Friday, May 6, 2011

The "To Do" List

My friend Eric Burgess posted his (very ambitious/impressive) Projects list for 2011 to his Blog, which is what prompted this post on my part.

First, some Goals for 2011 that are already done:

A) Start this Blog and post with some regularity!
B) Plan and run the Gorodetschna,1812 scenario at HAVOC in April 2011(with Bary, Greg, and Thomas of the Hartford (CT) Area Historical Wargames Society or "HAHGS")  -  Report  here on Barry's Blog
C) Finish the 1809: Blunders on the Danube scenario book - done as of the end of March. Awaiting final layout and publication, probably at least several months in the future. BTW, here's the tentative back cover text delineating the scenarios covered:

  
This book contains 23 scenarios for use with Brent Oman's Horse and Musket era rules, Field of Battle, by Piquet

1) Sacile: April 16. Prince Eugene's first battle, where he was defeated by Archduke John.
2) Raszyn: April 19 Poniatowski's Polish troops, with Saxon allies, try to delay Archduke Ferdinand's advance on Warsaw.
3) Teugen Hausen: April 19 Davout's 3rd Corps advancing from Ratisbon must defeat Hohenzollern's Austrian III Corps to reunite with the main army and avoid destruction by Archduke Charles
4) Abensberg: April 20. The Emperor Napoleon arrives in Bavaria, and the momentum shifts decisively to the French and their allies!
5) Eggmuhl: April 22 Napoleon attempts to trap the retreating Austrians against the Danube. The Austrian rearguard must delay the French , and then make good their own escape.
6) Neumarkt; April 24 Austrian general Hiller turns at bay and chastises the pursuing French and Bavarians under Marshal Bessieres.
7) Grochow: April 25 Prince Poniatowski leads his Poles on a raid across the Vistula upon the Advanced Guard Division of Austrian General von Mohr.
8) Ebelsberg: May 3 Massena's troops attempts to destroy the Austrians of Hiller's command before they can retreat across the River Traun.
9) Battle on the Piave: May 8 Prince Eugene surprises Archduke John by making a bold crossing of the rapidly rising River Piave.
           10) Tarvis: May 17 Prince Eugene and the Army of Italy come across the weak Austrian VII corps under Albert Gyulai. Despite their strong position, the Austrians are swept from the field.
11) Aspern-Essling Day 1: May 21 Overconfidence and reliance upon a rickety bridge leave the French fighting for their lives along the Danbube.
12) Aspern-Essling Day 2: May 22 Unable to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, Napoleon is ultimately forced to retreat back across the Danube.
13) Gospic: May 21-22 Marshal Marmont attempts to chase the Austrians out of Croatia.
14) St. Michael: May 25 Johann Jellacic's Division is under orders to withdraw from Styria, but Eugene catches up with him and goes immediately to the attack!
15) 2nd Battle of Bergisel: May 29 Tyrolean Rebels, including Andreas Hoffer, harass Deroy's Bavarian Division near Innsbruck.
16) Klagenfurt: June 6 Chasteler's command must withdraw from the Tyrol. They and their baggage must pass by the walled town of Klagenfurt. French GD Rusca isn't planning to make it easy for them!
17) Raab: June 14 Prince Eugene faces Archduke John for the third time. With his army filled with large numbers of the untested Hungarian Insurrectio, John holds a strong defensive position.
18) Graz: June 26 Une contra Dix”; Ignaz Gyulai attempts to destroy the isolated 84e Ligne; the result is one of the most celebrated feats of arms by the French Infantry.
19) Wagram: July 6 Napoleon and the Archduke Charles square off in what is the largest battle in the history of Europe to that point.
20)Wagram: Davout’s Attack The action on the French Right Flank.
21) Wagram: Rumble on the Russbach The central portion of the battle along the Russbacj stream.
22) Wagram: Crisis on the French Left Massena and Bernadotte attempt to stem the initial Austrian attack... without using up too many of the French reserves!
23) Znaim: July 11 The French catch up with the retreating Austrians, and battle is joined while peace negotiations proceed apace even as brave men on both sides fight and die.
                                                                                                             
                        

Next are the Items in Progress:

D) With Joe and Barry, run  2-3 Vauban's Wars playtest games (Eric's forthcoming 18th Century Siege rules). One done in February, second coming up in about 10 days.
E) Plan and run/assist slate of Piquet/Field of Battle games at Historicon 2011:

* Znaim 1809 Thursday night (Field of Battle)
* Assist Eric with Punic Wars game Friday AM (Archon, 2nd ed.)
* Assist Tim with ACW game Friday Afternoon (Field of Battle)
* Assist Barry with Neverenufsky Friday evening (Field of Battle, fictional Napoleonic)
* Renaissance Trilogy (Band of Brothers, 2nd edition: Sudomer - Hussite Wars, Cerignola - Great Italian Wars, Ceressole, Late Great Italian Wars) - with Dave Maupin; Saturday afternoon

F) Continue painting for our Borodino, et all project for Historicon 2012 (and for our 1813 Dresden et al project for 2012):

Peter's To Do List for Borodino, July 2012:

French/Allied:
Paint 4 (6) more French Line [done] and posted to this blog
4 units Vistula Legion [have]
Paint one more French Chevau-Leger (Lanciers) [doneand posted to this blog
1 unit Polish Hussars [doneand posted to this blog
1 Unit Polish Chasseurs a Cheval [doneand posted to this blog
Paint 3 units French Horse Artillery [done]
Paint 2 units French 6/8# Foot Artillery [have]
(Paint 1 more unit French 12# Foot Artillery [have/extra] )
(Paint 1 more unit French Guard Horse Artillery [have/extra] )


Russian:
Paint 2 (3) Russian Guards (Seminovsky, Litovsky) Done  to be posted
Paint 2 more Guard Jager (use new S&S Jager Regts) [in progress]
4 Moscow Militia ( 4 stands of 3 each) [need to order, paint]
2 more Russian Hussars [have, need to paint]
1 Guard Hussar [have, need to paint]
1 Chevalier Guard [have, need to paint]
2 more Cossacks [have need to paint]
Paint 3 more Russian Horse Artillery [done] to be posted
Paint 2 more Russian 12# Foot [ have ]
Paint 3 more Russian 6# Foot ( 3 extra, one will represent Guard?) [ have]
Paint Russian Officers [have]


G) Paint 32 Roman Velites and command figures for new Roman Legions for Eric's A2 game at Historicon
H) Consider finishing painting that New Kingdom Egyptian Army I started in 2007, LOL!
I) Paint additional Renaissance/Italian Wars troops as motivated (have lots)
J) Purchase more Perry HYW figures gradually
K) With Barry, Greg, Thomas, Joe, et al - run big test game of Borodino ?? at EllisCon in October
L) In our fictional Naopleonic campaign using Warplan 5/5, La République du Bénéfice  (my country, based loosely on Revolutionary France, and led by Premier Contrôleur Rob S. Pierre) will continue its thus far inept attempts to defeat Ratlandia (Joe's contry, sort of a Brittain/Brunswick cross, lead by none other than the Big Cheese himself, King Rat).
M) start planning for the 2013/1813 project!  :-)




Sample map cards from Warplan 5/5, a system from back circa 1970, but used for a total of six campaigns now with various players since then ; my Capitol city is in card 9A.













Not as impressive as Eric's list, but still fairly formidable!

Good gaming,

-Peter

5 comments:

  1. Look forward to seeing them all unfold Peter,
    I'm not great at sticking to painting plans as I get my enjoyment out of jumping about from nation to nation/colour to colour (I think I suffer from painting far to much panzer grey as a kid?).
    Always good to see more Russians on the go.
    Cheers
    Paul

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  2. I like to switch back and forth, too. I still have artillery, infantry, and cavalry, and Vistula Legion, French, and Poles in my Borodino 2012 project list, so that's enough variety for me. And here there is a deadline - they need to be all done by July 2012, hopefully most by October this year for the big playtest!

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  3. Hi Peter

    For me the adage 'any plan does not survive first contact with the enemy' holds true so usually avoid like plague :-)

    Gary

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  4. I'd love to hear more about how you use Warplan 5x5-- I really love the concept, I've never gotten around to using them. Are you using ToW for the campaign?

    And you have a guaranteed sale here for Blunder on the Danube!! Looking forward to it.

    And not sure why you're laughing about finishing an army you bought in 2007-- based on MY rate of painting, I assume you're giddy at your success? ;-)

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  5. Gary,
    As true in life as on the wargames table! Still,if I have a concrete goal and time frame in mind, I'm pretty dependable; indeed, that's usually what spurs most of my productivity. For the 1809 project I painted well over 500 figures in the 12 months before!

    Andy,

    Joe is both the "Tin God" (umpire) for the campaign, as well as a player (how dumb of me was it to attack the Ump's country, LOL?!). We don't use TOW for this (although we used it for an Italian Wars campaign, and it worked great); Moves are written and submitted for each week (depends upon type, roads, terrain), and trhen any battles, land and/or sea, farmed out, fought, and the results applied. There is also production of food, artillery, and crowns (money) weekly, with replacements and new units being possible but restrained by available population, horses, etc. See Barry's blog for some info on the campaign vis a vis his country Fuddland, which also borders mine; thus far we have maintained non-aggression and a mutually favorable economic exchange.

    As for the Egyptians, well, I think I bought them circa 2005, partially painted them in 2007, and they've been pretty much in limbo since then as I returned to cranking out Napoleonics again big time!

    ReplyDelete