I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
@@LittleWarsTV With the Swedes involved in the Fall, I hope you mean the Fall of Napoleon! By the way Tsar Greg, you look totally stunning in uniform with all those medals... just a Swedish medal is missing. How about returning Finland to us now? You could have Hamburg instead. It's icefree all year around and I've heard the fast food there is great.🍔
Attacking south across the mountains is one of those insanely dangerous moves that even if it fails I can’t help but commend. It’s classic Napoleon-hold where they think you’re going to attack, and strike where they least expect. It also takes advantage of their free deployment.
This seems like a very flattering appraisal of a fairly bad plan for the French forces. Giving up hard earned ground from the Spring campaign to set up a defence of the mountains? Daft. That said it will make for an interesting departure from history so I suppose it will be fun to see how it turns out.
I’m glad that Napoleon is facing some consequences for his confusing offer of Poland to the Austrians. I would have offered them their Alpine provinces back, and maybe even Venetia to keep them out of the war.
Wouldnt have been enough either in all honesty, i wouldve said "let them join" after makin, Austrians were too ambitious by that point, Napoleon even outnumbered still has the opportunity to slay one army to even the odds before they come together, holding the Alps in Italy is also important because it will prevent Murat from betraying Napoleon and keep a check on the rest of the Italians while forcing Austria to send a sizable force especially since Davout of all people has been sent to Italy, Spain is still a disaster but the English and Allies will not blitz through either giving ample time to get a decisive victory. The fate of Europe now lies in weither that gamble will work or not, anyway
Offering up Poland was a massive mistake. Losing the nearly 20,000 men from the IIX Corps could be decisive. Thankfully it’s countered with the debuff of the Prussians
Its funny how the allies are so confident Napoleon won't do what he is about to do, we'll see if the Austrian predictions about the passes becoming a "killing field" are accurate!
I had a history teacher at school who used a war gaming negotiation scenario to teach us about the final treaty after Waterloo and the post-Napoleonic order. He split the class into national delgations, each with defined aims (red lines and negotiables) that were unknown to the other delegates. It really made the classs understand the complexities of diplomacy and has stuck with me for years as a great way to teach kids through involvement.
ours did something similar but it was the roman senate holding a meeting to decided who to send to north africa for the final confrontation with Hannibal, in order to show us how deadlocked the roman senate was near the end. with there being one person playing each of that years consuls, one guy playing Scipio, and guy playing some other general (can't remember his name), some people playing tribunes of the plebs and other senate positions, finally there were two praetors(i was one of these) who represented all the remaining senators votes, so half of the senate voted the same way as preator 1 and the other half voted the same as preator 2. Everyone had a agenda card which said who of the other people you liked working with and who you hated, and we then had to walk around a negotiate with the other people in order to get the general we supported to lead the army, it ended with the same amount of votes for each side(teacher had rigged the agenda cards this way) until the other side bribed their way to get a single of our votes to flip to their side. as they were celebrating their victory i leaned over to one of the tribune of the plebs that were on our side and whispered "stand up and say i veto this vote" which the tribune then proceded to do. The other side were confused by this as there stood nowhere in this "games" rules that the tribune of the plebs could do this, only for the teacher to start laughing and confirm that tribunes of the plebs could indeed veto votes
The loss of the Poles was a big blunder, basically negating half of the numerical losses Prussia faced after losing Berlin. Considering the Polish were basically the only ally Napoleon had that would not betray him and they were thrown away for an advantage that will not even be used, I have a feeling their presence will be sorely missed.
The loss of Prussian morale will make their debuff far worse than what we are seeing numerically. The big man's plan isn't going to go as swimmingly as he sees it, but he might not need the Poles if this goes the way I suspect it will.
I'm a bit surprised that nobody seemed at all interested in trying to entice Sweden out of the alliance. Not that they would side with France, but I would have thought they could have been bought off as I believe historically they were a half-hearted member of the coalition at best, with Bernadotte having little interest in crossing swords with his former Emperor.
Sweden was in a very awkward position just having lost Finland with France pretty much to blame. In order to get some returns they committed to the coalition, bernadotte devising the eventual plan for the campaign and in the end Sweden received Norway in exchange for Pommerania.
Honestly, Miles’ decision to go for Austria is perhaps the most Napoleon he’s been in this series. Beyond that, he’s been strangely vacillating as someone playing the Great Man. Where Napoleon was bold and decisive, Miles has felt to be extremely unsure of what he’s wanted to do, rushing back and forth on a whim.
Well since LWTV doesnt have any player that resembles Marie Walewska; Miles had little option but to forget Poland. Wargaming cannot cover all angles, alas.
Miles's decision to strike into Bohemia is bold, but really dicey. While the Allies may be surprised, he's marching straight into the beefiest Allied field force through potentially bottlenecked mountain passes. Miles will have to rely on his ability to force march the troops who accompany him working flawlessly if the French want to avoid disaster. I also think this strategy gives the other Allied armies a chance to make a pincer attack against Berlin and possibly maul Eugene's covering force. I'm betting that the Swedes and Chal's Prussians aggressively attack.
I believe the Austrians were historically slow to mobilize. Their big battalions contained a proportion of reservists who had to be recalled form their day jobs and mustered at regimental headquarters. An interesting challenge for the final episode. Does Austria wait and complete mobilisation, or take the field with under-strength units. Still not as under strength as the Russian and French formations that participated in 1812....
I dont know if they acounted for it but Austrian regiments in 1813 leaved a landwerh batallion behind when they marched out of Austria for defense so they would had have them in this case wich means a lot more of men@@steveholmes11
Now thinking about it, wouldn't the mountain passes heavily aid the French? If the terrain makes it so, cavalry will be at a large disadvantage, and due to tight terrain the French could maximize their smaller force's output. I think that if the Allies are able to trap the French in a bad situation, it's over, but the French have major opportunities here. The gambit's crazy, but unexpected.
While the french may be smaller overall i think that in the atack of Bohemia they may have numerical superiority against the army of Bohemia@@generalaigullletes5830
@@blecao I wish my knowledge was complete for 1813. I don't know whether those Landwehr were the previous reservists, or (like Prussia) a further mobilisation of the old and unfit.
Another great video. I love you spent a whole video discussing the politics, doing the negotiations, and then doing the campaign planning. The only change I would recommend or suggest is to have secret, independent objectives for each of the Allies, rather than let them just combine against Napoleon. Maybe Bernadotte wants to keep casualties low, say under 30 per cent. Blucher wants to recapture Berlin. The Austrians want to defend Prague, and the Russians want to defeat a field army commanded by Napoleon in person. If the allies win, and an Army commander succeeds with their individual objective, then they win alone. Tell the Allied commanders they each also have their own secret objective, in addition to defeating Napoleon, and watch the fun unfold.
You guys need to do a Siege of Fort Sackville (battle of Vincennes) game. I am from the area, and it is a very interesting battle. Well, it was more of a skirmish. American general George Rogers Clark (older brother of explorer William Clark) led his small force of 172 colonial militia men from Kaskaskias Illinois to Vincennes Indiana to Suprise attack commander and territorial British Govenor Henry Hamilton who had built a fortification in Vincennes after a campaign in Canada and Detroit. General Clark would lead his men to Vincennes in 1779 to take Fort Sackville from Hamilton. This would be a key strategic point for the American Revolution so the US could expand to the west later on. Hamilton had around 50 British regulars with 180 or so militia and 325 native American supporters. General Clark had marched his men well over 100 miles in swampy conditions to finally reach Vincennes. General Clark somehow managed to force a British surrender while only suffering 1 casualty. He was way outnumbered with no artillery whatsoever and still managed to destroy a force nearly 3 times the size of his. There is a whole memorial dedicated to him and so on in modern day Vincennes Indiana. It was more of a skirmish and lasted about 2 1/2 hours as most, but i think you could up the scales and so on to make a pretty interesting game. Good luck in 2024 and God Bless!
In the spring, I would have picked 'concentrate north' but that's what Miles ended up doing even if his original plan was to concentrate south. For the fall campaign, he's doing what I would have done, let's see if it works out...
So looking forward to the alternate history part 3. Please keep making shows like this. It gives me inspiration for the home games here. Love the hats, terrain maps, politics, and phony uniforms. You guys keep getting better and better.
First time viewer. I am very excited to have Gound your channel. I to love Napoleonis'd we use to do large. Campaigns. Lots of different ideas. I find this very interesting. I used this type of scenario. But I used it for The American Civil War with 3 games and their maps fit together. Avalon hill games. Sadly, they are not made, and copies are almost impossible to find. Looking forward to this 3rd episode. I did however predict to myself after the 2nd episode that Napoleon would attack Austrian, he always thought Austria was very weak and there fighting and logistic trains are huge. They allow officers to bring everything. But you know this. I hope the Allies see this early and get orders to attack south from Humburg. I find the Sweden and the British being attacked not a surprise. I wish you all good gaming and lots of fun. Your new fan
So, did Saxony decide to side with the Allies in this or stick with France? It was mentioned earlier about Saxony being one of the bullet points and whether either side could convince them to join them but then the Saxons weren't mentioned in the consequences specifically, and I don't think I see it on the list of field armies? What happened to the ~25-30,000 Saxons?
@@kiber162 I'd be kind of surprised, since iirc they were a reluctant French ally, and France betraying Poland in the negotiations might influence the Saxons, on top of whatever the negotiations were or whatever to influence the Saxons either way.. But hey, we'll see in the fall video as the guys said.
I got recommended your first 11-player Napoleonic Campaign video and watched that, and now having seen the Summer video...as they say "Who dares, wins" I hope The Emperor succeeds against the Austrians in his gamble and that the Poles learning of his betrayal during a secret meeting/loss of 20K troops won't be the deciding factor of the game.
Another fantastic episode from the masters of table top war gaming. Tremendous show and so glad to see the historical inclusion of Dr. Nafziger, Dr. White, and Dr. Mikaberidze! This is absolutely one of my favorite LWTV episodes. Bravo and happy New Year. ~Sweeney Todd
I am still questioning whether the fall of Hamburg to the coalition and the french capture of Berlin would lead to something alternate with Denmark-Norway? an earlier peace deal with fewer lost lands maybe, or would the Danish Auxiliary Corps move south to check any force in Hamburg from going north?
Brilliant explanation of why tom was sacked hahaha funniest bit of the video! Keep up the great work and nice to see Miles do exactly the opposite of what everyone expects as well as showing Joaquin Phoenix how to deliver the lines properly!
Having watched to the end, Miles delivers a tour-de-force this chapter. Step aside Joaquin Phoenix, Rod Steiger, Vladislav Strzhelchik, Marlon Brando, Christian Clavier, Charles Boyer, Ian Holm, Claude Rains, Herbert Lom, Dennis Hopper, Alain Chabat, Kenneth Haigh, Terry Camilleri, Mathieu Kassovitz and Verne Troyer. There's a new epic Emperor in town.
some of the best stuff on the internet! Operational, Tactical, Negotiations, Context from Experts...all on gorgeous maps with interesting counterfactual choices. PLEASE keep up the good work, LWTV
Excellent video! only one complaint: The usage of the Austrian Republic Eagle (which was invented over 100 years later) in some illustrations instead of the Imperial Eagle is kind of funny ;-)
Same. Good on LittleWars for bringing attention to historical wargaming but it's almighty hard to get into unless you have massive amounts of money to spare
I don’t know why but I always tend to root for the French and get incredibly nervous that things will go wrong. Watching the Waterloo movie was incredibly nerve wracking
Very cool to have a board of historians managing the npcs so to speak. I think one missed opportunity here, was to have the poland offer create issues on both sides, and if I was Napoleon (or Miles) I would have made that offer fully intending for the main effect to be a renewed allied argument about the partition of Poland. An easy is not historically nuanced effect could have been for all the allies with interest in Poland having to send a force to deploy near that territory to "enhance their claims."
Very surprised by Napoleon's decision. With the debuffs given to the Prussians by the fall of Berlin, I would have thought to beat up on a weakened enemy and scatter one of the the three armies facing you rather than attack into Bohemia
Great film script Greg. I would definitely watch it. I also would start with the retreat from russia and Ney in the rearguard and the big N scuttling off disguised in his sledge.
I agree with Tony adopting wait and see with Austrians. I was thinking smash blucher adopt a central position. Emperor Miles may just succeed with the brash advance. Depends if Eugene n Davout can delay the other 3 armies from uniting and overwhelming them. Look forward to it. Miles loss of Poles and 3 satellite divisions may be the difference
I suppose that the Austrians maybe would not ally with the Prussians and Russians after such a victory as the French occupation of Berlin. Napoleon in your game performed a lot better then in the historical campaign and focussed on his typical objective such as capturing the enemy's capital to break the moral of the enemy. The Saxon king always was impressed by Napoleon and supported him until his defeat at Leipzig. We have to take in account, that the Saxons were forced to fight the French in 1806 and were the natural rivals of Prussia.... The duke of Wurttemberg personaly hated Napoleon and Napoleon's friend in Baden died in 1811. Great historians here and great episode too!
Court politics at its finest. Those involved would definitely pounce at all those 6s and it would definitely not matter that dice rolls represent factors outside of leader control.
Great vid again guys.. I hope some one can answer this, will there be a carry on a before or after for the alamo video.. Maybe a Bexar or san jancinto.. would be epic, no doubt another great amount of people will watch it, which that was the best war gaming video out there in my humble opinion cheers guys.👍
How would the Polish soldiers in the Grande Armeé have known that Napoleon offered the Duchy of Warzaw to Austria? Negotiations between Napoleon and Metternich would have been secret. And even if the Allies would have tried to make this public knowledge, Napoleon would have simply denied having made this offer. Who are the Poles going to believe? Their only chance for independence (Napoleon) or those who had carved up their land not long ago?
I think it was a pretty fair punishment given what Napoleon was technically offering here. It would be a bit unfair to basically let Miles offer whatever he could off-map in order to try and placate the Austrians.
@@henrrryyyy couldn't help but think of the famous quote "In war, nothing is fair". I understand where you're coming from henrrryyyy, and you made me remember a historical precedent of one of Napoleon's more outrageous peace offers having a big impact on a third party: When Napoleon offered to the UK the *Prussian* province of Hanover for peace, this provoked the prussian king to launch his ill-fated war against napoleon (because his ego was hurt). But my main point is that Monarchs were much better informed than the common soldier. And if you're part of Napoleon's army (Like the Poles historically) there's bound to be propaganda. So it is my estimate that the Poles would not known, nor have laid down their arms had they known. For all we know, they might have been declared deserters and shot. Again, to them Napoleon was a liberator and only chance of independence and liberty. To me the idea of them quitting is absurd. Only from a game "fairness" point of view this might be a thing. But they're not playing a fair game, they're replaying an (a-)historic scenario.
@@TheSlazzer But they are playing a game. You can't really allow a player to just increase their "offer" with no downsides in order to receive whatever they would like - since then they aren't really offering anything. Offering up Warsaw in this scenario should be a gamble - where no matter what it costs you the Polish divisions. If you succeed you lose them, since you have handed them over to the Austrians and stripped them of their independence. If you fail, you should probably lose them. In my opinion, they should probably have justified it further in the video with a potential scenario that does make a bit more sense... Maybe Poniatowski makes the decision to remove his troops from Napoleon's army believing that his best bet at maintaining Polish independence is to side with the Coalition, or at the very least abandon Napoleon - in a similar way to Murat's ploy to keep his throne in Naples - whilst it would likely have failed, by this point it is clear that if Napoleon makes a deal with the Coalition, Warsaw is most certainly on the chopping block. My main point is that since it is very much a game, and in reality this offer would never have been made (given the circumstances after the spring campaign), it should probably be punished.
@@TheSlazzer *"For all we know, they might have been declared deserters and shot."* Not necessarily, as bulk of Polish forces (20k+) had to march all the way from Cracow and did not make it before July, thus they were outside of effective French control before negotiation phase started. Napoleon was half-expecting them to never arrive in the first place, while there was a _serious_ debate among Polish leadership whether to go. Moreover, Austrians were heavily interfering in those matters and would certainly not miss the opportunity to deliver such a powerful blow to French faction.
Napoleon f’ed up. He should have attempted to take Hamburg along with Berlin. Also while I think it is in character to give away Poland I still think it was a bad idea. Illyria fine I get that, provide a port to Austria, Poland was a mistake. I also think he should have gotten his isolated garrison freed. Going forward Napoleon will have to take Hamburg as a priority it frees up potential reserves to put towards guarding the Alps and then heading to link up with the isolated garrison. It is a bold strategy to take Prague but I think it might not work. Defeat in detail though is very Napoleon so I do credit Miles with his role playing.
@@LittleWarsTVDoing the opposite of what your opponent expects has it's advantages but so does defending mountain passes with equal or superior numbers. Should have kept those Poles on side. I'm sure if Eugene fails, Napoleon will just blame it on him. Good Nappy role-playing going on here.
I anticipate a smashing French victory. The allies don't seem to have remembered they're facing Napoleon, that is to say, Miles, not that there's any difference.
LOL the strategy section
Allies: they won't cross the mountains
French: send everything across the mountains!
Haha yea it sets up for a most interesting Fall situation.
Whatever the enemy thinks you won't do or can't do is the thing you should do if you can do it!
It’s not like Napoleon has ever crossed a mountain range to unexpectedly smash an Austrian army before!
@@warlordofbritannia Ha, rivers, mountains are nothing if you get to feast in Vienna - again!
"I suppose he will bring with him an army of elephants?!"
"Bwahaha!"
/boss music starts/
"You will usually find that your opponent has three choices open to him. Of these, he will choose the fourth." Moltke.
Losing the Poles was a disaster for Napoleon.
I love how Napoleon is doing the exact opposite of what everyone else expects
The French strategy is the exact opposite of what our allied players were anticipating….
Which is exactly what one ought to expect of Napoleon
Enemy can't second-guess you when even you don't know what you'll do next. (Taps nose knowingly)
I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
@@anathardayaldar Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Either Napoleon is going to win and win hard, or he's going to find out why people don't normally cross mountains when facing large enemy armies.
As a Swede it's great to see you cover modern warfare in this our most recent war. 😀🇸🇪
The Swedes are certainly involved in the Fall!
@@LittleWarsTV With the Swedes involved in the Fall, I hope you mean the Fall of Napoleon! By the way Tsar Greg, you look totally stunning in uniform with all those medals... just a Swedish medal is missing. How about returning Finland to us now? You could have Hamburg instead. It's icefree all year around and I've heard the fast food there is great.🍔
wow... Sweden actually has its foreign policy together
Oh well, joining NATO will have you back in the game in no time.
Lmao
Attacking south across the mountains is one of those insanely dangerous moves that even if it fails I can’t help but commend. It’s classic Napoleon-hold where they think you’re going to attack, and strike where they least expect. It also takes advantage of their free deployment.
Mind blown, Part 3 will be incredible either way it goes!
"We'll do what they least suspect. A daylight charge over the minefield."
This seems like a very flattering appraisal of a fairly bad plan for the French forces. Giving up hard earned ground from the Spring campaign to set up a defence of the mountains?
Daft.
That said it will make for an interesting departure from history so I suppose it will be fun to see how it turns out.
These operational-level campaigns interspersed with tactical battles are a ton of fun!
I’m glad that Napoleon is facing some consequences for his confusing offer of Poland to the Austrians. I would have offered them their Alpine provinces back, and maybe even Venetia to keep them out of the war.
Wouldnt have been enough either in all honesty, i wouldve said "let them join" after makin, Austrians were too ambitious by that point, Napoleon even outnumbered still has the opportunity to slay one army to even the odds before they come together, holding the Alps in Italy is also important because it will prevent Murat from betraying Napoleon and keep a check on the rest of the Italians while forcing Austria to send a sizable force especially since Davout of all people has been sent to Italy, Spain is still a disaster but the English and Allies will not blitz through either giving ample time to get a decisive victory.
The fate of Europe now lies in weither that gamble will work or not, anyway
Offering up Poland was a massive mistake. Losing the nearly 20,000 men from the IIX Corps could be decisive. Thankfully it’s countered with the debuff of the Prussians
Its funny how the allies are so confident Napoleon won't do what he is about to do, we'll see if the Austrian predictions about the passes becoming a "killing field" are accurate!
Never stop doing these sort of campaigns please.
I had a history teacher at school who used a war gaming negotiation scenario to teach us about the final treaty after Waterloo and the post-Napoleonic order. He split the class into national delgations, each with defined aims (red lines and negotiables) that were unknown to the other delegates. It really made the classs understand the complexities of diplomacy and has stuck with me for years as a great way to teach kids through involvement.
ours did something similar but it was the roman senate holding a meeting to decided who to send to north africa for the final confrontation with Hannibal, in order to show us how deadlocked the roman senate was near the end. with there being one person playing each of that years consuls, one guy playing Scipio, and guy playing some other general (can't remember his name), some people playing tribunes of the plebs and other senate positions, finally there were two praetors(i was one of these) who represented all the remaining senators votes, so half of the senate voted the same way as preator 1 and the other half voted the same as preator 2. Everyone had a agenda card which said who of the other people you liked working with and who you hated, and we then had to walk around a negotiate with the other people in order to get the general we supported to lead the army, it ended with the same amount of votes for each side(teacher had rigged the agenda cards this way) until the other side bribed their way to get a single of our votes to flip to their side. as they were celebrating their victory i leaned over to one of the tribune of the plebs that were on our side and whispered "stand up and say i veto this vote" which the tribune then proceded to do. The other side were confused by this as there stood nowhere in this "games" rules that the tribune of the plebs could do this, only for the teacher to start laughing and confirm that tribunes of the plebs could indeed veto votes
The loss of the Poles was a big blunder, basically negating half of the numerical losses Prussia faced after losing Berlin. Considering the Polish were basically the only ally Napoleon had that would not betray him and they were thrown away for an advantage that will not even be used, I have a feeling their presence will be sorely missed.
The loss of Hamburg and Poland actually put French losses at 4,000 cavalry greater than the Prussian losses!
The loss of Prussian morale will make their debuff far worse than what we are seeing numerically. The big man's plan isn't going to go as swimmingly as he sees it, but he might not need the Poles if this goes the way I suspect it will.
I agree. I think Napoleon will regret abandoning the Poles.
I'm a bit surprised that nobody seemed at all interested in trying to entice Sweden out of the alliance. Not that they would side with France, but I would have thought they could have been bought off as I believe historically they were a half-hearted member of the coalition at best, with Bernadotte having little interest in crossing swords with his former Emperor.
Sweden was in a very awkward position just having lost Finland with France pretty much to blame. In order to get some returns they committed to the coalition, bernadotte devising the eventual plan for the campaign and in the end Sweden received Norway in exchange for Pommerania.
Honestly, Miles’ decision to go for Austria is perhaps the most Napoleon he’s been in this series. Beyond that, he’s been strangely vacillating as someone playing the Great Man. Where Napoleon was bold and decisive, Miles has felt to be extremely unsure of what he’s wanted to do, rushing back and forth on a whim.
Honestly, I was rather shocked that Warsaw was offered up to the Austrians.. Talk about betraying your allies.
Yeah…that was low lol
As a Pole, I can't say I am very surprised.
Well since LWTV doesnt have any player that resembles Marie Walewska; Miles had little option but to forget Poland.
Wargaming cannot cover all angles, alas.
Yep. It will most likely cost Miles (Napoleon) the entire campaign. Just wait and see.
Oh, well! As long as he avoids going for a swim, at least it gives Poniatowski the chance to write a new time line.
How many men fantasize about a formal declaration of war against their inlaws?
"Viva La France!"
"Do we have to say it...?"
*Firing squad*
HA! Thank you for featuring my "novella." It was a joy to write it, and I loved every moment of it!
Sincerely,
KSAvard
I fail to understand how you guys have 'only' 80k subscribers, this is absolute top tier content
Briliant. Miles deep in character and going maverick in an attempt to discombobulate the Allies. All set up nicely. Let battle commence.
excited to see how this goes
I love this channel. Really brings historical wargaming to life. I would love to see pike and shotte campaigns
The Great Turkish war would be a cool candidate. I'm honeslty thinking I might try and organise something with my gaming friends
Miles's decision to strike into Bohemia is bold, but really dicey. While the Allies may be surprised, he's marching straight into the beefiest Allied field force through potentially bottlenecked mountain passes. Miles will have to rely on his ability to force march the troops who accompany him working flawlessly if the French want to avoid disaster. I also think this strategy gives the other Allied armies a chance to make a pincer attack against Berlin and possibly maul Eugene's covering force. I'm betting that the Swedes and Chal's Prussians aggressively attack.
I believe the Austrians were historically slow to mobilize.
Their big battalions contained a proportion of reservists who had to be recalled form their day jobs and mustered at regimental headquarters.
An interesting challenge for the final episode.
Does Austria wait and complete mobilisation, or take the field with under-strength units.
Still not as under strength as the Russian and French formations that participated in 1812....
I dont know if they acounted for it but Austrian regiments in 1813 leaved a landwerh batallion behind when they marched out of Austria for defense so they would had have them in this case wich means a lot more of men@@steveholmes11
Now thinking about it, wouldn't the mountain passes heavily aid the French? If the terrain makes it so, cavalry will be at a large disadvantage, and due to tight terrain the French could maximize their smaller force's output. I think that if the Allies are able to trap the French in a bad situation, it's over, but the French have major opportunities here. The gambit's crazy, but unexpected.
While the french may be smaller overall i think that in the atack of Bohemia they may have numerical superiority against the army of Bohemia@@generalaigullletes5830
@@blecao I wish my knowledge was complete for 1813.
I don't know whether those Landwehr were the previous reservists, or (like Prussia) a further mobilisation of the old and unfit.
Another great video. I love you spent a whole video discussing the politics, doing the negotiations, and then doing the campaign planning. The only change I would recommend or suggest is to have secret, independent objectives for each of the Allies, rather than let them just combine against Napoleon. Maybe Bernadotte wants to keep casualties low, say under 30 per cent. Blucher wants to recapture Berlin. The Austrians want to defend Prague, and the Russians want to defeat a field army commanded by Napoleon in person. If the allies win, and an Army commander succeeds with their individual objective, then they win alone. Tell the Allied commanders they each also have their own secret objective, in addition to defeating Napoleon, and watch the fun unfold.
Thank you for all the added historical information you add to your videos. This is way better than the teachers in school did.
This series is amazing, all the hard work has really paid off :)
Keep up the excellent videos. This has become my favorite channel on RUclips. Miles makes a good Napoleon but don’t tell him I think so.
Oh God no. We won’t. His ego doesn’t need any more boosting…
@@LittleWarsTV Ego? what ego? I am a most humble Emperor and try to be benevolent to my subjects no matter how unworthy they are
You guys need to do a Siege of Fort Sackville (battle of Vincennes) game. I am from the area, and it is a very interesting battle. Well, it was more of a skirmish. American general George Rogers Clark (older brother of explorer William Clark) led his small force of 172 colonial militia men from Kaskaskias Illinois to Vincennes Indiana to Suprise attack commander and territorial British Govenor Henry Hamilton who had built a fortification in Vincennes after a campaign in Canada and Detroit. General Clark would lead his men to Vincennes in 1779 to take Fort Sackville from Hamilton. This would be a key strategic point for the American Revolution so the US could expand to the west later on. Hamilton had around 50 British regulars with 180 or so militia and 325 native American supporters. General Clark had marched his men well over 100 miles in swampy conditions to finally reach Vincennes. General Clark somehow managed to force a British surrender while only suffering 1 casualty. He was way outnumbered with no artillery whatsoever and still managed to destroy a force nearly 3 times the size of his. There is a whole memorial dedicated to him and so on in modern day Vincennes Indiana. It was more of a skirmish and lasted about 2 1/2 hours as most, but i think you could up the scales and so on to make a pretty interesting game. Good luck in 2024 and God Bless!
I LOVE the operational-level games you guys are doing
In the spring, I would have picked 'concentrate north' but that's what Miles ended up doing even if his original plan was to concentrate south. For the fall campaign, he's doing what I would have done, let's see if it works out...
So looking forward to the alternate history part 3. Please keep making shows like this. It gives me inspiration for the home games here. Love the hats, terrain maps, politics, and phony uniforms. You guys keep getting better and better.
First time viewer. I am very excited to have Gound your channel. I to love Napoleonis'd we use to do large. Campaigns. Lots of different ideas. I find this very interesting. I used this type of scenario. But I used it for The American Civil War with 3 games and their maps fit together. Avalon hill games. Sadly, they are not made, and copies are almost impossible to find. Looking forward to this 3rd episode. I did however predict to myself after the 2nd episode that Napoleon would attack Austrian, he always thought Austria was very weak and there fighting and logistic trains are huge. They allow officers to bring everything. But you know this. I hope the Allies see this early and get orders to attack south from Humburg. I find the Sweden and the British being attacked not a surprise.
I wish you all good gaming and lots of fun. Your new fan
So, did Saxony decide to side with the Allies in this or stick with France? It was mentioned earlier about Saxony being one of the bullet points and whether either side could convince them to join them but then the Saxons weren't mentioned in the consequences specifically, and I don't think I see it on the list of field armies? What happened to the ~25-30,000 Saxons?
I think they would be with the French as the French have an army at Leipzig
This will be addressed in the Fall video don’t worry! The Saxons are certainly in play
@@kiber162 I'd be kind of surprised, since iirc they were a reluctant French ally, and France betraying Poland in the negotiations might influence the Saxons, on top of whatever the negotiations were or whatever to influence the Saxons either way.. But hey, we'll see in the fall video as the guys said.
@@kaigamer8250 True, i was simply presenting an alternative Xd but i cant wait for part 3 myself.
Thank you to everyone at Little Wars TV and everyone who participated in this series. It's fantastic!
I got recommended your first 11-player Napoleonic Campaign video and watched that, and now having seen the Summer video...as they say "Who dares, wins" I hope The Emperor succeeds against the Austrians in his gamble and that the Poles learning of his betrayal during a secret meeting/loss of 20K troops won't be the deciding factor of the game.
Another fantastic episode from the masters of table top war gaming. Tremendous show and so glad to see the historical inclusion of Dr. Nafziger, Dr. White, and Dr. Mikaberidze! This is absolutely one of my favorite LWTV episodes. Bravo and happy New Year. ~Sweeney Todd
Well thank you Sweeney! We are fond of your show as well!
I am still questioning whether the fall of Hamburg to the coalition and the french capture of Berlin would lead to something alternate with Denmark-Norway? an earlier peace deal with fewer lost lands maybe, or would the Danish Auxiliary Corps move south to check any force in Hamburg from going north?
As a Napoleonic Quarterly podcast fan, its really cool to see the great Alexander Mikaberidze outside his normal habitat.
This is the only wargaming channel i watch (not including hobby-focused channels), your ability to create a narrative is amazing
Brilliant explanation of why tom was sacked hahaha funniest bit of the video! Keep up the great work and nice to see Miles do exactly the opposite of what everyone expects as well as showing Joaquin Phoenix how to deliver the lines properly!
Having watched to the end, Miles delivers a tour-de-force this chapter.
Step aside Joaquin Phoenix, Rod Steiger, Vladislav Strzhelchik, Marlon Brando, Christian Clavier, Charles Boyer, Ian Holm, Claude Rains, Herbert Lom, Dennis Hopper, Alain Chabat, Kenneth Haigh, Terry Camilleri, Mathieu Kassovitz and Verne Troyer.
There's a new epic Emperor in town.
some of the best stuff on the internet! Operational, Tactical, Negotiations, Context from Experts...all on gorgeous maps with interesting counterfactual choices. PLEASE keep up the good work, LWTV
Can't wait for the Fall campaing part.
Eager for the final installment. Loved the historians’ contribution
I can't wait next episode. Vive la France 😊
Excellent video! only one complaint: The usage of the Austrian Republic Eagle (which was invented over 100 years later) in some illustrations instead of the Imperial Eagle is kind of funny ;-)
where's the next part???
That was an awsome way to go about this.
You guys make such involved campaigns it's wonderful entertainment
Wonderful Gents!!! Many Thanks, dropping Poland, wow! a big call. Can't wait for the next episode 👍👍
I was totaly expecting Napoleon to hold the south with 150~200k men, buy the austrians of for one turn and atack in the north.
Hah, so were our allied players! And oh boy were we wrong…
Ooh, we got somebody from Mark's Game Room for the Fall phase
We sure do!!
Here and ready to blunder!
Finally been waiting since the spring
Sets up the mega showdown in the Fall!
Again a thoroughly enjoyable video about a most engaging campaign. Can’t wait to listen to the podcast while I paint some figures. Keep it coming!
You guys keep raising the bar as far as what a 'wargame' can do. Bravo!
Love the production value of this channel and this series in particular. It’s like watching the world’s best AAR.
I would freaking love to do these but there’s no groups doing anything like this near me.
Solo wargaming time.
Same. Good on LittleWars for bringing attention to historical wargaming but it's almighty hard to get into unless you have massive amounts of money to spare
Love these large scale operational games, keep on making more like this.
Whoa! Zach and Alex! That is so awesome.
Love your campaigns, its great to see a club of friends play out so much history . I don't even like Napoleonic's and I'm hooked !
Really enjoying this content. Well done guys!
Awesome! Great work guys! ❤
Excellent video! Excited for the next. Happy new year gentleman 🥃
I don’t know why but I always tend to root for the French and get incredibly nervous that things will go wrong.
Watching the Waterloo movie was incredibly nerve wracking
Can’t wait to see how it’s played out!
Great episode, looking forward to the next one! The Austrian push will be exciting!
I hope there will be 2nd part of summer campaign
The Fall is next!
@@LittleWarsTV sorry my bad
Really loved the usage of historians as mediators, fun stuff!
Look forward to watching all of this!
I wasn't able to find the episode with the 4-way conversation on Spotify or the other platforms.
Miles' hat looks as through it's seen some action.
I wouldn't dare suggest Miles was at Leipzig, but I think the hat might have been.
This is actually great to watch
Very cool to have a board of historians managing the npcs so to speak.
I think one missed opportunity here, was to have the poland offer create issues on both sides, and if I was Napoleon (or Miles) I would have made that offer fully intending for the main effect to be a renewed allied argument about the partition of Poland. An easy is not historically nuanced effect could have been for all the allies with interest in Poland having to send a force to deploy near that territory to "enhance their claims."
Very surprised by Napoleon's decision. With the debuffs given to the Prussians by the fall of Berlin, I would have thought to beat up on a weakened enemy and scatter one of the the three armies facing you rather than attack into Bohemia
I love those massive campaigns!
I hope you make more Napoleonics videos
Why did they get Joaquin Phoenix to play Napoleon, when Miles was available the whole time?
that's a question A LOT of people are asking....
@@milesreidy7864 time to get a better agent!
Miles turned it down after reading a couple pages of the script.
Great film script Greg. I would definitely watch it. I also would start with the retreat from russia and Ney in the rearguard and the big N scuttling off disguised in his sledge.
I agree with Tony adopting wait and see with Austrians. I was thinking smash blucher adopt a central position. Emperor Miles may just succeed with the brash advance. Depends if Eugene n Davout can delay the other 3 armies from uniting and overwhelming them. Look forward to it. Miles loss of Poles and 3 satellite divisions may be the difference
Another great video and you have my attention as always looking so forward to part 3
I suppose that the Austrians maybe would not ally with the Prussians and Russians after such a victory as the French occupation of Berlin. Napoleon in your game performed a lot better then in the historical campaign and focussed on his typical objective such as capturing the enemy's capital to break the moral of the enemy. The Saxon king always was impressed by Napoleon and supported him until his defeat at Leipzig. We have to take in account, that the Saxons were forced to fight the French in 1806 and were the natural rivals of Prussia.... The duke of Wurttemberg personaly hated Napoleon and Napoleon's friend in Baden died in 1811. Great historians here and great episode too!
Kinda feel sorry for Josh now.
He was voted down in the Phyrric campaign as well…. 😅 but that’s the life of a general 🙈
Court politics at its finest. Those involved would definitely pounce at all those 6s and it would definitely not matter that dice rolls represent factors outside of leader control.
Great vid again guys.. I hope some one can answer this, will there be a carry on a before or after for the alamo video.. Maybe a Bexar or san jancinto.. would be epic, no doubt another great amount of people will watch it, which that was the best war gaming video out there in my humble opinion cheers guys.👍
Good to see Napoleon acting historically and NOT following advice 😆
The Emperor always goes his own way….
Was so excited for this wonderful new year gift
How would the Polish soldiers in the Grande Armeé have known that Napoleon offered the Duchy of Warzaw to Austria? Negotiations between Napoleon and Metternich would have been secret.
And even if the Allies would have tried to make this public knowledge, Napoleon would have simply denied having made this offer. Who are the Poles going to believe? Their only chance for independence (Napoleon) or those who had carved up their land not long ago?
I think it was a pretty fair punishment given what Napoleon was technically offering here. It would be a bit unfair to basically let Miles offer whatever he could off-map in order to try and placate the Austrians.
@@henrrryyyy couldn't help but think of the famous quote "In war, nothing is fair".
I understand where you're coming from henrrryyyy, and you made me remember a historical precedent of one of Napoleon's more outrageous peace offers having a big impact on a third party:
When Napoleon offered to the UK the *Prussian* province of Hanover for peace, this provoked the prussian king to launch his ill-fated war against napoleon (because his ego was hurt).
But my main point is that Monarchs were much better informed than the common soldier. And if you're part of Napoleon's army (Like the Poles historically) there's bound to be propaganda. So it is my estimate that the Poles would not known, nor have laid down their arms had they known. For all we know, they might have been declared deserters and shot. Again, to them Napoleon was a liberator and only chance of independence and liberty. To me the idea of them quitting is absurd.
Only from a game "fairness" point of view this might be a thing. But they're not playing a fair game, they're replaying an (a-)historic scenario.
@@TheSlazzer But they are playing a game. You can't really allow a player to just increase their "offer" with no downsides in order to receive whatever they would like - since then they aren't really offering anything. Offering up Warsaw in this scenario should be a gamble - where no matter what it costs you the Polish divisions. If you succeed you lose them, since you have handed them over to the Austrians and stripped them of their independence. If you fail, you should probably lose them.
In my opinion, they should probably have justified it further in the video with a potential scenario that does make a bit more sense... Maybe Poniatowski makes the decision to remove his troops from Napoleon's army believing that his best bet at maintaining Polish independence is to side with the Coalition, or at the very least abandon Napoleon - in a similar way to Murat's ploy to keep his throne in Naples - whilst it would likely have failed, by this point it is clear that if Napoleon makes a deal with the Coalition, Warsaw is most certainly on the chopping block.
My main point is that since it is very much a game, and in reality this offer would never have been made (given the circumstances after the spring campaign), it should probably be punished.
@@TheSlazzer
*"For all we know, they might have been declared deserters and shot."*
Not necessarily, as bulk of Polish forces (20k+) had to march all the way from Cracow and did not make it before July, thus they were outside of effective French control before negotiation phase started. Napoleon was half-expecting them to never arrive in the first place, while there was a _serious_ debate among Polish leadership whether to go. Moreover, Austrians were heavily interfering in those matters and would certainly not miss the opportunity to deliver such a powerful blow to French faction.
@@Saeronor interesting, where can I read up on that?
Superb, thoroughly enjoying every aspect of this campaign. I can't seem to find the diplomacy podcast on Little Wars FM playlist.
Can't wait for the fall part!
Eugene was Viceroy of the Kingdom of Northern Italy and a Corps commander, however, he was NOT a Marshal.
He has been promoted here and retained in Germany for his Spring performance!
@@LittleWarsTV I promoted him - see I adhere to the rigorous Ridley Scott School of Historical Accuracy
I've really been enjoying this campaign, thank you Gentlemen!
Napoleon f’ed up. He should have attempted to take Hamburg along with Berlin. Also while I think it is in character to give away Poland I still think it was a bad idea. Illyria fine I get that, provide a port to Austria, Poland was a mistake.
I also think he should have gotten his isolated garrison freed.
Going forward Napoleon will have to take Hamburg as a priority it frees up potential reserves to put towards guarding the Alps and then heading to link up with the isolated garrison. It is a bold strategy to take Prague but I think it might not work.
Defeat in detail though is very Napoleon so I do credit Miles with his role playing.
The Marshalls don't seem so confident.
This plan was most definitely the brainchild of the Emperor. A very aggressive, risky plan at that.
@@LittleWarsTVDoing the opposite of what your opponent expects has it's advantages but so does defending mountain passes with equal or superior numbers. Should have kept those Poles on side. I'm sure if Eugene fails, Napoleon will just blame it on him. Good Nappy role-playing going on here.
I just realized they could use their map of Italy to wargame the Punic Wars! That would be nice to see.
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a stick.
That was a Napoleon as a french i can be behind! Thank you for this piece of art and fun :D
You guys have the best miniature games. Any chance of a European World War II game (Western or Eastern Front) in the near future?
I anticipate a smashing French victory. The allies don't seem to have remembered they're facing Napoleon, that is to say, Miles, not that there's any difference.
Very surprising to see the French lose the Polish. This will only worsen their lack of cavalry.