First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.

On the 12th day of Christmas War Gaming my true love gave to me…

12 Transportation Assets Supplying

Nevsky: Teutons & Rus in Collision, 1240-1242 is a wargame about the age old struggle between Latin Teutonic and Orthodox Russian powers along the Baltic frontier of the mid-thirteenth century. The game is the first entry in a new series called the Levy & Campaign Series which focuses on pre-industrial age conflicts and, as you can see from the name of the series, requires players to focus on some of the logistics aspects of warfare including providing for the payment and feeding of your vassals and their troops as well as planning out the length of service of your hirelings. This game is a very new experience for me as we had to think differently about how to go about prosecuting a war in a foreign land where you are far from your supply sources and have only a limited time to accomplish your goals before your time is up.

In the game, planning out your campaigns and conquests is very important and you should be asking yourself what you are trying to accomplish this season. Are you planning to siege a castle? If so, you will have to think about the number of forces you have and how many it might take to put up a good siege. Remember, a Lord can only Muster new forces from a friendly locale and not while a siege is ongoing. You will also have to consider how much Provender you have and how you are going to carry that with you and will need to think about Levying Transport. You also have to remember that feeding your men requires you to have and use 1 Provender or Loot per Lord with 1-6 units. If the Lord has 7 units, this will cost you 2 Provender or Loot. You can’t just buy that and if you don’t have good Supply sources set up yet you must Forage for Provender in the field and what you will receive depends upon the season. There are also major supply focused assets that you will need to gather and maintain including Sleds, Carts and Boats.

In Nevsky, the map is fairly small but the best routes are not always by land and can be by river and seas as well so you have to have a good selection of Transportation Assets in order to move the needed Provender from your Supply Sources to your troops in the field. In the picture above, you will count 12 different Transportation Assets among the two Lords shown (Knud & Abel, Princes of Denmark and Herman, Bishop of Dorpat). These Assets include a total of 6 Sleds, 2 Carts and 4 Boats or 12 total Transportation Assets. The Carts can be used when the roads are not frozen, during the winter the Sleds come in more handy and then the Boats can allow greater access to certain areas by the sea or rivers. These Assets are won when battles are fought in the field as the loser will sacrifice their assets to the winner so you can collect a good amount of these over the course of the game.

It has been a blast thinking about what games and situations to include in this series and I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. In addition, I sincerely hope that each of you and your families have a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year!

You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:

A Spotter in a Smokestack – Saipan: The Bloody Rock

2 Bridges Blowing – Holland ’44: Operation Market Garden

3 Blockade Runners Running – Kaiserkrieg! The Great War 1914-1918

4 Moudjahidate Defending – The Red Burnoose: Algeria 1857

5 Sherman Tanks – Sherman Leader: The World War II Ground Combat Solitaire Strategy Game

6 Miami Warriors Assaulting – Kekionga!: A Dark and Bloody Battleground, 1790

7 Landing Craft Landing – D-Day at Tarawa

8 Viet Cong Hiding – Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam

9 Corsair Ships Pirating – The Shores of Tripoli

10 Ottoman Troops Besieging – Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683

11 Influence Controlling – Twilight Struggle: The Cold War, 1945-1989

-Grant