Happy New Year's eve everyone!
It snowed a little here in Sweden so it looks nice an bright during this dark time of the year!
Two days ago, Sven and I ran a game of Snappy Nappy and it was focused around the 1800 Italian Campaign fought between the Austrians and the French under Napoleon. This game has been in the making for 4 or more months with finding the rules, painting cities, town, bridges, roads, rivers and the such.
There were three main people responsible for making the game possible. First is Johan who printed and painted a bunch of bridges, fortresses and provided 4 out of the 5 game mats that were needed for the game. Sven was the mastermind behind the project and was the driving force behind this fun and successful day. He make and painted a lot of roads and rives and painted up all the towns. I had a minor part in the terrain as I am not a terrain guy. But I did bring my roads and rivers I have plus I painted up the two big cities that are part of the area of operation.
Sven had also made some hand made mountains for the tables, plus had painted up a bunch of 3D printed trees which worked really well for the game.
We were using the Little Wars TV campaign information that they had created for there version of the campaign. It was very helpful as we only had to make some minor adjustment to the order of battles to make them work with the miniature collection we had at or disposal. On that note, Sven had the French troops and I had the Austrian troops. These are all 6mm miniatures from Baccus.
Sven and I also were the umpires for the game and it worked out well as we have both read the rules and we have similar views on the Napoleonic wars. It was good fun to plan and coordinate with Sven to do the work needed for the 5 table and 8 player game.
The night before the game Johan, Sven, and I set up the tables and got all the terrain and miniatures ready for the next days action.
On game day we had the per-game instructions and rules review, which went quick. Then we gave the French and the Austrians there briefings and explained how communication would be via written communications unless all players were at the same table.
The players were quick to pick up the rules and soon everyone was maneuvering there troops and getting lost with the way the maps were set up, but that was part of the fog of war that was really fun during the game.
There were small battles on most of the tables but the main battle happened around Turin, where both the French and Austrian Commanders faced each other around the city walls. The battle eventually went to the French but the Austrians fought well and never gave up Turin.
As the battle raged around Turin, the French had other forces that were starting to find and destroy the Austrians supply depots and this caused the supply lines to most of the Austrian forces to be cut.
The campaign was won by the French as they were able to destroy two of the three Austrian supply depots. The Austrians were able to find and destroy one of the French supply depots as well but it was too little too late. The French were successful in Finding, Fixing, and flanking the Austrian forces who did not break off and fall back on there supply lines. This left them vulnerable to the eventually cutting of there supply lines.
Both Army Commanders were wounded in the battle and replaced by a commander who finished the campaign game. After the game we had an After Action Review on the rules as well as getting feedback on this game and how the rules worked or did not work.
Also we rolled to see what happened to Napoleon and Melas. The result of the die roll was that both commanders died from there wounds. The world would be a different place if Napoleon had died at the battle of Turin in our campaign.
The whole campaign was done in 5 hours. It was great fun and rewarding to see everyone have fun while playing this campaign and these rules. You might see more of these again soon.
I hope everyone has a Happy New Year in 2026.
