Game of the Week, July 27-August 2

From July 27 through August 2, this week’s Game of the Week is Napoleonic Battles: Campaign 1814, featured at 25% off. It follows the 1813 campaigns represented in Campaign Bautzen, which contains the spring campaign of 1813, and Campaign Leipzig, whose great autumn battle drove the French back toward the Rhine. Campaign 1814 takes up the story from there, covering Napoleon’s desperate defense of France in the winter and spring of 1814, from Brienne and La Rothière to the final fighting before Paris.

Against armies that greatly outnumbered his own, Napoleon repeatedly sought to exploit divided enemy columns, difficult roads, and the speed of his remaining veteran formations. 

Napoleon’s Defence of France

The campaign of 1814 began in the shadow of disaster. Napoleon’s defeat at Leipzig in October 1813 had broken French power in Germany and opened the road to France itself. The Emperor still possessed formidable military skill and the loyalty of experienced soldiers, but the empire’s resources had been worn down by years of war. Veterans had been lost in Russia, Spain, and Germany; cavalry horses were scarce; and many new formations consisted of young conscripts with little training.

« Mon but est Paris. »

“My objective is Paris.”

— Alexander I of Russia, expressing his determination to march
on the French capital during the 1814 campaign

The Sixth Coalition—Austria, Russia, Prussia, Britain, and a range of German states—was determined to end Napoleon’s dominance in Europe. In late December 1813 and January 1814, Allied forces crossed the Rhine at several points. Field Marshal Blücher’s Army of Silesia advanced from the north-east, while Prince Schwarzenberg’s larger Army of Bohemia moved through eastern France. Their political interests differed, and their commanders did not always agree, but their combined strength placed France under pressure it had not faced since the Revolution.

Napoleon left Paris on 25 January to take personal command. The Allied armies had entered France on broad fronts, separated by rivers, poor roads, and the difficulty of feeding large forces in winter. If he could strike one army before the other came up, he might recover the initiative. At Brienne on 29 January, Napoleon attacked Blücher and fought for the town where he had once attended military school. The action did not settle the campaign. Two days later, at La Rothière, the French were driven back in severe winter weather by a much larger Allied force.

After La Rothière, the Coalition advance again became divided. Blücher moved northward toward the Marne, while Schwarzenberg pressed west through the Seine valley. Napoleon recognized the opening. Turning rapidly against Blücher’s dispersed corps, he began the Six Days’ Campaign. On 10 February he struck the Russians at Champaubert, then defeated Allied forces at Montmirail, Château-Thierry, and Vauchamps. Napoleon was using interior lines, marching quickly between threatened points, and concentrating against enemy columns before they could support one another.

The victories were impressive, but Blücher’s army was not destroyed. Schwarzenberg’s army was again advancing toward Paris, so Napoleon reversed direction almost immediately. He turned south, defeated elements of the Allied advance guard at Mormant and Montereau, and compelled the Army of Bohemia to fall back toward Troyes. For a moment, the invasion seemed uncertain. The Coalition commanders were cautious, their supply lines were extended, and some still hoped pressure might force Napoleon to accept peace.

Diplomacy and military operations were closely connected. At the Congress of Châtillon, the Allies offered terms that would have reduced France to its 1792 frontiers. Napoleon hesitated to accept such a settlement. The Coalition leaders increasingly concluded that no stable peace could be made while he remained on the throne, and on 1 March Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Britain signed the Treaty of Chaumont, binding themselves to continue the war together.

Blücher soon resumed his advance toward Paris. At Craonne on 7 March, French attacks gained the plateau after costly fighting, but did not break the Army of Silesia. At Laon on 9 and 10 March, Blücher’s larger force repulsed Napoleon’s attacks, while a night action involving Marmont’s corps ended in confusion and defeat. Napoleon recovered some momentum with the capture of Reims on 13 March, but the strategic situation was becoming more difficult with every march.

At Arcis-sur-Aube on 20 and 21 March, Napoleon encountered Schwarzenberg’s army in greater strength than expected. Unable to force a decision, he withdrew and adopted a bold final plan: march east toward Saint-Dizier, threaten Allied communications, and perhaps draw the invaders away from Paris. It was a logical attempt to restore operational freedom, but the Coalition now understood that the capital was the true objective. Rather than follow Napoleon, the Allies marched west.

The Battle of Paris on 30 March was the final military crisis of the campaign. Marshal Marmont, Marshal Mortier, regular troops, National Guardsmen, and hurriedly assembled defenders resisted, but could not stop the Allied armies. Paris capitulated the next day. Napoleon, at Fontainebleau with troops still under his command, found that further resistance had lost political support and abdicated on 6 April.

« Mes vieux soldats me valaient quatre-vingt mille hommes; je ne les ai plus. »

“My old soldiers were worth eighty thousand men to me; I have them no longer.”

—  Napoleon during his exile on Saint Helena, reflecting on the loss of the veteran Grande Armée before the 1814 campaign

Campaign 1814 remains compelling because its battles cannot be understood separately from the wider movement of armies. For the French player, the challenge is to exploit speed and concentration before the Coalition closes in; for the Allies, it is to preserve cooperation, absorb reverses, and keep the road to Paris open.

What's in the game

• Campaign 1814 includes 369 Scenarios between the stand-alone and campaign scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head-to-head play and vs. the computer AI.
• 8 campaigns cover the 1814 campaign in sections or in its entirety.
  
• The master map (370,440 hexes) includes all the significant locations fought over in the 1814 campaign.
• The order of battle files cover the French and Coalition forces that participated in the campaign, with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.
  
• Campaign and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
  
• Design notes, which cover the production of the game, campaign notes and a bibliography that includes the sources used by the designer team to produce this simulation game.
  
• Campaign 1814 provides multiple play options, including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet "live" play, as well as two-player hot seat.

Bibliography and Video recommendations 

Caulaincourt, Armand Augustin Louis de. With Napoleon in Russia and the Campaign of 1814: Memoirs of General de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza. Edited by Jean Hanoteau. Translated by Hamish Miles. London: Jonathan Cape, 1935.

Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966.

Leggiere, Michael V. The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France, 1813–1814. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Nafziger, George F. The End of Empire: Napoleon’s 1814 Campaign. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company, 2015

 

Petre, F. Loraine. Napoleon at Bay, 1814. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1914.

Screenshots

Now for some screenshots from the game. As with the entire Napoleonic War series, this title has three 2D views and two 3D views to choose from. The game also features  3 different 2D icon sets. (Click to enlarge)

 

We hope you enjoy this week’s Game of the Week: Napoleonic Battles: Campaign 1814. Like all WDS titles, it provides countless hours of rich historical gameplay at a very attractive price.