So for those of you who are not aware I'm writing my own ruleset for the Napoleonic period and would love feedback on what I've got so far. I've just come to a point where I'm trying to settle on base sizes: Writing a Wargame.

I'm curious if you have any good references for artillery supply train foot print in order to work out what the base size of your batteries + limbers should be. Battery footprints seem to be quite easy to find info for but the supply train footprint doesn't seem to be well documented.

Regards,

Steve 

Hi Bushs,

All I've found so far are these:

http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/artillery_tactics.htm#_moving_deploying_limbering_artillery

https://rodwargaming.wordpress.com/miltary-historical-research/organisation/napoleonic-artillery/

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/rha.htm

Hope they help.

If I find anything else I'll pm you.

Thanks

Peter

Having written (or is that still writing - there are always changes!) my own rules for 6mm ancients, I would suggest you need to ensure you get the three basic scales right - figure:person; time; ground and also determine what you are trying to get out of them that other rules don't offer. If all wargames are a balance between the 4"A"s - authenticity, aesthetics, abstraction, and ambition then you need to aim for the balance you want.

Thank you David!

I think I've settled on the scales which I covered in my first two blog posts. But I accept your 4 "A"s reference and will try and aim for a balanced set of rules, which is partly why I'm hoping external inpur like your own will help me tighten them up.

I've just published my latest post covering the mechanics of cavalry during the age and the research attached to the reasoning. https://woehammer.wordpress.com/2020/08/10/writing-a-wargame-cavalry/

My two recent blog posts may be of some interest to people worrying about battalion formations and command and control in Napoleonics. Thanks to Chris, for helping me make my idea more solid!

Command & Control:

http://clausewitzs.com/2020/08/11/writing-a-wargame-command-and-control/

Battalion & Brigade Formations:

http://clausewitzs.com/2020/08/13/writing-a-wabattalion-brigade-formations/

So I've a first draft of my command and control ideas for Clausewitz. Again thanks to Chris for helping me flesh this out.

Coup d'Oeil (Stroke of the Eye)

Each generally will require Coup d’Oeil (CdO) during the game. The number a general needs will depend upon their rank and the number of men they command.

Generals will be able to generate CdO each turn, with higher ranked generals able to generate more than lower ranks. Someone like Napoleon or Wellington for example would have more than Murat or Junot. They will also start with a number of CdO which they can use at the deployment point to have units on the tabletop at the beginning of the battle.

CdO can then be spent during the course of the game on certain events:

Sending an ADC to a unit to activate and task it with taking and holding an objective.

Bring reserves onto the battlefield with a purpose to take and hold an objective.

Generating CdO

There will be various ways to do so. A general will be able to generate so much CdO each turn, revealing units, holding objectives and routing enemy units from the table will also generate CdO. So let’s look at each of these in turn.

Revealing Units

Each time a friendly unit closes to within 20cm (roughly 1 kilometre at scale) of an enemy that unit will be revealed (perhaps 30cm if the unit is stationed on a hill with clear line of sight), this will generate CdO for the General. At present I will set this to 1 CdO per unit. With games of roughly 50,000 men on each side this should equate to around 50 CdO.

Holding Objectives

CdO awarded for holding objectives will depend upon the objective which are split into Primary or Secondary objectives. The figures for generation from these should also be relatively low, so let’s start out by saying that holding a Primary objective (being within 10cm) will generate 2 CdO, while a secondary objective will generate 1 CdO. Let’s assume a player holds half of the objectives during the course of the game (1.5 Primary and 1.5 Secondary), over 50 turns this would give him 225 CdO.

Routing Units

Each time a unit is reduced to 0 morale it is routed and flees the battlefield. This will obviously not be a regular occurrence and without having performed any in depth play testing as yet, it is hard to determine how many on average will flee. Therefore we will need a holding number in the meantime. Let’s assume at this stage that perhaps 20% of an enemy army will flee, using our assumption of 50,000 men per army that equates to 10,000 men (or 100 strength).

I don’t think it would be entirely fair to have the strength of the unit as the reward, I’d rather have a base number which can be adjusted later if needs be. At the moment let’s assume that each routed enemy generates 10 CdO.

Through these events a General commanding 50,000 men against an army of a similar size, should roughly gain 315 CdO. He has an army of roughly 50,000 men and therefore would need 500 CdO to activate his units. He therefore needs to be able to Generate an additional 185 CdO.

Game Sizes

However not every game will be at 50,000 men a side, some may be smaller and others slightly larger.

To calculate how many Coup d’Oeil points would be needed in a game our first point of call should be some historic information on army organisation during the time.

Some fantastic information can be found as always on Rodwargaming.

‘During the Napoleonic wars most nations had battalions whose established strength was between 700 to 1200 men, although the Austrians had some battalions which were slightly larger than this range.  In practice however strength fell in the field so that the average effective battlefield strength of most battalions was some 600 men, although there were some significant variations.  The battalion was the primary tactical unit in that although several battalions would co-operate in Brigades or Divisions, each battalion would normally manoeuvre and change formation separately. ‘

So if we use the basis that an average Battalion is 600-800 men at the moment

ARMY ORGANISATION

Brigade Strength (2-5 Battalions)

This is unlikely to be a game size, but this will help create the building blocks for larger games.

A Brigade would consist of between two to five battalions of 700 men, at the moment let’s assume this is an average at 3.5 battalions. In Clausewitz this would equate to an in-game strength of 24.5.

Division Level Game (2-5 Brigades) (Small Game)

This will likely by the smallest game size that Clausewitz would do. Using our building block from the previous section, we’ll assume that an average Brigade is roughly 24.5 Strength.

A Division will be made from 2-5 Brigades, so let’s use the average and plump at 3.5

If there are on average three Brigades to a Division each a strength 24.5, we would need to generate 85.75 points (24.5 x 3.5) for our Divisional Commander over the course of the game. So our basic maths once more is 85.75.5 / 50 = 1.715.

But we also have to factor in that other in our earlier calculations for holding objectives etc. We know that holding half the objectives for the entire game will generate 225 CdO. However for a divisional game we only need to generate 85 CdO. This suggests that perhaps for this size game there are too many objective, so let’s assume a Divisional Game will be 1 primary and 1 Secondary objective, this would equate to 75 CdO over the course of the game if an army held half.

We therefore need a further 10 CdO to be generated (85.75 – 75 = 10.75).

We also have the CdO generated from revealing enemy units, if they have a similar sized force we’re looking at 3.5 CdO (1 for each reveal), this brings us to 7.25 CdO to generate (10.75 – 3.5).

Perhaps a single of the enemies 3.5 units will be routed during the course of the game, giving us a further 10 CdO. That brings us to above our target by 2.75 CdO. But we’ll need some extra CdO so that our general can issue an order at the beginning of the game, therefore we’ll need to be able to add on our average Brigade strength of 24.5, this brings us to 21.75 CdO needed.

The simplest answer to this would be to allow a Divisional General to start the game with 25 CdO, however a Divisional General will be unable to generate CdO through the game, as they should be able to attain enough through good tactics to activate most of their other units.

Corp level Game (2-5 Divisions) (Medium Game)

This would more likely be a more common game size, with roughly 30,000 men a side a Corp Level General will need to raise around 300 CdO for their troops to be activated.

For the Corp Level Game, we may have two primary and two secondary objectives on the field, these would generate 150 CdO if a General held exactly half through the game.

With 3.5 Divisions each on average each with 3.5 Brigades, the revealed units would equate to a further 12 CdO.

This brings us to 162 CdO generated so far with a further 138 required as a minimum.

We also have the estimated 20% routed enemy at 10 CdO per unit. With an enemy army of roughly 12 units this would equate to perhaps 2 units, which would add a further 20 CdO. This brings our total to 182 CdO with an additional 118 required.

118 CdO over 50 turns would mean the player requires 2.36 per turn. So let’s say that a Corp level Commander can generate 3 CdO per turn as well as starting with 50 CdO so they may activate up to two units at the start.

Army level Game (2+ Corps) (Large Game)

This brings us to our final category of game. We’re going to assume at this point that the largest game we can handle is 2 corps each of roughly 60,000 men. This breaks our game down into 600 that each General will need to create.

We already have 225 from half of the Primary and Secondary objectives (3 of each), and in terms of revealed units this would be roughly be twice that of the Corp Level Game at around 24 units a side for 24 CdO. This brings our total to 249 CdO out of 600 needed.

We also have routed 20% of the enemy units giving us an additional 50 CdO leaving us with 299 CdO.

Our General therefore needs to be able to generate 300 CdO over 50 turns meaning 6 CdO a turn. Plus the usual of being able to activate 4 units in this case means they should start with 100 CdO.

I don't want to pee on your fire so to speak but I feel you are heading into a number crunching rabbit hole which will make your final game an exercise in accounting.  I think you need to take a critical look at your rules and apply two basic principals:  Less is more and KISS (Keep it simple stupi...)

So once you have your rules go through and see everywhere you can strip stuff out or simplify it.

eg your CdO system.  Trying to account for 500 points in a single game?  When you are also tracking multiple units with strength points, morale states, individual base formations and all the rest?

Could you reduce the CdO generation and spending significantly? So make it for rarer events or reduce the need for them?  Perhaps use your higher formations.  So if a division has been ordered to advance that is it - let the player advance them and attack as they desire.  Likewise hold fast means just that.  They can shoot at units coming to them as the owning player wants but not close with the enemy themselves.  So you just leave the CdO points to change between these states perhaps (and bring in reserves one division at a time).  Thus less are needed (since they are not to activate every unit)

I've been following your work as well with concerns along similar lines as Jon.

Regarding your post you talk about a game being 50 turns. Translating to real life and assuming a game day of 6 hrs,  this gives a turn time of 7.2 minutes to perform all the actions and results of them. If you max out at each level (brigades, divisions, and corps at 5 each as you have listed) you could have 125 battalion stands on the table (on each side), each with a formation and strength number, with an average of 3.45 seconds per battlion per turn to perform its actions.

Might I suggest that you work back from the number of turns you envisage a game lasting and work out how long an action on the table actually takes to determine what is possible in a real time game.

Thank you both! I can understand where you're both coming from and yes I agree I think I need to simplify areas especially in regards to Command and Control.

The suggestion of giving order to divisions only certainly makes more sense than brigades and I'll be using this going forwards.

I also need to lessen the amount of CdO generated by field events as it may cause one player to start running away with the battle.

Food for thought, thank you!