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1809: French Campaign Log - 5/14/2004 8:43:31 PM

Didz

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1809 Charles Plan (Full Fog of War): French Campaign Strategy

The French know they are about to be attacked. The Austrian army is massing on the borders and intelligence are reporting anything up to 82,000 troops dispersed amongst the towns of Wimperk. Budweis and Zweittel in the forests north of the Danube and a further 56,000 deployed behind the River Inn at Braunau, Schaerding and Lambach.

Expected enemy strategy

Taking the limitations of the road system into account the most likely strategy for the Austrian Army will be to advance directly on Passau from the North in order to establish a concentration of troops West of the Inn before marching in force on Landau and Deggendorf to secure a crossing of the Isar. At the same time it is likely that at least one enemy Corps will attempt to seize the supplies stored at the French Depot in Munich.

Having secured a crossing of the Isar and seized our forward supply depots one would expect the Austrians to attempt to force a decisive victory over both Davout's III Corps and Lefebvre's VII Corps before our main army can move to reinforce either.

If successful this would match Davout and Lefebvre with 82,000 men against an Austrian force of approximately 110,000. Whilst in the South Lannes with 22,500 men would face approximately 28,000 troops.

Intended French Strategy.

It seems unlikely that we will be able to defend our forward depots along the Isar and so these will be withdrawn to deny the supplies to the enemy whilst our forces concentrate to the rear.

Davout and Lefebvre will withdraw to Ingolstadt, whilst Lannes at Augsberg will be reinforced by the main army of observation under Massena and Vandamme's Wurtemberg Corps from Ulm.

At the same time the centre of operations will be moved north to Donauworth in order to expliot the better road network and shorter communication distances. The depot at Ulm will be reduced and the supplies redirected to Inglostadt and Augsberg.

Both Ingolstadt and Augsberg have good road networks and the intention is to expliot these to frustrate Austrian movements.

If the Austrians attempt to force the Danube at Ingolstadt then Napoleon will advance on their left flank and communications from Augsberg. If they attempt to attack Augsberg then Davout will move against their right flank and communications from Ingolstadt. Finally if a decisive victory is acheived then the road network will allow both Napoleon and Massena to concentrate their forces quickly to expliot the advantage.

Thats the plan anyway. We shall see if it works in practice.

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< Message edited by Didz -- 5/16/2004 12:07:14 AM >

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1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 2:28:28 AM

Didz

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1809: Turn 1: 1 April 1809 The French march out of Ulm

Napoleon watched the troops of Massena IV Corps march out of Ulm over the Danube bridges and take the road from Augsberg followed by the Wurtemburgers of Vandammes Corps.

The depot at Ulm was busily being reduced and barges were already en-route for Donauworth and Ingolstadt.

Fresh reports suggested that the Austrians deployed along the River Inn had not moved and neither had 44,000 reserve troops deployed around Olmutz.

However, nothing had been heard from Davout or Lefebvre and so Napoleon decided to ride for Eckmuhl in the morning and confirm that his orders were being obeyed.

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< Message edited by Didz -- 5/15/2004 1:34:54 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 2:48:47 AM

Didz

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1809: Turn 2: 2 April 1809 Davout and Lefebvre on the move

Napoleon was unable to leave Ulm as planned this morning delayed by formalities following receipt of the Austrian Declaration of War. (In fact, I found that for some reason he cannot be moved but as yet I'm not sure why)

However, riders arrived in the morning to confirm that both Davout and Lefebvre were withdrawing to Ingolstadt as ordered.

Fresh intelligence reports claim that the Austrian forces at Branau have increased to from 10,500 men to 21,000 men and that fresh units totalling a further 5,500 men are marching through Linz. The Austrians on the Inn seem to be planning a more southerly advance perhaps directly on Munich.

Another report suggests that the Austrian force at Pilsen has been increased from 9,500 men to 18,000 but it is not clear if these are reinforcements or a revision of the original estimate. So far there seems to be no movement from the enemy troops North of the Danube.

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< Message edited by Didz -- 5/15/2004 1:35:13 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 2:51:44 AM

Hanal

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Nice going and you are making me antsy for Gamemapper..

...one thing I have learned while playing CotD is that I needed to leave my Blitzkrieg mentality behind....patience and planning win out and sometimes it isn't easy to correct your mistakes!

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 3:11:01 AM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Nice going and you are making me antsy for Gamemapper..

So, far Game Mapper seems to be working really well (mind you only 2 turns) it certainly helps to be able to record your intelligence reports and compare them from turn to turn. Plus it enables you to zoom out and get a total picture of troop deployment which can't be done very well in the game.

quote:

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon...one thing I have learned while playing CotD is that I needed to leave my Blitzkrieg mentality behind....patience and planning win out and sometimes it isn't easy to correct your mistakes!

Yes, this isn't really the sort of game where you can point at an enemy unit and say 'attack that one', and rushing units from place to place merely wears them out and stresses their commanders. I've found its best to concentrate on co-ordinating the sound deployment of your Corps, making sure they are properly supplied and then to leave the fighting to the Corps and Divisional commanders on the spot.

For instance at the start of this scenario both Davout and Lefebvre begin 'out of supply' and Ulm is far too far away to supply them effectively. So, they either needed to move to the depot at Landau or withdraw to Donauworth. Landau would have placed them right in the teeth of the Austrian advance with the real risk of becoming isolated from the supply source at Ulm. Therefore, it makes more sense to withdraw them towards the Donauworth depot whilst at the same time moving the centre of operations north to Donauworth to close the gap. Hopefully, both these corps will reach Ingolstadt before they run out of supply and be able to draw fresh supplies from the newly established Ingolstadt depot once they get there.

If so, then I may be in a position of having two fully supplied corps facing two or three Austrian Corps that are operating at the end of a long supply chain and already fatigued and short of supply. If thats the case then I shall leave Davout to reap the benefits.

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/15/2004 1:22:36 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 5:18:13 AM

Hanal

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One Question...are you able to attach Napoleon to a Corp?.....I found that in certain scenarios, including the one you are playing, the attach to Corp command is blacked out for Napoleon...I thought it might have been because initially they were at peace but even when the situation changed the command did not appear....I have the update so I wonder if I'm missing something here.....

< Message edited by J P Falcon -- 5/14/2004 10:24:31 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 8:13:03 AM

FrankHunter

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In the 1809 campaign the Napoleon HQ is "stuck" at Ulm. This was because Napoleon was still en route to the theatre and Berthier was in charge (and doing a less than stellar job). I forget the date but eventually the HQ is freed up.

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 10:48:57 AM

DoomedMantis

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I came very close to buying this last night, but was put off by some of the problems people are having with the maps and control. Is there anything in the pipeline to improve this?

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Napoleon En-Route at start of Campaign - 5/15/2004 12:21:48 PM

Didz

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I was actually reading about this last night. Berthier, Prince of Neufchatel was appointed Chief of General Staff to the Army of Germany on 17 March 1809 and he left for Strasburg on the 30th. The Emperor staying in Paris. He was ordered to stay in Strasburg and proceed no further East partly becuase Napoleon felt Berthiers arrival in Bavaria could suggest that he himself was about to arrive which would panic the Austrians into declaring war earlier than he wanted and mostly because Strasburg was as far as the aerial telegraph link to Paris extended.

It is clear from Petre that Napoleon was very much in command of the situation in Bavaria at this point even though he was in fact in Paris. Berther was finally released and ordered to Augsberg by Napoleon on the 10 April by a telegraph stating "I think the Emperor of Austria will attack shortly. Proceed to Augsberg, in order to act in conformity with my instructions, and, if the enemy has attacked before the 15th, you must concentrate the troops at Augsberg and Donauworth, and let everything be ready to march. Send my Guard and horses to Stuttgart." (Note 1) Unfortunately the telegraph was broken and this order didn't arrive until the 13th by which time Berthier was already on his way to Augsberg having left on the 11th so he didn't get it until the 16th.

This seems to have been the first of many communication difficulites that arose once Berthier was in Bavaria and out of daily touch with the Emperor but he did not leave Paris untl 4am 13th April, reaching Strasburg on the morning of the 15th and arriving at Danauworth at 5am on the 17th.

So, basically Berthier had 7 days in more or less sole command of the Army of Germany and managed to get it in a right mess which Napoleon had to sort out when he arrived.

Incidently, I could not help noticing that in Petre there is no mention of Lannes and his Corps seems to be commanded by Oudinot, at least in the early stage of the campaign.

Note 1 The Guards Movements

The Guard had been recalled from Spain to in February but on the 24 March the order was given to speed the march by having the infantry, by then strung out between Bayonne and Poitiers, carried 75 miles per day in a relay of carts. This process began with the 1st Fusileers of the Guard on the 4th April and they arrive in Paris on the 9th. The last units arriving by the 30 April. They were given a 24 hour break in Paris before secretly leaving for Stuttgart the leading units using wagons again to speed their movement the arrival of the first units were reported to Napoleon on the 17th. The first units of the Guard arrived at Augsberg on the 23rd April. The Old Guard arrived on the 27 April and on the 1 May Roguet's and Mouton's Division's were formed frm the Guard units present.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis
I came very close to buying this last night, but was put off by some of the problems people are having with the maps and control. Is there anything in the pipeline to improve this?

There are a few gliches to be ironed out. The 'Range Check Error' seems to be the worst for me at present. But most newly realeased games have a few teething problems. The good news is that so far everything I have spotted has been a programming problem rather than a design flaw and therefore easily corrected. The nearest thing to a design flaw I've spotted so far is the annoying tendency for the Austrians to run out of supplies before the end of the campaign and I'm not sure if this is intentional or a problem with the rate of flow from Vienna.

Compared to say Lords of the Realm III my previous purchase to this which is pretty much unplayable and already gathering dust on my shelf due to the flaws in its design I consider CotD to be a bargain.

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/15/2004 11:21:59 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 2:51:56 PM

Hanal

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Thanks Frank for the reply......DoomedMantis, as Didz pointed out the problems are relatively minor and do not hinder gameplay to the point of being unplayable....I think you can gather by Didz AAR that he's having a good game...

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 2:59:38 PM

DoomedMantis

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Do we have any ideas on what is coming out in the next patch?

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 3:32:49 PM

Didz

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1809: Turn 3: 3 April 1809 The plan comes together

Massena and Vandamme have almost reached Augsberg, whilst Lefebvre has reached Ingolstadt and Davout is close behind. All is going according to plan.

Intelligence reports arrived during the night report a large enemy column of 18,000 men approaching Cham and yet another increase in the estimated strength of the enemy at Pilsen from 18,000 to 21,000. If the 18,000 men near Cham are the same troops reported a Pilsen yesterday then this could be interpreted as a large movement of troops through Pilsen bound for Cham. If so, then the Austrians North of the Danube are clearly on the move and bound not for Deggendorf as originally predicted but Straubing or Regensberg further west.

A column of 8,500 men is reported near Lambach, possibly the reinforcement column spotted crossing the Danube at Linz yesterday.

Meanwhile, reports from Vienna confirm that a large force of 25,000 men marched through the city yesterday heading west, that the garrison of Prerau has been reduced from 10,000 to 6,000 and that columns of 28,500 and 11,500 men are approaching Zwettel and Znaim repsectively.

The fact that these troops seem to be marching west along the north bank of the Danube is of interest as if the enemies main thrust was aimed at Munich one would have expected their line of advance to be further south via St. Polten, Enns and Brannau. More importantly the Austrian movement on Cham is putting the French depots at Neumarkt and Nurnberg under threat and Napoleon was hoping to leave these in place for use by the Bernadottes XI Corps when it arrived at Nurnberg about 21 days.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/15/2004 2:06:59 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 4:07:35 PM

Hanal

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Your intelligence reports help serve the need for a campaign map......are you using Gamemapper, as you play the game to plot these reported positions?.....I found that I have been drawing crude maps in a sketch pad to show the whereabouts of possible enemy units as I have sometimes advanced too far, only to find Austrian Units behind me, cutting my suppy train lines....

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 4:18:39 PM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Your intelligence reports help serve the need for a campaign map......are you using Gamemapper, as you play the game to plot these reported positions?.....I found that I have been drawing crude maps in a sketch pad to show the whereabouts of possible enemy units as I have sometimes advanced too far, only to find Austrian Units behind me, cutting my suppy train lines....

Yes. I'm having quite good fun pondering the implications of these intelligence reports and it certainly helps to have a means of tracking the day to day changes.

However, to be fair to Frank, I have to admit that I would find it hard to see how the program could help with this task. There is a lot of subjective judgement involved in updating Game Mapper to reflect the latest intelligence.

For instance the 18,000 troops now reported approaching Cham, may or may not be the same 18,000 troops reported at Pilsen yesterday and the fact that no troops have been reported at Wimperk since turn 1 might mean they have marched to Pilsen or it might just mean that nothing has changed worth reporting and that they are still there.

To a large extent the key to the process of analysing the reports is making judgements on how and where to update the map. To have the program do this automatically would devalue the process.

Of course what would be nice is an integral planning map which allowed the player to plot their own reports and movements without leaving the game. Perhaps with the program only placing the confirmed contacts.

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/15/2004 2:21:33 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 6:42:06 PM

Didz

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1809: Turn 4: 4 April 1809 And then it started raining.

A messenger arrived in the morning informing Berthier that Davout and Lefebvre were at Ingolstadt but that there were no supplies available in the town. Furious he ordered the immediate dispatch of barges from Donauworth to Ingolstadt carrying 200 supply points.

It began raining during the day hampering the march of Massena's Corps which ended up 9km short of Augsberg at dusk.

More interesting though was the pattern that seemed to be emerging in the intelligence reports on Austrian forces north of the Danube. The pattern of reports seemed to suggest that the Austrians were passing a number of Corps possibly four west along the North bank of the Danube from Zwettel to Budweis, then Budweis to Wimperk, Wimperk to Pilsen and then heading for Cham. Thus the 22,500 originally reported at Wimperk could likely be the 21,500 now reported near Cham, whilst the 26,500 now reported at Busweis might probably be the 28,000 who were at Zwettel yesterday.

If so, then the French were tracking a long column of Austrian Corps moving steadly along the North bank of the Danube. However the fact that the head of this column now seemed to be marching on Cham rather than Amberg suggested that their objective was to make a crossing of the Danube at Regensburg or Straubing rather than seize the French depots at Neumarkt and Nurnberg.

Only time would tell if this assessment was correct.

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< Message edited by Didz -- 5/16/2004 12:12:24 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 1: 2 April 1809 - 5/15/2004 10:40:38 PM

Didz

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1809: Turn 5: 5 April 1809 Massena stuck in the mud.

Its still raining and Massena's Corps didn't manage to move at all today no doubt stuck in the mud on the Augsberg road. The good news is that Davout and Lefebvre are happily settled Ingolstadt with their new supplies.

The only other important news today was that the Austrian's have marched into Cham. This at least confirmed that the intelligence reports are accurate and that the enemy are that far west. The report states that Cham is currently garrisoned by 13,000 Austiran troops which is significantly less than the 21,500 reported to be en-route. This may mean that some have already marched on perhaps heading for Regensberg or it could mean the entire force of 21,000 has marched on and been replaced with a follow on smaller corps.

Other reports show little change, the only interesting one reporting a large Austrian Corps of 25,500 men marching through Iglau which is even farther North than Zwettel and seems to add weight to the theory that the Austrians are planning to attack along the North bank of the Danube.

Other reports received today:
Enemy forces reported near Braunau : 20500 Hardly any change
Enemy forces reported near Goding : 17500 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Pressburg : 13000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 16000 Increased from 10,500

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/16/2004 12:13:34 AM >

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1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/16/2004 12:43:31 AM

Didz

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1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 Surprise Arrivals.

The rain stopped and Massena finally managed to pull his boots out of the mud and complete his march to Augsberg.

Passau fell to the Austrians this turn making the French wonder if the Austrians were planning to attack across the Inn after all and not at Regensberg.

But the big surprise for the French was the discovery that Nansouty with 6,000 cavalry of the Guard had suddenly arrived in Ulm together with an entire Division of 7,000 Bavarian Infantry under General Rouyer, 1,000 veteran French infantry under General Gency and 1,500 light cavalry under General Bruyer.

Without further delay Gency and Bruyer were ordered to Donauworth where 3,000 conscripts awaited integration into units. The intention being to use the Veteran infantry of Gency's force to act as the Cadre of a new Division and train these recruits to bring it up to at least a weak fighting strength of 4,000 men.

Rouyer was ordered to march independantly to Ingolstadt and there to join the other Bavarian troops of the VII Corps under Lefebvre.

Nansouty was ordered to remain at Ulm to await the arrival of Napoleon or further units of the Guard.

*** Intelligence Report ***
The intelligence reports didn't shed much extra light on the situation most related to the movements of Austrian corps moving up from reserve. Only the slight increase in the number of troops at Zwettel suggested that any movement was happening close to border. The forward units of the Austrians North of the Danube must already be straining their supply lines.

Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 18500 Increased from 16000
Enemy forces reported near Brusau : 21000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Goding : 28500 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Nikolsburg : 14000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near St.Polten : 9000 Reserve formation
Enemy forces reported near Wagram : 18000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 18500 Increased from 16000

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/16/2004 12:17:48 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/16/2004 5:29:18 AM

DoomedMantis

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Im enjoyng your AAR.

Is the map above the entire map?

Also is there anything that tells you the conditions of the roads, defensive positions, layout of the country etc

cheers

DM

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/16/2004 11:16:44 AM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis

Is the map above the entire map?

Also is there anything that tells you the conditions of the roads, defensive positions, layout of the country etc

Glad you are enjoying it. What is always interesting with these things is being able to look back and read just how wrong you were at the start.

I was actually inspired to do this by Herr Colonel's thread and I'm a little bit dissapointed that he seems to have stopped posting updates because I was hoping to find out what happened next.

None of the maps posted above actually show the entire campaign area but the master map I am using does. I just post the area appropraite to the subject here.

As for the road conditions etc. Thats a good question, if there is anything that tells you about road conditions and defensive positions I haven't found it yet. In fact, as far as I know there is no way to order troops to build defences or fortify a town. If I find I am wrong later I'll let you know.

The nature of the terrain is shown as you run your cursor over the map and is described as either Clear, Broken, Wooded, Marsh or Rough. The nature of the terrain affects both movement and combat but there is no attempt to generate say a battlefield map, this is much more like a boardgame in format so the terrain affects are handled abstractly as combat and movement modifiers.

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/16/2004 9:19:13 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/17/2004 2:37:20 AM

Didz

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1809: Turn 7: 7 April 1809 Raining Again.

After 24 hours rest the Divisions of Rouyer, Grency and Bruyer leave Ulm in the pouring rain and head for Donauworth.

The current dispositions of the Army of Germany are as shown below.

*** Intelligence Report ***
Once again the vast majority of reports relate to the movement of enemy reinforcements from their rear area westwards.

The only notable difference is that these reports suggest that they are now following the south bank of the Danube rather than the more northerly route taken by the columns three days ago

Enemy forces reported near Brunn : 29000 Reserve Formation increased from 19,000
Enemy forces reported near Brusau : 16000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Prerau : 18000 Reserve Column increased from 10,000
Enemy forces reported near Pressburg : 17000 Reserve Column increased from 13,000
Enemy forces reported near Vienna : 24000 Possibly the column from Nicholsberg reported on the 5 April.
Enemy forces reported near Wolkersdorf : 26500 Possibly the column from Pressburg reported on the 5 April

More interestingly a large Austrian column is now reported at Enns perhaps moving in support of the Austrians along the Inn. Whilst the number of troops in Braunau has fallen perhaps indicating that they are on the move at last.

Enemy forces reported near Braunau : 16000 reduced from 21,000
Enemy forces reported near Enns : 23500 Probably a fresh column moving up to reinforce the troops on the Inn

The report of more troops at Wimperk suggests a continued movement along the North bank of the Danube although there are no reports of movement south of Cham.

Enemy forces reported near Wimperk : 21000

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/17/2004 7:23:36 PM >

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Didz
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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/17/2004 10:07:35 PM

Didz

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1809: Turn 8: 8 April 1809 Worrying developments.

A messenger arrived today reporting that there were Austrian troops in Schwandorf within 50 km's of our depot are Neumarkt but annoyingly no mentions of their strength of direction of march. This could just be a cavalry patrol screening the right flank of the Austrian advance on Regensburg or it could be the leading corps of their advance column heading for our depots at Neumarkt and Nurnberg.

Another messenger reports that the Austrians have seized the bridges over the Danube at Deggensdorf.

The urge to do something is becoming overwhelming made worse by the lack of clear intelligence. Davout is ordered to dispatch Montbrun's Cavalry to scout the road out Of Ingolstadt towards Regensburg. Whilst Massena is ordered to send Colberts Cavalry Divsion to do likewise along the road from Augsberg to Munich and Marulaz Cavalry along the Augsberg to Freising road. These orders are merely token gestures involving a limited movement of 9 km from the main bodies of their Corps. So the cavalry involved will remain in supply by we may gain a slightly advanced warning of an approaching enemy.

*** Intelligence Reports ***
The intelligence reports are typically uninformative again today. Once more concentrating mainly on the arrival of fresh Divisions way beyond Viena. The report of 16,500 troops at Passau suggests that the enemy on the Inn might be moving at last but nothing else of any major value is revealed.

Enemy forces reported near Brunn : 16500 Probably the corps reported at Brusau yesterday.
Enemy forces reported near Brusau : 10500 Yet another fresh reserve Corps.
Enemy forces reported near Linz : 19500 Possibly the reinforcement column reported at Enns yesterday.
Enemy forces reported near Passau : 16500 Possibly the columnfrom Shaerding advancing at last.
Enemy forces reported near Possnitz : 6500 Fresh reserve formation.
Enemy forces reported near Tabor : 9500 Another column using the northern route.
Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 14000

The key question is do I withdraw my depot at Neumarkt or leave it where it is and risk it getting captured?

Bernadottes XI Corps is due to arrive near Nurnberg in 16 days time and will be in serious trouble if there are no supplies awaiting it. Particularly if it is to face an Austrian force moving from the east. On the other hand if the supplies at Neumarkt or Nurnberg are seized by the Austrians it will give them a ready made base of operations north of the Danube and ease their supply lines considerably.

My current feeling is that the risk of the supplies at Neumarkt falling into enemy hands outweights the benefits of keeping them for use by Bernadotte. I shall therefore order the supplies at Neumarkt to be withdrawn to Donauworth and the size of the Nurnberg Depot reduced from 500 to 200 days rations.

At the same time a replenishment convoy with 200 supplies is ordered to Augsberg which is down to 37 supplies and another of 100 to Ingolstadt which is down to 96.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/17/2004 8:57:11 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/18/2004 4:40:35 AM

Hanal

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Didz...do you split up your Corps in order to recon more area?....I blundered in one game I played where I kept Corp integrity but soon found Austrians running about behind my front lines........

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/18/2004 9:36:25 AM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon
Didz...do you split up your Corps in order to recon more area?....I blundered in one game I played where I kept Corp integrity but soon found Austrians running about behind my front lines........

Difficult question. Personally no I don't simply because deliberately spreading a Corps or even an Army over more than one hex offers the enemy the chance to mass all his might against one detached element of yours.

Given that a hex on the map covers about 9 Km even having a division in an adjacent hex represents quite a dispersal of men on the ground.

Having said that I do use Engage 'March to the Guns' as almost a standard order and so frequently I find corps and divisions detaching themselves to engage nearby enemy units.

This game really isn't detailed enough at the tactical level to model the advance to combat and engagement aspects of Napoleonic warfare. But what I prefer to see when I engage an enemy stack are my own divisions closely grouped and well supplied (preferrably in the same hex) surrounded by numerous smaller enemy stacks preferably with red 'poorly supplied markers'.

What I imagine happening is that my fully consolidated and battle ready army has met the enemy which is not fully concentrated and allowed itself to become disorganised or caught strung out on the march possibly due to poor scouting.

What seems to arise are a series of battles normally involving superior numbers of my own troops against smaller poorly supplied groups of enemies, followed eventually by a confontation with the enemies main force which, hopefully by then, is already debilitated by the earlier engagements. Occassionally this does result in enemy units moving behind your main force and cutting supply lines but frequently these units themselves end up in trouble when their main body is defeated and they find themselves isolated in your rear.

In tactical terms this is about the nearest I think we can get to recreating the strategy of the central position in tactical terms. If one imagines for instance that the distance between Quatre Bras and Ligny was only 11 Km one realises that this would be the equivalent of the British and Prussian armies sitting in adjacent hexes on CotD.

The only thing I am experimenting with in the game is the use of cavalry screens. However, even these I am keeping to adjacent hex positions in order to maintain their supply, I think 9km radius is quite far enough for cavalry scouts to patrol. Be interesting to see if it works

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/18/2004 8:09:56 PM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/19/2004 1:57:45 AM

Didz

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1809: Turn 9: 9 April 1809 Amberg Falls.

It looks as though my decision yesterday to withdraw the Neustadt Depot was justified as I have just had a report the Austrians have seized Amberg.

The question now is will they continue to advance west and seize Nurnberg too?

My guess is that they most certainly will as they know I have a depot there and Nurnberg is also worth 2VP's. This being so I have little choice but to withdraw my depot completely from Nurnberg in order to deny the supplies to the enemy. This means that Bernadottes IX Corps will have no supplies on hand when it arrives in 15 days time unless I manage to drive off the Austrians and re-establish a depot at Nurnberg before that date.

Straubing also fell to Austria this turn giving the enemy another bridge over the Danube and yet there is still no tangible sign of movement from the Austrian troops along the Inn. If the Austrians do attack from the North alone, then I shall be able to expliot my central position to move the majority of the Corps at Augsberg North to support Davout at Ingolstadt thus concentrating my full force against one wing of the Austrian Army. However, for the time being I am prepared to bide my time as every day that the Austrian's fail to force a major engagement brings Napoleon and the Guard closer to Ulm and I would prefer to have both present when the decisive battle takes place.

Gency and Bruyer reached Donauworth today and I have assigned Bruyers 1.500 light cavalry to Davouts III Corps which is infantry heavy and Gency to Lannes II Corps. I was hoping that this would enable me to assign replacements to Gency and Bruyers Divisions from the 4,500 that have gathered at Donauworth but attempting it just now didn't seem to work. (perhaps need to raise this on the support forum)

Finally, it was noted that supplies at Donauworth are getting low and so another 1,000 were shipped by barge from Ulm.

*** Intelligence Report ***

Austrian Forces North of the Danube
near Amberg : 10500 - Looks like one Corps is marching on Neumarkt and Nurnberg probably marched from Schwandorf.
near Cham : 19500 - probably the corps reported at Pilsen 2 days ago.
near Klattau : 8500 - probaly part of the corps reported at Wimperk yesterday.
near Pilsen : 17500 - increased from the 8,500 reported yesterday.
near Wimperk : 17500 - probably part of the 21,000 men reported here yesterday.

Austrian Forces on the Inn
near Enns : 20500 - probably the same corps reported there yesterday.
near Passau : 8500 - reduced from the 16,000 reported yesterday.

Austrian Reserve Forces
near Brusau : 9000 - reduced from 10,500 yesterday
near Goding : 20000 - slight increase in the 18,000 reported yesterday.
near Olmutz : 27000 - increased from 8,500 reported yesterday
near Pressburg : 19500 - increased from the 13,000 reported two days ago.
near St.Polten : 6500 - New report possibly a small reinforcement column heading for the Inn.
near Wolkersdorf : 15500 - reduced from 26,500 yesterday
near Znaim : 17500 - probably the column reported near Nikolsburg yesterday.

The continued impression is that the Austrian Army North of the Danube is strung out between Amberg and Wimperk with one Corps heading for Nurnberg whilst the main thrust moves on Straubing but that this force is not consolidated and ready for battle.

Meanwhile, the enemy forces along the Inn seem static and so far do not pose a threat whilst fresh troops continue to flow into the reserve area's.

If the enemy continue to advance south in this peicemeal fashion I am hopefull that Davout will be able to severely maul their leading Corps before the others can move in support. Whilst if the they halt to concentrate their forces even more time will be gained for the Emperor to arrive on the field with the Guard.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/19/2004 12:56:00 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/19/2004 6:49:31 AM

DoomedMantis

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how long on average does each turn take you?

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/19/2004 11:03:11 AM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis

how long on average does each turn take you?

Not sure what you mean by the question. So I shall break it down.

a) It only takes a minute or two for the game to complete the turn.
b) It probably takes 10 minutes for me to note down what has happened and issue any new orders before saving ready for next turn.
c) Then it probably takes another 15 minutes to transfer intelligence info onto my Game Mapper map and makes notes on what changed and what it might mean.
d) Then another 10 minutes to produce the game posting.

So, in total about 40 minutes per turn at present. When things get more hectic the time taken to record it will obviously increase. But much of this time is being spent on tasks of my own making. I have for instance completed the 1805 campaign twice in one evening sitting as the game itself doesn't take long to play.

< Message edited by Didz -- 5/19/2004 9:00:42 AM >

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/19/2004 11:44:44 AM

DoomedMantis

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so you could basically finish the grand campaign in one night then?

yes it was how long it took you to make your turn I was after.

how much info does the on game map provide you? Intel info that is. Are you using the mapper you have in order to track things, or actually to record current turn info?

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/19/2004 8:18:17 PM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis

so you could basically finish the grand campaign in one night then?

Not sure what you mean by the Grand Campaign. I have completed the 1805 campaign twice and each was completed in one evening without even saving the game during play.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis
yes it was how long it took you to make your turn I was after.

The game only takes a couple of minutes to process a turn. How long one takes thinking and planning your response before the next turn is really a matter of personal preference. The Ulm campaign runs from 3rd October to 24th October so thats 21 turns and I reckon I was doing an average of about 5 turns per hour. So, I started at about 7:30 pm and crawled into bed victorious at about midnight.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis
how much info does the on game map provide you? Intel info that is.

This very much depends on the 'Fog of War' setting chosen. The two Ulm campaigns were fought with minimal FOW so I could see more or less everything. My units, the enemy units, supply convoys everything was visible on the game map.

The campaign described on this thread is being played at Full Fog of War which means I don't get to see much on the game map at all. I know where my own units were last reported to be, but I can't see supply convoys and I can't see any enemy units until they come within scouting range (3 Hexes or less (27 km's)) of my own cavalry.

The game provides intelligence reports which are essentially the lists of troop numbers I copy and paste into my Emails on this thread. But these are not marked in any way on the game map. Hence, my use of Game Mapper to keep track of the reported locations of enemy troops, but you could just copy them into a Word or Notepad or scribble them onto a printed map. I am anly using game mapper because I already owned it and becuase it produces a nice ouput for publishing in my posts.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis
Are you using the mapper you have in order to track things, or actually to record current turn info?

I am using Game Mapper for two distinct but related things.

Monitoring Intelligence Reports

The game provides the player with an intelligence report every day containing a list of enemies force strengths at various locations. But it only includes reports received in the last 24 hours and it does NOT relate this new information back to earlier reports. So, it may tell you that there are now 15,000 enemy troops at Eckmuhl but it won't tell you that they are the same Corps that it reported yesterday as 21,000 enemy at Straubing.

In other words it doesn't track the enemy movements for you. Nor, I hasten to add should it, although a bit of extra info like 15,000 enemy troops at Eckmuhl marching south on the Ingolstadt road would be nice. The art of good generalship and the skill which set people like Napoleon apart from the crowd was their ability to interpret this information and understand what it actually meant and what the enemy intentions were from it.

So, what I do is record these reports on Game Mapper and use Game Mapper to help me interpret them, much as I imagine Napoleon would have done with his map table and coloured pins. So, when I receive a new daily report I look at yesterday's map and if the new report says there are 15,000 enemy at Eckmuhl I mark these on it and then consider where they might have come from. Perhaps yesterday there was a report of 21,000 men at Straubing and today there is no report of enemy at Straubing at all and so I might decide that the corps which was at Straubing must be the same one that is now at Eckmuhl and so I remove the force marker at Straubing and place a small arrow indicating a movement from Straubing to Eckmuhl. I do this for all the enemy forces reported and save a copy of the updated map for reference again tomorrow. Thus over time I hope I can detect tends in enemy movements and from that determine their objectives and plans.

Obtaining a Strategic Overview

Having monitored my intelligence of enemy movements, I then add the known/intended deployment of my own forces and depots on the same map and then by zooming out I can gain a proper overview of the entire theatre of operations and the relationship between my troops and the enemy. This just isn't possible on the game map itself because a) you can't zoom out and b) it doesn't have all the intelligence reports plotted on it.

But I find it invaluable and it gives me the added advantage of being able to sketch out theoretical lines of advance/withdrawl and doodle all over it and then reload the saved version and try something else which a printed map can't.

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/20/2004 3:47:08 AM

DoomedMantis

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by the way I bought the game, now I just have to find time to play it

One thing I did notice is that the map scroll doesnt work very well. It works jerkily going down and right, but doesnt move left or up. Did you find this?

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RE: 1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 - 5/20/2004 10:35:43 AM

Didz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis
One thing I did notice is that the map scroll doesnt work very well. It works jerkily going down and right, but doesnt move left or up. Did you find this?

In a word No. I have had no problem with map scroll at all.

Must admit I don't use it much preferring to click on the mini-map to refocus the main screen on the area od interest but I have just double checked and my game map scrolls quite quickly in in all directions.

Have you updated your game to the latest version?

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