Learning War and Peace

 Zach and I got together yesterday last minute to play a game of Mark Laughlin's War and Peace (the One Small Step revision of the 1980 Avalon Hill version - also by Mark Laughlin).

Reading Theodore Dodge's first volume on Napoleon and his campaigns earlier this year has made me eager to play a Napoleonic wars wargame, and thanks to Zach I finally got to check that off my bucket list. 

It was a leisurely day, really a great time. It was sunny outside, and cool in the 40s all day. A perfect fall day to hang indoors with a friend, drink warm beverages, and play some wargames. Much of the day was spent haggling over the rules - since it's new to me and still relatively new to Zach - and lamenting their organization. The 2020 version - while a phenomenal upgrade from the much older version from Avalon Hill - does not do the best job of laying out applicable rules in a logical order. We spent about 25 minutes determining whether or not my French armies could assault Turin the same turn we sent the Piedmontese retreating from the field battle (in which we had mistakenly given them entrenchments which is not allowed per the rules we later learned). 

We started off on the advanced introductory scenario - something I've never encountered. It's decidedly one-sided in favor of the French. Napoleon's army of Italy is given 12SPs, amounting to roughly 60,000 troops under arms, with small forces in support -- which if memory serves is well above the numbers he had to work with in 1796. In any case, Zach and I discussed strategy for both factions throughout, sort of playing as both sides. 

As the French, I struck Beaulieu and sent Massena to secure Genoa. The fighting with the Austrians went mostly to the French favor, and getting the Piedmontese to surrender was the goal of the first few months. 

The Austrians have the option to pull reinforcements from Prague to reinforce the theater. The only danger is doing so comes with the possibility of Prussia joining the war. Refusing that threat, Zach sent most of the Prague army racing south as Napoleon's army marched on Turin to split the Austrian forces in the Kingdom of Italy in half. In Lyon, Kellerman arrived and pulled off an envelopment move with Napoleon, leading to a field battle outside of Turin and then the swift assault on the city itself. 

The Piedmontese surrendered, leaving Austria alone, and then I moved on Milan. A similar sequence of events led to the city's fall, and Beaulieu's capture. Zach still held Mantua and most of the Austrian forces were forced to move north to consolidate, leaving the Italian peninsula open to Massena to mop up. In a quick move, however, Zach's Austrian reinforcements out of Prague reached Mantua and attempted to turn the tide by taking Genoa. In a stroke of Austrian luck, though, they failed their forced march role, finding themselves unsupported in open ground.

In a quick response, Napoleon, along with Massena, Augereau, Kellerman, and Joubert, intercepted the Austrians and dealt them a bloody nose. To make matters worse, Prussia declared war on Austria and began moving on Vienna and Prague, with only a token Austrian force to defend both cities.

At that point, we called it quits and threw in the towel. A lot of learning, and a lot of mistakes.

We'll have another cup of coffee soon, another sandwich or two, and another roll of the dice.