Austerlitz - The Matrix Game

 Tim put on a game covering Napoleon's Austerlitz campaign using a very old matrix game design originally penned by Chris Engle, the king of matrix games. A certain amount of updating of the mechanisms was used for this one based on our many years of playing these sorts of things as some of the original argument mechanisms were cumbersome in the extreme.

In brief, each turn each player declares an ACTION, a RESULT and up to three reasons why this is going to happen. The umpire assesses the probability of it working, throws some dice and we get some outcomes. We have considerably streamlined how this all works and have added an option for players to simply support another player or pass and gain an advantage in the turn sequence next move.

The outline of the situation. Orders of battle on the left (the 'military units' are Corps), area movement map on the right and a table of victory points for holding certain areas. I'm fairly sure Archduke Charles didn't look at this table for the entire game.

Essentially it is September 1805 and we have six months (turns) to see if Napoleon can defeat Russia and Austria, although naturally it is a bit more complicated than that. Overall campaign victory is supposedly determined by the points above, but I suspect we'll end up winging it, at usual.

Tim created this fine representation of the map. The leaders are 54mm personality figures while the units are 15mm figures from various manufacturers. Unfortunately his tablet kept going out of focus during the game but we all had a pretty good idea where stuff was.

This is the starting setup, Massenas Army of Italy (me) is in the western end of the Po Valley, Napoleon (John B), Murat (Micheal)  and Ney (Ian) are with the Grande Armee in France. Archduke Charles (John B) has a large army in the eastern Po valley, while Mack (Russell) has a Corps in the Tyrol and the rest of the Austrian army in Vienna. Kutuzovs Russians (Pete) are up in Russia.

We also had Tom in attendance as 'the world press'.

I was Marshal Massena. Great hat. We all had individual objectives as well as the national one. I must say 'capturing Italy' is going to require a bit of fancy footwork given I'm outnumbered 3:1 by the Austrians.

I've already run through the dramatis personae, but it was an excuse to wear some particularly stupid hats.

September passed with a massive sweeping move by Napoleon which ended up in Bavaria. Both Mack and Charles were so slow they hadn't even started moving! That was good for me as it gave time to fortify the western Po valley. Napoleon very kindly left Soults Corps in France as a reinforcement, but I had to get it there first.

In October things hotted up, Charles attacked Massena and drove us back but we inflicted heavy losses on them. Napoleon marched in to Vienna and fought Mack, driving him back and capturing Vienna. Mack retreated to Moravia. Meanwhile news arrived of the British naval victory at Trafalgar.

In November Kutusov finally stirred and Napoleon, Mack and Kutuzov fought a huge battle on Moravia. Although it was a French victory, it wasn't decisive.

Down in Italy Charles attacked westwards but Massena stole a march on him and marched north into Helvetia (Switzerland) where he was joined by Soult. I had a cunning plan! cleared by Napoleon himself.

There was a local ceasefire in Austria in December, but clearly Charles hadn't got the message and continued to attack west, Austrian hussars even crossing the alps into France. Massena force marched through Wurttemburg and into Bavaria. My plan was to descend into eastern Italy via the Tyrol with Charles distracted in the west, Wurttemburg and Bavaria were also worth 15 VP between them for anyone who'd bothered to read the VP table...

We broke for the night at that point to see what 1806 would bring.

In Bohemia/Moravia fighting broke out again between the French, Russians and Austrians. Kutuzov marched to link up with Mack, but Murat held the Russians off at the second Battle of Austerlitz while Napoleon enveloped Mack at Linz. Mack surrendered and Napoleon marched back into Vienna in triumph.

And what of Italy? Well Archduke Charles continued his rather ill advised invasion of France labouring under the misapprehension that France was devoid of troops. In reality only half the French Army marched into Germany, Napoleon left 200,000 troops to defend France although 40,000 of those were coast defence troops. The main Austrian Army struggled to cross the Alps in winter and by February 1806 it was still mainly light cavalry and Jaeger detachments rampaging around south eastern France.

After the march through Switzerland in December, Massena spent January resupplying and preparing a surprise operation in Bavaria and was relieved when Charles didn't march back into Italy. In February, Massena conducted 'The descent on Italy' is it would become known in future and crossed the Tyrol via Innsbruck and then attacked the defenceless plains east of the Quadrilateral fortresses at Peschiera etc. The attack was successful and Venice and Trieste fell to the rampaging French. 

With Vienna and half of Italy in French hands, the Austrians sued for peace and the Treaty of Pressburg was signed.

Totting up the victory points it was a crushing overall French victory (31 VP vs 10 for the Allies), and in terms of the individual objectives, Charles came last, Massena, Napoleon and Kutusov all tied in second place and the joint winners were Mack and Murat. Mack in particular had pulled a blinder with his appalling Austrian accent throughout the game and overall tactical ineptitude.

That was really good fun, and it was nice to dig out one of the older matrix game scenarios. We had a brief discussion around why pure military campaigns had gone out of fashion in favour of polmil or pure political games  but didn't really come to any conclusions. There seemed to be a certain enthusiasm to repeat the experience so I expect we will do another one at some point.

Perhaps I should resurrect my old WW1 Mesopotamian Campaign game and the never played 'Battle for Berlin' I wrote decades ago.

Peninsular War 1809 to 1814

Another multi player area movement strategic game from Ian, this time covering the Peninsular War!

A very lovely map of Spain. The size and intersections of the various areas represent the density and difficulty of the terrain (generally major rivers or mountain ranges)  and also correspond roughly to the various regions of Spain. The map also has various major cities, which are important for determing lines of communication, some are inside the areas (eg Burgos, Madrid) and some (like Cordoba) are on area boundaries as major rivers flow through them.

With a varied array of real life participants, it was an excuse to wear an an array of stupid hats as well as show off various figures. I was cast as Spanish, so found the biggest bicorne I own. Tim is showing off some of his 54mm Portuguese staff officers, while Russell counters with his Del Prado Napoleon.

Tim C and Ian were French, Russell and I Spanish, Jim and Tim G Anglo-Portuguese while John ran the game.

The game runs from 1809 to 1814, with three campaign seasons per year and simple movement and combat rules. Units can stack up to three per area, move one area and fight when they are in the same space. Attacker wins draws. Once per year each side rolls for reinforcements, although there were various restrictions on what and when. The French have to start removing units from 1812 onwards as Napoleon invades Russia, and the British start to have the option to land in Corunna or Santander later in the war.

The various factions have overlapping objectives. The French want to keep Joseph on the throne and keep the British penned up in Portugal (ideally kick them out). The Spanish want to kick the French out of Spain and the British want to invade France!

We went with the historical setup. Ian has designed it so that various alternate options can be explored, the main one being that the French don't invade Russia.

The Spanish are scattered around the periphery of Spain, Joseph is on the throne supported by large French forces and the British are in Lisbon and Oporto. The Spanish and Spanish Bonapartists fight worse than everyone else, needing a 6 to instead of 5.

The black blobs are Spains trump card, guerillas! These are placed in an area and interdict French movement on a 1-3. They don't move and can't be destroyed, but proved to be surprisingly effective in disrupting French movement. These also get diced for annually as reinforcements and by the end of the game, Spain was in uproar as the map was black with guerillas.

1809 saw the British march into Estramdura and the Spanish concentrate in Adalucia and actually drive the French back! The French consolidated their hold on northern Spain

By the end of the year though, it had all gone wrong. The French attacked aggressively and conquered Andalucia and Galicia, destroying most of the Spanish Army in the process. The fighting with the British was brutal and although Wellesley came out on top, it was a much reduced British Army which marched into Madrid. Joseph retreated north to link up with his French allies.

Going into 1810 things looked a bit cheerier as both sides rolled for reinforcements. The Spanish bounced back in Leon, more French troops crossed the Pyrenees and some British forces landed at Lisbon while the main force was back in Oporto, concerned about the French in Galicia. Even Joseph managed to raise some more troops! Guerillas spread out across Spain, we were trying to isolate various areas of the country with blocks of interdiction.

1810 was the French high water mark, they pushed aggressively against Portugal, which allowed the Spanish to retake Madrid (again). Once more Joseph survived, albeit with reduced numbers.

1811 saw a big French effort against the British and they took Oporto and threatened Lisbon. Meanwhile the Spanish chased Joseph into Navarre.

But as summer 1811 drew to a close, the French had been repelled at heavy cost and were back in northwest Spain while Wellesley still held Portugal. The Spanish were content to sit in Navarre for now.

We broke for the night at that point.

On Wednesday Micheal toook over from Russell. The Spanish marched back to Madrid while the French concentrated northwest of the capital, somewhat hampered by the guerillas who were all over Spain now.

The Anglo-Portuguese followed up slowly but seemed content to let the Spanish do all the fighting in 1811.

1812 was curtains for the French. A decisive battle was fought northeast of Madrid (Vitoria?) which resulted in heavy British and French losses. A small British force landed in Santander and the French had to withdraw some units to send to Russia.

The Spanish went from strength to strength with their main army at Burgos, a subsidiary force from Barcelona invaded southeastern France! 

As 1812 drew to a close, the last French units were destroyed and the British were on the French frontier, ready to cross the Pyrenees in 1813.

With no more French units in play and no prospect of reinforcements, we called it at that point.

That was a great game, very enjoyable and rattled along at a fair pace. You could perhaps pick holes in it as a simulation of Napoleonic warfare, but as a strategic game it worked well. We had a good washup session afterwards and ran through some potential changes but without over complicating it. The main things we decided to try were:

1. making the number of French units withdrawn in 1812 and 13 variable rather than fixed
2. allowing a possibility for French units to destroy guerilla units by staying place
3. having defending units win draws, which I think better reflects the realities of Napoleonic warfare.

We liked it so much, we wanted to play it again the following week! Well done Ian. 

 

I have been to... South Africa

After visiting Reunion and Madagascar, our cruise wended its way west until we made landfall in South Africa. We called in at a number of ports with the longest stay being in Cape Town. As before, I'll mainly do historical stuff.  I'll also just say up front, that it is a real tragedy that towns and cities in South Africa is essentially a no go area for tourists on foot due to the high level of street crime, and as we generally like to walk around places instead getting a taxi from one 'safe' area to another, that rather coloured our experience. Anyway... 

Mossel Bay (mussel bay), a few hundred miles east of Capetown on the southern coast, and site of the first Portuguese settlement. There is a fabulous museum with a number of different buildings scattered around the site. There are also a lot of very good vineyards nearby. Ahem.

Centrepiece of the museum is a reproduction Caravel, based on the one which landed here in 1485. I find it astonishing that people could travel such vast distances in such tiny ships, and with no decent maps.

The ship museum was stuffed with things including these nice reproduction outfits, navigation instruments etc

And lots of old maps, showing the evolution of western knowledge of the globe. This one is from the sixteenth century and apart from missing out Australia, it is pretty accurate.

Part of the complex were the 'Munroe Cottages', built in the early nineteenth century by British/Scottish settlers. They have thatched roofs and wouldn't look out of place in the northwest corner of Scotland.

I really enjoyed visiting Mossel Bay, and unusually, it was one of the few places you could walk around and not have to get a taxi from one 'safe' place to another. 

I'm not going to bother with anything about Durban, Port Elisabeth or Richards Bay. We mainly went for the safaris. so didn't see much historical stuff although we did do a city tour of Durban and went to the Botanical Gardens which were very pleasant.

Last stop was Cape Town, which also has a huge crime problem, but some parts of the city centre and waterfront are relatively safe.

This made me laugh, a 'pirate ship' for harbour cruises. It is just like the one in Bridlington. I suspect there is one in every port.

There was a French frigate moored in the harbour. The crew were rolling up the awning over the helicopter deck.

A very interesting ship was moored behind our ship. This is a nautical diamond mining ship. They mainly operate off the coast of Namibia and essentially strip mine the ocean floor looking for diamonds. I never even knew such a thing existed.

We did manage to get out and about to see some sights, being ferried from one safe place to another.

First up was Signal Hill, just above the harbour and with great views of Table Mountain. Originally this had a ships mast and cross trees to hang signal flags off it. There is also (still) a 12pm signal gun which goes off every day.

Right in the centre of Capetown near the main railway station is the Castle of Good Hope. A fabulous star fort, originally built by the Dutch but later taken over by the British. It has a moat, separate bastions and is set up as a large museum.

Originally it fronted onto the sea, but since then land along the coastline has been reclaimed.

It is huge, this is just one of the courtyards. The buildings are a very pleasing honey/ochre colour.

Unlike my Irregular fort, the embrasures are properly sighted to fire along the bastion walls.

The other courtyard, the Dutch style is fairly obvious. Most of the buildings had three levels, horses on the ground floor, stores on the 1st floor and accommodation on the top floor with gantries to haul supplies up to the first floor. All very Amsterdam. The large archways are rooms for storing carriages. 

As it was so close to sea level, the fort had a flooding problem and the powder magazine had to be moved from its original location. It has two fresh water wells though, fed from Table Mountain.

There is a very nice representation of the original view from the front of the fort. Now there is a large road and multiple railway lines!

A model of the original layout of the fort.

And later when it was rebuilt and extended. You an see the original shoreline in the top left.

There are various uniforms in the military museum.

Seventeenth Century Dutch infantryman.

A Pandour.

And some very smart British! I love the coat colour on this mannequin.

Mortar man with a smart leopard print hat.

And some sort of Dragoon I believe.

There were quite a few models of Dutch warships.

And various types of musket.

And some more.

The old Governors rooms are very well preserved. Despite the stifling heat, they were actually (relatively) cool and airy.

A box bed. I first saw one of these in Amsterdam. How on earth you are supposed to sleep in it, I don't know. I guess you get used to anything. 

There is a nice memorial to significant nineteenth century African figures.

King Cetshwayo.

There is an interesting reproduction of the an etching of the original Dutch colony, and you can see the limited extent of the land compared to the modern city. Unfortunately I think the image has been reversed at some point as the Signal Hill and the Lions Head are on the right side of the bay, not the left, and Table Mountain is also the wrong way round.

And as we were in South Africa, yes we did see some animals....

A lone male. He was pretty big.

White Rhino! Fabulous, we saw quite a few of these. They have been saved from being hunted to extinction by being corralled in game reserves.

Zebra

Giraffe

And everyones favourite, Pumba or Warthog. These were very unafraid in the more dense bush, but in more open savannah parks were very nervous as they are easy meat for Cheetahs in the open. We did see some Cheetah, Water Buffalo, Hippos etc too but no Lions I'm afraid. 

That was a nice way to round things off, but I don't think we'll be back. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice webpages has more stuff on crime in South Africa than a whole bunch of deeply dodgy other places put together. You do wonder how much of it is self reinforcing - no-one walks as it is dangerous, but it is dangerous as no-one walks etc. Judging by a despairing thread from Cape Town which popped up on Reddit about how to stop your garden taps being stolen, I think it probably is an actual concern. A real shame as the scenery, climate and wildlife were fabulous.