The Musings of 'Ole Man Brunswick: A reflection on a lost campaign Prussia 1806

[Hatricvs]

19.00 Hrs

From: Ruchel
To: Brunswick

Sent: 17.00 Hrs, 17th October
Received: 19.00 Hrs

Sir!

I have reached Naumbourg where I have encamped for the night. Saxe Division is here with me and Weirmar has been seen to be approaching the city as well.

In the morning we shall continue our march north.

There are reports of the French approaching Naumbourg from the West!

We shall endeavour to stay ahead of them and avoid direct conflict.

Awaiting any change in orders you might have and any status updates on the campaign at large.

Regards,

Ruchel.

[Hatricvs]

20.00 Hrs

From: Control
To: Brunswick

Sent: 20.00 Hrs, 17th October

Prince Brunswick:

You can hear the sound of gunfire from the South and West in the direction of Naumbourg.

S!

Note: And this brings me up to date with the AAR's....battle is in full swing somewhere and with someone.  And another crisis in command is about to descend upon the Prussian's!

[panzerde]

Note: Thanks to Jim's intervention it began to dawn upon me just how much I was asking of my troops so early in the campaign. This was the first real time that I discovered just how clogged a road could get and just how long a column would take from getting from A to B in this game system. It was an error that I would make more than once!

This is a really key realization for pre-20th century warfare (and really applies even today, but is usually poorly modeled in games). Moving a completely muscle-powered army on roads that are not much more than goat paths takes much, much longer than we moderns are used to! Perfectly reasonable that this would be a surprise to almost everyone playing this for the first time.

[JasonPratt]

On this point, while I didn't have real-life experience on army (or any such) logistics, I had played quite a bit of SCOURGE OF WAR (and the Take Command games before it), so I was able to keep a bit of mental acuity about whole corps (or even just divisions) on the map.

[panzerde]

On this point, while I didn't have real-life experience on army (or any such) logistics, I had played quite a bit of SCOURGE OF WAR (and the Take Command games before it), so I was able to keep a bit of mental acuity about whole corps (or even just divisions) on the map.

There's probably no other computer game as good at depicting this than SoW, particularly played HITS.