Today is the 200th Anniversary of the Second Day of the Battle of Bautzen. Bautzen was the largest land battle in European history at that time. Leipzig would go on to eclipse it and it would not be until World War One that a battle would take their place.

This battle is little written about. Why? Well it doesn't sound like Waterloo! :laugh:

A large army (the French) with mainly infantry faced the Allies who had plenty of cavalry but could not coordinate it properly. The fighting was savage on several sectors of the battlefield. Rather than the narrow frontage of the Lutzen battlefield, Bautzen spanned several miles and included a memorable flank attack by Ney (which could have crushed the Allies had he not turned inward too soon).

This battle did not bring the laurels of campaign victory that Napoleon so desired and the proximity to Austria reminded him that his line of supply could be cut if they chose to enter the campaign arena.

Simply put - Napoleon's cavalry lay dead on the steppes of Russia. Had he not invaded in 1812 Europe today may be a much different place.

Lets remember the brave men that fought on this day. This battle deserves a better place in history than what the Book Publishers have allowed. Put Waterloo in the title and they buy it. It is a shame that the book publisher controls so much of what we see today. I know of several authors that have great books ready to go but publishers are not putting out their works.

When you get a chance - put in a good word for books on the 1813 campaign. Compared to Waterloo, 1813 is terribly neglected.

Guys - I just finished work on the updates for Campaign Bautzen, Leipzig and 1814. Not sure exactly when these will get posted as John Tiller has been very busy but just a heads up that these are coming at some time in the near future.

Included in the update is all regular Dragoon regiments (not light dragoons) are now D type. Certain Confed of the Rhine dragoon regiments will not be rated Dragoon type as they really were just Light cavalry.

At some point in the future I will include which ones are Dragoon type and which ones are NOT.

Time permitting I would love to put together campaigns that are for entire battles. No, not just one campaign branch for the entire battle but have a multitude of branch levels with decision points at each.

For example:

Borodino:

Battle opened with an attack on the Borodino village and Davout's first assault on the fleches - then a second and third assault on the fleches, Utitsa mound, fight for Redoubt, etc.

What the campaign would do is break down the battle into smaller pieces. You would have a choice of where to attack initially but your opponent could also plan a counterattack too. After each action you would then move on to a new action based on the results of the first or in some cases to a new branch that is "parallel" with the one you just played. The next decision point would combine the effects of the outcomes of the two actions and you would then a new decision point would be reached with options which take into effect past events of both actions.

Would be nice as otherwise usually our battle degenerate into a mass of humanity all moving on turn 1 towards their objectives. Few players keep a solid reserve for the end battle point.

Ideally - five to six branches deep.

Waterloo:

Hougomont attack
Assault on La Haye Sainte
Cavalry attack on center
I Corps moves forward

etc.

Some of the really large battles would be nice to do this with. Leipzig for instance. Instead of moving hundreds of thousands of men you would just play out the KEY action points.

And yes, losses would carry over ... formations that previously fought may indeed not be in future actions. Just depends on the situation.

I cannot find the link to the History Channel online game that John Tiller offered - web based decision tree - for the Battle of Waterloo. Something similar to that but with real scenarios to fight out.

If anyone finds the link let me know. Maybe the web game was pulled from their site?

Could Wellington have beaten the French had Blucher not arrived?

Here are the two cases:

1. Napoleon expects the Prussians but they do not show up on the 18th - arrive on the 19th instead.

2. Napoleon ignores the threat - the Prussians do not show up on the 18th but would on the 19th.

For #1 I believe that even with the addition of the VI Corps and the Guard division that was detached to the right that the French still would have lost because they had Ney leading them that day and he was sending in the French legions uncoordinated.

One way to play this out in Campaign Waterloo would be to have the VI Corps and one Guard division remain fixed until 4pm. No Prussians arrive. Also fix the Old Guard as well until 6pm.

Would make for an interesting battle.

HPS just released the direct download version of Jena.

Information about purchasing the DD version of Jena can be found here:

http://www.hpssims.com/shopping/shop...leonic+Battles

Announcing a new contest:

The AI Strikes Back!

We would like as many people as possible to try their hand at writing AI scripts for the JTS/HPS pre-WWI games. To encourage this, JTS will award one of their recent downloadable titles (on a lottery basis) to one new AI script for a historical scenario turned in from now until the end of July 2013.

The game will be awarded based on the Dow Jones numbers for August 1, 2013, (using the last numbers as a random number calculator).

To encourage the use of the random script feature in the software, a scenario that offers 5 different scripts for the AI to chose from, will count as 5 scripts turned in.

Send your new scenario (remember it must be historic, not a what-if) to me at gcbisset@gmail.com to be checked and numbered for the drawing. We especially encourage scenarios that add AI to previous historic scenarios that were released without AI scripts , or that perhaps did not have a very interesting script. Label your new scenarios as follows:

Game Title (omit "campaign"" ), Scenario Name, Historic Solo,Random (if more than 1 script), Play As, Your Name as in the following example:

Peninsula 7 Pines Historic Solo Random Play US George Bisset

Include a brief description of how many scripts and any other necessary info in your email.

Visit my website, http://gbisset.bravesites.com, for suggestions of how to make interesting AI scripts. I also invite any suggestions you have to do the same, and I can add those to the site.

All scenarios will be checked to see that the scripts function, and are different from those already existing for that scenario.

The scripts will then be uploaded to the SDC lists for everyone to enjoy.

If youve never done a script, try one. I just did one for 7 Pines in one hour that kept me playing for a week!

George Bisset