More Aspern-Essling - Blucher

Jim and I continue with Day 2 of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, using Sam Mustafa's Blücher.

The Battle of Teugn-Hausen

A great time last night playing Black Powder via Table Top Simulator. We expect to finish this game in a couple of weeks.

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

Waterloo 20 with My Wife

Night, June 16th. Through heavy fighting, the Allies have been forced out of Quatre Bras and the Prussians from Ligny.

I've persuaded my wife to do some reading on Waterloo. She's chiefly reading Bernard Corwell's Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles and may progress on to some other works, including a volume of personal accounts of the battle. To help her understand the situation and choices facing Wellington and Napoleon during those four days, we're playing through Waterloo 20 from the GMT Fading Glory set.

Arrived: Ligny 1815 - Last Eagles

Honestly, it's a disease. An addiction. But I had to have it.

Also, I didn't realize until looking at the map for this how close Fleurus is to Ligny.

Rising Eagles - Learning the Ropes

The Coalition Advanced Guard and 1st Column advance on Telnitz, their orders objective. Davout's III Corps has Defend orders.

This first game I'm playing of Rising Eagles is very much a learning game. Entering the 8AM turn I'm trying out some combat for the first time - and learning an important lesson!

Austerlitz - Rising Eagles

Scenario 1 covers Davout's defense of Telnitz and Sokolwitz on the French right

Grogbrother Jim has been expressing cautious optimism about Hexasim's Eagles of France series this weekend. He's specifically playing Fallen Eagles, which covers Waterloo. I have Rising Eagles, their Austerlitz game. Given Jim's praise for his early attempts at the system, I thought I ought to finally get it on the table and give it a try.

What I'm Working On This Morning

More soon...

Arrived This Past Week

Nine Years - The War of the Grand Alliance  by Compass Games and Napoleon's Quagmire from OSG. More pictures of the games in play coming.

More Books

This weekend's haul from Half-Price Books. The one clipped off in the upper right is Chandler's The Military Maxims of Napoleon. I'm most interested/excited though in the book in the center, Conserving the Enlightenment, a scholarly work on the early French engineering corps.

The book on Marlborough is a little light, but it has some nice maps and seemed like something I could give someone as an introduction.

Recent Kickstarters I've Backed

Pub Battles: Antietam (Limited "Sharpsburg" Edition)

While I may have some quibbles with the ambiguity of the rules for these games, there's just no denying that the Pub Battles games are fun, fast playing, Kriegspiel-like, and just plain gorgeous. When I saw that there was a limited edition version of their upcoming Antietam game on Kickstarter, there was just no way I could keep myself from backing it.

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.

Scourge of War Waterloo - Sandbox Play

Marching my division across the Belgian countryside toward our objective, a small town

After playing The Last Success  much of yesterday, I finished the evening with a session of Scourge of War: Waterloo to have a slightly different Napoleonic experience.

OSG's The Last Success: Eckmuhl - 1

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