Pre-battle map movement

I’ve always felt that perhaps I’m limiting the armies too much because of my restricted tabletop space. Head to head fighting is fine, but spectacular pre-battle manoeuvres in the style of Leuthen and Zorndorf is simply a no-no. So, for a while I was kicking around with a random generator I’d put together on Excel – pretty straightforward, but I thought a little pre-battle movement would be worth it.

Anyway, this was greatly helped for the upcoming battle at Flussburg when I joined the Old School Wargaming yahoo group and discovered the file ‘CoWar’ which is available there, and generates nice little random hex-maps. I don’t think I’ve quite got the hang of it, but I was able to quickly print out one for the approach to Flussburg. The armies were represented with some old 2mm figures I had available (even in the appropriate blue and while colours!) I’ve not developed any system much beyond some nominal movement rates for infantry and cavalry, improved or worsened by roads and terrain.

The map and movements of each force (the fortress of Flussburg has simply been drawn on the map)

General van der Dijk was deployed in some trenches around the city, but began to back away as the larger Aschenbach force approached and threatened to roll up his line. I’d weighed him down with some appropriate baggage from the siege, and this slowed him from a full escape. He did however manage to reach a hilly area, and get a stream mostly between him and the pursuing bluecoat infantry. Perhaps he will indeed manage to put up a spirited defence, and even get some lucky dice rolls in against some good-quality enemy units.

Deployment for the battle of Flussburg