We played a 10,000 point 6mm
Napoleonic game using Valour & Fortitude rules this past weekend (see picture - 18' table, 300+ c 50 figure battalions and 100+ c 20 fig cavalry regiments, at least c 12,000 figures.
The Scenario
You will all remember that following Austria's
defeat by France in 1809, Russia and Prussia decided to make a land
grab of Austrian Poland, triggered by the Princess Marie Louise
Incident at the August 1811 Great Party (of which we, as
gentleman, of course cannot discuss in public, and would never dream of referring to it as the Marie Louise Affaire).
But what is strange is the brief campaign and battle are all but expunged from the records of that time. Fortunately, some papers have come into our posession that shed some light on this campaign.
In essence, after the Incident, Prussia and Russia invaded Galicia, and Austria immediately invoked the 1809 agreement with France. Napoleon gathered all the "French" Poles and along with some French. As with Austria in 1812, it was enough to show willing but not enough to annoy Russia and Prussia.
The Battle field
The battlefield is shown below, looking from the Wien side of the Great Wien Moskva Road through Galicia by a French Montgolfier Mk.2 Military Hot Air balloon. To the right, Russians and Prussians. To the left, Austria and Poland (closest)
The battle from Montgolfier balloon, looning Northeast towards Moskva, taken by Daguerrotype and colourized . The closest hamlet on the Great Road is Karlsburg, with Grolscz in the
The Battlefield Map
The battle took place along the Great Wien - Moskva Road in Galicia at the strategic point where the road crosses the Berlin to Bucharest road at Grosse/Velike Plopnitz, and the Warsaw to Odessa road at nearby Kleine/Malike Plopnitz, as well as the key bridges over the Odna river at Gruendorf/Zeleni Mesto, Slobowicz and Schloss Hasselhof and the Insha river bridge at Katyakokovplus the bridge over their confluence at Scheissdorf. The approximate location of the Corps are shown on the map.
The hamlets, villages and towns are shown on the map. The the pink arrows are the main thrusts by the various forces.
Above - hastily drawn map by Montglofier Balloon crew towards end of battle. Top, L-R IV Polish Corps, III Austrian Korps. II Austrian Korps, I Austrian Korps. Bottom L-R IV Russo-Wurtemberg Corps, Russian II Corps, Russian I Corps, Prussian III Corps. Little flags by towns show who occupies them at the close of the battle
The orange oval shows the village
of Slobowicz. the Austrian captured the top half of the town near the end of that the
battle an a late attack, which with their control of the major crossroads town of
Velike Plopnitz and river bridges at Gruenberg and Hasselhof gave them
effective control of the key lines of communication and logistics and (spoiler alert) the tactical victory.
The Russo-Wurttemburg Corps used Wurttemburg troops to make up the numbers (think of it as a sort of Russo German legion) and we decided to try out the new Bavariain list on them.
The Battle - in brief
In brief, the Austrians, with their Polish and French allies had bivouacked the night before at a number of hamlets, villages and towns along the Wien-Moskva Road, and set up headquarters at the comfortable Chateaux Hasselhof. The Russo-Prusso-German army advanced early on the morning of 13 July, crossing the rivers over several points, hoping to catch the Austrian unawares.
Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on which side you are on), crossing the bridges took longer than expected and the Austrians were able to mobilise their forces. The battle resolved into a number of fights for the hamlets, villages and towns on the road and rivers, plus a huge cavalry battle on the Western side (closest to camera in the picture above, left side of map above) with Poles vs. Wurttemburgers and Russians, a meatgrinder battle in the centre where the Austrian pipped the Russians on key points occupied, and an Austrian assault on the Prussians the East flank, as the Prussians struggled to cross the river.
Some Pictures and Commentary on various areas of the battlefield
Descriptions 1 - 5 below go from left to right hand of the map above.
1. The battle in the Western Sector
(The fight for Karlsburg, left hand side of map_.
The IV Russo-Wurttemburg Corps (right of picture) advanced carefully, skirmish screens thrown out, except for a rush by their Light infantry brigade to take Karlsburg (top centre of picture). The Polish, fielding a Line Corps reinforced with a cavalry division on open ground, immediately attacked while they had the advantage of numbers, with a large cavalry column surging forward (left/centre of picture). Polish cavalry hit the skirmishing cossacks and light infantry screen (centre), causing chaos.
The Wurttemburg ChevauxLeger sacrificed themselves to protect their infantry and gain time for the the Russians to deploy II Reserve Corps, the extra troops put the Poles on the defensive and Karlsburg remained in Russian hands till the end.
2. Massed Austrian move on Grolcz
Moving one town to the right on the map along the Great Road...
The Austrian III Corps (top of picture, below) launched a Divison to occupy Grolcz (mid left of picture) However, the Russians had marched brigade to attack it and they succeeded
in seizing the bottom half of the village (see units below village). The whole Austrian Corps athen
dvanced en masse and the Russian Brigade was
left just hanging on in Grolcz. I Russian
Reserve Corps was brought on, its heavy cavalry crossing the river at
Scheissdorf and threw themselves at the Austrian lead units by the road (picture, centre). They did some damage before being too blown to fight, and the Guard Cossacks took out an Austrian masse (square). This gave space and time for the Reserve Corps grenadiers to cross the river, march to Grolcz and push the Austrians out, and they held it for the rest of the battle
3. The battle for the centre Part I
Moving right on the map to the next major town/battle sector
Between Grolcz and Veliky Plopnitz was the Platberg, a large flat-topped hill by the river (centre of picture). The Russians (top of picture) had a thin defence behind the river, and a Jaeger skirmish screen on the other side of it. The hill protected much of the Russian brigade from artillery fire. Austria pushed the bulk of II Korps into this area (bottom pf picture), with Grenz and Jaeger units screening the flank of Veliky Plopnitz (left side of picture, centre).
To win the Russians had to hold on to Slobowicz (hamlet beside the river, top left in picture above, above and the best way was to take at least some of Veliky Plopnitz (the larger town just below it in teh picture), blocking Austrian acces to it. Russian I Corps' cavalry Light Brigade was sent to attack the Grenzers and then push behind the Austrians in the gap the defeared Grenzers would make (you can see the Light Brigade crossing the river over Slobowicz bridge, top left in picture above, moving towards Veliky Plopnitz)
Picture below - the charge of I Russian Corps' Light Brigade. The
fighting was furious around Velke Plopnitz for most of the battle, but
the Austrians always held onto part of it and kept on feeding units
into this meatgrinder battle.
Russia did not have enough reserves and had played all its Reserve Corps elsewhere (lesson - keep one Reserve Corps in Reserve!) and finally the Russian forces collapsed. Austria then took Veliky Plopnitz and advanced to take the part of Slobowicz on "their" side of the river. The Austrians leverly tied up the Russian troops reserved to retake Slobowicz by attacking them across the river with cavalry, tying them up - bad for the cavalry but good for the Austrian attack on Slobowicz - and thus winning them the battle as Russia controlled neither the key roads or the waterway.
4. The battle for the centre Part II
Next village going east along the Great Road - Gruenberg.
Austria used a Grenzer Regiment of 3 battalions to take and hold Gruenberg. Russia set up a Corps battery of 6 and 12 pounders and proceeded to pound it, then attacked with a line infantry brigade double the size of the Austrian forces. (Picture below, marching in from bottom left). The Russians wiped out 2 of 3 Grenz battalions but failed to take the town the whole battle, and one shaken, but not stirred, battalion of Grenzers marched out at the end of the battle.
5. The Battle of the Eastern Flank
The last 2 villages (going left to right) on the Great Road - Maliky Plopnitz and KoeningLinguzstein
The photos below show the sector from the Austrian point of view (bottom of picture, moving up towards the road, they launched I Korps plus Reserve Korps on this sector against the Prussian Korps and their Reserve Korps. It would seem the aim was to knock Prussia out of the game.
If you read the 2 photos below as top to bottom = left to right it show the whole sector and the sheer size of the Austrian Force. In short, the Austrians poured forth, especially on the Eastern-most flank, quickly taking KoeningLinguzstein (top picture). The Prussians decided an a slow retirement to keep their army in being, and beseeched the Russian to help them. the last III (Russian) Reserve Corps was sent, but struggled to get over the river. When they finally did get over their heavy cavalry persuaded the Austrians to go into square across the field, denying the Russian cavalry an opportunity to get around their flank at ...(moving to the lower picture)...Maliky Plopnitz, where the Austrians were much more thinly spread apart from occupying the town (top right in bottom picture). In the last hours of the battle Russian reserve Grenadiers and a Russian line brigade from I Corps attacked Maliky Plopnitz, pushing the Austrians out of some of town.
The fight for KoeningLinguzstein which the Austrian stook and held (top picture) and the Austrians on a limb in Maliky Plopnitz (Bottom picture, town on top of picture). A Russian heavy cavalry attack into that open space was neutralized by a wall of Austrian attalion masses (squares). The Russians were eventually able to take the town however. The Austrian HQ at Hasselhof is in the foreground, bottom right.
The Heroes and Horrors
Heroes
Two squares were broken, one Prussian by the Austrian 5th (Sommariva) Cuirassiers, the other by the Guard Cossack Lancers (after being shot up by Russian Jaegers). Both cavalry unkist were left shaken though.
The Peterwardein Grenzers held Gruendorf all game despite facing a Russian heavy battery all battle, plus an assault by an entire Russian brigade. Only 1 battaliion was left, shae - but not stirred. They ascribe it to the superior slivowitz of their homeland.
The Russian I Reserve Corps Grenadier brigade took Grolzc and held it against all comers
The Wurttemburg Dragoons charged the fresh Polish line, wiped out a Hussar Regiment and the whole 1st wave Polish brigade required a lot of wodka to re-fortify their valour (fail a valour test...).
Horrors
The Russian Ist Reserve Corps Heavy Brigade was pretty useless. The came, they saw, they ran away. Over and over again. Marshall Neyokov was given a bottle of vodka and a pistol and told to go down to the river to consider his future.
The Prussian Reserve Corps marched bravely to the Insha River, and liked it so much it took most of the battle to get them over onto the other side.
To be fair the Prussian Grenadiers then took the town of KoeningLinguzstein together with a Russian line brigade, and the Cuirassiers stopped the Austrian advance fair and square just by being there.
There were a number of entire Brigade collapses on both sides, but such is the nature of (tabletop) warfare.
The Result
The battle proper went on from dawn on Satuday to dusk in mid-summer, by nightfall the Russians had taken some of the villages but in the clear light of morning morning it was clear they had not secured the river, never mind a secure position over it. It was a big enough Austrian victory to persuade
Russia and Prussia to go home, and (after a good lunch) a treaty was signed and all agreed to forget this misunderstanding had ever happened.
But it
had convinced Napoleon, back in France, that Russia was a serious threat, and we all
know what that led to in 1812......
Playing the Game
Valour & Fortitude v 2.3 rules, they are the best rules we have found for major battles with hundreds of battalions, as the rules are relatively fast play and give very believable results (and they are free!).
In essence we had 4 Line Corps and 4 Reserve Corps per side, based roughly on national structures. This gave c 150+ infantry
battalions on the Russian side (there were 168 at Borodino to give an idea of battle size) and
similar on the Austrian. We must have had 100+ cavalry
regiments overall,and 50+ guns. It was 10,000 points for both sides. had upwards of 17,000 6mm figures.
The game took c 16 hours, Friday was setup and Russian and Austrian first moves, we played through Saturday (with a good dinner) and 1 final turn on Sunday morning, followed by packing away and lunch. The result was based on objectives, and the Austrian side had taken / held onto more than the Russian so were the winner, eespecially strategically. It felt typical of many of the big late Napoleonic battles.
Tactically the game was not "clever" at a strategic and grand tactical level. There were few spaces for open manouvre, and where these were seen exploitation was tried but on both sides typically forestalled by the opponent. Most of the "clever" was at the tactical level in individual fights. The Russian error was to not reserve enough of a force to keep the Austrians out of Slobowicz, but then the breakthrough may just have moved elsewhere, the main problem was always getting over the river.
Overall the rules worked really well, 3 relative
newbies were happily playing themselves by lunch time Saturday. Each Corps player was their own CiC. We played it at 2/3 move/range, which worked well for getting into contact and the ranges are believable vs unit size and movement.
.
