Congress of Vienna Standard Game After-Action-Report: “The Clash of Armies” Scenario (Turn 2 of 4 – Sept. 1813)

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Vassal Screen: CoV “Clash of Armies” Game Situation – Start Turn 2, Sept. 1813

Figure 1 – The Military & Diplomatic situation at the begin of Turn 2.

Introduction by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer & Editor – Fred Schachter: The first turn of this After-Action-Report (AAR) chronicled game was an exciting and unusual one with France doing well against their disjointed enemies. It should be noted that this turn’s record, as well as the remaining reports of this series, shall depict battles in some detail… but not EVERY detail… particularly regarding full calculation of the dice roll modifiers which were evaluated to learn how much each side’s two dice battle rolls would be influenced.  It’s really a simple checklist review to determine what to include.  To learn more of the game’s battle resolution system, see the nifty video two of our media-savvy play test team created:  How to Resolve Battle in Congress of Vienna: An Animated Voice-Over PowerPoint – Inside GMT blog 

So let’s resume the game action of this Congress of Vienna “Clash of Armies” contest as the conflict expands to engulf the entire European continent with Austria’s entry into the war… but first…

Setting the Stage: Flashback to Turn One of this “Clash of Armies” CoV Game

Our erstwhile Saturday Sessions Team contenders, France – Chris, Britain – Mirek – Russia – David S., and Austria – Ty resumed our Congress of Vienna action with the September 1813 turn of this “Clash of Armies” Scenario’s turn 2.

Battle of Kulm by Kotsebu

The previous turn 1, August 1813, saw minimal Armies clashing since the main European Fronts (Central Europe Track A, Northern Europe Track B, and the Italian theatre’s Track F) were quiescent due to the Allied Major Powers failing to stop France at the very end of the scenario’s first Diplomacy Phase from seizing the Austria at War Issue and thereby prolonging the Armistice.  To learn how France managed this impressive feat, read:

Congress of Vienna Standard Game After-Action-Report: “The Clash of Armies” Scenario (Turn 1 of 4 – Aug. 1813) – Inside GMT blog  This turn shall, hopefully for the Allies, be more successful for them.

Turn Two, Sept. 1813, Initial Situation Resolutions

The most significant Initial Situation Card result was automatic entry of Austria into the war.  The table’s dice roll results were 3/3.  This meant Austria receiving an extra card of choice for the first die roll.  Ty selected Schwarzenberg.  The second die roll was a “No Effect”.

Figure 2.- The Initial Phase of the 2nd Turn of this “Clash of Armies” CoV Scenario

This was followed by the players each drawing their September 1813 hands of cards from the draw deck: France – 13 cards, Britain – 12, Russia – 11, and Austria – 10.   Note the disparity in cards between France and its enemies… woe to France if the Coalition Allies can truly “get their act together”!

Figure 3 – Player card hands at the beginning of the Diplomacy Phase of the game’s 2nd Turn: Here are the cards possessed by each Major Power when play the 2nd Turn of this “Clash of Armies” CoV scenario commenced. How much would a player give to know the hands of the other players?

We next proceeded to the players wagering a card each to learn who’d gain an extra Issue for placement on their National Track and for determining Major Power play sequence for the upcoming Diplomacy Phase (getting “last licks” can prove most important… as the prior turn showed).

The wagers were France – 5 value Blucher, Britain – 2 value Oudinot, Russia 5 value Davout, and Austria – 2 value Berthier.  As Russia and France were tied, Britain chose Russia to win (no surprise there!) using its “tie-breaker” National Ability.  David, as Russia, selected the Government of France Issue for placement on his National Track’s 3-space.

Figure 4.- Cards Wagered (right) & selected Issues at the beginning of Diplomacy Phase: The left column notes of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th indicate the clockwise sequence in which each Major Power choses its Diplomacy Phase Issues.

The players, in sequence, then selected two Issues each for the Negotiation Table.  These are in additional to those placed into play by the turn’s Initial Situation Card and the wager winner.  Britain: both its Military Operation markers, Austria – one Military Operation marker and the Congress of Peace, France – Absolutism/Liberalism and Naples, Russia – both its Military Operation markers.

Diplomacy Phase Highlights

These included:Four trades (see Figure 5).  Note how some of the players improved the quality of their card hands by trading with one another.  Trading is the procedure that allows improving the players’ hand, and indirectly balancing the game, since it favors the players with the lowest VP scoring.

David secured the Government of France Issue by moving it to Russia’s National Track’s Seat (its 7-Space).  This did not use his Tsar Alexander Leader card which remained in reserve… just in case Napoleon chose to participate in the Diplomacy Phase.   Last turn’s lesson seems to have been taken very much to heart!

Metternich was played to gain the Congress of Peace Issue by moving it to the Austrian Seat while Castlereagh was used to secure the Absolutism/Liberalism Issue for Britain.

The Diplomacy Phase ended with France winning but a single Issue… Naples for +1VP and an additional military unit, while the three Allied players secured three Issues each.  What a difference from turn one!  Britain’s card play resulted in it being awash with Resources… 8 of them and, with its “tie breaker” ability got to declare itself the Diplomacy Phase winner for an award of +2VP!

Figure 5.- The 4 trades in Turn 2: The Austrian player uses a typical Austrian strategy at the start of a Diplomacy Phase: Trade in his round for receiving an AU card AND thereby gain a weapon for future debating (with +1 value due to Austria’s National Advantage)!! The French player usually trades to “save” his potential battle cards for the War Phase and he may ALSO sometimes receive excellent battle cards in return like Andrew Jackson! Readers should note France’s National Advantage that no other Major Power may deny trading with France when asked!

Due to the War of 1812 Track marker’s placement, its not being in the +1 Britain space, there could be no Pax Britannica die roll this turn.

The Future Government of France Issue, won by Russia, had its pawn moved from the “Emperor Napoleon” space into the “King Napoleon” space resulting in France losing -2VP while Russia, Austria, and Britain each gained +3VP. 

Next came resolution of the Congress of Peace.  For using the Metternich Leader in securing it, Austria rolled a single die-halved (round fraction up) for a VP award.  The die roll was six for +3VP!  The VP Leader, France, next got punished and with a die roll of six which resulted in a  -3VP.  Finally, the Diplomacy Phase winner, Britain, sustained its punishment, a die roll of 2 resulting in a -1VP penalty.

Finally came resolution of the British won Liberalism Issue and once again it was an “anything but a one” die roll situation.  Mirek’s virtual die roll was “3” and the Liberalism track’s pawn advanced into its “Free Market” space for a +3VP reward to both Britain and France.

Figure 6.- The End of Diplomacy & Government Phase: This was a British Diplomacy Phase victory (3 Issues) but only obtained through that Major Power’s National Advantage that “break ties to Britain’s side” (Russia & Austria also won 3-Issues each). The French only obtained one Issue, since the three Allied players conducted themselves in a coordinated manner.

Government Phase and War Phase

Since September 1813 is a replacement turn, France benefitted from the previous turn’s Armistice “Peace Dividend”.  After gaining replacements, one from each blue triangle on the map, it had but two available French military units remaining in its Force Pool!

Military Operation and military support markers were deployed (see preceding illustration) and each Major Power conducted Strategic Movement. 

This brought us to resolving the War Phase’s battles in front/track sequence:                                                 

Central Europe Track A: France’s Grande Armée in Saxony attacked the Austrian Generalissimo-led Armies of Silesia and Bohemia in Silesia. The Coalition, in turn, attacked Saxony.  France’s 11 units were confronted by 10 Russian, 2 Prussian, and 8 Austrian units.  However, Chris, as France, could use the Vassal feature to see how many cards remained in enemy hands.  This showed a grim potential situation… David (Russia) and Ty (Austria) had quite a few cards available.

The Battle of Dennewitz by Alexander Wetterling

Consequently, Chris, in hopes of not sustaining the maximum possible loss of 5 units in battle, along with a -2VP penalty should Napoleon be defeated with +2VP battle victory rewards to each of Russia and Austria for vanquishing the emperor; announced a French withdrawal from Saxony.  This inflicted a -6 DRM to both sides. The Allies suffered a -1DRM for having “too many troops” command control problems (13 or more military units in a single map space).

France only committed Napoleon to this Track A withdrawal battle; but the Allies came in strong with Von Bulow, Wittgenstein, Radetsky, and Gyulay.  The French dice roll was “10” versus the Coalition’s “7”, but so great were the Allies’ positive DRM that France lost 4 military units to 3 Allied and the 7 surviving Grande Armée units withdrew into Bavaria.

This illustrates how even a battle involving Withdrawal can turn into a most bloody affair.  The Coalition’s Russian and Austrian Armies advanced to occupy Saxony, which will reduce the French card hand by one next turn, and immediately results in each of Russia and Austria gaining +3VP while France sustains a -3VP penalty for losing the valuable Saxony space.

Figure 7.- The French Withdrawal from Saxony: A French withdrawal still results in the Grande Armée sustaining a “bloody nose” loss of 4 military units to 3 Allied (and the Coalition can more easily tolerate their losses).

Northern Europe Track B: Here France’s Army of Elbe chose to stand and fight in Pomerania against a Russian Northern Army attack out of Prussia.  The Allies had 4 RU, 4 PR, and 3 SW military units under Bernadotte, Benningsen, and Yorck von Wartenburg to oppose 7 French units under Ney and Poniatowski (who survived his “death die roll” which was not a 1 or 2).

Figure 8.- The Battle for Pomerania: France’s attempt to hold their northern European position fails in face of Russia’s military power.

The Allied dice roll was a “9” versus a very good French dice roll of “11”.  That, however, was not enough to stave off French defeat.  France lost 3 units versus 2 for the Allies resulting in battle VP consequences of -1VP to France and +1VP to Russia. Pomerania’s changing hands also made a Swedish replacement unit available and will increase Russia’s next turn card hand size by one.

Southern Spain Track D: The British Eastern Army in Southern Spain of 2 BR and 4 SP units faced off against a 6 unit full-strength French Army of Mediterranean who did not Withdraw (the British could not Withdraw even if they wanted to being backed into Track D’s Southern Spain space).

Britain attacked with Wellington and Graham versus the French Iberian “Dream Team” of Soult and Suchet. Mirek rolled a “5” and “7” for Wellington, selecting the “7” while Chris rolled an “8”.  The battle result was a draw with each side losing one military unit.

Figure 9.- The Battle for Valencia: Wellington stymied!

Italian Front Track F: Austria attacked France’s Withdrawing 5 unit Army of Italy in Venice from Tyrol with a 5 unit Army of Tyrol under Schwarzenberg and Von Klenau.  France had no military card(s) to devote to this battle.  Ty’s dice roll was “8” versus Chris’ “10”.  This resulted in a loss of one military unit to each side.

Figure 10.- The French Withdrawal from Venice: France loses its first home space!

The Army of Tyrol’s occupancy of Venice gained Austria a +2VP reward without penalty to France (note the VP value printed on the map is in Austrian grey, which indicates the effect solely on Austria. A black VP imprint indicates an effect on both sides). 

Furthermore, Venice was the first French homeland space to fall to the Coalition.  This triggered a once-per-game “Amour sacré de la Patrie” rule. Chris, as France would roll a single virtual Vassal die for a VP reward to indicate the effect of the empire’s populace rallying to the imperial cause.  The die roll was six for 6VP… lucky Chris, eh?

War of 1812 Box G: Attacking British forces were 4 Fleets and 2 Canadian militia units under Sherbrooke and battle card #8 versus 4 US militia units under Jackson and battle card #7.  Mirek rolled a “10” to Chris’ “4”.  The result was a British victory… 3 US units eliminated to 2

British units (1 Fleet and 1 Canadian militia) for a +1VP battle reward to Britain and a -1VP penalty to France.

Furthermore, the War of 1812 Track marker moved one to the right into its “zero” space. The surviving US unit went home with its enlistments expiring.

Figure 11.- The First British Victory in America: The War of 1812 Track marker moves from the French +1 box into “zero”. It will be a tough path to North American British victory… but the first step has been taken!

End of Turn 6, September 1813, VP and Post Turn Observations

This proved a bloody turn of attrition for France with cumulative European losses of 9 military units.  To avoid a kind of “death spiral” on one or more of the map’s fronts/tracks; it will be important for Chris to next turn seek gaining additional units through acquiring French map-controlled Minor Country Issues and/or the French Recruitment Issue.

Figure 12.- The End of Turn 2: Finally, the players score the VP for adjustment matters as Generalissimo, War Political Status, Castile, and War of 1812 Status!

The turn ended with France gaining +2VP for Austria being at war, Britain gained +1VP for controlling Castile, and Austria +1VP for Generalissimo. 

The September 1813 turn concluded with the Major Power VP markers placed: France – 67, Russia – 34, Austria – 31, and Britain – 21.

Is there still an opportunity to thwart a French victory… and then if France is foiled, which of the Allies are best positioned to win? Time and the next turn of this “Clash of Armies” Congress of Vienna AAR may tell, eh?

Previous Article: Congress of Vienna Standard Game After-Action-Report: “The Clash of Armies” Scenario (Turn 1 of 4 – Aug. 1813)

Frank Esparrago and Fred Schachter
Author: Frank Esparrago and Fred Schachter

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Categories: After Action Report, Designer Blogs

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