Quick CEF Update

[phoenix]

Great stuff, Bill. Thanks for keeping us posted. Look forward to seeing your stamp on some PzB games too, in the future. I really like the team there - very friendly and open to suggestions. The games so far (the PB games) have been a little hampered by the map making process, to my eye (probably only my eye...). Kursk got me into JTS games in the first place, but the porting over of the map from the PzC title via some automated process produced a somewhat distorted Russian landscape - villages too huge etc. Plus a little sparse. The Normandy game has some really top notch scenarios, but, again, the map was largely imported via the software process, I believe, and was a little coarse for me, even though David and co worked hard to add flavour. So I'm really looking forward to PB3 as that's the first title, I believe, where they have done everything from scratch, themselves, more or less - or to a greater extent, anyway. The maps I've seen look really nice and very faithful to reality. Are you doing anything with PB3, Bill?

[Sgt_Rock]

I cant get into particulars. David will be making all of the public announcements as far as who is involved. All I can say is that I now have four titles to work on and they are diverse. Really fun to say that least.

[Sgt_Rock]

Just started work on the product webpage for CEF. Waiting on artwork to finish off this page. Getting that much closer ;)

Still have Eylau and Friedland games to finish.

All leader images have been posted for Mark Adams to use in building the Leaders.bmp file. Just waiting on Mark at this point.

If finished up the OB Compendium last week for the game.

[Sgt_Rock]

Just avoided a huge embarrassment .... in viewing the playtest file for one of the Battle of Friedland playtest games I noticed Ney showing up in the morning and got to checking .... most of my reinforcement schedule was wrong for the French! E-gads!

So I dug into the books and revised the arrival times. Dodged a huge bullet on that one. Ney didn't come up until 1pm. The Guard infantry showed up just after his corps and then Victor's I Corps showed up between 2 and 4pm.

Napoleon arrived shortly after 11 or so ... his Guard cavalry and artillery shortly after him.

Dupas was already moving up and on the front line by mid to late morning as was Verde's division. Lannes' corps - Oudinot's division of elites was there to start the battle with Grouchy's cavalry wing to hold off the Russians.

What this means is that from 6am when the battle starts the Russians will have the upper hand until Ney's VI Corps pushes up the road. This is good as it means that both sides can play the attacker.

In many ways .. think Marengo but on a larger scale and with the French having the advantage in numbers eventually.

Variant scenarios offer up missing Russian units (some guard infantry and cavalry plus guns and Platov's Cossacks ... plus the 17th Div which I add in as a kicker) and Bonus scenarios even add in L'Estocq and Davout.

I think I could keep on building variants for Friedland for a long time but I had to call a halt so there is the Historical battle, four variants, two bonus scenarios and four of the full battle scenarios also have 15 minute versions.

But this was a close call! ;) Glad I happened to notice Ney's corps coming up the road.

[Lohengrin]

Yes, Friedland is a great battle to simulate contrary to many impressions that it's a French rollover victory. The French were outnumbered until late, and even then I thought the Russians still held a slim manpower edge. Certainly some command decisions affected the course of this battle and if some historical restrictions are removed it could be a wild one.

[Sgt_Rock]

By 4pm Napoleon had the numbers. With the arrival of Victor's I Corps and some cavalry (Durosnel) he finally had the manpower edge. Add to it that the Russian army had been marching from early in the morning and then fighting (except for 14th Division, artillery and reserves) for all of the morning.

Oudinot's Division was pretty much "hors de combat" having held off the Russians. Verde and Dupas also had fought quite a bit in the battle. Grouchy's cavalry wing had fought from sunrise til noon and were exhausted.

The 4-5 hour break helped the French more than the Russians. By 5pm when the signal is given for Ney to attack the Russian left in and around the Sortlack woods the French were primed for victory.