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Just a few notes on your campaign[:)]

Don't blame the ai on not supplying your forces. There is no way for your center of operations to send supplies down to the southern corps that fast. The same applies to Soult if he moves at hight speed towards the Austrians.

For the rest, a french victory at this point came as a shock to me. With just two infantry corps on an unprepared rush forward you should have experienced a devastating defeat[;)] Though of course Mack was badly hampered by the nominal commander of the army (Ferdinand iirc) and his corps commanders. So I expect you ended up lucky enough to meet only the part of Mack's army retreating north of the Danube.

Napoleon's historic campaign avoided an early engagement around Ulm and instead crossed the Danube en force in the area of Donauwurth. The only way I have found to duplicate that movement so far (because of the confused Austrians retreating on the wrong side of the Danube) has been to force march the southern Infantry corps towards Ellwangen (a few hex south of that town actually) and on a subsequent turn send an additional order to rest and then continue on to Donauwurth (which almost certainly will hold some 500+ units of Austrian supply) where they would be joined by Soult. In the meantime Murat was to delay any Austrians North of the Danube, if necessary at the cst of losing much of the cavalry. Later Murat would fall back to cover the lines of communications.

The main goal of that strategy would be to advance from Donauwurth (as soon as it's captured move the hospital and possibly the enter of operations there) towards Augsburg (while Davout moves to garrison Donauwurth, Marmont would move to support Murat and the soon to arrive Augereau around Ellwangen). That move should lead to a cutting off of the Austrian lines of communications and if done at sufficient speed leave all of Mack's foces trapped around Ulm. The next step would then be to defeat Mack with the 3-4 corps around Augsburg (while the other hold the remainder of the Austrian forces). That should easily lead to a crushing defeat which can then be exploited by the remaining corps taking on the offensive towards Ulm proper and it's surrounding bridges.

During all that time Bernadotte would move unopposed in eastern and southern Bavaria taking control of the countryside (Wrede and Deroi operating independently to capture isolated towans). If any Austrians manage to straggle out of the Ulm area Bernadotte should be able to defeat them.

This loosely reflects Napoleon's historic campaign as I applied it to the game. Using this strategy I achieved an astounding victory in my first attempt (with enemy FoW settings) (at the end of the scenario, 2 Austrian divisions of the Danube army had survived, mainly because I had failed to spot them in their rout, the Russians had apparently halted their march in the Vienna area, about two days distance from Bernadotte's advance guard at Passau or Linz). In my full FoW games on the other hand the campaign did not go quite as well (the first time Murat surrendered on first contact leaving my whole plan open to Austrian attacks on my LoC, the second attempt with slightly modified march orders (I had exausted the troops too much by force marching and the marshals did not rest as ordered) I achieved a decisive victory early on, but let much of the Austrian army slip away (in game that was a victory, but I considered it a defeat as those Austrians would unite with the Russians and I'd have to fight them again aroudn Vienna).

So in short, a frontal assault, especially early in the game is not the best of plans. If it works in game I expect it's either due to extreme luck, or the Austrians have been neutered too much (as I'm sure despite all the command problems Mack could have organised a coordinated defense of Ulm proper) in the game.

despite all that, it was great to read your AAR (I did not do too well in my first attemmpts either, and even this strategy is largely based on Napoleon's actual campaign).

Marc aka Caran...

Oh, I realize all that. I am familiar with the campaign history as well but could care less, honestly, how it went historically. When I play this game it is about creating history in a way different from those that were really there. Oh, I'll refer to it on my own time, perhaps getting more of an insight as to what was going on, but this AAR is meant as just a means of showing off a game I enjoy, not necessarily to be a treatise on history or accurate in that regards.

The AI indeed is not to blame for a lag in supply; I know it takes time to get where it needs to go. But some of the routes taken by the supply wagons seem odd; it takes a little bit of research to understand. For example, in the screenshot before last you'll see a supply wagon with Augereau's name on it. I wondered what the heck it was doing so close to the Danube and why it wasn't approaching him from the north instead of the east. Then I realized it was because I had captured an Austrian supply dump in the area, and that was the AI creating supplies for the newly-arrived corps.

As I said before, I don't generally like supply rules. I just don't like messing with the allocation, distribution, or other aspects of it. Yes, yes, I know, an army marches on its stomach and logistics are one of the most important aspects of warfare, but I don't want to mess with it in my games. Perhaps, though, I need to try.

Thanks for your feedback, I do appreciate it. I don't think I could have recapped the campaign better myself.

Oh, a note - yes that battle where the Austrians lost so many troops IS indeed just one of many outcomes possible. I had trouble getting a screenshot at that point and had to re-do the battle several times. Each time I got a different result. It just so happened that this wild outcome coincided with my machine deciding to cooperate and take a decent shot.

ORIGINAL: Herr Colonel

The orders are sent. Most will take 14-20 hours, except for Soult, who will immediately receive them (as he is in the same hex as Napoleon). I keep in mind that Soult will be long down his road before the other commanders even come close to receiving their orders! Such things should be considered when issuing orders.

Historically, this sort of situation was compensated for by issuing Corps commanders with a schedule of step-off and arrival times for each of their divisions at various map locations. This ensured that all the Corps/Divisions of the army operated in a co-ordinated fashion.

I used this same approach successfully in a multi-player moderated refight of the Eylau campaign but it does require sub-ordinates to exercise proper march discipline as some units need to delay their march whilst other have to force march to reach their objectives.

Is a similar system provided in CotD or do units just march willy-nilly as soon as they get their orders?

IN my first game with this scenario plaing the French it went somewhat the same as you did and I used essentially the same strategy. I had the computer control the supplies and used minimum FOW.Napoleon would move the COD forward and center as well as the hospital whenever it seemed opportune.I used no preparation for attacking Ulm, just ordering the 3 cors to move to the city and attack.

I attacked Ulm piecemeal and won the battle, but Murat shattered instead of Ney did for you. Since the Austrians seemed to be retreating in disorder towards Augsberg, I pursued them with the cavalry initially, then with all the units that had a bit of supplies. I either won or got a draw every battle.

I managed to get a detached cavalry from the North to Augsberg before the retreating Austrians got there, which probably helped hamper their supplies, but I had him set to disengage because I was afraid that he would be wiped out if I tried to hold Augsberg with a single Cavalry division. it is unclear what effect he had, as he held on for one day then retreated, leaving the austrians to pass through the city.

I kept pursuing right through Augsberg through Munich, having added the newly arrived Corps. After Augsberg I dispatched some of them Eastto take objectives there and to try to flank the retreating austrians.

In the meantime, Bernadotte fought the Russians around Chem and drove them away, but some of his units got a bloody nose.

I won the scenario with a marginal victory.I don't consider that this makes me a Napoleon, but I did manage to muddle through on my first game to a victory, although it was only marginal.

Henri