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March 1805.

The situation so far is that Prussia and Austria started at war with France, and France and Spain started at war with Britain. We simulated a pre-game declarations of war step by having players submit their bids twice, once without declarations of war and once with (so everyone knew what country they would get and had a chance at pre-game diplomacy before declarations of war).

Napoleon began stacked in Hanover with 7 corps, Charles was in Theresienstadt and the Prussians were in defensive position at Kustrin. That's where they sat through January and February, with the Austrians combining with the Prussians in Dresden for the winter.

Now we are about to commence March 1805. Napoleon, possibly awed by the enormity of the combined Austro/Prussian stack, and partially concerned by the Austrian light corps' brave destruction of his rear area depot at Mainz, has pulled back to home territory. Charles and Napoleon now face each other from opposite sides of Germany.

Mack and Massena play chess in Italy.

Spain and Britain have settled their differences and an uneasy informal peace now reigns.

I went to Spain once, it was shut.

The Russians sit, and watch, and wait.

Major powers play dice in the Caucasus.

The only other action so far is in Africa where Egypt is quickly brought under the Turkish yoke.

It seems the Austrian press, in an effort to create a story where there isn't one in the Caucasus has failed to mention that Russia and Turkey are allied.

As for 'watching and waiting', Russia is reprising her 18th century stance of 'armed neutrality'. We hope soon to persuade the Swedes to join us in this camp.

Early indications from our battlefield correspondent indicate that Massena has run up the mountain to engage Mack, with Napoleon standing by and attempting to reinforce. Stand by for more news.

Spain is only shut to Austrians...... you forgot to pay your tab last time!
 

May 1805

The situation on the main front has changed dramatically. Rather than being trounced by the massed French army, Mack was able to stave off defeat in his forest cordon, using a rare tactic known as "pick the right chit and roll some damned good dice".

First round of battle is attached. What followed was a story of misery for the French, being good enough only to inflict 5% casualties on the next two rounds, and breaking on the third after the Austrians committed the guards. Insult and injury rode in on the same horse, as the Austrian cavalry was able to inflict further losses on the French (1 cav and 6 inf factors).

The strategic situation now looks very different. Mack returned to liberate Vienna (taken by Ney in March), as Napoleon licks his wounds in the Tyrol. We hit an odd little game bug where the entire French stack was moved back to the battlefield site in Munich after the Austrian turn, but I didn't manage to keep a save file before this happened.

Charles stands by with his army.

On the Atlantic and North Sea coasts, the French navy has been reduced to matchsticks. The British guards returned home to triumph, and Soult stands by guarding the rest of the fleet (mostly Dutch). With Napoleon being occupied in the south, Hohenloe has been able to push through to besiege Amsterdam, leaving the Dutch navy in a dangerous position.

The Caucasus has now been pacified, under the united Turkish/Russian banner.

Spain continues to march through Italy, unopposed.

With the spring thaw, the Russian fleet was able to launch a lightning invasion of Sweden.

Yes, my Spanish army in Italy is getting quite the reputation. I hear they will upgrade to 3.5 morale before long!
 

I wouldn't call it an "army". It's a corps. Once the French get hold of it, it will probably be renamed to a "cadre" or perhaps a "memorial".

It's been a while since I've updated. The game is still going strong, we are just finishing December 1805 at the moment.

The Austrian/Prussian alliance eventually surrendered to the overwhelming numbers that France could send at us, and with no support from any allies we were stumped for a solution. Both sides lost large numbers of troops -- 40+ factors casualties on both sides. The French army rambling around Vienna was reduced to a cadre, but the allies could put together almost nothing to fight it. However very generous surrender terms were obtained -- nothing more than 1/2 reparations or trading loss on the AU/PR side, and a fairly favourable division of minors. The Austrian army is well on the way to rebuilding. Italy has been divided between Austria and Spain, and France and Prussia share the German minors. Britain took Denmark and Prussia took all of the minors on the Danish border, including Hanover which was liberated early in the campaign.

While the French army was away fighting in Austria, the French navy was utterly destroyed. 10 light ships and some transports are all that remains, due to the British landings on the Atlantic coast being relatively unopposed. British losses amounted to a few ships and some cavalry.

In the Mediterranean things have lit up, with Britain declaring war on Turkey, and Nelson taking full toll of the Turkish fleet. The naval war is essentially over at this point, with the Spanish navy bottled up in port. Only a serious rebuilding campaign by France can hope to seriously threaten British naval dominance.

More posts with maps coming soon.

Here is the position in central Europe after the peace. Prussia got all of the minors east of a line from Hanover to Wurzburg, also Austria picked up Wurttemburg and Bavaria in exchange for Luxemburg and Breisgau.

Italy looks a bit like this.