Its 1812 Again at Metro Wargamers!

Tomb for an Empire game getting underway

A game of "Tomb for an Empire" (Bellica 3rd Generation www.bellica3g.com) kicked off at Metro Wargamers this week. It is a serious treatment of the entire Peninsula Campaign. The players (Lou, Alan, Mike, and Tony A) will play the 1812 - 1814 scenario, about 28 turns in length. The rich game system really conveys the difficulties and opportunities confronting the Imperial, Spanish, and Anglo Allied sides.

Summary of January 1812 turn:
Guerilla level were reduced to 1 in most areas, but we had not yet really learned how bad that was for the Imperials. Training, reinforcements, and the rest of the start of the turn was easy. The random event brought confused orders from Paris, so all HQ AP were –1.

Now it was time to learn our lessons about activation: The Imperial commander in the South underbid and due to increased AP costs for guerrilla activity (ouch) was unable to build the depot he wanted to build, didn’t have enough to do a siege action, and ended up marching away from Tarfia ending the siege there. The other corps made a similar mistake, and the tension in the south was released. Valencia was heroic for the Imperials, as soon as they breached the walls Blake surrendered! Great victory.

As the activation rounds progressed the pain of marching in the winter with guerillas in action became apparent. Due to the on column shift to the right on the attrition table for the guerillas, EVERY march resulted in at least 1 straggler! Imperial forces dwindled, and the inexperienced commanders lost many SP of cavalry to the cruel winter.

The Commanders pause to provide a memento for posterity 

Wellington, sensing an opportunity, marched eastward into Spain, setting up a blockade at the first fortification he encountered. More careful then the Imperials, he brought up a chain of depots, and set up to start a siege. Still, the Imperials groaned under the constant drain of guerilla harasssment, winter conditions. The rest of the turn was one of consolition of the Armee du Portugal, Armee du Cataluna, and repositioning the Armee du Nord to help meet Wellington’s threat.

The activation rounds ran out and the next lesson was learned: Consumption saw Wellington, Armee du Portugal, and other large formations suffer 10 % attrition. Then the stragglers disappeared.  Stunned commanders totaled up the resulting victory points at the end of the turn: Imperials 322 (mostly due to the victory at Valencia), Spanish 65, Anglo Alliied 117.

The weary but wiser commanders will continue the month of February in the next week or two. Please contact Mike, Tony, Alan or Lou if you are interested in finding out more about this game.