a line."

If it would help, I can take on the Junta role....

J Murat Esq,
No 27 Calle de Raimundo Fernández, Madrid

Another call to arms has been posted on the GCM site.

BTW, a new GCM player from Spain registered perhaps a week ago. If/when he appears again in TeamSpeak, I'll be sure to direct him this way. It would be especially fitting to have him involved!

Thanks Ron, I'm always appreciative of your flag waving on the campaign's behalf.

I have been messaging the player from Spain, he is going to get a new headset and then I will get him set up.

Great. Can you please send him my contact details and ask him to e-mail me? Do you know his name?

Things are very slow this turn. I've had the British orders in and there has been a 'Battle of Rolica' which I didn't game because it consisted of Gen Delaborde with 6,000 men making Wellesley with 18,000 deploy and manouvre for 2 hours and then the Frenchman skilfully skedaddling away. The French have retired down the Torres Vadres road to a small town called Vimerio. The British are cautiously following up.

I could use some orders from the others listed a few posts above please! Or at least please begin writing letters to people to decide where your troops are going to go. Thanks.

Some good news. Two new players have joined us. David Commerford who is a seasoned Kriegspieler but has not AFAIK played SoW MP has taken up the demanding but fun role of the various Spanish Juntas. Expect the random draw-of-a-card orders I have been annoying some Spanish players with recently to be classed as the height of military good sense after David takes over and unleashes his fertile imagination on you all. Murat - there is hope yet!

David James (son of Marechal Murat) has taken up one of the vacant Spanish army roles. I have given him a choice of two that need filling so soon either Palafox at Zaragosa or Villava at Ucles will get a new player (Hays had to step down from his map role as Villava due to pressure of work).

Lastly, orders for this turn are slowly trickling in:

Josh/King Joseph
Mike/Cuesta (has advised will be actioned soon)
Neal/Vives
Morsey/Belvedere (done)
Kevin/Blake (being actioned)
Sven/Llamas (being actioned)
Baldwin/Wellesley (done)

Josh & Neal... please can you get your orders to me soon. Thank you.