Reflections on the Campaign

While it's still fresh in my mind...

This campaign has been an enjoyable diversion while in isolation and then in lockdown. I've learned a number of things...

1. A general lesson: this hobby is infinite. You know all those incomplete projects or ideas for projects that you are going to finish off when you have time/have a holiday/retire? You won't. It's never ending and limitless so enjoy what you can do and don't feel bad about what you don't or can't do. And stop buying stuff you aren't going to use anytime soon. Who buys stuff they will never use in their lifetime - and know this (subconciously or otherwise) apart from wargamers? I'm sure there are some people but in our hobby it seems the norm.
2. I got to play some games that were of a nature I would never play normally. Okay, I don't normally play solo so that's a bit of an obvious point. The three battles I fought on the tabletop were very different to what I normally play however. They were unbalanced in that one side was up against a much more difficult task and whilst I tweaked the victory conditions as far as I could these were largely pre-determined by the context of the continuing operations. That wasn't a disadvantage. In fact it added to the depth of the narrative that was created - something I've always enjoyed about gaming.
3. I had to improvise. In the past I've allowed myself to get stuck and not play out a scenario/campaign because I've not had precisely the correct number of figures/troop types/terrain features. That meant I deferred experimenting until I bought the requisite items and painted or otherwise had them table ready - often that simply never happened. Because of the situation I gave myself permission to make do with what I have and it's been a revelation. The hobby might be more accurately called 'getting ready to wargame' because that's what we spend a lot of our time doing instead of playing wargames but often it is 'getting ready to wargame but never actually playing...'
4. Blackpowder proved more adaptable to a campaign (in reality it was an operational game rather than a full blown campaign but who is quibbling?) of this nature than I expected. I adapted some very simple map movement rules from Phil Barker's 'Horses, Foot and Guns' ruleset and grafted on the Blackpowder command rules using staff ratings and command roles. That provided enough uncertainty for me to play it out solo. 
5. The toolbox nature of BP meant I felt able to introduce special rules for troop types and scenarios that seemed logical in the overall context of the campaign. I could frei kriegspiel in some situations where I hadn't thought through or anticipated what might happen as the game played out and I hadn't covered that eventuality with a scenario of special rule.
6. I didn't get hung up on book keeping. I used the Bloody Big Battles scenario for this operation and adapted it. I don't own BBB but I will buy a copy. I bought the translation of Clausewitz's history of the campaign by the author of BBB, Chris Pringle (with Nicholas Murray) and loved it. So thanks Chris and Nicholas! 
7. The historical campaign I used involved relatively low numbers of troops and overall troop density was also low which meant that I was always had enough figures to play out encounters on the table top if no need to 'bathtub'. I think that other periods that will lend themselves to this are the English Civil War and the Greta Italian Wars - both periods I have figures for.
8. I did learn how to use a simple map drawing programme  inkarnate.com . This is very adaptable for anything pre-modern despite being aimed at fantasy gamers. 

So, the you have it. A successful diversion and one that's kept me sane and entertained when things may have gone pear-shaped!

What to do next?

Mondovi? Or maybe a similar scenario set in Flanders in 1792-4?