OSG Report / September 2009

[kzucker]

In this issue ...
THE OSG REPORT
September 2009

Contents: p. 1) Warehouse Sale: Take an Additional 5%-off
p. 2) Game Questions: Sieges
p. 3) News from Russ Lockwood: "Snappy Nappy"
p. 4) Replay of Napoleon at the Crossroads (Consimworld)

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Operational Studies Group News September, 2009 Page One

ALL REMAINING GAMES IN STOCK ARE 20% OFF

Sun of Austerlitz, Seven Days of 1809, Four Lost Battles, Napoleon at the Crossroads, The Habit of Victory and 1806.

Order Now! http://www.napoleongames.com/store.html

RECEIVE AN EXTRA 5%-OFF
Did you receive our recent postcard? Please type your zip code (or Country if overseas) and the approximate date in the NOTES section of your order and we will send a refund of 5% off of retail. Or shoot us an an email if you are not ordering. IMPORTANT: Let us know if you did NOT receive the postcard. (We think a lot were never delivered.)
Many Thanks!

COMPLETE YOUR COLLECTION
While Supplies Last...

SALE ENDS SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

OSG'S SPECIAL STUDIES If you missed the Special Studies you can sign up for a possible reprint ... see http://www.Napoleongames.com/pre-ord.html

NEW: Special Study Nr. 5 on the Battles of Jena and Auerstaedt. Several chapters are already finished; I would just have to write 52 pages and then work with an artist to complete the maps. That would take about six months. This book would be 128 pages, similar in physical terms to the other 4 books. We'll make an announcement if we post this on the OSG pre-ord page.

NAPOLEONIC TOUR Travel with us next May to Northern Italy... see http://www.Napoleongames.com

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Operational Studies Group News September, 2009 Page Two

GAME QUESTIONS

I have a question for you if you would be so kind as to provide me with an answer or point me in the right direction.

A friend and I were gaming the Seven Years' War earlier this evening (Prussia's Defiant Stand) and he was somewhat frustrated by the numerous fortresses and sieges that were typical of this period.

What had changed in the forty / fifty years between the wars of Frederick the Great and Napoleon that enabled the latter to dispense with the need to conduct sieges? I understand that armies, specifically the French army, had changed from an organizational perspective but the technology of the two periods remained essentially the same.

I also understand that logistical planning and practiced had evolved to some degree making armies less reliant and tied to fortress depots. Were these elements the sole reasons for such a radical change in the style of warfare?

Any insights you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Paul Kallio

A) That is a very good question. It gets to the essence - a deep question actually.

We tend to get caught up in the panoply, and forget there is always one compelling reason for war that has nothing to do with strategy or arms or anything military. Generally one nation has something another wants. As economies evolved, raw materials became most important, but before that land was it.

The great weakness of most non-coastal fortresses is their ability to be cut off from the countryside. Napoleon didn't like sieges, although he participated successfully in one at Toulon early in his career (1793). I doubt if he realized at first whether the Vauban fort was obsolete. I think he simply recognized the wastefulness of protracted sieges and thought that armies should be turned loose. However he always had a Corps of allied troops to go and reduce the fortresses holding out in the rear. So sieges were still pursued, just not the main focus.

In the campaign of 1807 a full scale siege of Danzig was underway from March to May. Unlike most campaigns, Napoleon needed a place, the city of Danzig, for its port facilities, so he could march to Tilsit. That's the point to point essence of what the geography says.

The paradigm shift to bypass fortresses has been compared to the obsolesence of battleships in 1941. Everybody's attention was fixed on the bbs, without realizing that air power would become the dominant arm.

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Operational Studies Group News September, 2009 Page Three

NEWS FROM: RUSS LOCKWOOD
Snappy Nappy: Simple, Subtle, and Ultrafast Miniatures Rules for the Napoleonic Era

Russ has been developing and testing these rules for several years. Russ sent me a copy and the product is as advertised, with a nice 4-page pull out chart folder and plenty of illustrations. -Kevin Zucker

Snappy Nappy represents a bold new way to wargame Napoleonic battles and campaigns with miniatures. Snappy Nappy moves quickly, allowing a real-time ebb and flow to the battle.
One customer noted: "The rules are well written and in an easy to understand format, I didn't need a lot of flipping back and forth to understand them. Simple as advertised, but I think the subtle may be there as well...What intrigues me most is the scope of the games, these are not grand tactical, I would describe them as operational."
And if you ever wanted to share your enthusiasm for the Napoleonic era, Snappy Nappy is it. Simple to start, quick to learn, with an emphasis on maneuver -- battles unfold with noticeable speed. Snappy Nappy teaches the differences among the three arms while offering command perspectives on flanks, mass,and reserves.
Napoleon said: "Read and meditate on the campaigns of the Great Captains...This is the only way to learn the art of war." Use Snappy Nappy to see the art of war unfold.

-For 2 players...up to 22 (command corps, not battalions)
-Simple yet subtle rules for multi-corps action
-Basic unit is infantry brigade (4000 men), cavalry brigade (1500 men), and artillery (24 guns)
-Troop quality & command control
-Quick Reference Charts on one page
-Includes campaign rules across multiple tables and real-time action
-Point system for tournaments, campaigns, and balanced scenarios
-Includes scenario for Austerlitz
-Ultrafast games: Play 1-on-1 to a conclusion in an hour and a half; 22-player games in 6 hours.
-Fully illustrated, table of contents, index
- Retail price: $29 (US)

Cover illustration: http://onmilitarymatters.com/images/190320.jpg

Snappy Nappy is Available from:
On Military Matters http://www.onmilitarymatters.com in US and world
Caliver Books http://www.caliverbooks.com in Europe

(page four continued in next post)

[kzucker]

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Operational Studies Group News September, 2009 Page Four

NAPOLEON AT THE CROSSROADS REPLAY
by David R. Moody
Crossposted from Consimworld...

So Saturday I went down to the Peninsula to play a game of Napoleon at the Crossroads with Darin. The game uses a modified version of Kevin Zucker's Campaigns of Napoleon series, dating back to Napoleon at Bay from the 1970s I think, to cover Napoleon's 1813 campaign in central Europe. Originally, the old Avalon Hill game Struggle of Nations covered this ground, on a map with teeny tiny hexes and rectangular counters at divisional scale; I played that game to death back in the old days (and still have it out in the garage).

This one doubles the scale, reducing the theatre of operations to one map with normal sized hexes, and covers only the second half of the campaign, after the summer armistice; SoN covered the spring campaign as well, with a variable armistice for the campaign game. The unit scale also changed, with corps as the basic unit (and leaders for most of them, at least on the French side). Each corps has a substitute division that can be detached (or in the case of the French allied troops, is also deployed).

We decided on the second scenario, covering the meat of the early campaign (historically, the battles of Grossbeeren, Dresden, the Katzbach, and Kulm). I was the French, of course. Took us a while to navigate through the march tables and set ups (I went over mine three or four times before I got it right), which are more than a bit confusing.

[Editor sez: It takes no more than 30 minutes to set up the game, as follows:
1. Place ALL the units on the unit manifests, and ALL Leaders on the leader manifests.
2. Remove playing pieces one at a time to the map or the Organization Display as specified underneath the unit. That way you cannot make a mistake or leave anybody out.]

The fall 1813 campaign put the Emperor in a difficult position, in central Germany, based on Dresden, with three Allied armies coming at him from three directions: the Army of Silesia, under Blucher, from Silesia; the Army of Bohemia, under Schwarzenburg, from Bohemia; and the Army of the North, under Bernadotte... Napoleon tried and failed to land a decisive blow on these converging armies, who as part of a prearranged plan withdrew before forces commanded by the Emperor in person, preferring to fight his marshals, who they could (and did) beat. The plan worked rather well historically.

Victory in the short scenarios goes to the side with the most VP. VP are awarded for ratio of losses, and also for moving the Paris Morale track spaces in your sides' favor by winning big battles, taking Berlin, Dresden or Leipzig, etc. So I had to take Berlin and/or win a big victory. I decided to send Boney with the main army after Blucher, while Oudinot with his corps (XII) and the corps of Bertrand (IV) and Reynier (VII) plus some cavalry moved on Berlin. Murat was sent to gather up I Corps (Vandamme) and II Corps (Victor) plus some cavalry to try and outflank the slow moving Army of Bohemia via Konigstein while XIV Corps held Dresden. VI Corps was also in the area, to be sent to whoever needed it most, while Poniatowski's small VIII Corps and some Guard cavalry under Lefebvre (not the Marshal Duke of Danzig, I don't think, but different other chap) covered the Emperor's communications back to Dresden. I figured the Army of Bohemia, officered by AUSTRIANS, after all, would take its own sweet time debouching out of the Bohemian Mountains; plenty of time for the Emperor to concentrate on Blucher and organize a left hook against Schwarzenburg.

Action early on--in a thunderstorm, Oudinot (with Reynier and the cavalry) clashed with the Prussians at Grossbeeren. Bernadotte was there too, and now the French found themselves fighting an appreciably larger force. Still, the lads made a good go of it, driving the minions of the inbred mouthbreathing autocrats back in two successive rounds (Darin picked Pitched Battle each time). Finally though, the weight of numbers began to tell, and the French fell back, beaten. The Allies pursued, and there was a sharp little rearguard action at a bridge whose name escapes me, but Oudinot managed to get back to Juterbog, there to link up with Bertrand, who fell back to rejoin the main army.

A lull ensued to the north, as Darin's supply lines weren't good enough to mount an effective pursuit and my army there was spent. Time to send Marmont up to reinforce the northern army; in the meantime, try conclusions with Blucher. Some skirmishing--Ney's wing drove in some cavalry, then was counterattacked by Langeron and repulsed him in a sharp action. Finally, on a dusty, windy day, Napoleon, joined by the Guard, attacked Blucher's main force at Goldberg, behind the Katzbach.

It was a terrific fight, back and forth, much artillery firing. And my dice failed me--two straight sixes on attack rolls at one point--while Darin's son Benjamin rolled well for artillery, moving his guns with the likeness of a pistol. TWICE Allied artillery fire left me one SP short of a 2-1 advantage! In the end, the French were beaten back, losing 10 SPs. Not good news to slap up on the walls of Paris . . . . Blucher and Langeron pursued and tried to cut off Ney's wing, but the arrival of the Emperor nudged them back from whence they'd came. Blucher then pulled the army back further.

So stalemate here too; the French had possession of the Goldberg battlefield, but not their decisive victory. And the Army of Bohemia was oozing ever so slowly toward Dresden. Time to leave Ney with most of the eastern army around Lowenberg while Napoleon hurried back to try and beat Schwarzenburg. Murat was pressing the march, but I made an error: realizing the importance of the Meissen crossing over the Elbe too late (and I have only myself to blame--all those Dresden 20 playtests ought to have helped) I sent a small cavalry corps to cover it and blew the Initiative roll (of course). The upshot of it was that Schwarzenberg and a good part of the Army of Bohemia got across the Elbe unmolested before I could block the crossing!

By then it was nearly 5pm, and we'd gotten through about half the game. I had planned to send Murat's wing, with XIV corps attached, to hit Schwarzenburg while Marmont and Napoleon swung south of the Elbe to try and cut him off; no reinforcing the northern army now. I would like to have played it out--might have gotten another big battle that could have swung the game back toward me--though I don't think Darin would have risked such a thing, preferring to pull back and preserve his lead. That, and Schwarzenburg had a lot of troops, or so Darin told me, and I was sorely lacking in cavalry. So it might not have been any different.

Still, great fun, and a reminder why I like this system, though all in all I prefer SoN over NatC.