Campaign Eylau-Friedland Has Released!

[Sgt_Rock]

In my game against Jim (we player the late start scenario of Eylau) I swung the Prussian force around his rear and would have captured Eylau had we not called the game. Jim devastated my Russian cavalry so that his was pretty much in control of the open spaces. I had not lost as many guns as I thought I would because I just kept them further back in squares. Here and there Jim picked off some guns but nothing like what he did to my poor Russian troopers!

Heilsberg is hard for the French. Face it: the situation is that the Russians are entrenched and the French arrive on the fly so to speak. Only if the Russians decide to "come out and play" or do not retreat soon enough with their rearguard will they lose. Its going to be a bloody draw most of the time. Assaulting the redoubts takes either a lot of courage or foolishness as the Russians have plenty of troops in reserve. There is a large force on the southern side of the Alle river that releases gradually throughout the battle. An option for Ney and Davout to assault from the south is the topic of a variant scenario.

Friedland was played to completion twice by our team and if the Russians cannot catch Lannes and Grouchy early the tide of French reinforcement turns the battle into something close to the historical positions. The French have to devote light cavalry to guard against the Cossacks and Russian cavalry from taking objectives in the rear (which is basically what happened ...). This represents the Russians trying to open up the road to Konigsberg.

The other battles in the game run a mix between rearguard, historical setpiece, bridgehead defense, large operational scale battles using the larger maps and so on.

The campaign has an option for the both sides to remain in winter quarters. As this favors the French more than the Russian more than likely the Allied player will choose to "come out and play" almost every time. Thus the battles of late January and early February will more than likely happen. However, should both sides choose NOT to leave winter quarters in January then both sides will have additional forces, Augereau's VII Corps will not have been wrecked at Eylau (along with other formations) and the ensuing Spring campaign will be an interesting contest to say the least.

There is a lot in the game to keep you guys busy for many years to come! We couldn't cover the Siege of Danzig or Swedish Pomeranian campaign and there is no option for the Archduke Charles to intervene but then had I added all that in our graphics guys would still be building the artwork, I would still be doing scenario design work and the game would have been delayed another 8 months. I don't think that any of us wanted that ....

What is in the game is a ton of playing material and lots of nice artwork in particular the Russian and French hussars having their own images and the plethora of French-Allied units being represented in the OBs as well.