After the day, Snappy Nappy AAR, of sorts

Back from an enjoyable day pushing lead around, the 1813 Snappy Nappy game at the Time Machine in Manchester, CT.   A half hour ride with Roger driving  across Hartford got us there about 90 seconds ahead of the gamemaster, who we saw make a last minute wrong turn to the venue.

After setting up, getting assignments.....as Bernadotte, the commander of the Army of the North, I started in Berlin, we began our moves.

At this point, I am going to direct you to Peter Anderson's blog for the complete set up and background of the day.  Peter was the game master and did a marvelous job of herding the cats, I mean, wargamers, to their respective starting positions.  You'll also get a great tour of the strategic and tactical maps, as well as a tour of most of the table  tops sans troops.

http://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/2013/04/snappy-nappy-1813-aar-part-1-set-up-and.html


I chose the Army of the North as it had so many varieties of troops, I took along 2 Swedish cavalry units, six Swedish, three Prussian and two Russian, and two Hanoverian infantry units, four artillery units and a Cossack unit.  One must always have at least one Cossack unit from 1812 onward. It's just good form!

I received orders from Dan, our CiC (did not pick up your last name, my error) and leaving a garrison at Berlin (some very happy Hanoverian conscripts) proceeded down the road to Bautzen.  A funny thing happened on the way....I ran into a whole lot of Bavarians commanded by Roger!

That ended the strategic maneuvering  for both of us, as I got stuck into Roger's force. I should warn you here, Roger and I have been regular opponents since 1970 and so know each others' tricks. Luckily for me this day my tricks included rolling high most every important roll coupled with his afternoon of bad luck at dice. Still it was hammer and tongs for most of the afternoon for us, while the other corps danced around each other, finally meeting at Bautzen.

By 4pm real time, the Bavarians were unmasking Torgau, the Cossacks were hungrily eying Leipzig (told you the game was big in scale) and Bernadotte was sending messages trumpeting his victory. 

We watched the agony of the Saxons trying to hold off two enemy corps, one in front and one on its flak. The 5 o'clock whistle blew with a Allied victory, which belied how hard fought the game had been.

I did manage to leave my camera at home, so no photos here.  Check the link above as Peter took several of just our table and definitely had shots of the other forces.

Overall I'd say if your local group wants to try a 'campaign n a day' that the Snappy Nappy rules are worth a look.

Comments

Gonsalvo said…
Nice summary; much more concise than my version!

I am about 2/3 done with part two (of three) at present.
Rafael Pardo said…
It seems a glorious day!
Regards
Rafa
James Fisher said…
Thanks for the brief introduction Joe. You paint a wonderful word picture of the events. Next I'll be 'off' to Peter's blog to finally catching up with the 'story' of yet another wonderful Anderson-fête. It's such a clever way to run a campaign in person and in a day. Great stuff!

(I am now musing about copying the approach to stage a bicentennial of the six days campaign of 1814 in preference to 'linked' battles. It could work couldn't it Joe/Peter?

James
pancerni said…
The 1814 campaign certainly has all the features of an interesting situation. You can scale the map and the OB's by following the set up on Peter's blog.

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