Wars of Succession: The Best Marlborough Simulator Around

Eugene in Mantua at the end of 1701. He's already beat the pants off the French in two battles and taken Modena

I think Wars of Succession may be the best game AGEOD has ever produced, despite having some "fit and finish" issues. Granted, I'm biased toward the period, but this game takes the best of the new features introduced in Wars of Napoleon, discards what didn't work, and marries it to what did work in games like Thirty Years War  and Rise of Prussia.

Campaigns on the Danube - 1809

Rain will slow down my offensive. The last thing the Austrians need is to be slower!

In honor of "Spring in Munich," our 1809 campaign Kriegsspiel getting underway today, I've been playing the same campaign in the nearest thing to a computerized Napoleonic operational Kriegsspiel currently available.

Spring in Munich: Ready to Go

The armies are ready to place on the map. Final dispositions are due today. First orders are due tomorrow.

As much as I like Jim's Dalek stickers, I wanted to go with something more reminiscent of Berthier's chest of blocks. Conveniently, the width of one of these blocks equals 2km on the map, and the length equals 4km, the marching speed of the Austrian and French infantry respectively.

"Spring in Munich" An 1809 Kriegsspiel

Where I'll be spending many evenings for the next year and change

Playing Nine Years

A French army lays siege to Tournai

I'm not ready to do a full-blown walk-through of Nine Years yet because I'm still learning it. What I am prepared to say is that I'm enjoying this game immensely!

Rossbach: The Flank March

The aftermath of the French attack on Schortau

Historically, Rossbach was a Prussian triumph, a battle fought not just against inferior French and Imperial troops, but by Frederick against a pair of French and Imperial generals who probably had no business being on the field.

That may not be the case on my table.

HtL:Chotusitz with Bob

It took a cautious seven turns for my Austrians to close with the Prussian right in preparation to attack Chotusitz

Bob Ellis and I got in another round of Hold the Line: Frederick's War today; this time the second battle of the First Silesian War, Chotusitz. This game seesawed back and forth and was very tense right until the end. Bob and I played this time with all of the advanced rules except attacker morale checks and facing, which added a nice bit of chrome to the game. Despite the simplicity of the rules, this game continues to impress us both with just how well it seems to portray the period.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Reset

Blenheim setup overview

After doing a lot more reading about Blenheim and getting in a couple of turns to familiarize myself with the rules, I've decided to reset the game and start over. This time I'm using a much closer to historical setup, based on the OOB and maps from Obscure Battles. Not only is the distribution of units more correct, the actual battalions and regiments are mostly in the correct locations. The OOBs from the game and web site don't entirely line up, but they're close.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: Anglo-Allied Setup and First Turns

Now for the Anglo-allied setup. Again, this is a quasi-historical setup. The commands ("lines" in game terms) are composed of roughly the right mix of units, and are in roughly the right places - as far as anyone knows. For a future game I will probably use the positions as illustrated here for what may be a more historical setup.

A Famous Victory - Blenheim: French Setup

The Great Leaders series from now defunct gaming publisher Moments in History is a series of two games covering Marlborough's four great victories during the War of Spanish Succession, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. I'm about to start a the Blenheim scenario. In this scenario the Franco-Bavarian army sets up first. The above is an overview of the Franco-bavarian position. I've gone with a more-or-less historical setup, both because I prefer historical setups and to test out the game mechanics with a known deployment.

Action at Dego: JTS Campaign Marengo

French approach to Dego, initial positions

Not much boardgaming this weekend, as I've been consumed with PBEM turns and solo computer gaming. Much of the latter has been due to this game, the newly released Campaign Marengo from John Tiller Software.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - 3:00 to 4:00 PM

Dig the fancy new counter sleds!

I didn't have time for a ton of gaming this week aside from my ongoing PBEM games, but I think I've made up for that this weekend. While mostly I've been playing PBEM turns and a solo campaign of AGEOD's Thirty Years War I did manage to get some time for board gaming as well.

For a change of pace, here we are looking at things from the Austrian side of the map. The line of yellow bordered counters you can see to the right center are Rosenberg's corps, occupying the Vorberg above Eckmuhl and the Laichlings. The blue stack just their left are Vandamme's troops in Eckmuhl itself. During the fighting at 3PM Vandamme's troops manage to destroy Bieber's brigade of the III Corps, that had attacked them in the town.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - Video 2

Halfway through 3PM. Discussing some key game systems.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - 2:00 to 3:00 PM

As the afternoon progresses, things are definitely heating up, despite the pouring rain.

2:00 PM - Vandamme attacks at Unter Deggenbach, routing M. Lichtenstein's Grenzers and lt. cavalry. Clement's HC attacks south of Lindach, pushing back Pfanzelter's piquets.  Lannes advances to vicinity of Lindach.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - Early Afternoon

Lefebvre's corps attacks Unter Laiching

Things are happening much earlier in this game than happened historically. During the actual battle, the Allied forces waited through the morning for Napoleon and Lannes to arrive from Landshut, while the Austrians waited until early afternoon to give Kolowrat's II Corps time ti recuperate from a night march. That could have happened here - the Austrians drew a "Late Start" mode card at the beginning of turn 1, which should have kept all of the Austrian commanders in bed until they rolled a "1" on a D6 or until an enemy unit engaged an Austrian unit within 10 hexes of the commander. Interestingly, they also drew the "Early Arrival" mode card, which, having a higher number than "Late Start", and which puts all units on the map in command on turn 1, immediately cancelled the "Late Start" Effect.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - 1

First video of my Eckmuhl play. End of the 11AM turn.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - Opening Moves

Vandamme's Corps moving on Buchausen at 10AM

It turned out to be a busy week and so I wasn't able to actually start this game as I'd planned. I have managed to get started today, however. It's been slow going getting started as I finished setting everything up and the had to get reacquainted with the rules.