Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

One of the comments I see about the games that have large batteries (8-12 guns) is that you cannot stack large battalions with them. Thus an 900 man battalion cannot stack with a 8 gun battery.

Tip for the day: prior to deploying the battery on the front line do the following - unlimber the battery, next turn change it to Extended Line, next turn limber both sections as independent units. Voila! Now you have two units of 4 to 6 guns that will easily stack with a large battalion! You can move the unit to the front line too if you like and perform that operation leaving out the limber step. Just limber them up separately later if you have to move them away.

In this game I am working on I went away from sections or converged howitzer units. The customer is welcome to create custom OBs for these battles if they like. The usual battery size is 6 guns and I just cant see splitting off the howitzers and reducing the batteries firepower. Feel free to copy the OBs and scenarios and modify them as you like!

I also am sticking to keeping the Dragoons weapon a sword. With the introduction of mounted fire I just dont want to assign supply wagons to Dragoon brigades. The wagons get used up as it is. The customer can copy the OB and modify the D type units all they want. I rarely dismount Dragoons in the battles because of the limitations on them (Line formation only). Special dismounted Dragoon units could be used. I also hate seeing a battalion get hit by some mounted unit and Disorder ... 3 man hits on a 700 man battalion don't have much of a chance of doing that but it is possible.

I am almost finished with the first campaign file in the new game. I now have to add in the campaign info images that you see in the "Campaign Front End" where you make your decisions which then lead to the battle starting. Joe Amoral created a set of lovely background maps for me. By the middle of the week I should be done with the first campaign which is for the early battles from 1792-94 and allows the players to go through them in chrono. order with each battle having deployment options that they wouldn't get in a normal "stand alone scenario" found in the main folder. The losses wont carry over from battle to battle. Its my way of helping the customer see the broad picture of the early campaigns.

The usual campaign format will apply for the 1796, 1799 and 1800 German/Swiss campaigns as well as the 1799 Noord Holland campaign. Looking forward to working on those in the next couple of months.

_________________


Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Are these AAA or AA, D or C?

_________________
Ernie Sands
1ère Brigade of 2ème Division de Grosse Cavalerie, Réserve de Cavalerie
de la Grande Armée
President, Colonial Campaigns Club

Yes, I've divided my artillery up like that in for example Eckmuhl and Leipzig. You can defend the guns and you get to shoot at 2 enemy units thus increasing the chances of disorder, rout or hitting leaders. The downside is that twice as much artillery ammo is expended.

Andy - good point. I usually am generous in my allotment of ammo. Let me know if this is a problem. Just tell me the game and scenario file name that this happens in and I will add in some more ammo for the next update.

I rarely split up my batteries like this. I just try and keep them out of harm's way as much as possible.

_________________


Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Ernie No, we are not talking about batteries for your portable landing craft you take with you into the tub!

And its the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. I know this is a Napoleonic club but hey, great battle and San Diego is having a tribute on board the USS Midway today for those that served in WW2 or in the battle specifically (not sure which but am sure all WW2 vets were welcome .. not many of them left anymore).

_________________


Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Have to ask, how is an artillery battery(foot/horse) now simulated?
Usually a foot battery had 8 guns of which 2 were howitzers, a horse battery had 6 guns of which 2 were howitzers.
I guess one could ignore the howitzers and just do full 8/6 gun batteries, the indirect fire capability might be missing but I doubt it played a big role unless under exceptional circumstances.

Regarding Dragoons, I liked the selective approach of Austerlitz so that I can unmount those Dragoons that acted unmounted or can't unmount those that didn't act unmounted. And that the enemy is usually unsure of what a Dragoon unit can do is a nice bonus.

_________________

In Austerlitz I divided up the Russian batteries like this:

U 4 6 A N 79 9 Sivers/Hvy Section
U 4 6 B O 79 9 Sivers/Lt Section
U 4 6 B U 79 9 Sivers/Lic Section

This wasn't exactly correct.

In Leipzig I divided up the Russian batteries into two parts. It looked like this:

U 8 5 A N 86 10 Position #3
U 4 5 A m 86 10 Position(L) #3 (L = Licorne)

Our late friend, Warren Bajan, was after me to divide up the Russian 12 gun batteries into three parts (again): 1 Light 12lb, 1 Medium 12lb and 1 Licorne section. I did that in the 1814 game. Looks like this:

For the 6lb batteries:

U 4 5 B O 86 10 Light #24
U 4 5 B O 86 10 Light #24
U 4 5 B U 86 10 Light(L)#24

For the 12lb batteries:

U 4 5 A N 86 10 Position (12M) #30
U 4 5 A q 86 10 Position (12L) #30
U 4 5 A m 86 10 Position(L) #30

Marengo had smaller battery sizes so I wasn't as worried.

In Campaign Leipzig I have included howitzer sections for the French like this:

U 6 5 B C 33 3 8/2 Foot Regt
U 5 5 B C 33 3 15/9 Foot Regt
U 4 5 B d 33 3 Comb. 5.7" How

I dont see using the indirect weapons in separate units as historical. I prefer to keep entire batteries together. I preferred that in the ACW series too. It was ridiculous with all of those 1 and 2 gun units in the Peninsular War title (Seven Days Campaign - ACW game). My CSA forces were tied up on the roads ... I just left the guns behind ... against the 4 gun Union units they never had a chance. I was glad to see some of the newer games go back to the older 4 gun section format in that series.

Of course in Company Level scale the sections work best. And that is as it should be. The smaller scale games work better when you break everything down.

_________________


Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Thanks for the insight Bill.

What's was wrong about the way you did it in Austerlitz?
AFAIK the split into 3 section seem perfect as the Russians called these "divisions" and 3 of those formed a Russian company/battery.

Maybe if we get the concept of Road Stacking from the Panzer Campaign series to the Napi series the smaller artillery units can justified, unlike the Napi series you can use road movement as long as you're not over the road stacking limit.

_________________