Campaign of Nations from Hollandspiele on Vassal.

Ok, so it's been a while since Steve M and I have got together over our laptops for a Vassal set-to, but with the start of a new year we picked up where we left off in September 2021, when Steve and I indulged ourselves with a massive game of Napoleon at Leipzig from OSG and Kevin Zucker, during which I got my 'derrière' handed to me, link below to the post covering our game and other Vassal games we played in that series.

JJ's Wargames - Vassal

So the decision for our game choice for our next Vassal adventure naturally turned back to Napoleon's 1813 Campaign in Germany, with Campaign of Nations by John Theissen and published by Hollandspiele, which moves the play to the operational level as Napoleon faces off against his Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Swedish adversaries looking to take full advantage of his weakness in the wake of his miserable failure in Russia in 1812.

https://www.littlewarstv.com/members-only/1813-campaign-guide

This level of game is one that can appeal to the Napoleonic tabletop gamer looking to add context to the figure games we love to play and it would be remiss of me not to highlight the efforts of the Little Wars TV chaps who put together such an adventure using this game and producing a useful 1813 Campaign Guide, link above, with their ideas on doing this with extensions to the map to include a wider sphere of operation, to include the spring campaigns as focussed on here, and if you are so inclined I would encourage you to take a look at the free PDF and their video covering their games for the whole campaign from the spring, summer and autumn.

 

We however were keen to see what the boardgame had to offer, focussing as it does specifically on the period following the summer Armistice of Pläswitz which was signed on the 4th June 1813, following the Battle of Bautzen in May and lasted until the 20th July, later extended to the 10th of August.

Both Napoleon and the Allies used this time, quite naturally, to reorganise and recruit for the inevitable resumption of hostilities, which enabled the Austrians to be persuaded to join the allied camp and for which Napoleon later (on Saint Helena) said that his agreement to that truce had been a bad mistake with the break being of much more use to the allies than to him.

This is the scenario presenting the start positions for the game seen in the map above, which as Thiessen explains in the introductory comments;

'The Allies threatened Napoleon from the north, east, and south. But then again, Napoleon's central position threatened to destroy the separated allied armies in detail...'

Game Setup - Napoleon and his army units, in blue of course, representing individual corps, occupies the central area around Leipzig and Dresden with all the benefits of internal lines, with Allied threats from the north around Berlin, the west around Breslau on the River Oder and the south around Prague beyond the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.

For our game, I took on the role once again as the Emperor of the French, whilst Steve led the Allies, moving our various corps with the strength points shown on the counters equating to about 10,000 men per point, and with each hex equating to some 11.25 miles of terrain and with each turn representing three days.

There are no stacking limits to the game although movement into a hex with ten or more strength-points cost an extra movement point, and a level of 'fog-of-war' is achieved by disallowing any inspection of enemy stacks. 

Game Turn Three

Some of the aspects to this game that particularly caught my eye were the ideas around the combat setup, with the usual attacks against opposing stacks in accessible neighbouring hexes, added to, with the ability to attempt to retreat before combat, with Napoleon and cavalry versus just infantry forgoing the need for a test to complete such a manoeuvre and just as importantly for a defender, to concentrate forces before combat, with Napoleon getting a +1, needing a score of 3 or more on a d6 roll, with these concepts encouraging the historical use of mutually supporting corps, less than a days march from each other. 

Game Turn Three - Berlin

As you will see from the maps of our game the initial moves saw our respective forces grouping as both sides moved to occupy key terrain and achieve a force advantage at the expense of the enemy, with French forces combining and closing on the River Havel before Berlin, Marshal Ney similarly grouping his forces and containing Blucher around Breslau, whilst Napoleon and the Austrian Prince of Schwarzenberg shifted their approaches around opposite sides of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, reflected at the end of our first session of play for Game Turn Three.

Game Turn Three - Dresden

The next week of manoeuvres, represented by the two turns of play in our second session saw all the manoeuvring reach a climax as opposing stacks sought to take advantage in particular areas of the map, with Steve particularly successful in forcing a passage across the southern mountains in force and threatening both Dresden and Leipzig that forced Napoleon to spread his forces to cover both, eventually blocking what appeared to be the main thrust to Leipzig.

Game Turn Five - Napoleon is blocking the Austrians advance on Leipzig whilst Ney marches to the succour of Dresden with Blucher in pursuit, as the Allies have a setback before Berlin.

The one major success for French arms came before Berlin as the Allies attempted to force a passage over the Havel only to be badly beaten back and left disrupted as they retreated back to the fortification around the city, allowing the French to subsequently overcome the Prussian garrison in Brandenburg and turn the Havel with the occupation of Potsdam in the offing and netting 2 VP for Napoleon.

Game Turn Five - Berlin

Meanwhile, appreciating the threat posed by the Austrians, Ney was hastily recalled from his position on the Odor to get himself and his army in Dresden, whilst delaying the following Blucher as best he could.

Game Turn Five - Dresden

The campaign was nicely poised when we gathered for our third session of play, with the French commanding the approaches to Berlin, but lacking the strength to force the capitulation of the Allies within the city walls; whilst Napoleon and Schwarzenberg were looking to get the drop on each other before Ney could make his presence felt with additional French troops in Dresden with Blucher beyond the River Elbe and likely unable to intervene in time.

Game Turn Ten - End Game Positions

As expected the Berlin front became a bit of a stalemate situation unlikely to change until either side received reinforcements from the north around Hamburg, principally more Russians for the Allies and Marshal Davout for the French.

 Game Turn Ten - Berlin 

The campaign resolved itself over the next two weeks around Dresden as Napoleon and Schwarzenberg feinted to move in one direction then the other as they in turn concentrated around Dresden as both Ney and Blucher closed in and Napoleon opted to force a decision battle around this key city before the Allied strength became even more formidable.

Game Turn Ten - Dresden and Napoleon is done as the Allies occupy both Dresden and Leipzig

As was the historical outcome, the Allies were victorious before Dresden, battering the French army and occupying the city, whilst taking full advantage of the French concentration of their army for battle by sending 20,000 Russian cavalry to occupy Leipzig to pass the French VPs for Berlin and netting themselves six VP for their occupation of these two nodal cities and the losses inflicted on the main French army as well as winning a major battle - oh dear how sad.

With little prospect of salvaging much from this campaign Napoleon was already booking his ferry to Elba and I conceded the game to Steve.

We both enjoyed this game, although based on the experience of it, would most likely change our approach to playing it the way we did, as we were keen to test the mechanics to the full. We are both keen Napoleonic gamers and at first the 'vanilla' rating for the various corps represented seemed a bit strange and more representative of the ACW stable of games that preceded this one. 

That said I don't know if the strength points have been increased slightly for better corps such as Old and Young Guard to represent the implied qualitative difference they represented or perhaps the modelling suggests that this was not the French army of old, composed in the wake of Russia of mainly 'Marie Louise' conscripts and Peninsular veterans filling the ranks of the so-called Guard; either way the operational level of the game would suggest that those differences would be minimal at this level of play, and Napoleon's abilities to manoeuvre are perhaps a more important factor against a large Allied army if it is able to concentrate, which at its heart is what this game is about.

There are event cards for each side that can be used once only to influence play, and we both agreed that they were a nice added flavour but not major game changers, so are nicely weighted; and there are other campaign specific rules around defections, Austrian reorganisations and Army Rest periods.

All in all the 7.2 rating on BGG would be a good assessment and overall Campaign of Nations seems to model this particular campaign quite nicely.

Oh well, Steve has picked up from where he left off and I will definitely have to try harder. So our next adventure will be Nemesis; Burma 1944 by Legion Games.

More anon

JJ