Scenario Designer Notes for Campaign Jena-Auerstedt - Bill Peters

Introduction

This particular campaign has seen very little treatment in either computer or boardgameand while historically it was a total victory for Napoleon it offers many opportunities forplayers to explore an incredible amount of options which were open to both commanders.Anyone that plays the game will find that the Prussians are not going to dissolve as theydid historically.

Thus I chose to recreate the 1806 War of the Fourth Coalition which pitted Prussia,Russia and Great Britain (and other minor nations) against France. This campaign hasalways intrigued me and based on several concepts I drew from my past game designs(Campaign Eckmuhl and Campaign Wagram) I present what I believe to be my bestdesign to date.

The Order of Battle

I assembled the order of battle from various sources which primarily were those which Iobtained from George Nafziger, who is an invaluable source of information for this period,as well as from several sources which are listed below. Bill Peterson mailed me an orderof battle that he obtained from a book he had in his collection. Several others were helpfulin sending me input on the various units and formations.

The regimental leaders for the French and staff officers for the Prussians were added formorale benefit. In this game I lowered the morale in order to allow for more routs. Inplaytesting we found that both armies stood far too long under brutal pounding. Thus theFrench tend to have more additional leaders to show their charisma in combat while thePrussians tend to have better morale overall unit by unit due to their more rigid training.

Command ratings for the Prussians were made lower than the French for severalreasons. The first being that the French had a superior command system but primarily theCommand rating influences the ability of the units to recover from disorder. Thus theFrench will recover from disorder better than the Prussians.

The French Leadership ratings also tend to be better. This helps the French rally betterthan the Prussians for the most part.

The average French unit has a morale rating of C which equates to a 4. The averageFrench leader is rated a B which turns out to be a 5. For the Prussians their units aremainly morale grade B. Their leaders are the same thus they will not influence their abilityto rally. Which is very historical as although there are accounts of great bravery of thePrussian commanders the units rarely recovered once they routed.

The Saxon morale is mainly as per the Prussian. Historically, the Saxons actuallyperformed very well especially during the retreat and in many cases acquitted themselvesbetter than the Prussians. Their cavalry was well known to be the best in Europe.

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The Russians, on the other hand, were a mixed lot. While their grenadiers andcuirassiers are generally regarded as good troops, the rest of the army, except the Guard,is definitely substandard.

The Russian line cavalry were mounted on poor mounts. The infantry was generallyaverage but when not fighting in Russia didnt put up as good of a fight. They were stillknown as tenacious fighters but I didnt feel that giving them the fanatical morale rating forplay balance purposes.

The artillery was the exception. Organized along standard lines, the artillery was a worthyarm and the Russians tended to rely on large batteries, probably the first usage of a largebattery was at Freidland, though it was nothing in comparison with the large batteries ofthe later Napoleonic wars.

Leadership in the Russian army was lacking. Rigid orders rendered the officer corps tonothing more than aides. The men responded well when a leader was near but if acommander was slain the men could revert to a huddled mass, so dependent on theirleaders were they in combat.

For the French army I rated the Dragoons as Light cavalry because they were notmounted on good horses. Only the Guard cavalry and the Cuirassiers and Carabiniersreceived a Heavy rating.

The artillery was well known to be better in range and effectiveness than the Allies. This isreflected in the range and effectiveness abilities in the Parameter Data File. The Alliedplayer is never going to win an artillery duel with the French.

A note on the Prussian musket: several of my references make note that the Prussianmusket of this period was antiquated. While this is probably true I didnt want to create aspecial fire rating for the Prussians. I felt that any drop in firepower that the Prussians hadwas minimal.

Maps

Dermot Quigley (playtester from Campaign Eckmuhl) scanned in some topo maps from auniversity in Spain. I used this initially to build a large section of theLarge_Jena_Campaign.map but last year I was fortunate to find a set of 1:50,000 digitaltopo maps from Germany. Each set of maps came on a CD and covered a wide are ofGermany. Particularily the Thurigen, Sachen, Sachen-Anhalt and Brandenberg sets wereused.

By using the Overlay feature in the map editor I was able to create maps of 120 x 80 in aslittle as three hours time and some of the larger sections of the large Jena map were puttogether in three days.

Campaign Jena-Auerstedt has the most maps I have done for one title. There are over 45

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maps total with over 35 of them being unique maps from which the various submaps wereformed.

The largest map in the collection covers the area over which the initial conflicts werefought during the first five days of the campaign less some territory to the east. The areaencompasses from just west of Erfurt in the west to Zeitz in the east, Naumberg in thenorth to Saalfeld in the south. A total of 90 x 69 kilometers.

The other maps cover the regions from Halle to Frankfurt and from south of Berlin to areasjust north of Dresden. Basically the same regions that were fought over in 1813 with someexceptions.

The newer maps can have as many as 27 levels. This allowed me to put the large Jenamap together as it had a huge difference in elevation from its lowest to highest points.

Some of the maps use the older format of 14 levels as they were relatively flat.

Dierk Walter and Bill Peterson were absolutely vital in verifying the map data. Dierk inparticular was of great help with German towns, several of which did not exist in 1806. Hishelp on the Muskau area concerning flooded mines of the modern era was of greatinterest.

As usual, manyl of the Playtesters pitched in with the final check of the maps. Of specialnote was Atle Jenssen and Dean Beecham who helped me at the 11th hour to root outerrors that otherwise would have been left in the release version. The usual mistakes(disconnected roads, missing stream hexsides, etc) were noted and corrected in plenty oftime before I sent John Tiller the final CD.

Turn Length

Campaign Jena-Auerstedt uses a 10 minute day turns and 30 minute night turns. Thiswas something that had been discussed for some time on various discussion boards inan attempt to allow the players to react to enemy movement. The defender is able to reactin a more historical timeframe as a result.

Initial reactions by the Playtesters to a 10 minute move were mixed. Some thought itwould slow the game down too much. However, all of the Playtesters agreed after severalgames that they preferred the new turn length given that the game didnt have any way forthe non-phasing player's infantry to form square prior to a charge. It also allowed artilleryto limber up and move away from a potentially dangerous situation.

The fatigue recovery rate was changed slightly and coupled with more night turns allowsfor units to lose more fatigue points during the night.

Cavalry

The basic unit for cavalry is the squadron which is quite historical. It also allows for longer

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columns on roads and for scouting purposes. Each squadron breaks down into twoplatoons. Credit to this concept goes to Al Amos who first introduced the idea to me whilewe were working together on Campaign Eckmuhl.

By allowing cavalry to work in squadrons there are more units in the game for the player touse as scouts (piquettes as they were known historically). The large map demands alot ofscouting and the cavalry were historically the arm that performed this function.

Artillery

At first glance the artillery appears as if it was broken down into sections but early on Ichose to use the smaller units for the battalian gune. According to some sources thesesmall sections were combined into batteries. Unfortunately, I had put some 200 scenariostogether before this information became available. I also wasn't sure that the informationwas totally accruate.

The gun sections will not encumber the Allied player with too many units to move andfrankly give a better feeling for the Allied artillery. Neither side at this stage used largebatteries of guns. The French have several 4 and 5 gun batteries for this period as well asthe standard 6 or 8 gun batteries. Thus both sides will not use their artillery in mass unlessthe player decides to pull all of his guns together. At the corps level they will mainly beused to provide defensive fire and add in their weight on an attack.

Infantry

No real change was made except in the area of Extended Line values. Much discussionhas been made about the standard 600 (2 rank) and 900 (3 rank) extended line values.Most of us feel that these values are too high. Thus the values in CampaignJena-Auerstedt are 300 (2 rank) and 600 (3 rank). This allowed for historical spacing andfrontage.

Stacking Limits

The stacking limits for Campaign Jena-Auerstedt are 1600 men. Cavarly is 1/3 this valueor 533 troopers while artillery can stack 12 guns per hex. The extended line value forartillery is 8 guns.

Weather Effects

Weather and Sunset/Sunrise Lighting Effects

I took the PDT weather lines and coupled with a change that John Tiller made to the gameengine I was able to model the lighting effect of sunrise and sunset such that the playersdont go instantly from no visibility to partial visibility to full visibility. I also added in weatherlines for fog and rain as well as modified the movement rates accordingly.

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During night turns the movement rates are penalized slightly to cause the players to wantto rest rather than crawl about the map on unhistorical raids. However, I did reduce thepenalty as testing was finding that the defender was having too many problems retiringfrom a battlefield after night had fallen.

Campaign Notes

Several campaigns are included in the game. They are:

Short Campaign - 14 October 1806This campaign offers the players the same setup that the commanders had as of earlymorning on October 14, 1806. Thus they can change their march routes as desired tobring about a different conclusion for this pivotal day in the campaign. Bernadotte canmarch with Davout and give him better numbers should he run into Brunswick's army orhis corps can be ordered south to march with Napoleon.

Each side has three choices. This allows for nine different combinations. Add in that thecampaign engine allows for different variations of the same outcome. Thus up to 10different scenarios can be played based on the same two choices by the players. Thisresults in a high replayability factor for the players.

Scharnhorst's Campaign PlanOriginally, Scharnhorst argued that the best plan was to fight a defensive campaign andachieve a union with the advancing Russians under Bennigsen. This campaign allows thePrussians to fight in the Jena region if he so desires but the main goal is to meet up withthe Russians further to the east.

Anywhere from five to eight battles can be fought before a campaign conclusion isreached. This is the largest campaign in the game and uses a vast majority of the maps inthe game.

Here Come the RussiansThis campaign is played on the large Jena map. It is only one scenario but will provide theFrench player a real challenge. The entire order of battle for both sides is used. TheRussians arrive as reinforcements for the Allies. It truly will test the player's ability to beable to mass the most troops at the right point on the battlefield.

Historical and What-If ScenariosThe scenarios that are in the main game folder separated into two groups.

Historical - these are the battles that I decided to include in the game. None of the siegesituations were included as they are not well suited for the game engine. The battles ofJena and Auerstedt are broken down into the main segments and of course have theirown full battle scenarios. There are also two scenarios that allow the players to play bothbattles. One has a split map reminiscent of the old SPI Jena-Auerstedt game from theNapoleon at War quadrigame. The other is a large map version of the battles. This lastscenario gives the players the opportunity to maneuver their forces as they wish.

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What-If - variations of the historical battles. One includes a scenario of Auerstedt whereBernadotte arrives to reinforce Davout. Other scenarios are for Jena which allow forreinforcements to arrive sooner or for portions of Brunswick's army to reinforceHohenlohe at Jena.

A/I scripts were provided for scenarios marked "Solo" as most of the time the scenariosare played Head to Head.

A special scenario named Order of Battle Layout - 1806 was included so that the playerscould see the entire order of battle laid out in logical format. After this scenario is openedthe players will want to press the shift key as this will show the names of the formations.

Finally, over 200 scenarios are provided for the campaigns. I feel that this should keep theNapoelonic gamer busy for some time!

Design Philosophy

While John Tiller and HPS strive for historical accuracy I also realized that the gamerwanted a simulation that would offset some of the shortcomings of Napoleon fightingagainst an archaic command structure and army.

My goal was to offer up some campaign situations that put one side in a difficult fightinglocation. Brash campaign decisions may result in a force being placed in a tight situation.On the other hand it might reward them with being at the right place at the right time withthe most troops.

Thus some of the scenarios will not favor the First Player at all. Victory will be very difficultif not impossible. This is to reflect true history which wasnt very kind to either side.

I also may have given the Prussians more credit than they are due. The command modelin the game doesnt allow for a thorough treatment of that army but on the other hand someimaginative modelling did allow for what I consider a satisfactory arrangement. ThePrussians, after they break, will not rally easily.

The French on the other hand will disorder sooner and rout more often than in my twoprevious titles. Thus their attacks will break off and the formations reordered before theycan make another attack.

This was done to avoid excessive casualties as the units never seemed to rout with anearlier order of battle that featured higher morale levels and leader values.

The final version of the order of battle saw alot of command ratings lowered to all for aslower rate of undisorder but in the case of the French a faster rate of rout recovery.

Finally, I apologize that I was not able to put together as detailed a campaign file as I

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wanted and discussed at Tiller Con I. My goal was to construct an extensive campaign filethat would allow the players to go through a day's worth of campaigning with reportscoming in at four to six hour increments. Basically, the campaign would read like a historybook. Providing I have the time I will try and finish this campaign for a future module.

I believe that the gamers should have enough materials in this title to keep them busy forsome years to come.

Game Engine Enhancements

As usual my Playtesters and I bombarded John Tiller with alot of ideas. Other gamerschimed in and the result was a game that has more additions than any other game in theseries.

Here they are with a brief summary after each:

Boat Capability - similar to what is in the Early American War series. The unit can beassigned Has Boats in the Scenario Editor. Movement is 4 MPs per water hex. If a unithas Boats their movement rate will have a "B" next to it. See the section on Boats in theHelp section to understand how the rule works.

Correced bug which allowed Extended Line units to fire one half of unit, recombine andmove and then fire and melee. This has finally been removed from the series after manyyears of misuse.

Added strength values to bridges - 0 to 49 none may cross, 50 to 99 infantry and leaders,100 to 149 cavalry and infantry and leaders, 150 and above - add in artillery of all typesand wagons.

Fixed disordered recovery bug. (this has nothing to do with the newer command ratings)

Added in ability for Scenario Designer to change the charge modifier in the PDT file.Campaign Jena-Auerstedt uses a multiplier of 5.

Changed coding of line 4 in the PDT file to allow for zero length for Dawn/Dusk. Weatherlines can thus control the lighting conditions to simulate the gradual rising and setting ofthe sun.

Corrected a bug for the Restore Units feature in the Scenario Editor which caused standalone "S" type skirmisher units in the OB to default to a false value. This was an issue inthe Campaign Waterloo game that will be corrected after this game is released.

Corrected a bug in the replays where cavalry would disappear during a charge.

Routed units now have full MPs so they can move at least one hex a turn unless theyperform rout movement by the game engine. This was a problem found in Campaign

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Waterloo due to the new weather feature.

Extended Line capable units can now form Extended Line during weather turns.

Double elevation levels - 27 total - for map editor.

And there were many other items fixed as well from the earlier games which had beenreported by gamers or the Playtesters.

Sources

I chose not to write up a historical section for the game. Much better accounts areavailable at a modest price which will give the gamer a good feel for thecampaign. The Osprey book in particular would be a good place for the novicereader to start.

Jena 1806 - Dr David G. Chandler, Osprey Military Campaign series #20With Musket, Cannon and Sword - Brent NosworthyNapoleon's Conquest of Prussia 1806 - F.Lorraine PetreThe Jena Campaign, 1806 - F.N. MaudeCampaigns of Napoleon - Dr. David G. ChandlerTactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon - Rory MuirA Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars - Brig. Gen. Vincent J. Esposito, Col.John R. EltingThe Prussian Army to 1815 - Digby SmithNapoleon's Regiments - Digby SmithThe Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte - Robert AspreyNapoleon's Last Campaign in Germany - F. Lorraine PetreJena Auerstaedt, The Triumph of the Eagle - F.G.HourtoulleThe Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book - Digby SmithWho Was Who in the Napoleonic Wars - Philip J. HaythornthwaitePoles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars - George Nafziger, Mariusz T. Weslolowski,Tom DevoeDie Schlacht Bei Jena und Auerstedt AM 14. Oktorber 1806 - Städtische Museen Jena

AcknowledgementsI never could have completed with work without the help of Mark Adams and his unfailinglove for the uniforms of the Napoleonic wars. Mark does a great job with the artwork andgathered together all of the leader pictures for the game as well as all of the uniformmaterials we needed. Bravo Mark!

My loyal, longsuffering playtesters, Paco Palomo, Gary McClellan, Bill Peterson, JeffBardon and Ken Jones were along for their second or third ride. New additions were AtleJenssen, Tomasz Nowacki, Dean "the file machine" Beecham and John Corbin who were

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fine playtesters as well and offered up numerous ideas and found errors which I missed.

Dierk Walther was absolutely essential in noting placenames on the maps which were notin existence in 1806 and also helped me correct terrain features. And of course hisknowledge of German was of great help in making corrections to the placenames.

Finally to John Tiller, who made numerous additions to the game so that we could haveimprovements to the game engine which would further enhance our playing experience.

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Turn Track

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Jena Campaign Historical and Alternate Scenarios

Scenario Name Filename Length#000. Getting Started - Tutorial #000_Getting_Started.scn 18#00a_1. Weimar Arrives! #00a_1_Weimar.scn 524#00a_2. Weimar and Reserve Korps Arrive! #00a_2_Weimar_Reserve.scn 524#00a_3. The Russians are Coming! #00a_3_Russians.scn 524#00h_1. Six Days in October - Historical #00h_1_Six_Days.scn 524#01h_1. The Action at Schleiz - Historical #01h_1_Schleiz.scn 18#02h_1. The Action at Saalfeld - Historical #02h_1_Saalfeld.scn 18#03a_1. The Battle of Jena - Variant #1 #03a_1_Jena.scn 42#03a_2. The Battle of Jena - Variant #2 #03a_2_Jena.scn 42#03a_3. The Battle of Jena - Variant #3 #03a_3_Jena.scn 42#03a_4. The Battle of Jena - Variant #4 #03a_4_Jena.scn 42#03a_5. The Battle of Jena - Variant #5 #03a_5_Jena.scn 42#03a_6. The Battle of Jena - Variant #6 #03a_6_Jena.scn 42#03a_7. The Battle of Jena - Variant #7 #03a_7_Jena.scn 42#03a_8. Two Days of Jena - Variant #1 #03a_8_Jena.scn 120#03a_9. Two Days of Jena - Variant #2 #03a_9_Jena.scn 120#03h_1. The Battle of Jena - Historical #03h_1_Jena.scn 40#03h_2-Solo. Lannes' Morning Assault #03h_2_Jena_Solo.scn 12#03h_3. Ney's Attack #03h_3_Jena.scn 6#03h_4. Hohenlohe's Counterattack #03h_4_Jena.scn 12#03h_4-Solo. Hohenlohe's Counterattack #03h_4_Jena_Solo.scn 12#04a_1. The Battle of Auerstedt - Variant #1 #04a_1_Auerstedt.scn 42#04a_2. Auerstedt Third Phase - Leader Variant #04a_2_Auerstedt.scn 30#04h_1. The Battle of Auerstedt - Historical #04h_1_Auerstedt.scn 42#04h_2. The Battle of Auerstedt - Phase #1 #04h_2_Auerstedt.scn 6#04h_3. The Battle of Auerstedt - Phase #2 #04h_3_Auerstedt.scn 18#04h_4. The Battle of Auerstedt - Phase #3 #04h_4_Auerstedt.scn 30#05h_1. The Battles of Jena-Auerstedt - Dual Map #05h_1_Jena-Auerstedt.scn 48#05h_2. The Battles of Jena-Auerstedt - Large Map #05h_1_Jena-Auerstedt.scn 58#06a_1. The Battle of Greussen - Historical #06a_1_Greussen.scn 30#07a_1. The Battle of Halle - Variant #1 #07a_1_Halle.scn 30#07a_1. The Battle of Halle - Variant #2 #07a_2_Halle.scn 30#07h_1. The Battle of Halle - Historical #07h_1_Halle.scn 30#08a_1. The Skirmish at Altenzaum - Variant #1 #08a_1_Altenzaum.scn 16#08a_2. The Skirmish at Altenzaum - Variant #2 #08a_2_Altenzaum.scn 16#08h_1. The Skirmish at Altenzaum - Historical #08h_1_Altenzaum.scn 16#09a_1. The Action at Zehdenick - Variant #1 #09a_1_Zehdenick.scn 24#09h_1. The Action at Zehdenick - Historical #09h_1_Zehdenick.scn 24#10_OB. Order of Battle Layout - 1806 #10_OOB_View.scn N/A#11x. Battle of Karlsburg - What-If #11x_Karlsburg.scn 325

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Weapons Chart

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French Army

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Prussian Army

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Russian Army

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