As I am sure many of you are aware, I have been running a Napoleonic "imagi-nation" campaign for a while from which I have posted five sets of pictures of the main actions. The inspiration for this campaign came when a copy of C.S. Grant’s “The Wolfenbüttel War” came into my possession, I read it with interest and felt inspired to do something similar using my Fescennia “imagi-nation” Napoleonic figures. I decided that the conflict would be between the Kingdom of Arcadia and the Kingdom of Nemea and then searched for a suitable campaign to use as the basic outline. Having found one – the 1849 Campaign in Italy – I produced an outline scheme for the two sides after some adjusting of the actual events and terrain, with a brief historical background, plans of campaign, a map, and the opposing forces and their starting positions. I hoped that, as the two sides manoeuvred on the map, a series of battles would occur, with each action leading logically on to the next one, helped by using the campaign plans as a guide and some additional dice rolls for decisions when there were a number of possible options. The attackers had a slight numerical and positional advantage at the start of the campaign, but not enough to mean the outcome was certain.

Each map turn represented one day’s marching, with one square on the map equating to approximately one day’s march. There was no off-road movement allowed, all units had to move by the roads and all moved at the same rate, whether cavalry, infantry, artillery or supply wagons. Couriers moved the equivalent of six days’ marching. A force which halted for more than one day was allowed to throw up fieldworks if they wished, but none of the villages had any formal defences, although Collineville, Nordstadt and Drosselheim were all fortresses. Rivers were only passable at bridges; however, the Arcadians did have a pontoon train. At the end of an engagement, the losses were calculated based on a ratio system, so that some returned to the ranks. In addition, units could be disbanded and merged into others to keep them up to strength. Victory points were allocated for certain objectives during a battle – a side could win a tactical victory on points, but the outcome might be such that they are at a strategic disadvantage.

To summarise the situation, the Kingdom of Arcadia is preparing an invasion of the Kingdom of Nemea and has begun to assemble its army on the border. However, the Nemeans have received enough warning of their enemy’s concentration to prepare and launch a pre-emptive strike into Arcadia with the aim of defeating the Arcadians on their own soil. The Nemeans hastily destroyed the bridge over the major river that forms part of their border with Arcadia, and over which their enemy intended to direct their main assault, most of the latter’s army having started to concentrate near it. The Nemeans, screening the border with only a few units, massed their troops ready to cross the mountains further to the east, intending to manoeuvre behind the Arcadian right flank and cut the line of communication back to their capital, thereby forcing the latter’s army to abandon its invasion of Nemea and fight to save itself from disaster.

I have put the details of the campaign and its five main scenarios on the link below; feel free to use it as you please, either as a sequence of games, or as "stand alone" actions in their own right. If it is slow to load, give it time!

Collineville Campaign