I am adding in some supplemental information here and a bit of design philosophy which I have practiced through the years. This is the second title that I have picked up that someone else had had to let go. The other being Campaign Leipzig.
When I get a title like this I prefer to do as much of my own work as possible. I guess for me the feeling is that I need to earn my way. I don't like to use the work of others if I can help it. On this project I will use the maps but I am building the OB files from scratch and only referring to the previous work AFTER I do my own research.
With Leipzig I felt that the maps were not to scale so I created my own set. With this game there are a couple of versions of the same maps so I had to spend time sorting things out. There is nice large map already completed that includes both Eylau and Friedland as well as individual maps for both locations. Rather than toss out one and keep the others I actually will use all three maps offering to the players two versions of the same area. This is a bit of a departure from my usual goal of keeping things simple.
The merging of the two single maps of Eylau and Friedland is not possible due to the elevations and the contour difference being only 5 meters. Freidland starts at almost sea level while the heights west of Eylau are high. This meant that both maps used up all of the available 27 levels. I would need over 45 levels to merge the maps together. For the large Quadrilateral map I was able to "fudge" the upper elevations and thus merge all of the maps together. For this game it wont work.
The large Eylau-Friedland map is a bit different and perhaps not totally accurate but it will allow for large scale maneuvering, something that you wont see in the Winter campaign but more in the Spring. Maneuvering in Poland during December through February was almost impossible with the guns sinking in the mud and the men and animals as well. Cezary and I will need to do some work on this large map to make it work.
Order of Battle files - I really like to build my own files. The flare of the older versions with their accurate French unit names and org titles that were in the file set I inherited were nice but the fancy titles overflow and slip off the sides of the Info area view. In other words you cannot read the full title. My simplified version works. I admire the fancier titles but they are best left for a nice order of battle listing than for in the confinements of the game.
As usual we are using squadrons for the cavalry. As the Russian regiments have odd numbers of squadron (Dragons, Cossacks, etc) a simplified 4 squadron regiment would not work. As the squadrons are small in manpower and horses in some of the regiments I have doubled up a lot of the squadrons to where you will see something like this:
"1,2/Kiev DR" which is the 1st and 2nd squadron of the Kiev Dragoons. The same will go for the 3rd and 4th squadrons. The 5th squadron will be a unit on its own. Yes, it can split up into two parts making it excellent as a scouting unit.
The Russian batteries are divided up into 2 or 3 sections per battery. For the Light and Position batteries - 3 sections. For the horse batteries - 2 sections. There are two kinds of 12lb guns and two kinds of 6lb guns as well as two kinds of Licornes (10 and 20lb).
The French were using captured Austrian guns in some of their batteries. While there were plenty of captured Prussian guns as well they were not specifically called out as being part of a battery. I can only guess that the French had not come up with a way to use them in their batteries at that time (or maybe there was a lack of green paint
).
The French dragoons of Milhaud's 3rd Dragoon division had been replenished with newer recruits and thus at Eylau they are rated lower than the typical Dragoon regiment.
And lastly ... the Russians have fanatical +2 morale. There is more than enough information from what I am reading to justify this. The Musketeer regiments are 4 morale but when they test their full value will be "6." The Eger regiments are 5 morale but when they test they will be "7." However, unlike the original OBs that came from the previous teams I am dropping the use of supplemental leaders. There were up to 3 additional leaders for some of the brigades (French mainly). The players can add on the brigade leader to a stack of two Russian battalions to get them that additional +1. Likewise for the French.
We will be experimenting with lower command ratings. For Eylau the playtesting has shown that in the scenarios with only French cavalry (Murat's Charge for instance) all the Russian has to do is form square and pretty much its over. What I am doing is starting the Russian infantry Disordered from the previous action (Augereau's attack) and then lowering the Russian command ratings just for one scenario to see if we can get Murat to penetrate deeper in to the Russian lines. In actuality the Russian laid down and the horses passed over them. They then raised up and fired in to the backs of the troopers. Not sure how many of them got trampled but there you have it. They didn't square up .. they let the French cavalry pass by and trapped them. It took the charge of the French Guard cavalry to free them from their dilemma.
For the "NATIONS" - we will have the French, Russians and Prussians in the game. The Swedish presence was minimal and not really worth including in the game. About the only thing I could consider for the Swedes is to add in the artwork from Campaign Bautzen and then add in some scenarios for inclusion in my own "Mod." The goal here is to get the game out - this last game I worked on has over 240 images. This game will have around 130 at the most. We want to keep it simple but at the same time cover as much of the French vs. Russian/Prussian actions. However, each hussar regiment will have its own unique image. I am doing what I can to make the game as unique as I did for my current project I worked on for the past year.
So I just wanted to add in some supplemental info. I will add in more information later ... look for an update some time after the New Year.
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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)