dinsdag 12 oktober 2010

Marches - campaign applications

In a recent TMP topic a reader asked if “marching camps” were a valid feature of 18th century warfare and I thought it would be nice to discuss how we handle this subject within our rules. We still use the WRG 1685 – 1845 rule set (1979), but with minor modifications; historical troop scale is 1:25 and linear scale 30mm equals 50 paces. All my quotations and references are from Duffy’s The Army of Maria Theresa.

In the Austrian army, it was the Generalquartiermeister who wrote out the marschzettel the evening before a march. This document listed the time of departure, route, number and composition of the columns. As our order of battle list all the regiments or battalions by seniority within the brigade, the marching order is now known. Altering the order of individual brigades within the column is not a problem as we need only list the names of brigade commander.

Following the doctrine of the times, approaching in close proximity to the enemy, our army would march off in four columns, which if the need arose could deploy from their march column to battlefield deployment; right wing of horse, main battle line of foot, second line of foot and left wing of horse by simply wheeling to the right. Other factors could influence the march column, such as, restrictive terrain, the column could be adjusted as the size of the force was small or the army was marching in pursuit or retreating.

Composition of the March

Light cavalry patrolled in advance of the main column. Following the light cavalry would be further light troops and detachments whose task would be to hold villages, crossings and with the presence of the Generalquartiermeister would secure an area for the next camp. Next came the main body followed by the baggage train. If the army were in close proximity of the enemy, the main column would be flanked by patrols.

The best roads were reserved for the artillery and baggage while the “rest marched across country in columns as wide as would be permitted by terrain.”

Early in the morning, the general and his column commanders would meet for a final conference followed by the army breaking camp. In 30 minutes troops could be formed in their respective columns and tentage could be packed away. During the summer period, breaking camp would be completed well before dawn so as to reach the next camp before the afternoon.

On the march a close watch was kept while passing through woods or villages, less some would make use of an opportunity to bolt and run. A casual march, with a rest every third or fourth day could make 6 to 8 miles per day. In some cases, force marching could cover a longer distance. The marches on Berlin by Hadik (1757) and Lacy (1760) covered 15 and 20 miles respectively.

Our campaigns

The rules we use do not cover a strategic game, so we had to create one. Prior to our interest in the Seven Years War, we both played DBA games and frequently used the campaign system. For its simplicity, we liked the nodal system and applied this to our maps for the SYW. Maps can easily be found for many of the SYW campaign areas on the internet and one of these we choose for our first 1757 campaign in Northern Bohemia.

As Prague was to be the Prussians main objective, we highlighted the towns and villages a day’s march from one another and extended the network toward the border with Silesia and Saxony. The next step was to make a record sheet to track the movement of our armies. As mentioned before, we organized our armies listing each of the brigades with the individual battalions and regiments listed by seniority. The listing essentially reflected the order of deployment and hence marching sequence.

The tracking sheets recorded the time we began our march, an objective and whether we moved at a standard march or force march rate. After three days of marching, the armies rested for a day. Force marching or doubling the distance covered counted for two march days which meant the required rest day was taken sooner.

As generals, we had a lot of flexibility with the system, as we could break camp earlier than our opponent, steal a day on your opponent with a force march, or begin our day’s march in the evening, which meant encampment was begun the following morning instead of the afternoon.



Next topic: From the map, to the table top.

10 opmerkingen:

David Morfitt zei

Good information interestingly presented - thanks! :-)

Cheers,

David
http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/

Furt zei

That reader was me!! I really appreciate the effort that you put into this post - great information.
Frank
http://adventuresinlead.blogspot.com/

Timurilank zei

@ David, thank you for your kind words. The next post should be equally as entertaining.

@Frank, I thank you for initiating the idea.

Cheers,

Milo Burgh zei

How do you base your miniatures? Both regular armies and turks.

Emilio

Timurilank zei

Emilio, if you are acquainted with the WRG rules, we use the same frontage of 30mm but doubled the depth for infantry.

In fact, we discovered a 30x30mm base improved the options to depict irregulars. Starting with 6 regulars in two ranks, 3 skirmishers, 4 charging irregular infantry, 5 loose formation regulars such as Janissaries.

Same base size could accomadate, 3 regular cavalry, 2 irregualr cavalry, battalion and field guns, Generals and staff. So 30x30mm suited everything with the exception of transport, heavy and siege guns and the CinC.

Cheers,

Timurilank zei

The transport, heavy guns and CinC were based 30x60mm. With a uniform size base, movement was easy as was deploying or clearing up after a game.

Milo Burgh zei

Yes, I know the WRG rules. But I feel that 6 regular infantry in the same front as 3 regular cavalry goes against the rules, as infantry shot by fours... don´t you feel any problem about that?
And, how would you base scots highlanders? five per base as janissaires?

Emilio

Timurilank zei

Emilio, We looked to the historical numbers taken by a set frontage and this was 250 paces for a battlion front of 600 foot including their battalion guns.

There is flexibility built into this system, as you only need to divide by four to have the number of dice or use simply the number of bases. The later gives you a battalion with a bit more staying power which suited our impression of a SYW battle. It did take a number of bounds to make headway to break a battlion. The up and down of die rolls tended to smooth itself out.

Scots, of the SYW, we based four to a stand as charging irregular infantry, but five for the Janissaries. These did have regular status but able to charge and take the fight to the enemy with a bit more zeal.

cheers,

Milo Burgh zei

Not sure that I understand the number of dice bit, but...

Which manufacturer are your ottomans? I use Alain Touller ones.

Emilio.

Timurilank zei

Hello Emilio,

By number of dice, I meant the number of actual figures divded by four would give you the number of die rolls for that battalion. As our battalions are 24 figure, that would allow us 6 die rolls.

We decided to claim an extra rank or four rank deep battalions and used the number of bases (4) to equate to the number of die rolls.

This actually worked well. If we were to play Napoleonics, we would divide the number of figures to achieve a higher number of die rolls for say the British or use the other option for lesser trained troops.

The Ottomans are 15mm Old Glory from the Seven Years War listing.

Saludos,