Bautzen 1813 The Battles for Germany

This past Saturday we had our 3rd game in the 1813-Battles for Germany campaign. We had planned a two day event but we were able to complete the game in 6 hours with a clear victory, more about that below.

This time we played at Graham's in Beaconsfield. We had 4 players but an extra player, Steve, showed up unannounced and Graham very graciously withdrew as a player and acted as the games master. Thus we had Helge and myself, again taking the French while Iannick and Steve played the defending Russians. 

Scenario Victory Conditions

The game was 18 turns with the French being the attackers. They have to control 2 of the 4 areas of terrain on the Russian side, this including the two villages and the two hills. What the French had selected was kept from the Russians.

The Russians ended with a Bold and Poor Brigadier, the French had minimal success with their scouting just identifying the position of the Russian GdB Phalen.

The revealed starting positions of the 5 brigades aside, only the French had a reserve brigade of cavalry which was treated as an off-table reserve rather than a reinforcement. 

Initial Deployments on the Table

Overall View, unfortunately I cut off the French right flank, so you are missing a brigade of Reservists. Unlike our last game the Russians did not deploy far forward in their defensive positions. The stream in this scenario was rough not severe terrain. The French deployed their 2 artillery batteries limbered.

Top left are the French Reservists, being confronted by 4 battalions of Russian line.

The Russian centre.....

.....which was a brigade of Jagers with a brigade of line further back. Their 12pd large battery was deployed on Windmill Hill.

The Russian left flank

The Russian right flank

Game Turns

We started around 1030h, being slightly delayed by the usual chit chat, the players were also allowed to rearrange their internal organisation of each of their brigade. The French won the initiative on the first turn.

Being one of the French players I knew our plan which I can reveal here. We had decided to lead with our reserve brigades on each end flank. We had selected the two hills as our victory points. They had to be cleared by turn 18. The reservists were to advance to these hill in order to weaken the Russian defences but at the same time to soak up attrition to the point were our 2 line brigades could replace them and finish the Russians off and seize the two hills. We decided to not deploy our artillery until they could move up to effective range. We have found long range fire pretty ineffective. The skirmishers were send in on both flanks to harry the Russian guns. Our initial focussed attack was on our left flank towards Windmill Hill, to do this in our first few turns Forwards tasking was heavily utilised. For our right flank the attack was to be more leisurely, our deployed cavalry brigade was deployed to our centre right which turned out to be the correct choice as you will see.

French Right at the end of turn 6

French Left at the end of turn 6

The above 2 photos show our positions at the end of Turn 5 when we broke for lunch at 1300h. As you can see on the French left flank, both brigades had advanced with the reservist brigade on the extreme left now broken out in line in a firefight with the Russian line. The French line have advanced to the left of the forest in column but are having some difficulty manuring with their tight advance. Abling holding them off is the Russian Jagers. The French cannon are now focused on the Jagers.

The situation on the French right was quite a different proposition as the Russians tried to go on the offensive despite orders to the contrary. They successfully threw their 2 brigades at cavalry at the French advance hoping to catch them out of order. The first attack was repelled by the French line and skirmishers while a second attack on a French column resulted in minimal success with them being repelled. Meanwhile the French cavalry charged the second Russian cavalry and caused them to falter. They subsequently fail a falter test and disperse. An infantry charge by the Russians also failed with the chargers ending up in a position where they were run down by the French cavalry and were subsequently dispersed. The end of turn 6 essentially found the Russian defence on their left having crumbled with a few stragglers left on the table.

Position at the end of turn 15

The above photo is the final position of the troops at the end of the game. As noted above the French have captured the hill on their right achieving one of their victory conditions. The next 9 turns went quickly as essentially only 2 Russian brigades were left limiting their number of ADC's. They fought well dispersing the French reservist brigade but this left the hill open to the French line who were able to break out and advance in line towards WindMill Hill. They were ailing assisted by the victorious French cavalry crossing the river to run down the demoralised Russian 12 pders. The Russian defence collapsed....a French victory.

Summary

This was a strong victory for the French and because of this in the Battle of Dresden they will have a veteran guard cavalry regiment added to their order of battle. This will be invaluable as they are again the attackers. I should note that the Russians were a bit handicapped in this game as one of their players was not in on the initial defence planning. We plan to be much more careful with this in the future. Our next game probably will not be until the end of April, lots of vacation time between now and then to shake off the doldrums of the Winter and the Orange Buffoon.