My head is spinning

I have completed a first draft of some rules for a campaign that will cover most of Europe between 1700–1721.

Karl XII and the Duke of Marlborough by Doyle

 

My recent reading has been around military history in the north and east of Europe in the mid-17th and early 18th centuries: Long Turkish War, Transylvania, Poland-Lithuania, Sweden, Ottomans, Muscovy, Deluge, Great Turkish War and, of course, the Great Northern War. The often complex intertwining and links from one to the other start to fall out. I wondered about an historical-wargaming exercise to run from one to the other. A look at a list of conflicts in Europe (my goodness haven't they been at each other for ages, is it all that they do?!) showed that it could perhaps be done.

I mentioned it to Julian ahead of our most recent catch-up (when he helped me to re-start the game of Klissow) and he jumped at the idea. For years he has been keen on a campaign to link the War of Spanish Succession and Great Northern War. He was not averse to expanding it further east.

We discussed some of the concepts when we caught up and made a few broad decisions: it is a goer, we'll probably do it as a two-player exercise, we want to capture the essence of the period(s), but want a pragmatic approach, not getting bogged-down in too much unnecessary detail. We left it that I'd work on a draft, slowly and we'd eventually progress to something that we might commence next year (sometime).

Where to begin?

I have rules for campaigns for the 1807–14 Peninsular War and western theatre of the American Civil War that were derived from ideas that I first read in Quarrie's Napoleonic Wargaming. The former Dad and I had played, off and on, over several years in the 1980s and 90s. The latter, derived from the Peninsular rules, I ran for a while at the Napoleonic Wargaming Society in the early 90s; until I went overseas for a while. Neither had been run to a completion, but they both had worked, well enough, and served the wargamer's purpose of producing table-top games.

This new concept is, of course, a level or three above those is scope; both space and time.

Not to be deterred (sensible?), I began by grabbing the most recent of those documents, the western theatre of the American Civil War, and, after finding software to open it(!), saved a copy for editing.

I began with a few edits of the rules, before reading and making notes about people and events of the years for this campaign. I wanted to have a timeline of events, both recent ones up to the beginning of the campaign (1th February 1700, Gregorian calendar) and others during the years covered that will be deemed to occur—the death of King Charles II of Spain being an obvious one. Oh, my goodness, how this expanded and blew out!

Despite, or perhaps because of this, I got a bit impatient so, over the past few days I have obsessed/focussed on this so as to produce a first draft. Very much a first draft.

I produced rules from my ’template’ of those for an American Civil War Western Campaign. Turns will be monthly (reducing to weekly or even daily if required for the movement of forces in close proximity). Independent forces are given orders (as broad as reasonable), new orders and messages are sent, forces move, supply and attrition are worked out and then any table-top battles resolved. There are also some rules for campaign-scale engineering and weather.

I adapted, simplified and honed the rules from the 20th century composition of rules for the 19th, but they will still require a lot of testing, adapting and even re-writing. I envisage that we’ll likely need to tweak them as and when we actually use them.

Most of my effort went into two appendices: the Timeline and National Interest.

The events for the timeline were far more than I initially thought, but they helped to direct some of the National Interest and some random events too (see later). I have included the following:

The National Interest is the key to it. It took me the longest and made my head spin! This information provides guidelines for all nations/groups regarding overall aims and some key characteristics of the ruler.

I included information for (roughly from north to south, west to east): Sweden, Russia, Ukrainian Cossacks, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Denmark-Norway, Holstein-Gottorp, Mecklenburg,
Hamburg, Brandenburg-Prussia, Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, Dutch Republic, England (later Britain), France, Hapsburgs (Holy Roman Empire, Archdukedom of Austria, Kingdom of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia), Hungarian Kuruc, Crimean Khanate, Ottoman Empire, Spain, Duchy of Savoy and Papal States. I think that I will need a section for the Italian States.

This information provides broad guidelines. There will be a fair amount of ‘kriegsspieling’, which I think will be an enjoyable part of it. We can work out jointly what the other nations will do, each taking control of those most directly impacting the country that the other controls. I have also included some randomised, Diplomatic Events (Cévennes War, Bashkir Rebellion, Bulavin Rebellion, Jacobite Rising, Ottoman War (with Hapsburgs), Hungarian Kuruc War of Independence, Cossack revolt in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and left bank Cossacks siding with Sweden). Each of these is determined by a die roll, modified for events in the 'host' nation and diplomacy/undermining of that state.

There is still a lot to do. My next big activity will be Appendix III, the forces for each nation/group and initial positions—land and sea.

I expect it to take a long while to get the document to a point where we will be able to use it. Added to this, we do not yet have a map/maps to use as the campaign map! I also envisage that the campaign itself will be a long, hopefully enjoyable activity that we'll conduct over numerous years to come.