OSG Report / May

[kzucker]

OSG REPORT FOR MAY 2004

BOGUS EMAIL
Real OSG communications will not include attachments. Never open an attachment 'your document.pif' or anysuch. Beware of sender aliasing. Never open attachments unless you are expecting them.

EMAIL DOWN AT CHARM.NET
On Sunday 5/09/04 and Monday 5/10/04 our email server was down and mail was being returned to sender. If you sent mail during those days, please resend it. Sorry for the inconvenience...

SEVEN DAYS OF 1809 PROGRESS REPORT
You can download the latest version of the map by Mark Simonitch at http://users.adelphia.net/~moellerc/sideitems/040212_map72dpi.jpg
The map is not totally corrected.

We have to thank our Sun of Austerlitz artists for taking on this new challenge, and Chris Moeller for his major head-start on the map and counters and also being kind enough to post the pdfs at his website. A pdf of the front and back boxcover by Mark Hinkle is available on the web at http://users.adelphia.net/~moellerc/sideitems/1809_top.jpg http://users.adelphia.net/~moellerc/sideitems/1809_Back.jpg

All game development is finished except for final playtesting of the Victory levels for the scenarios. That is usually the last step. We will continue playtesting right up until the rules are printed in June. Other than the scenario information, the rules are now all finished, and so are the March Tables. Mark S. is also at work completing the counter art (first draft also by Moeller). The box cover and the counters (the two items with the longest lead-time) are all scheduled to be printed within 30 days. We are doing our part ...

CONFIRM YOUR PRE-ORDER
If you have a pre-order for Seven Days, it is time for you to do your part! Confirm your pre-order now with a paypal payment, credit card or check for during the month of May. We'll be incurring the bulk of printing bills in June. If you are on the list for this game and haven't made arrangements, you'll be receiving a letter by post in the next 10 days.

DEMKO JOINS WARGAME DESIGN STAFF
Dave Demko has agreed to take over layout and design duties for the magazine. Thank You Dave!
Wargame Design Mag has been a forgotten stepchild, since the main focus is really on producing games. However, in many ways, the magazine could be just as important and perhaps even more interesting, as a repository for questions that arise during design that we don't know how to handle - call them inevitable dilemmas. So the magazine is a way for us to comment on the games we produce, not just touting our own brand but trying to think about important questions that have to be excluded from the games themselves.

THANKS TO OUR MAC EXPERT
We now have Pagemaker working again and we have backups and other good things thanks to Jay Olsen, who drove up from Bethesda on Sunday to manage our system.

MILITARY HISTORY PRESS BOOK UPDATE
Dana and Matt are working away on both books, double-checking everything to insure that the books will have the highest quality as historical documents. They have promised to send us some .pdfs of the Davout book pages soon. They now plan on shipping the Davout book in July.
-Kevin Zucker


Contents: Page 1) Labor Day Game Design Symposium in WV
Page 2) La Guerre de l'Empereur - The Metternich Event
Page 3) Turn Record Comments from Jack Gill
Page 4) Letters
Page 4) Alternate Vedette Rules
Page 5) Special Offers

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Operational Studies Group Report May 18th, 2004 Page One

GAME DESIGN SYMPOSIUM

This Labor Day weekend, September 3, 4, 5 and 6, 2004, we will be
having a small get-together in the mountains of West Virginia, to take
time out to consider some important questions about the illusion and
reality of wargames.

"Strategy," for Napoleon, meant arranging his forces to take advantage
of chance and changing circumstances.

Chance is the most important part of these games, and is probably also
the most realistic of all game mechanisms.

Yet, if you search the rules folder for Seven Days of 1809, do you think
this word appears? Not once.

The word "change," so important to all stories, occurs one time. The
word "strategy" appears twice in the Historical Notes.

I do not think these games are truly aware of what they are, and as a
result they do not present themselves in their true guise.

The modern world is conditioned to buy-in to illusion; it has become
second nature to us. Our whole economy and politics are based on it.
Creating an illusion is also an important part of our games. Yet, if there
is something besides illusion that we are packaging, one would have to
be very cautious about characterizing that as historical accuracy.

This small gathering will take place in Thomas, West Virginia. We'll be staying
at the B&B next door to the Purple Fiddle, a hippie restaurant and
bluegrass music venue. If you want to bring the family, there are two
state parks, Blackwater Falls and Canaan Valley Conference Center
with accommodations available in Davis, no more than 10 miles away.

Registration fee - $15.

You'll be responsible for making your own room reservations - $45 per
night in the B&B, or in the conference center $90 or $100. If you wish
to attend, please email me first and I will forward the contact information.

This will be fun, the area is beautiful. I hope you can join us.

-Kevin Zucker

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Operational Studies Group Report May 18th, 2004 Page Two

LA GUERRE DE L'EMPEREUR - THE METTERNICH EVENT

From: Peter B Landry <pblptr@netscape.net>

In our game of La Guerre, France, allied with Prussia and Spain, declared war on Russia. At this point France had the only allies and had combined movement.

Next chit pull was Russia, Russia moves next and forms an alliance with England. Russia, by being allied, is not limited to stay within her own boundaries. Russia invades France via her Baltic fleet.

Last country turn is England. On England's random event Metternich happens and Spain is booted out of the French alliance. Spanish troops and fleets repatriate back to Spain but Spain stays at war with Russia. England has not yet declared war because of the sequence of play.

Is Spain still at war with Russia?

Now, because of Russia moving out of its own country, England is bound to stay allied and declare war on all those at war with Russia, i.e., France, Prussia and Spain? France can get Spain back as an ally when England declares war.

Were we correct in granting an alliance between England and Russia in Russia's turn? I think so.

Unless I have it wrong, an NPC that has war declared upon it can at the option of the other PC become an ally or controlled. So Spain is basically only knocked out of alliance with France from the random event step to the war declaration step where England declares war.

If Spain as an NPC is controlled by France when England declares war, does France still have the option to take Spain back into the alliance? Why not?

So in effect, Metternich very briefly interrupted the alliance between France and Spain and, for the cost of 5 VPs helped France reinforce the homeland!


From: Chris Moeller <moellerc@adelphia.net

What England and her allies should do during the peace step is offer a Negotiated Peace to NPC Spain (which it must accept, as outlined in
5.11). That will prevent France from reacquiring Spain as an ally when England declares war on the French alliance.

(continued)

[kzucker]

Operational Studies Group Report May 18th, 2004 Page Three

SEVEN DAYS COMMENTS FROM JACK GILL

Jack has provided us with an article on the armies that will appear in WDM #8 (the 24-page issue included free in the game). Following are some last-minute comments that are too late to make the magazine but will give an instance of the detailed attention this game has received from the development team. John H. Gill is the author of "With Eagles to Glory," a book on the German allies of Napoleon in the 1809 campaign.

One thing you may want to add: according to the Austrian history, there was a chaussee connecting Pfaffenhofen with the Glons valley (town of Hohenkammer); this would be approx. hex 0128. The French used this road extensively to move parts of Massena's larger command (II, IV, and Espagne) from Pfaffenhofen (where they all initially appear) to the Freising area in the Isar valley. I suggest adding this on the map -- even if it is JUST off the map as depicted. Otherwise, I do not know if Massena's men could make the marches they actually completed during the campaign (some of the most remarkable ever, I suspect).

* Turn record:
- 16th at start: Crown Prince Ludwig's division (Pr. Royal) should start ON THE MAP at Pfaffenhofen (inf and cav) on 16 April.
Lefevbre himself was at Geisenfeld (approx. hex 1609) on the 16th.
- 16th at start: Demont should start the game at Ingolstadt.
- 17th: Pajol should be in place in Regensburg by the evening of the 17th. I suggest bringing him on the map at 4901 or somewhere in that wedge east of the Regen on the afternoon or evening turn of 17 April -- this is somewhat problematic given Crenneville's appearance -- but Pajol should show up west of Crenneville, probably west of hex 5201.
- 18th: St. Sulpice should not arrive until 18 April. Enter at 4501.
- 18th: Guyon (if used) should enter at 3501 (approx.) -- behind the Altmuehl. Probably not bring him on the map until the evening turn.
- 18th: Pire should show up at 3501 (he was coming from the direction of Nuremberg generally).
- 19th: Suggest adding Carra St.-Cyr at Pfaffenhofen (0117) on the evening turn of 19 April.
- 20th: Boudet should appear at Pfaffenhofen like the rest of Massena's command.
- 20th: I think the call for "All remaining units of II & IV Corps" is unnecessary -- they will all be on the board by this time, n'est pas?
- 21st: Rouyer should appear on the 21st at Ingolstadt (not 0105 on the 19th).
- ALL Massena/Oudinot pieces: suggest these be allowed to arrive between hexes 0116 and 0118 -- as far as I can tell, they ALL used the road into Pfaffenhofen at 0117, but you could grant them this leeway to prevent them from stacking up too much.

* Morale: French II Corps (its manifold weaknesses notwithstanding) seems too low at "4" (= approx. 25% of SP's yes?). This is clearly difficult to calibrate when the corps have so few units on the board, but suggest it should be higher.

* Rules:
- 1.31: Include Hessians with Badeners as Navy Blue (assuming that there is a Hessian bde counter).
- 17: Include Hessians (assuming that there is a Hessian bde counter).
- 17: What exception ref the Germans in 5.17?
- 19.31: What does "except" mean here? [I know, probably just a note for yourself.]
- 21.17 and elsewhere: probably need some commentary and/or restrictions ref opns north of the Danube. Seems to me, you could routinely end up with players sending major forces into this narrow gap. Hard to imagine this happening historically without involving Austrian I Corps.
- CRT: Delete reference to "Defrance" since this brigade is heavy cavalry. [Are cavalry counters marked "heavy" and "light"?]

* Units manifests:
Note 1: I know that I may be way behind on your progress with these, but offer the following anyway.
Note 2: I am assuming that these manifests are not included in the game per se, so some of this is just FYI for you.
- FYI: Jacquinot should not include 12th Chasseurs for purposes of this game (12th CaC = Guyon).
- "Guyon" (if used) should be "light troops" (or something similar) because his tiny command = 12th Chasseurs (3 sqdns) and one baon of 15th Leger.
- The Vecsey counter should have IV Corps as its higher HQ so Rosenberg can command it fully.
- The Rottermund counter should have II Corps as its higher HQ so Kolowrat can command it fully.
- You may want to use the German spelling for Deroy = "y" at the end rather than the French-style "i."
- Similarly, you might want to consider "Kronprinz" or "Crown Prince" for young Ludwig rather than the French "Prince Royal."
- What is the status of the "Dedovich" counter? Recall that he is commanding the Austrian forces blockading the Bavarian fortress of Oberhaus at Passau.
- Austrian VI Corps: ORBAT as implemented was very tangled. Just to clarify:
o "Dollmayer" = Dollmayer von Provencheres. Austrian accounts refer to him as "Provencheres" when they use shorthand.
o Provencheres/Dollmayer was at Munich with his brigade of the VI Corps advance guard; he was part of Jellacic's detached division.
o Jellacic was sent off to Munich with one (only) of his own brigades -- that of Ettinghausen (= Esterhazy & De Vaux Inf. Regts.) -- AND with Provencheres' bde of the advance guard (Warasdein-Kreutz Grenz Regt. and O'Reilly Chevaulegers -- love those Irish!).
o This change left Kottulinsky in charge of only one brigade = Hohenfeld's = Klebek & Jordis.
o Vincent assumed command of Weissenwolf's bde (Deutschmeister & Kerpen) as well as Hoffmeister von Hoffeneck's (Benjowsky & Splenyi).
o All of this left Nordmann with the remaining advance guard units (Warasdein-St. Georg Grenz & Liechtenstein Hussars).

[kzucker]

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Operational Studies Group Report May 18th, 2004 Page Four

LETTERS

John,

That letter (below) is indeed a fake! It is tricky, since they use actual boilerplate and the real address of the paypal website. Assume any such message is spam. Never enter info except at the paypal site (you type the url).

> Kevin: You wanted to see one of these notices I get from time to time. I am assuming it's a fraud since I have no Paypal account. I started getting them After I ordered 7 Days from you.
John Loy

>----- Original Message ----- From: service@paypal.com
Subject: PayPal Account Verification
> Your Security is PayPal's Top Priority
>
>Dear PayPal member,
>
>With the industry's most-advanced encryption, fraud prevention, and Buyer and Seller Protection Policies, PayPal is dedicated to keeping your account safe and secure. Due to increase of the internet fraud, we need to verify your account. Please enter the credit card number and details you used when you signed up for your PayPal account.
>
>That increases security in the PayPal network, lowers our risk!
>
>You must click the link below and enter your credit card number and details you used when you signed up for your PayPal account.
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> Click here to verify your account ...


From: "Joseph Key" <marctobi@hotmail.com>

Dear Kevin the upcoming publication of your new game on the Ratisbon campaign represents a great opportunity to write you about a subject I have long wanted to discuss with you.* My favorite game in the NAB series has always been 1809, and my favorite scenario in all the games has always been the so called Alternate Campaigne.* This game really needs a serious upgrade to bring it in line with the more recent games.* I'm not talking about a new release, there are already many new games in the pipeline that need to be published (though a series 5x game called*ROAD TO VIENNA covering the 1805 and 1809 campaigns isn't a bad idea).* Actually the upgrade that I'm talking about could take place in your wargame journal.* Most of what's needed to bring the game up to date can be done by gamers like myself but the game has always had certain structural problems that only an official upgrade could deal with. The basic problem with the game lies with the Austrian LOC.* The primary Austrian supply source is at the north edge in the first quarter of the center map.* The Austrian forces lined up at the Bavarian border at the beginning of the game are almost at the end of their loc at the beginning of the game.* They start the game with plenty of admin. points but given their low initiative ratings and the fact that they have to march across the whole western map to reach their objectives means that these admin. points get eaten up rather quickly.* A bit less than half way across the map the Austrians will outrun their loc and will solely have to depend on their dispatch distance to advance which they will eventually also overrun.* The main reason for this problem is the Bavarian fortress of Passau which blocks the Austrians from using the shorter line along the Danube and forces them to cross the Inn at Braunau forcing them to run their loc along the maps south edge and through Landshut.* This is a problem you were clearly aware of but did nothing to solve. I say this because you clearly fudged what you call the main Historical Scenario, which covers the same campaign that your upcoming game simulates.* You show Passau in Austrian hands which allows you to run the Austrian loc by the shorter route along the Danube.* You know as well as I do that Passau remained in Bavarian hands throughout the campaign and prevented the Austrians from running their loc along the Danube.* You know as well as I do that the real Austrian loc ran along the maps south edge and through Landshut.* This is why Charles was so sensitive about this area and why Napoleon directed Massena to attack Landshut.* Now you are too good a historian and designer to solve a problem by fudging it in this way. By today's standards Passau would be considered a citadel which means it could not be taken in the time span of these early scenarios.* Even if you kept it as a fortified town the time constraints and the initial disposition of the major Austrian forces make it difficult to commit a corp to attack and take Passau.* Time constraints force the main Austrian forces to cross the Inn at Braunau and advance along the south edge of the map.* The only forces close enough to assault Passau are the various landwehr and Vecsay's division.* Given their low ratings this means that you have to waste precious admin. points to move the forces in place to assault the town.* And that's only if you consider it a fortified town.* If you look at it as a citadel, as it was, there is nothing you can do but what the Austrians did historically which is run their loc along the maps south edge. Another loc problem bedeviling the Austrians deals with the corp or Bellegarde and Kollowratt that arrive on the north edge of the map.* The moment they arrive they are off the loc and given their low initiative ratings it's very difficult to move them as far as Ratisbon.* This is another problem that needs to be addressed. Even with these problems this is still my favorite scenario and game.* Given that their are still some old grognards like me who play and love this game I really think you should really think about doing something to solve these problems with a great game.


From: Reda Mimoune <french_wargamer@yahoo.fr>

4-Hope that the Highway to Madrid will be still 1808 to 1814 and not reduced. so there will be a need of 'strategic' options played by the 'english', send money to raise Spanish or troops as weel as external theaters events to deal with for the French.

But a really good point for this game would be the 'political' rules, in the sense of cooperation between marshals. For instance a bad modifier for initiative when subordinate (this when there is a French player only) or different French players and they have different victory conditions (as well as gaining points when minimizing losses, or gain of points when occupying a province so that they cannot afford to detach too much troops to Massena for instance.

Of course when Napy is here it is different ! Another great subject is the guerrila model. An idea would be to superimpose on the hexgrid zone limits that the 'Allied' player assign its guerrilla units or points (preferably). There would be in the same idea the French assigning troops or points to counter (or even destroy when in good odds or methods (see Suchet or colonel Hugo (the writer's father) counter-guerrilas). Effects of guerrilla would be penalties on movement (add a random part or modifier when moving in such zones),
penalties on supplies gathering or movements, attacks on depots, and so on.

Maybe a level of pacification must be portrayed. Presence of troops, leader factors, success on battles, treatments of cities, victories of English player should act on it. The pacification level maybe a victory condition or something that inhibit a victory. Well many things may be said about the Peninsular campaign. Hope this will be a great game anyway it is the greated scope in time for a Highway-like or NaB-like game !

[kzucker]

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Operational Studies Group Report May 18th, 2004 Page Four

VEDETTES
These critical and often thorny rules have continued to grow into a game unto itself. Complicating things are differences in the vedette rules between the operational 2-mile games and the 1-mile series. Dave's suggestion is to radically simplify and combine both series vedette rules into one. We might try these rules out in 7D09, and if they work well we could consider adapting them to the Campaigns of Napoleon.

Alternative vedette rules for CoN and 6DoG
by David Schubert

You know I've never been a fan of the vedette rules in CoN or the 6DoG system (I still love the CoN system). I find them too clunky and I don't like the possibility of vedettes impacting a CRT result. I find it warps the games too much as the focus moves away from corps actions and goes to cavalry regiments.

I've been thinking about an alternative vedette rule for some time. The following uses ideas from CoA's ACW campaign game series (it uses a table to determine how many units are revealed) and from the GCACW (the possibility of vedettes being eliminated). Obviously it needs some fleshing out.

1. Vedettes have no combat ability. They have a (0) combat factor to indicate they may not attack (in brackets). If in an ezoc at the end of a movement phase, they must retreat before combat. If retreat before combat is not possible, they are eliminated.

2. Recon: Vedettes perform recon actions in order to reveal the identity of hidden enemy units. A recon action is performed whenever a vedette enters an enemy ZOC or an enemy unit enters a hex adjacent to a vedette. Resolve the Recon action by rolling a d6 and cross indexing the result on the recon table:

Recon Table
(One d6)
1 reveal all enemy units
2-3 reveal top enemy unit
4-5 no result, retreat vedette out of ezoc
6 roll again— 1-3 vedette eliminated from play* 4-6 retreat vedette out of EZOC

Modifiers: -1 if cavalry leader within command range of recon;
+1 if enemy force contains cav units.
*Eliminated vedettes DO NOT return to play.

Note: it would be better to use 2D6 than a d6 table. The bell curve is used as an advantage for results.

2-4 reveal all units
5-7 reveal top unit
8-11 retreat vedette
12 eliminate vedette

Modifiers: -1 if cavalry leader within command range of recon action;
+1 if enemy force contains cav units

Dave

---------
*-) Natty Bo will not be served in a glass.

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Operational Studies Group Report May 18th, 2004 Page Five

SPECIAL OFFERS
Sale Discounts valid through 8/31/2004.

ORDER + PRE-ORDER SPECIAL OFFER
Pre-Order now and get a discount on games in print—
5 New Pre-orders: 20% discount
3 New Pre-orders: 15% discount
1 New Pre-order: 10% discount

To take advantage of the 10/15/20%-off price skip our "store" order form and go directly to https://www.Paypal.com
OSG's Paypal account name is: kzucker@charm.net You can also print and mail this form to -
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ORDER OUR NEXT GAME AT 20%-OFF (NEW ORDERS)
THE SEVEN DAYS OF 1809
[] Napoleon & the Archduke Charles $45
The above price is set to expire on June 19th
Full retail price will be $56


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Thanks and keep on Napoleon good games.