1600 - Something

The genesis of this campaign was a long time ago, when I ran a play-by-email game called 1618-Something. This ran for about two game years before it got over complex and people stopped sending in order, fighting wargames, and so on, and it all fell apart.

This time, I am going to run it solo, with a simplified set of campaign rules and my own tactical rules (the previous effort used DBR). I think that keeping the game moving is quite important, particularly for campaign games run solo.

Anyway, the starting positions can be found in this post. By summer 1600, not much had happened, and I was starting to worry I had made the starting positions too far apart, or the moves too slow, or something. In the Autumn, however, Muscovy collapsed into civil war, which led to a battle that the government won, just about.

In Spring 1601 things in Europe started to hot up, with the Bavarians having raised a second army. They were accused by the Austrians (under the Holy Roman Emperor, of course) of undermining the peace of the Empire and were invaded. The first encounter was a narrow Austrian win. In the Summer, the two sides met again, with a more decisive victory to the Austrians. The Bavarians sued for peace, disbanding the remains of their second army, while the Austrians remained in control, at least for the moment, of the province.

In Spring 1602, things started warming up in Western Europe, with a French invasion of Franche-Comte. The outnumbered and isolated Spanish garrison fought a splendid action and beat the French. The Spanish Road from Milan to the Low Countries remained open.

To keep things interesting, there are some random events and, also in Spring 1602, some Siberian tribesmen roaded Novgorod in Muscovy. They were met by local forces and defeated, although not without a risky frontal cavalry attack by the Muscovites, uphill.