New Campaign: War of the Fourth Coalition

I wrote earlier that the 1805 campaign would be followed up with one on the Prussian war of 1806.  I had the scenario pretty much written, the armies ordered and the map drawn.  It looked like this:

... mostly.  The Netherlands were not depicted then, but it is pretty close.

That was the original plan, but you know how plans go in the face of the enemy.  There were various delays, and while I was waiting I drew more maps, because after all, after 1806 we were going to go to 1807.  By the time the campaign looked like starting I had a complete Russian OOB as well, and numbers for Prussian unmobilised reserves east of the Oder as well as west, to support a longer war - all the way up to Tilsit, or to an early onset of the Befreiungskrieg - in the event that the Prussians do not fold like a cheap deckchair a week in.  The new map looked like this:

So, we have a map from the Rhine to Königsberg, a campaign duration of up to fifteen months, and sixteen players lining up to take part.  This is going to be big.  Too big?  Let's find out...

The Scenario

A complication in the 1805 scenario was that we had four national teams with competing objectives.  That worked well, but there is enough complication here already without introducing geopolitical rivalries, so this campaign has a simple two-team structure - France and its allies on one side and the Coalition on the other.  The one nod to larger-scale geopolitics and consequent grand strategy I did allow is that the Emperor's historical strategy was shaped in part by several threats that did not, in the end, materialise, but are reflected in the game.

He had given the Austrians a good kicking less than a year earlier, but part of his deciding to go with the geographically difficult Thuringian invasion route into Saxony was that it allowed him to keep a threat close to the Austrian border.  Between the Grande Armée on their doorstep and the news of immediate Prussian defeat, they did not stir, but Napoleon thought they might.  If the French are far away and the Coalition is winning, there is a small chance that they will give it a go in the game.  If so, they will not get Archduke Charles to lead them.  He thinks another war with the French would be a stupid idea.

The second threat that concerned the historical Napoleon was that of a British descent in northern Germany.  They had landed there in 1805, and would again in 1807 (albeit against Denmark after Tilsit).  He had brother Louis and Marshal Mortier watching his left flank against such an eventuality.

Finally, he did not believe for a moment the protestations of neutrality of the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel.  As soon as he could spare the troops he invaded and annexed the territory, and he can do that in the campaign, too, at the cost of a modest number of victory points.  If he doesn't, they might at some point take the risk of stabbing him in the back, if they are sure of sufficient support from either Prussia or Britain.

The game kicked off in late February, 2023, with a fairly historical French invasion through the Thuringian Forest - only fairly, because the entire army is down here, including Mortier.  News of strategic developments, suitably general and/or delayed so as not to give away secrets, will follow...