Campaign Still on Hold

Two of the ten players have failed to respond to my email asking for confirmation that they still want to take part in the camapign, and one of them is the French commander in chief. I can not restart the campaign until I have replaced him.

I will email each player and ask for a volunteer for French CinC today, and as soon as I have got one the campaign will continue.

I will also put a "job description" on the blog so that each player is aware what is expected of him.

Campaign on Hold

The campaign has been put on hold whilst I consult all ten players about the proposed changes. I sent each an email yesterday asking for their feedback. Partly because of the different time zones, and partly because not everyone has access to the internet during the weekend, I am still waiting for some replies.

About half has replied so far, and the feedback has been very positive. All who have replied so far want to continue with the campaign.

From the feedback so far the main problem seems to be the command and control and the role of CinC and corps commanders. I think this will be solved by the amendment I have put in place, though only time will tell.

There was also a feeling that having to submit orders once per day was too often. And that it did not allow time for the players to consult between themselves. This is something that I had sensed already, but I wanted to keep the daily turn around if possible. In the other PBEM game I am involved in the worse part for me is the long gaps between anything happening. However if there is a wide spread feeling that they need longer I will have to come up with a solution.

It could be daily orders will be submitted once per week. However this would defeat one of the main reasons for opening my campaign to PBEM - which is to provide wargames for Jan and I. At present we have suspended our own campaign so that we can fight these battles as soon as they occur. We could restart our campaign to provide our daily wargame fix, but the table would then not be available immediately a battle took place in this campaign. If we move one square per week it will take at least a month for a battle to take place, perhaps much longer. I will see what the rest of the feed back is before I decide one way or the other.

The third point raised is that the map does not allow for strategic type outflanking moves. There is a good reason for this. The strategic moves are done, appropriately, on the strategic map. If you look at the campaign background (on the right) you will see the strategic map for this campaign. It covers most of northern Germany from Berlin to Bremen. That is where the strategic movement is done.

This campaign is fighting the tactical battle. If you were to take the 1815 100 days campaign as an example the strategic map would be from Paris to Brussels. When the armies concentrated at Charleroi you would transfer to the tactical map. This would show the area from Charleroi to Brussels. That is what we are fighting in this campaign.

You need to think of the tactical map as a series of wargames table. Each table is 6x6 foot. If you look at the tactical map you will see that there are 4 such tables wide and 3 deep, making a total of 12 wargames tables. Each town is in the centre of its "table".

The difficult part is to prevent the players from just grouping in the centre and having one huge battle which would end the campaign. This is what happens in many campaigns. You have a lot of maneuvering followed by a single battle. What I want to encourage are a series of small battles - one to one corps. This would open a gap where the winner could exploit leading to 2 corps per side and eventually the "waterloo" battle of the campaign. Easy to explain, but very difficult to engineer the campaign so that it happens.

I hope by Monday that I will have had all of the replies. I will then put a few options to the players and see which they would prefer. The campaign will then start again. You will appreciate from what I said above about waiting for replies that this may take all week to sort out. But I don't want to start off at half cock again before each players understands what is required and is happy to go along with it.

I will post updates on the blog to let you all know how it is going.

Delay in Starting the Campaign

I had expected to start the campaign today, but I am still waiting for the strategic orders from the French CinC. I have sent two email to him, but have not received a reply. I do not wish to replace him if I can avoid it, but on the other hand I don't want to delay the start of the campaign either.

Would any of the French players like to volunteer for the role of CinC? The role involves two things.

First you would have to decide how you want the French army to fight the campaign. Then you would have to allocate an objective to each of your corps, and decide the orders they should operate under each day (Move, Hold, Engage or Attack). You will also have to keep an keep your headquarters within range to change the corps orders should that prove necessary.

Second you would have to be prepared to stand in for any of your corps commanders who are unable to submit movements orders for a short time.

If anyone would like to take on this role could they please email me as soon as possible. It would be best if the CinC has access to the internet at home as well as at work, so that we can exchange mail at weekends.

I would like the volunteer to prepare his strategic orders by tomorrow night. I will give them all the help that is needed to get started, and then they are on their own.

Getting Started

Tactical map 1 May 1813

Campaign Background

The background to the campaign is covered in Label 03 Campaign Background, and the opening positions are shown on the strategic map so that you can see what is happening on map of north Germany.

CinC Strategic Orders

I have sent an email to each player containing a starter pack of instructions and a tactical map. A copy of the map is shown above. In that mail I asked each commander in chief to issue strategic orders.

It is up to each CinC to write them as he thinks best. However a few words on what is required might be helpful. The purpose of these orders is to ensure that the corps commanders understand what the CinC strategic objective is. This should be in general terms, such as “the Army will march to Magdeburg and destroy any enemy it meets on the way”.

In addition it should contain specific strategic orders for each corps commanders. For example it might say “4 French corps will move to Seehausen”. This is a small town three days march from Magdeburg. Marshal Reynier, who commands 4 French corps, will have to follow these orders until they are changed, or until the enemy prevent him from doing so. Exactly how he does so will be up to John, who is playing Reynier.

For the first order only, the CinC should confirm where each corps will enter the tactical map. An example of this would be:

“4 French corps will enter the map on A5. They will move to Seehausen E5.”

Only CinC can change orders. To do so he must be within three map squares of the corps commander concerned. The corps commander must follow them to the best of his ability. There is one exception to this rule. If the corps commander feels that it would be too dangerous to follow the CinC orders, he can change them to Halt.

You will find descriptions of each order available to CinC, and what corps commander must do when under each type, on label 09 – Campaign Orders

CinC may now issue their strategic orders.

Movement Orders

Each CinC and corps commander must also issue a Movement Order each day Monday to Friday to reach me by 2200 central European time. I will update the map at that time, and will publish it on the blog.

If any player, including CinC, is unable to issue an order he should notify me before the order is due. For example if you are going to be away for a week, just tell me the dates. I will then ask the appropriate CinC to issue orders for that corps during that period.

The first time that this happens I will send an email to the player concerned, copy to the CinC, to ask what has happened. If I do not receive a reply I will assume that the player no longer wishes to take part in the campaign, and his CinC will take command of that corps until I have found a new player to replace him.

The email containing the movement order should have as the subject “PBEM Campaign – orders for 4 French corps for 2 May”. The text should say “4 French corps move from A5 to B5”. Please try to keep to this procedure. I will be receiving 10 mails each day and I will keep them for 48 hours only. This will help me to update the movement order and locate the appropriate email if there is a problem.

You can issue your first orders for 1 May 1813 as soon as you receive your CinC strategic orders.