Solo Campaign - Seven Years War

 

I want to design a set of wargame rules for running solo campaigns and their component battles. Before diving into the design, I thought it best to stand on the shoulders of giants and learn from those who have gone before me.

To that end, I created a solo wargame campaign focused on a segment of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). I anchored the campaign timeline and movement using Bob Cordery’s Snakes & Ladders Campaign System from The Portable Wargame Compendium. I then resolved individual battles with the Dominion of Frederick the simple rules from Ork Publishing.

Although both the Snakes & Ladders system and the Dominion rules are heavily dice-driven—running counter to my instinct for hands-on control—they allowed me to play a solo campaign (October 1756–June 1757) in under two hours. That speed is an asset: I can replay the entire campaign multiple times in a single afternoon to test different outcomes.

The lessons learned from this solo-campaign experience will guide me as I craft my own rules. I plan to consider the best elements of these existing systems with a more active role for myself as the commanding general.

 Campaign Map

The “snakes & ladders”  delivering the campaign sequence fits on a single side of A4 and will be familiar to anyone who has played “Snakes and Ladders” as a child.  The Prussians start on the first square at the bottom-left of the page called “Start invasion of Saxony 1756” and then roll a D6 to progress through the campaign, going up blue arrows and down red arrows if a move ends on that square.  Stop when moving on to a battle square regardless of any unusual movement.  The battle is then fought and if won the Prussians advance along the green arrow and if lost movement recommences on the next square.

 Battles

The battles were fought using the “Dominion of Frederick” rules using the troops listed for each historic battle in the rule book.  The battle of the Saxon army blockaded at Pima is not historical as the Austrians were unable to relieve the blockade before the Saxon’s surrounded to Fredric the Great.  For this battle I used the troops from the example battle in the rule book.

Campaign rules

The results of each battle do not stop the Prussian progress towards the “Battle of Koln” .  I gave the winning side of each battle a +1 on their rally roll in the subsequent battles.  My justification was that the moral boost of winning made it easier for a general to rally a defeated unit.

The campaign played out as follows:

The Prussians advances swiftly and without incident to battle at Prima.  The battle was a resounding victory with few Austrian losses.

Enthusiastically advancing to battle at Lobositz the Prussians suffered a stinging defeat from the Austrians under von Browne.

Not allowing themselves to be disheartened the Prussians pressed on to steal a victory  they had no right to win  at Reichenburn.

The arrival of fresh supplies allowed the Prussians to bypass battle at Prague and arrive at Kolin for the very closely fought final battle of the campaign.  Victory was won by Austria and the Prussian menace was defeated…for now.

Resources

• Campaign (Snakes & Ladders) Map (pdf)
• Hour by hour description of the battles (fought with Domainof Frederick the great). (pdf)
• Kolin fought using the Dominion rules

Thoughts going forward

Thoughts going forward on the campaign map (view)

• Fill in more text in boxes and add more red arrows that are skipped by winning a battle.
•  Add some impacts to the armies from blue and greed arrows such as gain or loose an army point.
•  Add some way to influence the progression around the Campaign trail; e.g. allowing a plus/minus one square that is earnt by winning a battle.

Thoughts going forward on the Dominion rules (view)

• I’m unconvinced that Cav should have +1 v Line Infantry as they already have a one point advantage over infantry.  My understanding of the period was that Cavalry did not fare well against formed infantry but rather fought the opposing cavalry and then attacked the flanks of unsupported infantry. In future games I’ll drop the +1 mod for Cav v Inf .
• In this period line infantry defended well against cavalry so I’ll allow all infantry that are attacked a +1 against cavalry but infantry attacking cavalry will not get this advantage.

 Thoughts going forward with solo campaigns

• The speed was very good but I’m willing to go slower if it allows me more input into strategic decisions.
• The speed of the battles was good, but I’d like to add details such as terrain etc.
• For my next solo campaign I'll use the 3x3 Portable Wargames rules and I might also try the DBx rules as they will both allow more control over the battles although at the cost of requiring more time to resolve.

Please get in touch with any thoughts or feedback.