HOLF post-game report – Venice
Stated Objectives and Scenario Information
The map area of the Venetian Republic encompasses the NE corner of the Italian
peninsula including the cities of Venice, Udine, Zara, and Splato. Due to placement of
units at scenario start, the Austrian port of Trieste is designated as a Venetian possession.
It is permissible to transit Austrian territory to move troops from the east towards the
battle areas west of Venetia as long as no deep excursions are made into Austrian soil.
The Republic of Venetia is at war with the Kingdom of Piedmont-Savoy (PS) which
encompasses the NW corner of the Italian peninsula. The specific city information for
the Kingdom of PS is not available. It is understood that the PS force is approximately
equal to the Venetian forces, but is not an exact unit by unit match.
Between the Republic and its opponent is the failed state of Lombardy. It contains six
cities of varying levels. It is in a state of war with both the Republic and the Kingdom of
PS. The state of Lombardy has weak Militia units in the cities and no regular army at all.
These cities are considered “easy pickings”
These cities of the Venetian Republic represent a per turn income source of 234 Crowns.
This income is inadequate to support its field army without supplement. Treasury reports
indicated that the cost to maintain the Venetian army (including the necessary supply) is
C$1125 per turn. This includes the supply requirements for the 38 Venetian units. The
initial treasury balance is set at C$11000 and Venetia starts with 200 supplies. Projections
are that Venetia will have sufficient funds to operate through the 13th turn. Since the
scenario runs for 20 war turns, measures to address this shortfall must be introduced.
Both Venetia and Piedmont-Savoy(PS) start this scenario with 2500 Victory Points (VP).
There are no special rules for VP in this scenario. Player actions are rewarded or
decremented by the provisions in the NWOL code.
Lombardy VP are not significant to the scenario outcome between the two contestants,
the Kingdom of Piedmont-Savoy and the Venetian Republic. Lombardy forces are
controlled by the GA, but the GA will not place active battle orders.
Players and Roles
Name
Side
Doge of the Venetian Republic Venetian
Oberst Rethmeier
Venetian
Ken Felts
Venetian
Rathbone
Venetian
General Dean
Venetian
Email Address
john.vanvark@sympatico.ca
numberoneduck@gmail.com
daagan@yahoo.com
cwjohngordon@bellsouth.net
marine5661@yahoo.com
Taylor Rethmeier (numberoneduck@gmail.com) is appointed War Minister.
John Vanvark takes on the role of Doge (Monarch) and Finance Minister.
No players have experience in any of these roles and no other roles are required for this
scenario. Ken Felts was transferred to the Piedmont Team around the initial deployment.
Initial Deployment
Venetian initial deployment consisted of 38 units 61150 men broken down as follows:
1 AQ, 2 CQ, 9 IN, 4 LI, 3 HA, 2 SA, 3 MA, 3 LA, 4 HC, 4 MC, 3 LC
This initial deployment is far from ideal, the troops South and East of Trieste are in a
position to be OOS from the very start since there is no CQ unit in that area. Also, the
HQ unit was on the wrong side of the Adriatic and therefore some units are OOC at the
start. The beginning moves will be a combination of trying to advance on Lombardy and
Piedmont positions, forming into Battle Groups (Armies) while maintaining supply.
OOB
The OOB is determined in this scenario by the following criteria in order of importance.
1. Five players in the scenario – so the units were divided into five groupings.
2. Only a single AQ and two CQ.
3. Initial placement of the units to minimize travel distance to form into Corps
4. Maintaining a balance of Infantry, Artillery and Cavalry in each Corps for proper
ranking (to protect the Cavalry in the firing stage for instance)
Considering these criteria, the following Corps are created.
Northern Corps; 3-I, 2-A, 1-C - 12450 men - one commander
Central Army (2 Corps); 5-I, 5-A, 4-C - 23450 men - two commanders
Southern Corps; 3-I, 4-A, 3-C - 14550 men - one commander
Reconnaissance/Supply(RS) Corps; AC, 2-CQ, 2-I, 3-C - 10700 men - one commander
Strategy
The key to this game is making the finances last the entire duration of the 20 Turns. If
one side or the other runs out, then units will simply disappear and the well financed
opponent will capture significant VP’s late in the game.
The techniques to making finances last are:
- Increase your per turn revenue early in the game by capturing as many cities as early as
possible
- Inactivate units – preferably to garrison cities
- Inactivate the HQ unit once mobility and speed become less of an issue.
The three armies are therefore initially tasked to move rapidly on Piedmont cities.
The Northern Corps is tasked with taking the Lombardy cities of Verona and Trient, then
support the Central Army.
The Central Army is tasked with taking Mantua and engaging the bulk of the Piedmont
Army. The fortified city of Mantua must be occupied and held quickly due to its fort
level of 5. Once properly occupied, the defenders will have a 400% Strength Modifier.
The Southern Corps is tasked with taking the Bologna, Firenze and later Livorno. This
Corps will operate largely without support and is therefore slightly larger.
The RS Corps will provide supply and communications, intelligence and take any poorly
defended cities before turning them over to the other advancing armies. The RS units
will typically evade or skirmish only. The Cavalry and Infantry units are all Light.
Along with the OOB, a Supply Coverage map using Excel was provided on each turn, to
show the positioning of the CQ on the subsequent turn to ensure each player was able to
maintain supply and communications. The end of turn 1 positioning is attached.
Initial Stages of the War
Five Lombardi cities were captured and the turn revenue grows from 234 to 421 Crowns
over the first three turns. At this point, Piedmont had not captured any cities.
On turns 4 and 5 supply issues caused a significant number of troops to desert.
On Turn 4 Piedmont captured a Lombardy city abandoned by an over extended Venetian
Army. Venetian forces did capture another Lombardy city and the two opponents started
slugging it out on the battlefield.
Turn 5 resulted in significant losses as battles between the two Central portions of the
army engaged. The casualties on turn 5 were:
Total Combat Losses:
Venetian: 4538
Piedmontese: 4611
On Turn 6, the Venetian Reconnaissance Corps found a gap between Piedmontese
Central and Southern Army, triangulated and destroyed one of the two Piedmontese CQ
units. After Turn 6, Piedmont has supply issues through the rest of the war.
From about turn 4 through turn 9, Venetia has sufficient financing to submit build orders
for 5 Militia, two Cavalry, two Infantry and two Artillery brigades. The Militia units are
used to garrison the cities and allow regular troops to move forward into battle.
Turning point of the War
Turn 7 was probably the point at which Piedmont lost the war. In that turn they attacked
the fortified city of Mantua (5/24000). 14000 Piedmont troops attacked 17600 Venetian
troops. The casualties are as follows:
Total Combat Losses:
Venetian: 2445 - Batteries lost 2
Piedmontese: 6906 - Batteries lost 7
Over turns 7-9 the two southern armies fight to a stalemate moving units between Firenze
and Livorno with no side gaining significant advantage in that theatre
Over turns 7-9 Venetian Reconnaissance captures half the Piedmontese cities.
By the end of Turn 9, Venetia’s revenue has risen from 234 to 522 Crowns per turn.
At the Turn (Reinforcement and Start of Summer Campaign)
At this stage Venetia was earning more than three times the revenue of Piedmont.
Piedmont did manage to build a new CQ unit for its Southern Army at this time.
Venetia is able to augment all brigades with an artillery battery because of the additional
revenue gained through the Spring campaign.
These reinforcements had a significant effect on Summer T1. In Milano, thirteen
Venetian brigades attacked 6 Piedmont troops in the city. All six shattered or surrendered
since proper triangulation was employed in the attack. In addition, three more
Piedmontese brigades were destroyed on this turn including a second CQ unit.
Total Combat Losses:
Venetian: 2581
Piedmontese: 7437
This was the most decisive battle of the war.
The Piedmontese Central Army straggled back to Torino after this turn, however, many
units lagged and were destroyed on the following three turns before reaching Torino.
In the Southern Campaign, Piedmont sends part of its Army to Bologna and the rest to
Firenze. The Venetians in Firenze have been reinforced with Artillery and win a
significant battle in Firenze – the final outcome of jockeying for Strategical advantage for
about 4 turns.
Cleanup and Consolidation
On turn 3 of the Summer Campaign, the Southern Piedmontese Army had thrown all of
its units at Firenze and Bologna. Livorno only had a lone Cavalry and CQ unit. Parts of
the Reconnaissance Corp returning from Genova with some new units built in Bologna
move north and then south, skirting the Piedmontese Southern Army. These units destroy
the Piedmontese units in Livorno on Summer T4. In Firenze the Southern Venetian
Army uses a Cavalry unit to freeze 4 Piedmont units while the rest are attacked by the
bulk of the Venetian Army.
Total Combat Losses in Firenze:
Venetian: 1210
Piedmontese: 3693
A number of Piedmont units shattered on Turn 4 and the remaining units were out of
supply with no CQ, the Venetians having captured both Livorno and Firenze.
The remaining turns became a mop up in the Southern Theatre and by Turn 8 all units of
the Southern Venetian Army are inactivated.
The remnants of the Piedmontese and Venetian Central army clashed on Turn 6 and 7 of
the Summer Campaign, capturing Torino early in turn 6 TP1 and using the fortification as
an advantage in the remaining Tactical phases.
The last two turns becomes a mad dash to capture Toulon the last remaining Piedmontese
city.
End of Game position
All six Lombardy cities are liberated by the Venetian Troops.
All six Piedmontese cities are occupied by Venetian Troops.
The Piedmontese Army consists of IS19MI with approximately 200 men and a few
shattered units, but no cities at all.
The Venetian Army consists of 45 brigades, 69963 men and 46 Artillery Batteries, more
than at the onset of hostilities. 30 of these brigades are inactivated at game’s end.
End of game per turn revenue has increased from 234 to 744 Crowns at the beginning of
the game. Expenses are 492 Crowns per turn in Summer Turn 9.
Why was Venetia Successful
1.
2.
3.
4.
Moving decisively to take Lombardi cities early.
Holding the heavily fortified city of Mantua
Using MI builds to garrison cities as they were taken.
Deactivating HQ unit to save money by Spring Turn 6.
5. Deactivating HC units early in the game to save money
6. Adding a Artillery Battery to all combat units at T1 of the Summer Campaign
7. Retreating and regrouping in no win situations.
8. Destroying three enemy CQ units and putting all his units out of supply for ½ of the
game.
9. Operate behind enemy lines to destroy CQ, break the supply and force the opposition
back to protect their supply lines.
Likes
1. The layout of the scenario was well balanced for the two sides. The size of the
battlefield was appropriate for 20 turns.
2. OOS issues were very real. Venetia had significant supply issues throughout the war.
This was a great learning exercise in that regard. Terrain obstacles also proved a
challenge.
3. The financial challenges were interesting and forced the players to realistically finance
the war. Perhaps $10% less initial money should have been provided – make the
financing even tighter.
4. The initial placement of the units was a challenge, but I suspect that was part of the
exercise.
5. The Intelligence feature which over the course of the game showed builds and troop
locations.
6. The length of the game was appropriate for the intent – training Academy Graduates
advanced NWOL – a graduate course if you will.
Dislikes
1. The fords did not seem to work in some Strategic Squares, almost as if the Tactical
boxes were not even fords, just colored as fords. This was only the case in Verona and in
Torino.
2. The OOB was not optimum. We would have liked to get rid of the Siege Artillery and
the Heavy Cavalry since both are expensive in relationship to their value. Piedmont did
not seem to have any SA at all.