برچسب: Play

Introduction by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer/Editor, Fred Schachter – The CoV Team is privileged having in its rank’s educator Tyler Brooks, who with his co-teacher adapted Congress of Vienna for the classroom to teach students so they could experience the challenges of being in a coalition or facing one. The class they created was entitled… “Applied Strategy: Wargaming the Great Captains of History”. This involved non-gamer college level students successfully gaining needed appreciation of our wonderful hobby and using CoV’s four turn “Clash of Armies” Scenario in particular.  Quite the achievement!

If you’re unfamiliar with Congress of Vienna, there’s a host of material regarding it within GMT’s site: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna, 2nd Printing  Yes, the game’s warm enthusiastic hobby reception has it “Out of Stock”: but CoV’s 2^nd Printing, which will include all rule clarifications as of the date of printing, can be P-500 ordered.  All this article’s referenced CoV Optional Historical Rules (OHRs 15.1 – 15.17) can be obtained via this GMT site for the game.  But back to Tyler’s remarkable accomplishment.

A turn of Congress of Vienna, with experienced players, can average 40-60 minutes each and for Tyler, this amount of classroom time was prohibitive.  He therefore cleverly devised a kind of “House Rule” to dramatically shorten a turn’s playing time by pre-disposing results of its Initial and Diplomacy Phases… those are skipped via a “Warm Start”.  A “Warm Start” begins each turn with Issues won and only Military Cards remaining in each Major Power’s hand.  A “Warm Start” turn begins with Government Phase Resource allocations and then it’s off to the drama, conundrums, fun and excitement of Congress of Vienna’s War Phase whose Armies and military units are all prepositioned on the game map!!

CoV Designer Frank Esparrago and I had a blast assisting Tyler adopt his Congress of Vienna Clash of Armies Scenario Turn “Warm Start” for the InsideGMT audience.  You’ll find it within an Appendix to Tyler’s intriguing Using “Congress of Vienna” in the Classroom article.

To skip the article and go direct to the CoV “Turn Warm Start” Instructions & Set-Up Illustrations click here.

The Concept

Militaries across the world obsess over how to create better strategists.  With the sudden leaps in artificial intelligence, great powers have even begun attempting to train “synthetic strategists” to either augment or replace human ones. [1]  A debate continues among academics and practitioners over whether great military strategists (as well as wargame designers) can be trained or simply discovered and recruited.  In each of the above cases, wargames serve an integral part in either training strategists (both human and machine) or identifying their strengths and weaknesses. 

As both a professional strategist and wargamer myself, I’ve been deeply involved in both analytical and educational wargaming; but it’s the latter I’d like to focus on here, and how I’ve used GMT’s “Congress of Vienna” game to instruct professional strategists, emerging senior military leaders, and novice professional wargame designers.

Literature and Theory Background 

In “On War,” Carl von Clausewitz defines genius as a “highly developed mental aptitude for a particular occupation.”[2]  He goes on and identifies several human characteristics, the harmonious combination of which produces military genius:

1. Physically & Morally Courageous
2. Visionary (coup d’œil)[3]
3. Determined (courage d’esprit)[4]
4. Mindful[5]
5. Ambitious for Fame and Honor
6. Emotionally Disciplined
7. Charismatic to inspire esprit de corps[6] in others
8. Map Literate
9. Creative & Imaginative
10. Competent in Statesmanship
11. Competent in Math & Science

Combining Clausewitz’s “On War” with the principals of war from Antoine-Henri Jomini, most western strategic theory necessary to train military planners in operational art and strategy can be extrapolated, with allowances made for changes to the character of war since their writings.[7]  And yet while military strategy courses teach about both these theorists; they often neglect to spend any time studying the man from whose genius they were both attempting to derive their methods: Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France. 

In developing a pilot elective course for this academic year, my co-teacher and I chose to focus on Bonaparte for our choice of related wargames but given that he ultimately abdicated (twice!), it does beg the question from an uninitiated student: “Why do I care what a loser thinks about war winning?”  In response, I point to a medium article by Ethan Arsht where he quantified the “Wins Above Replacement” (WAR) sabermetrics on all western[8] generals’ battle records in Wikipedia which determined Napoleon Bonaparte’s measurement was 23 standard deviations from the mean, while second place Julius Caesar was in the “paltry” ballpark of around 7.[9]  To confirm this astonishing statistic, I had a department mathematician run the numbers, and the result was that Bonaparte (relative to his contemporaries during his own time) was so dominant a commander that there would have to be 10 times the current number of humans who have been born before you’d expect him to exist.[10]  This suggests Napoleon was not only the greatest military commander who ever lived, but quite possibly the greatest who will ever live.[11]

The omission of Bonaparte from the above referenced professional military education occurs partially because Napoleon never made much of an attempt to explain his methods in writing, but he does provide some insight into how he became a “Great Captain of History”.  He names whom he considers great captains, including himself as the greatest (of course) and then explains that the way to become a great captain is to study the great captains.[12]  Napoleon’s argument is essentially a militarized take on Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics” which assumes a “Great Man Theory” of history.  While Napoleon didn’t leave us theoretical writings to study; he did leave us his historical battles and campaigns.

Wargames’ Educational Potential (with Reference to Congress of Vienna in Particular)

So, this finally brings me to “Congress of Vienna” and the use of historical wargames, such as CoV, in the classroom as a teaching tool.  Training military leaders with wargames gives them the simulated experience of experiencing many of Clausewitz’s traits of military genius.  Wargames also provide a safe laboratory for students to test their own ideas and interact with history in an engaging manner that synthesizes insight out of a historical narrative, insight that should be generalizable to other, more modern, situations.  But especially for our purposes, this medium allows the student to travel back in time to inhabit the mind of Napoleon and his contemporaries during the critical years of 1813 – 1814, as best as Frank Esparrago and other designers/developers can manage.  I became interested in the game “Congress of Vienna” professionally when, like most other games in my collection, I had a professor ask me to recommend a game to help him teach a niche topic.

Classroom Application of Congress of Vienna (With a 5^th Major Power, Prussia, Added) 

In August of 2022, the training school for all U.S. Army Strategists asked if I could design a bespoke educational wargame to accompany a presentation of Gordon A. Craig’s famous 1965 lecture, “Problems of Coalition Warfare: The Military Alliance Against Napoleon, 1813-1814.”[13] Given that I was not a historian by trade, and in fact deficient in any in depth knowledge of Napoleon at the time, I dug into the Gordon A. Craig reading with a critical eye and imagined a game much like “Churchill” from Mark Herman’s Great Statesman series to model the “frienemy” aspect of the balance of power within a coalition. 

Yet I didn’t consider myself equal to the task of creating such a game from scratch at the time.  However, upon further rumination, I vaguely remembered seeing there was another P500 game on GMT game’s website for the Great Statesman series and this one was about Napoleon.  That was encouraging, but I doubted I would be so lucky for it to be about the War of the Sixth Coalition.  In any case, modifying a commercial off the shelf solution for the classroom is almost always a better idea than creating a new game from scratch; so, I went to the GMT Games site and looked up that P500 game about Napoleon.  Huzzah!! It turned out, “Congress of Vienna” was exactly the game I wanted!  I immediately rectified my error of not being subscribed to GMT’s monthly newsletter. 

But the tantalizing “Congress of Vienna” game was still in development during August of 2022, without an online rulebook. Therefore, I looked around the internet as best I could and try to piece something together.  What I found on Board Game Geek (BGG) was a wonderful 4-part video by two CoV Team Members doing a full playthrough demo using the then current Vassal prototype of the game.[14]  So naturally, I watched those YouTube videos 4 or 5 times and from them built a PowerPoint Classroom Presentation explaining how to play “Congress of Vienna”. 

I thought I had most of it figured out (except maybe for the “Congress of Peace” Issue), but I wanted to confirm my understandings.  So, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to reach out and introduce myself to CoV Designer Frank Esparrago via BGG and explain to him what I was trying to accomplish.  I subsequently emailed Frank my draft PowerPoint for feedback to learn if I got anything wrong and was thrilled when he swiftly responded! He offered me the opportunity to playtest the “Congress of Vienna” prototype with him via Vassal.  I was honored to get a chance to work with the development team. [15]    

The Congress of Vienna game I wanted for the class would differ from the four-player version the CoV Team was developing.  How?  By adding a fifth Major Power: Prussia into the game!  So, Frank, who became enthused about my idea, spent a couple of weekends or so playing and modeling a prototype with me, since the professor had some specific requests for Prussia being its own 5^th Major CoV Power, distinct from Russia. 

To accomplish this, Frank created prototype Prussian cards and modified the Vassal board’s Diplomacy Section to accommodate a 5^th National Negotiation Track.  We found adding a 5^th Major Power team increased the length of play substantially, so we sped up the game in other areas to To accomplish this, Frank created prototype Prussian cards and modified the Vassal board’s Diplomacy Section to accommodate a 5^th National Negotiation Track.  We found adding a 5^th Major Power team increased the length of play substantially, so we sped up the game in other areas to make up for that.  One of the approaches, which Frank did not like, but nevertheless helped me achieve the playing time reduction goal, was getting rid of the card trading mechanic and through creating exclusive to each Major Power four “National Decks” (for France, Britain, Austria, and Russia); as in Mark Herman’s “Churchill” instead of using a single shared deck. 

In retrospect, doing away with the shared deck removes a significant amount of interesting interplay between the Allies, and potentially upsets the balance of the game, not to mention removing some cards’ historical flavor.  We experimented further by having the Prussian and Russian team play with independent National Tracks, but use a shared hand of cards.[16]  However,  it became difficult to make Prussian strategic decisions distinguishable from Russian ones to be worth the extra complexity and time it was asking of the students.[17]  We cut the idea for a Prussian team, along with eliminating the Pax Britanica and Future Government of France Tracks from the classroom version of the game and sought to make even more cuts to speed things up.  We also reduced the number of Negotiation Rounds from 6 to 4 and reduced the number of cards from each Major Power’s hand by 2 to make up for the fewer card play Rounds.  We also made changes to the National Advantages (especially Russia’s) so we could script the Initiative Order (Wager), Initial Situation Cards, and the Initial Environment Table die rolls.  By scripting these starting conditions, we freed up precious minutes for more playtime.

Now if readers have their interest piqued by the described Five Major Powers Congress of Vienna Game Variant, be heartened! This may eventually be published as a physical game or an InsideGMT article with a link to its associated Vassal Module. But for now, we shall focus on providing an aspect of the Variant we realized applicable to the current Congress of Vienna game: a “Warm Start” for helping teach the game to new players and adapt it to a classroom’s constraints.   

Organizing a Congress of Vienna Lesson Plan for the Classroom 

In consultation with the professor’s learning objectives and with Frank’s advice as CoV’s designer, for the prospective class we chose to play the four turn “Clash of Armies” scenario, which encompasses the Full Campaign Game’s turns 5-8 (per CoV Playbook Section 17.3).   The limiting factor using wargames for educational purposes tends to be fitting the teach and the game into a single class period, 4 hours in this case.  After playtesting the scenario with the professor, the most crucial feedback I received was that the Negotiation Phase of the game, while most interesting, would not make much sense to untrained players until they completed a War Phase.  Therefore, I took the recommendation to create a “Warm Start” for the scenario by starting in medias res of turn 5, scripting the Government Phase in PowerPoint for me to brief to the students and then scripting cards and Issues going into the turn 5 War Phase which allowed them to start the game there.

Over my years working with educational wargaming, I’ve found that consolidating a scenario and rules brief together into a graphical presentation is often a great multimedia approach to teach a game when combined with a physical copy set up in front of the students.  If comprehensive and tailored to the scenario, such a presentation can serve as a replacement for the rulebook, as well as the short Quick Start Rules Summary, scenario instructions, and Player Aids which CoV provides as references.  Mark Leno, who teaches professional wargame designers and facilitators with me, breaks down a good rules briefing for students into the following format, which I follow for all teaching presentations (and rulebooks)[18]:

1. Explain the game theme
2. Explain the game objective (how do you win?)
3. Briefly explain the game components and key terms
4. Explain the rules and necessary mechanics in play order
5. (if needed) Demonstrate any mechanics or special rules
6. (if needed) Provide additional examples or explanations
7. Summarize objective, key rules, and common errors
8. Optional: If time permits, briefly describe common strategies or approaches to play and/or play a practice turn or round

The above is called the “Full-Teach,” as opposed to a “Partial-Teach” method where we just do steps 1-3, and let the players complain when we reveal new rules as they become relevant.  ‘Partial-Teach” is less boring, but it comes at a price of being blamed for potentially ruining the players’ strategy by not explaining the entire game up front.  “Congress of Vienna” is a complex enough game that with novice gamers, “newbies”, it doesn’t lend itself well to either method; hence the “Warm-Start” approach. 

You can get away without explaining the Initial Phase, Diplomacy Phase or each of the game’s Issues by starting with the War Phase by explaining to the players “This is what your incompetent ambassadors left you with, now General, go figure out the battles.”   After they see the struggle of operationalizing a policy they were handed by the facilitator, you can then put them in the seat of the ambassador for the Diplomacy Phase of turn 6.  The facilitator then explains the Issues for negotiation and/or debate for the upcoming turn. Then the students can see if they could do better.

With this variant’s National Decks, the scripted initial situation, only 4 Negotiation Rounds, and the simplified game board eliminating the Pax Britanica and Future Government of France Tracks, I can consistently get a new group of future military strategists through a 30-minute rules teach and 2.5 turns of play in four hours.  During that classroom time, professors leverage the experiential learning from “Congress of Vienna” to discuss not only the friction of coalition warfare, but also the two interpretations of Clausewitz’s Trinity: the people, the government, and the general.  Or respectively: passion, reason, and chance.  “Congress of Vienna” is by far one of the best games (among “Conquest & Consequence” and “Triumph and Tragedy”) at modeling grand strategy. 

But where “Congress of Vienna” excels is in its exploration of military genius and its effect on the enterprise of statesmanship and warfare.  Over the years, I’ve found that demonstrating an understanding of theoretical concepts, like strategy in complex systems, can only be observed in watching the synthesis through application at a gaming table.  The barrier to entry, however, is teaching students how to play the game.  Game theory and literacy among professional strategists are just as important as reading literacy, because as William North Whitehead put it: “The purpose of thinking is to let the [bad] ideas die instead of you.”

I still have digital copies of this CoV variant’s “National Deck”, custom cards, and I’ve in fact continued to play the game in the classroom with that mod for years, until I got my official physical copy of the game this year.  Like the 5-player Prussian team variant, the National Decks aren’t fully play tested or balanced for public use, but if there’s interest, there might be a vassal mod made available at some point in the future. 

Once I got my fresh copy of the published Congress of Vienna game, I couldn’t stand not to play with Terry Leeds’ beautiful cards and game board, so I switched back to the shared deck and card trade mechanics. This included student strategists lacking analysis paralysis by needing to read the extra text on the cards than their professors did during playtesting!  Fred Schachter was kind enough to update my “Warm Start” rules teach to match the full and final rules of the commercially released game and, with Frank’s help, present them here for you to use.  I hope you find these resources helpful in getting this game in front of more students in the classroom, and/or new hobbyists on your local gamers’ table or convention floor.

Turn Warm Starts to Accelerate Game Playing Time of CoV’s “Clash of Armies” Scenario (17.3)

As indicated above, an aspect of this “Congress of Vienna” game variant, which can be applied to accelerate play of the “Clash of Armies” scenario, is to start a game, or individual turn, with a “Warm Start”.  That is, for this variant, players begin with “Issues Resolution”, Step #2 of the Government Phase (12.0).

This means skipping a turn’s Initial Phase (10.0) and time-consuming Diplomacy Phase (11.0).  Players begin a turn by determining how to best spend their available Resources to pay for won Issues, gain die roll drm for the Absolutism/Liberalism and/or Pax Britannica Tracks, as well as acquire Military Support markers or VP for Sound Government.  That’s it!  In all other particulars, play the game using Standard Congress of Vienna rules.

Three Appendixes at this article’s conclusion contain Frank’s design (historical) interpretations of a “Clash of Armies” turn’s Set-Up.  These include, for the Scenario’s Turns 5, 6, 7, and/or 8 each Major Power’s number of available Resources, won Issues (from that turn’s Diplomacy Phase), Victory Point Track marker, Military Map Armies/units placements, and marker locations for the Absolutism/Liberalism, Pax Britannica, and Future Government of France Tracks.  For this scenario’s historical background, please reference: A Historical Introduction to the Congress of Vienna Period (CoV) Part 3 of 4: Europe Aflame (July–December 1813) – InsideGMT

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Author’s Bio

At the time of this writing, Daniel “Tyler” Brooks is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, serving as an Army Strategist (FA59) and wargame designer in the Department of Strategic Wargaming (DSW) at the United States Army War College (USAWC) in Carlise Barracks, PA,  where he teaches the Army’s “Wargame Designer Course,”  two wargaming electives, and runs bespoke analytical wargames for the Army and Joint Force.  He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Philosophy from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and a Master of Arts in International Security from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies (JKSIS) at the University of Denver.  Like Napoleon, Tyler was a field artillery officer before becoming a strategist.  He graduated from the Basic Strategic Arts Program (BSAP) at USAWC in 2017.  The thoughts, opinions, and techniques presented here are solely the views of Tyler Brooks, and does not represent the thoughts, opinions, or policy of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, or any organization in the U.S. Army War College.  This article is meant to be a discussion of pedogeological techniques using wargames under fair use and does not constitute endorsement of the game “Congress of Vienna” by any U.S. Government organization. 

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Endnotes

[1] https://mwi.westpoint.edu/strategic-centaurs-harnessing-hybrid-intelligence-for-the-speed-of-ai-enabled-war/

[2] Chapter 3

[3] Literally “Stroke of the eye,” which can be interpreted as “Commander’s Vision”, but what he’s describing is more akin to system 1 thinking as described in the book “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman.  This is an ability to mentally visualize conceptually complex situations, accurately and instantaneously in the moment with incomplete information. 

[4] Literally “Courage of the Spirit” or “Courage of the Mind” which can be interpreted as “Moral Courage”. But Clausewitz [re: “Clausewitz’s wife”] uses the term to mean something in addition to Moral Courage, as he already includes it with physical courage.  Here, he means it as an additional trait that also includes a willingness to not give up in the face of overwhelming odds.  It is a willingness and self-confidence to act on the visualization of coup d’œil in an uncertain environment.

[5] Meaning, to not miss any important details, and to be aware of everything that is in front of you and be able to distinguish signal from noise in order to see through the “Fog of War.”

[6] Literally “Spirit of the body” meaning the collective morale of a group to achieve a common goal in the face of hardship.

[7] I’m ignoring the Eastern thought, for the most part, for my purposes here, so apologies to those interested in Sun Tzu and Mao Zedong.

[8] Again, sorry Genghis Khan, our Western bias left you and your brilliant generals missing from the data set.

[9] https://medium.com/data-science/napoleon-was-the-best-general-ever-and-the-math-proves-it-86efed303eeb 

[10] To be more precise, the odds are astronomically worse than that, because the sample number assumes everyone who has ever been born was also a battlefield general.  The calculations broke the computer as is, so we called it “good enough” for the purpose.

[11] Ok, this bold claim ignores a lot of factors.  But the point remains it is a safe bet that Napoleon is worth looking at as a premier model for a Great Captain of History.

[12] In “Napoleon on Napoleon,” edited by Somerset de Chair, Bonaparte explicitly states those captains are: Alexander the Great, Hannibal the Great, Julius Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus the Great, Turenne, Prince Eugene of Savoy, Fredrick the Great, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

[13] https://www.usafa.edu/app/uploads/Harmon07.pdf This brings you to the entirety of this fascinating piece.

[14] The Youtube videos have since been removed from BGG, probably because they featured a CoV prototype from before Terry Leeds’ beautiful art was added.

[15] BTW, game designers and developers, like CoV’s, love it when you ask them about their games.  You’d be surprised how often they will write you back if you are struggling with a problem and need help with a game.

[16] Taking inspiration from the “Two-Headed Giant” format in “Magic the Gathering”

[17] We also added a “Deutsche Bund” track and some new Prussian staff cards in the attempt.  I also begged Frank to add “Clausewitz” and “Jomini” cards into the variant, but Frank rightfully pointed out “Clausewitz didn’t play much of a role until Waterloo.  Frank did humor me by making a neutral Jomini card, since his national loyalties caused him to serve multiple roles on different sides in official capacities.  Jomini even played a small role in the Congress itself, and Napoleon identified him by name, declaring Jomini to not be a French spy.  Both the Allies and the French deemed Jomini honorable in his military service throughout the war, despite his changing sides, or recusing himself on occasion throughout the Napoleonic Wars.

[18] From “How to Teach a Game” by Mark Leno

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APPENDIX 1: “Warm Starts” For CoV Clash of Armies Scenario Turns 5, 6, 7, or 8

Introduction to “Warm Starts” Appendix by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer/Editor, Fred Schachter: Game designer Frank Esparrago and I enjoyed editing Tyler’s clever concept of shortening a Congress of Vienna “Clash of Armies” (17.3) scenario’s playing time by starting a turn at its Government Phase.  This eliminates time spent resolving a turn’s Initial Phase (10.0) and Diplomacy Phase (11.0).  It lets player(s) proceed immediately to deciding how to best allocate their Major Power’s Resources and then proceed to the exciting, fun, and dramatic action of a War Phase.  

This can help newbie Congress of Vienna players learn the game system incrementally and avoid a Diplomacy Phase’s perceived complexities.  It also speeds resolving a CoV game turn when players are pressed for time… although at the price of sacrificing the fun challenges of selecting, negotiating, and debating Issues during a Diplomacy Phase. 

Here are general instructions for a “Warm Start” to a “Clash of Armies” Game Turn:

For all set-ups: As the French Leader, Napoleon, was not used during a turn’s preceding Diplomacy Phase, a free FR Military Operation marker is placed in Paris.  Prior to commencing a game, it is OK to include any or all CoV Optional Historical Rules (OHRs 15.1 – 15.17).

A “Warm Start” Turn begins with the following predetermined by Major Power: any Initial Environment Table effect(s), Card Hand Size, VPs, Number of available Resources, Issues won during the turn’s Diplomacy Phase, Military Cards, and Military & Diplomacy Sections’ pieces placements.  There is a Table for each “Warm Start” Turn identifying these for set-up purposes.

Duration & Options: A “Clash of Armies” Scenario can be for its full four turns or less.  Yes, a single turn game, with a Turn 8 “Warm Start”, could be played!

When selecting a turn to begin a “Clash of Armies” Scenario which will be more than one turn, that is, starting with turns 5, 6, or 7, participants can agree to play the next turn as a regular Congress of Vienna turn with all Phases.  Example: Play a two-turn game with a Warm Start for Turn 7 and then Turn 8 with its Initial Phase (10.0), Diplomacy Phase (11.0) and so on.

Alternately, every turn of a “Clash of Armies” Scenario can be played with its “Warm Start”.  Furthermore, readers should feel free to “tinker” with a turn’s “Warm Start” Resources, Issues won, Military Cards and pawn/marker placements if there’s a consensus believed to result in a more balanced, challenging, interesting, and/or better game.  Perhaps there’s an enterprising gamer in the GMT audience who’ll devise and share Tyler’s “Warm Start” approach with another Congress of Vienna Scenario?  The goal is to “tickle your gamer fancy” and have fun!

APPENDIX 2: Adding to the “Warm Starts” variability and re-playability?

If you want to add more variability to the game, you can deal each player one or two Handicap cards (players decide at the start of a game). Apply the result of each Handicap card at the beginning of the Government Phase, regardless of what the card says. If a drawn Handicap card cannot possibly affect a “Warm Start” game, set it aside and select another than can be applied.  This will add a touch of uncertainty and stimulating re-playability.

APPENDIX 3: “Warm Starts” Set-Ups for “Clash of Armies” Scenario Turns 5, 6, 7, & 8

Turn 5, August 1813

Marker/Pawn Placements: War of 1812: BR 1, Pax Britannica: Castile & Valencia under Coalition Control, Absolutism: Defense of the Faith, Liberalism: Secularism & Confiscation, Future Government of France: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Military Map Piece Placements: See below Turn 5 illustration.

Government Phase Resource Allocation Reminders: A) Adjust VP markers for the three Peace Congress (12.4.1.1) die rolls. B) If resourcing a won Minor Country and/or Recruitment Issue, add any related Military Unit(s) and adjust the Major Power’s VP Track Marker accordingly. C) Adjust VPs for any Absolutism/Liberalism die roll result.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If proceeding to a Turn 6 “Warm Start”, carry over this turn 5’s VP’s, Card Hand Size, Pawns (Absolutism, Liberalism, Pax Britannica), War of 1812 Status, and all Military Map positions of Armies on the board (with their units) as well as pieces in each Major Power’s Force Pool.  Otherwise, only use the upcoming turn’s “Warm Start” Table’s indicated Resources, Military Cards available, Won Issues, and drm modifiers to start the next Turn with its Government Phase.

Turn 6, September 1813

Marker/Pawn Placements: War of 1812: BR 1, Pax Britannica: Castile & Valencia under Coalition Control, Absolutism: Defense of the Faith, Liberalism: Free Market, Future Government of France: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Military Map Piece Placements: See below Turn 6 illustration. Note that Turn 6’s Replacements have been taken and are now upon the map.

Government Phase Resource Allocation Reminders: A) If resourcing a won Minor Country and/or Recruitment Issue, add any related Military Unit(s) and adjust the Major Power’s VP Track Marker accordingly. B) Adjust VPs for any Absolutism/Liberalism die roll result.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If proceeding to a Turn 7 “Warm Start”, carry over this turn 6’s VP’s, Pawns (Absolutism, Liberalism, Pax Britannica), War of 1812 Status, and all Military Map positions of Armies on the board (with their units) as well as pieces in each Major Power’s Force Pool.  Otherwise, only use the upcoming turn’s “Warm Start” Table’s indicated Resources, Military Cards available, Won Issues, and drm modifiers to start the next Turn with its Government Phase.

Turn 7, October 1813

Marker/Pawn Placements: War of 1812: BR 1, Pax Britannica: Castile & Valencia under Coalition Control, Absolutism: Monarchies Alliance, Liberalism: Free Market, Future Government of France: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.  Appropriately place reminder markers for: Track C- Heavy Rains, -2DRM to BR for Gascony + Toulouse & Track A- The Grande Armée is not allowed to Withdraw.

Military Map Piece Placements: See below Turn 6 illustration. Note that Turn 6’s Replacements have been taken and are now upon the map.

Government Phase Resource Allocation Reminders: A) If resourcing a won Minor Country and/or Recruitment Issue, add any related Military Unit(s) and adjust the Major Power’s VP Track Marker accordingly. B) Adjust VPs for any Absolutism/Liberalism die roll result.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If proceeding to a Turn 8 “Warm Start”, carry over this turn 7’s VP’s, Pawns (Absolutism, Liberalism, Pax Britannica), War of 1812 Status, and all Military Map positions of Armies on the board (with their units) as well as pieces in each Major Power’s Force Pool.  Otherwise, only use the upcoming turn’s “Warm Start” Table’s indicated Resources, Military Cards available, Won Issues, and drm modifiers to start the next Turn with its Government Phase.

Turn 8, November-December 1813

Marker/Pawn Placements: War of 1812: BR 1, Pax Britannica: Castile & Valencia under Coalition Control, Absolutism: Defense of the Faith, Liberalism: Democracy, Future Government of France: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Military Map Piece Placements: See below Turn 8 illustration. Note that Turn 8’s Replacements have been taken and are now upon the map.

Government Phase Resource Allocation Reminders: A) If resourcing a won Minor Country Issue add any related Military Unit(s) and adjust the Major Power’s VP Track Marker accordingly. B) Adjust VPs for any Absolutism/Liberalism and/or Peace Congress die roll result. C) If Resourced, adjust VP for the Future Government of France result.

CONTINUE THE GAME TO TURN 10 (OR TO THE OPTIONAL TURN 11 PER OHR 15.4)?

If player(s) agree to proceed to a Turn 9 and possibly beyond:

1. To satisfy curiosity, as of the end of Turn 8, determine a Major Power winner of the “Clash of Armies” (17.3) Scenario.
2. Then, carry over this turn 8’s VP’s, Pawns (Absolutism, Liberalism, Pax Britannica), War of 1812 Status, and all Military Map positions of Armies on the board (with their units) as well as pieces in each Major Power’s Force Pool.
3. Start Turn 9 as any regular CoV Game Turn with its Initial Phase (10.0).
4. YOU ARE NOW PLAYING A CONGRESS OF VIENNA GAME VICTORY DETERMINATION AS PRESENTED BY RULEBOOK SECTION 14.2.

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Previous Congress of Vienna InsideGMT Articles

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