The force came to 600 points and so an extra 300 points of Russians were added based on Gortachakov's force at Bautzen. As this was a coalition army there was a 10% discount then applied to the points which brought it back to the French total. The Prussians and Russians mustered some 47,000 men in total, about half the total figure at Bautzen. However the two Russian Corps (I and IV) were very week as was II Prussian Corps with divisions comprising a single brigade. They did have a lot of artillery.
The aim was to have a quick game and set up was effectively taking turns to put down a third of our forces no closer than 12 inches apart (this being the range of heavy artillery batteries).
Blucher was the overall commander of the Prussians as well as I Corps. The reduced size of Yorck's II corps is very evident. Both Zeithen and Kliest are strengthened by Russian batteries, the "green" of which stands out very nicely.
A bit of a closer look at Blucher. All units have an identification/information labelled attached in some way. Cavalry could start on react (the yellow markers). Most troops are deployed in column, but those Prussian dragoons are in line.
A closer look at Yorck's small corps and Dolffs' heavy cavalry. Is that the French behind that wood?
Not to be forgotten, the Russians on the far right of the allied line, echelon back, hoping not to be attacked.
Pretty nearly all the forces deployed for battle. The coalition looks a bit smaller as a lot of its points have gone into commanders (who in a good number of cases only have one unit to command and only being average are a bit of a waste) and artillery. Richard uses a different system for labeling his units and recording casualties. I must admit it is one of the drawbacks of Napoleon's Battles, but I am continuing to think on ways of streamlining things and not drawing away from the visual appeal of the game. One immediate idea is to start using white on black (or brown/green) rather than black on white (I've seen that done very effectively for a Fire and Fury game posted in the Serpentine War Game Cub blog).
But on with the game:
The French attacked the Russians. If they could defeat the Russians they would win, such are the rules governing coalition armies.
The was no action on the coalition's right, but in the centre the French made some determined attacks, but were generally blunted and repulsed by artillery and cavalry counter charges although the allied cavalry tended not to get its way, it generally succeeded in stopping the French attacks (it got beaten, but not routed and the French had to bounce out of the combat). In the above picture Ziethen can be seen steadying his troops while the Russian artillery officers are busy peering through their telescopes in order to determine the best range at which to let the French "have it" (we were not playing with the ranged artillery optional rule, in fact the only optional rules we used were the use of the wheeling template and the Cossack rule which requires them to role under or equal to their response number to charge - and for the record they had two opportunities and failed both times). The camera crew are obviously worried as the focus seems to be on the fence (which was purely there, like the fields, for colour - having no impact on the game, except to look good).
We stopped the game when the Russian collapse looked all but inevitable - they had some units to rally, but couldn't sustain any more casualties without dispersing. We had a one interesting encounter which I will leave to a subsequent post. The game went for five turns (two and a half hours game time) and took about five hours to play (not including set-up).
Here is the coalition forces order of battle:
| Points | Accumulated | |||||
| (3) Prussian Army | PR | Blucher | 10"E(10)+3 | [12M ] | 49 | 49 |
| (1) Advanced Guard | AG/PR | Kleist | 4"G(8)+1 | [ 2F ] | 16 | 65 |
| 1B/AG/PR | 16RuJG | [ 8D ] | 12 | 77 | ||
| 2B/AG/PR | 16PrLN | [ 8D ] | 14 | 91 | ||
| 3B/AG/PR | 16RsLC | [ 6D ] | 13 | 104 | ||
| AG/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 114 | |||
| AG/PR | Rs6# | 9 | 123 | |||
| AG/PR | Rs6# | 9 | 132 | |||
| (3) Prussian I Corps | I/PR | Blucher | 10"E(6)+3 | [ 4F ] | 0 | 132 |
| (1) Upper Silesian | US/I/PR | von Zeithen | 4"G(8)+1 | 16 | 148 | |
| 1B/US/I/PR | 24PrLN | [ 12D ] | 21 | 169 | ||
| 2B/US/I/PR | 24PrLN | [ 12D ] | 21 | 190 | ||
| 3B/US/I/PR | 12PrLC | [ 6D ] | 11 | 201 | ||
| US/I/PR | Rs12# | 9 | 210 | |||
| US/I/PR | Rs12# | 9 | 219 | |||
| US/I/PR | Rs12# | 9 | 228 | |||
| US/I/PR | Rs12# | 9 | 237 | |||
| US/I/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 247 | |||
| (1) Lower Silesian | LS/I/PR | von Klux | 3"A(5)+0 | 8 | 255 | |
| 1B/LS/I/PR | 24PrLN | [ 12D ] | 21 | 276 | ||
| 2B/LS/I/PR | 16PrLN | [ 8D ] | 14 | 290 | ||
| 3B/LS/I/PR | 16PrLN | [ 8D ] | 14 | 304 | ||
| 4B/LS/I/PR | 12PrLC | [ 6D ] | 11 | 315 | ||
| LS/I/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 325 | |||
| (2) Prussian II Corps | II/PR | von Yorck | 10"E(7)+2D | [ 2F ] | 32 | 357 |
| (1) Cavalry | C/II/PR | von Wuthernov | 4"A(6)+1 | 12 | 369 | |
| 1B/C/II/PR | 16PrLC | [ 8D] | 15 | 384 | ||
| C/II/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 394 | |||
| (1) 1st Infantry | 1/II/PR | von Zielinsky | 4"G(6)+0 | 12 | 406 | |
| 1B/1/II/PR | 16PrLN | [ 8D ] | 14 | 420 | ||
| (1) 2nd Infantry | 2/II/PR | von Horn | 4"A(6)+1D | 8 | 428 | |
| 1B/2/II/PR | 16PrLN | [ 8D ] | 14 | 442 | ||
| 2/II/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 452 | |||
| (1) Reserve | R/PR | von Roder | 4"G(6)+1 | [ 3F ] | 14 | 466 |
| 1B/R/PR | 12PrLC | [ 6D ] | 11 | 477 | ||
| 2B/R/PR | 20PrGN | [ 8D ] | 27 | 504 | ||
| 2B/R/PR | 20PrGD | [ 8D ] | 27 | 531 | ||
| R/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 541 | |||
| R/PR | Pr12# | 10 | 551 | |||
| (1) Heavy Cavalry | HC/PR | von Dolffs | 3"A(6)+0 | [ 1F ] | 9 | 560 |
| 1B/HC/PR | 12PrHC | [ 5D ] | 12 | 572 | ||
| 2B/HC/PR | 12PrHC | [ 5D ] | 12 | 584 | ||
| HC/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 594 | |||
| HC/PR | Pr6# | 10 | 604 | |||
| (3) Russian Army | Gortachakov 2 | 8"G(10)+0 | [ 5M ] | 36 | 36 | |
| (2) I Corps | I/RS | Berg | 8"G(5)+1 | [ 2F ] | 25 | 61 |
| (1) 5th Division | 5/I/RS | Lukov | 3"A(5)+0 | 8 | 69 | |
| 1B/5/I/RS | 24RsLN | [ 12D ] | 17 | 86 | ||
| (1)14th Division | 14/I/RS | Helfreich | 3"G(6)+0 | 11 | 97 | |
| 1B/14/I/RS | 16RsLN | [ 8D ] | 11 | 108 | ||
| Corps Artillery | I/RS | Rs12# | 9 | 117 | ||
| I/RS | Rs12# | 9 | 126 | |||
| I/RS | Rs12# | 9 | 135 | |||
| I/RS | Rs12# | 9 | 144 | |||
| (1)Corps Cavalry | C/I/RS | Pantschulid 1 | 4"A(7)+1 | 13 | 157 | |
| 1B/C/I/RS | 12RsLC | [ 6D ] | 10 | 167 | ||
| C/I/RS | Rs6# | 9 | 176 | |||
| (2) IV Corps | IV/RS | Markov | 7"G(5)+0 | [ 3F ] | 21 | 197 |
| (1) 11th Division | 11/IV/RS | Karpenkov | 3"A(5)+0 | 8 | 205 | |
| 1B/11/IV/RS | 16RsJG | [ 8D ] | 12 | 217 | ||
| (1) 8th Division | 8/IV/RS | Engelhardt I | 3"A(5)+0 | 8 | 225 | |
| 1B/8/IV/RS | 16RsLN | [ 8D ] | 11 | 236 | ||
| (1) Ad Hoc Division | AH/IV/RS | Saint-Priest | 4"A(6)+1 | 12 | 248 | |
| 1B/AH/IV/RS | 16RsLN | [ 8D ] | 11 | 259 | ||
| (1) Corps Cavalry | C/IV/RS | Mellissio | 3"A(5)+1 | 10 | 269 | |
| 1B/C/IV/RS | 12RsCLC | [ 8D ] | 5 | 274 | ||
| 1B/C/IV/RS | 12RsLC | [ 6D ] | 10 | 284 | ||
| C/IV/RS | Rs6# | 9 | 293 | |||
| Total after allowing for combined army discount | 807.3 | |||||
The number in brackets on the left is the command hierarchy and is shown by the number of figures on the command base. The rest of the left hand column is the formation names down to divisional level. The second column is the unit ID. The third column is the unit information, either general's name or number and type of troops. The fourth column is the general's values, being range, quality, response and combat modifier. The fifth column has the army moral, formation fatigue and unit dispersal numbers - if an army, formation or unit losses reach these levels things go bad.
All the Prussians are from my collection, all the other figures and terrain are from Richard's collection.
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