Frank Hunter's Campaigns on the Danube is an operational study of the campaigns along the Danube in 1805 and 1809. Campaigns on the Danube's system focuses on trying to present the player with the same sort of decisions placed on their historical counterparts; how to feed an army and move that army according to a plan, all the while trying to fight a campaign. There is also an option to allow players to play out the battles with miniatures and input the results.
Well, while I'm waiting for the 2.22 patch to be fixed up, I rolled back to v2.2 and had a crack at the 1805 Campaign. Great fun! I played as the French, with Fog-of-War set to 'Enemy'.
Took me a few attempts, but I finally won a decisive victory. The 'Manoeuvre of Ulm' is fairly easy to pull off, but I was too cautious in the first couple of attempts when it came to marching on Vienna. I didn't realise just how much you can push the French corps, even when they have little or no supplies. Which matches the history pretty well, from what I've read.
There were one or two minor glitches during play (you have to Alt-Tab to get the Save/Load Game dialog boxes to show and Bessieres got stuck a couple of times for some reason) but all in all it was trouble free.
Well I've had a couple of tries now as the Coalition and it's a challenging one . You can get away from Ulm without any difficulties, but the trick is not to run too far, too fast. Both of my attempts have resulted in draws (+2VP and -13VP respectively). That's because, in both cases, I've retreated too much. My armies are in reasonable shape, but I've given up too many cities.
Third time lucky! Great scenario. You really have to juggle things as the Coalition, but I managed to get a decisive victory. Now to try the 'full' fog-of-war setting.
Ooookay, that was confusing. I just tried the full fog-of-war setting and didn't really have a clue what was going on. I understand the principle behind it, but how is it you can see divisions moving (sort of) across the map? I would have thought that the corps commander's unit would remain static, until you get a report telling you he's fought/captured a town/etc, at which time his unit graphic would be repositioned to the newly-reported location.
Obviously, that's not what happens. Instead, when you send an order, at first the corps unit in question doesn't move. Okay, it takes time for the order to arrive. Then you see its component divisions kind of marching along the route to their destination. 'Kind of' in that the units occasionally jump back and forth along that route. This makes sense if you're receiving occasional information about divisional locations (although not actual full reports, a la "Sire, we attacked the enemy at..." reports). Is that what's happening? That, in effect, you're getting occasional snippets of information along the lines of: "Division X was last seen two hexes south of town Y", followed by "Correction, Division X is actually one hex north of town Y"?
And what is the number in the red box on some friendly units, that appears underneath the usual strength number? Occasional enemy units have this red box too, but with no number inside it.
I understand that the most active players of this game were all on this forum about 6 years ago, when the game came out. But my recent postings have had a fair number of views. Someone is reading this, so can anyone shed any light on the above questions?
"And what is the number in the red box on some friendly units, that appears underneath the usual strength number? Occasional enemy units have this red box too, but with no number inside it."
The red numbers indicate fatigue. If your units are not supplied and are stressed due to movement or combat, they will suffer in how well they perform. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think combat, movement and carrying out your orders are all adversely affected by fatigue. I'm confident it is in the manual, but I'm not sure where.
Is that what's happening? That, in effect, you're getting occasional snippets of information along the lines of: "Division X was last seen two hexes south of town Y", followed by "Correction, Division X is actually one hex north of town Y"?
Your understanding of full fog of war is how I've understood it: receiving small reports of info over the course of a turn. Remember, we can't see the messenger units running around everywhere and some of those guys don't make it to their destinations. Seeing the units move where you ordered them reflects where the army staff "thinks" their forces are going, only to be corrected when the messenger arrives saying, "Hey, we're really over here..." Also, intel on the opposing forces can be even more inaccurate, so just because you see opposing units near you, doesn't mean they are exactly in that area, (or there are more of them than you realize), so be careful! [:)]
You are also correct about the extended campaigns not working properly for the latest patch. In fact, I think the problem was introduced a couple of patches ago. Frank is busy with other projects at the moment and probably doesn't have time to try and fix this any time soon. Maybe when he has a bit more time he can address it.
I've only played the 1809 scenarios and only as the Coalition. I made an Order of Battle to help me keep all those Austrians in my head. If you plan to play the 1809 scenarios I'd be happy to share them with you. I meant to make a OoB of the French army, but never got around to it. I'll have some free time in December, so maybe I'll try to attempt that project then.
Thank you very much for the info and advice! Much appreciated. There is some OOB info here: http://www.thurb.com/games/danube/intro.htm, I don't know if you're aware of that?
I did not know about Mr. Palfrey's web site, so thank you very much for sharing this with me. I like his very concise OoB, especially since it has the start location of each corps commander. I thought about including start locations, but didn't when I created my Austrian order of battle. I think if I every create an order of battle for the French, I'll include start locations as well.
Good luck with CotD, I hope you continue to enjoy it.
