napoleon at the crossroads
the highways to leipzig
This
boardgame
(from now NAC) designed by Kevin Zucker of
Operational Studies Group (OSG), was released in 2006 and is the
perfect companion for
Four Lost Battles (FLB). |
All nationalities are present and clealy differentiated. The leaders
are from Corps commanders upwards and are the only counters present
in the game map (exception made of vedettes, unemployed leaders,
garrison and dummies). The emphasis is on the strategical side but
obvioulsy there is a system to simulate battles... (people buy
boardgames for it!
OSG launched in 2007 OSG the booklet
'The Companion
to NAC and FLB' with a lot of information about the campaign and
the design of NAC and FLB games. The last issues of
OSG's "Wargame Design" journal also contain material related to both
boardgames.
The characteristics of NAC makes it very adequate to use it as a
frame into which the battles could be accomodated and played
using miniatures, Napoleon's Battles (a 2x1.6 square meters
table-top contains a full hex) and the FLB mechanics for
solo-play.
napoleon at the crossroads and the
leipzig project
The 1813 campaign in Germany is one of my favourites. After the
disaster of Russia, the breach between the tactical abilities of the
French Army and its enemies practically disppeared, whereas the
Emperor's genius was not the same than before. All those facts lead
to more equilibrate battles.
In tha past I have played some of the battles (see the PREVIOUS NB
SCENARIOS' at right) with variable results generally following
the real world ones. Now (April 21, 2006) I want to replay,
practically from scratch, the 1813 autumn campaign starting with the
'Four Lost Battles': Gross-Beeren, Katzbach, Kulm and
Dennewitz. I will use the previously designed Scenarios as a
starting basis, modifying the OOB's when necessary and adding the
fog of war using chance cards à la
FLB.
In the long run, a mechanism to simulate the full autumn Campaign of
Leipzig must be provided, and NAC could be used for it.
The long awaited
'The Habit of Victory'
(HOV) adding Cards for attrition, movement, fog of war.... will
be a welcome addition
This is my 'Leipzig Project'....