Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

So imagine this....

The scenario opens in the Campaign engine to enable each player to pick an overall grand tactic, such as Frontal Attack or Send troops off map to attack enemy's left flank. That's what I'm wokring on. There will be two choices for each side which will result in four different scenarios to be made, and allow a bit more replay-ness.

The FIW set will be using my Indian Lake 1754 oob file and a map of Fort Lydius, or Lydius trading post, located on the upper Hudson River. The location later became Fort Edwards. Forces will be of small brigade strength.

The Campaign 1776 set will be a set piece battle using a hypothetical 'sterile' oob. By that I mean each side will be nearly the same number, and quality of troops and leaders on a neutral map. Forces will be a nice division/column sized one with enough bdes to form a right wing, center, left wing and reserve, and perhaps an advanced guard. I'm thinking of making four armies: American, British, French and German. There would be multi-sets for this concept to allow each nationality to fight one another.

I hope to give players a way to approach the same battle differently with the FOW element weighing in.

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LtGen Al Amos
1st Continental Light Dragoons
Commander Lt Dragoon Bde - American Army

sounds good, let me know if you need any help testing it out

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Colonel Comte du Colon "Le Longue Barbe"
Troupes de la Marine - Commanding
L'Armee de Terre Royale

My Blog
https://thechiefwargamingblog.blogspot.com

An update. Still working on the concept as described above, but in the mean time.... I was inspired to do a single battle campaign using an OOB from the southern campaign after playing round one of the Blitz' Black Powder Ladder tournament. We played the Battle of Cowpens in that. Using such limited numbers in such tight terrain challenged me. I got thinking, how cool to modify the Guilford map and use it with Patrick Mullen's "near Camden" OOB. So I did. The campaign is built, and I'm making the rest of the scenarios as we speak. Hope to post it later this week.

As soon as I come up with the 'perfect' map I'll be finishing up the 'sterile' big battle campaign. I'm still shooting to have it done by the end of summer. al

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LtGen Al Amos
1st Continental Light Dragoons
Commander Lt Dragoon Bde - American Army

This could also be included into a campaign game by using dummy battles: Both sides have the usual "fight" - "retreat" options. In case a(n important) battle is the result a dummy battle would come first in which both sides only have one unit on the field for the next battle - or both are deployed in the "Centre" variation (see below) to give an idea of the enemy's strength - and that only lasts one turn, always resulting in a draw. This would allow both players to review the battlefield and the engine to give alternative options after the initial choice.

So you had:

Situation I:
A: fight
B: retreat

1: fight
2: retreat

A2, B1 and B2 would lead to some rearguard action followed by a new situation.

A1 would lead to the named dummy-battle, followed by Situation Ia that offers both various options for the comming battle, for example:

- Retreat (one side might still decide to retreat at this point when seeing that the terrain is rather bad or the enemy too strong)
- Defend (in this case the army would be placed in a good defenisve position, with all victory hexes on its side and may be with some redoubts. But this would be very vulnerable to a flanking)
- Centre (in this case the army would be drawn up in standard formation ready to both defend or attack)
- Flank (in this case the army would be trying to outflank the enemy)

The battle would then be deployed according to the opposing choices, such as:

Retreat:Retreat => dummy-battle followed by a new situation
Retreat:Defend => the above rear-guard action followed by a situation similar to the one that had occured had that side not offered battle at all
Retreat:Flank => the same as Retreat:Defend because the other army would be out of reach due to its flank march
Retreat:Centre => a retreat-battle in which the one side has to leave through an exit-field and the other is chasing it.

Defend:Defend => A dummy followed either by a loop of Situation I or a variant if one side is recieving reinforcements
Defend:Centre => A frontal assault on a prepared position. In some situations it also can be a surprise attack on the enemy's camp.
Defend:Flank => The defending army starts the battle already outflanked and parts of its army start as "fixed".

Centre:Centre => An encounter battle with victory hexes equally splitted on both sides
Centre:Flank => The flanking army is drawn up in columns of march in a position half-way before completing the flanking march. The other army is still facing in the wrong direction but has no fixed units.

Flank:Flank => identical to Centre:Centre. Assuming both armies would try the flanking march in the same direction they would march parallel until they end up with an identical frontal situation. Because the space on maps is limited they should then start the battle in the standard Centre:Centre deployment in the middle of the map.

So you would need:
1) A dummy scenario used for all situations in which no fighting had taken place at all; what can be a 1-turn variant of Centre:Centre.
2+3) The Retreat:Centre situation for either side. This can also be skipped and replaced by the dummy scenario, in particular when it is rather unlikely to catch up with the retreating enemy.
4+5) The Defend:Centre, frontal assaults; may be additionally a surprise-attack variation
6+7) The Defend:Flank for either side
8) Centre:Centre scenario, only one needed.
9+10) Centre:Flank for either side

This can also be less, for example when the overall strategical situation forces one side to attack at all costs, or one side would be defending a vital position, or the terrain would make certain options impossible (such as flanking manouvers for the Americans at Bunker Hill).

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Pro Gloria et Patria
A Seven Years War mod for C1776

Ralf,

I have the game setup in the campaign engine. The first battle is a parade review only so you can see the ground and your troops. Then the second 'battle' is the real action and the setup is effected by the choices made by each player.

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LtGen Al Amos
1st Continental Light Dragoons
Commander Lt Dragoon Bde - American Army

The campaign is called "A Southern Affair", and it is coming together nicely. Summer heat and long hours at the Post Office has slowed, but not stopped, progress. It shouldn't be much longer now.

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LtGen Al Amos
1st Continental Light Dragoons
Commander Lt Dragoon Bde - American Army

I had noticed that in a campaign in Renessaince there are situations without battles. Such as, both sides decide to retreat and there is no "dummy battle" to be fought and the campaign continues with the respective assigned new situation (which should be the same for all "outcomes" of the non-battle). I had tried that in C1776 and it seems to work there too, even though the message window for the outcome doesn't display a text.

This would of course seriously ease the addition of a "deployment-phase" as suggested here. In the way that you would have the "strategical decision" as it is now, where you can make your "retreat/attack/manouver" decision. This one would not lead to a battle, unless both side decide to fight at the current point, but to a new situation prior to the next battle to be fought depending on the outcomes of the mutual decisions.

The new situation would be the "tactical decision" where you can issue orders for deployment in the next battle, followed by the battle to be fought; or another non-battle in case you decide to retreat at this point, what would strategically be counted as a minor victory for the oposing side.

The existance of an additional pre-battle decision would also solve a logical problem of the way campaigns work now: You are now more or less blindly issuing orders that can result in a battle what even might be completly against your intentions. And even though when in reality said battle could only have happened if both armies had been marching around for days or even weeks, now ending up in a complete new position. You then have no way of stopping the attack you had ordered days before and miles away.

The inclusion of "non-battle" situations would allow for more campaing fine tuning without the need to add an endless ammount of skirmish engagements.

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Pro Gloria et Patria
A Seven Years War mod for C1776

Ralf,

Bill has done similar in some of his Napoleonic campaigns. In the EAW scale the "endless ammount (sic) of skirmish engagements" is kinda what the engine is all about.

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LtGen Al Amos
1st Continental Light Dragoons
Commander Lt Dragoon Bde - American Army

Surely, but I meant extra skirmish scenarios added only for campaigning purpose when in fact no battle/engagement is be fought.

_________________
Pro Gloria et Patria
A Seven Years War mod for C1776

Finally! See A Southern Affair thread.

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LtGen Al Amos
1st Continental Light Dragoons
Commander Lt Dragoon Bde - American Army