Two years of blogging

The following text is the first post of this blog (April 16, 2007) two years ago:

"I play solo-wargames with 1/72 (20 mm) miniatures and the Napoleon's Battles (NB) rule-set. I have played battles for the Napoleon's campaigns of 1805, 1809, 1813, 1815 and the Peninsular.The 1813 autumn campaign in Germany (a.k.a the Campaign of Leipzig) is one of my favourites. After the French disaster at Russia, the breach between the tactical abilities of the French Army and its enemies practically disppeared. On the other hand, the Emperor's strategical genius was not the same than before, and the Allied commanders usually known the way to handle him (at the cost of some rebuffals such Lutzen, Bautzen or Dresden). All those considerations lead to both equilibrate campaigns and battles. Gone were the times of Austerlitz, Jena or even Wagram.

All those considerations are acknowledged in NB by lowering the French army statistics whereas the Allied ones are increased, so the flavour of the campaign is maintained. In the past I have played some of the battles of the Leipzig Campaign (see the PREVIOUS NB SCENARIOS' at right) with variable results that generally follow the real result. Now I want to replay, practically from scratch, the 1813 autumn campaign.

In this occasion I can use as an aid the boardgames 'Four Lost Battles' (FLB) and 'Napoleon at the Crossroads' (NAC) the last products of the Kevin Zucker's Operational Studies Group. FLB focusses on the battles of Gross-Beeren, Katzbach, Kulm and Dennewitz, four battles lost by the Napoleon's subordinates: Oudinot, Macdonald, Vandamme and Ney. NAC is more strategical in scope covering all the autumn Campaign beginning at the end of the August armistice.

I will use the previous Scenarios as a starting basis, modifying the OOB's when necessary, at the light of new bibligraphy, and adding the chance element (chance cards) following the FLB style. The chosen battles are initially the FLB: Gross-Beeren, Katzbach, Kulm and Dennewitz."

From then, only two significant event had taken place: the launching of one more napoleonic OSG games Habit of Victory - Napoleon's Campaign in Poland, 1807, and unfortunately (at least for the gamers community) the closing of Kevin Zucker's Operational Studies Group. The cited game, incorporated some new game mechanisms, game cards, that could be very helping in the solo-simulation of napoleonic conflicts, and that are worth exploring.

Thanks to all known and unknown readers of this blog for their support!