Sunday School 2: BA at Camp Cromwell

Richard's British v. Nick's Germans

The FOGN battle at Nick's didn't last that long so we moved downhill to Camp Cromwell for a dose of Bolt Action, this time with Jim umpiring.

 

Both sides had about 1500 points armoured platoons.   They fought the new scenario from the BA Armoured book where there are D6 objectives.  In this case there were 5 = the green hexes.  The Germans are coming on the right side, the Brits on the left.

 

Richard made his move down the far flank.  Nick deployed his armour hull down on the ridge while his infantry secured  the objectives at this end of the table.  With all their tanks hull down, the Germans soon got the upper hand in the tank duel.

The Brits got onto the objective on the German ridge and their infantry destroyed the Stug when it tried to take it back, but the Germans had moved their infantry from left to right and took the objective on the British ridge as well as maintaining dispute of the one on their side.  At the end of turn 7, the Germans had 3 objectives to the Brit's 1, with 1 in dispute so it was a German victory.  The Germans also suffers much fewer losses - just 1 Stug  compared to 4 Brit tanks. 

Sunday School 1: FOG Napoleonics at Nick's

FOGN at Nick's

Nick umpired a small introductory game of Field of Glory Napoleonics for Richard (Austrians) & Jim (French).

Richard's Austrians are on the far side.  These armies represent mixed divisions with the units being brigades.  The game is unit based so the figures being in line or column doesn't signify much other than most common formation.   The figures are Nick's 15mm's.

The French deployed their artillery in range of the enemy then waited for them to advance, which being lead by Richard, they did.

 

On the far flank, the French cavalry drove the Austrian infantry back then attacked their cavalry starting a fight that swilled back & forth some time.  On the near flank the French redeployed their light infantry on the left to bring all muskets to bear.

 

The cavalry fight on the right has become a stalemate.  The French artillery has routed the Austrian infantry attack in the centre.  Weight of numbers is telling on the Austrian right. 

On the right, the French cavalry rallied faster & then broke the Austrian horse.  On the left, the French have gone on the attack & broken the enemy infantry.  The battle is clearly over as a decisive French victory.

I found playing FOGN a lot better than playing FOG Ancients.  But we were fortunate to have Nick running the game so did not have to actually understand the rules in detail.  It seems that FOGR has many of the faults of FOGA - like badly laid out & poorly explained rules with no index.   But it did feel like a Napoleonic battle & I felt that good tactics were rewarded.

Nick in Launceston

A very close game of Flames of War between Nick and Rob.  The Launceston Gaming Club facebook page has pictures:  https://www.facebook.com/LauncestonGamingClub . For once, The FHH Panzers didn't have a horde of tanks get around their flanks and destroy them!!!  So they got a 4:3 win!

The club was packed -- I wish I could predict turnout.  Some days there are two tables in use, and some days all tables are out and in use within seconds of the 7:00 pm start!  A lot of Fantasy and 40K games, but Dennis and Daniel did a fantastic Force on Force game.  Apparently Daniel lost very early on when the 'Golden BB' (destroy any vehicle being shot at) random event took out his Bushmaster.  He persevered, only to have another random event remove his other armoured vehicle!

Naval Battle: Cape St Vincent 1797

Have got our Men o' War rules working well for small ship actions I turned my mind to modifying them for large fleet actions. The issues to be addressed were 1) I only have 10 model ships & 2) the rules needed streamlining to allow actions of 20+ ships a side to be resolved in a good timeframe.

I fixed the ship problem by making counters by fixing printed graphic to 60x54mm plastic bases salvaged from Perry 28mm plastics boxes.  Not as good looking as ships, but cost nothing & perfect for game development purposes.  I also printed 4 A0 sheets of 65mm hexes and worked out how to paint them blue (an acrylic paint wash applied with a sponge roller).

The current rules actually work very fast as they are, but recording damage on separate damage logs doesn't work well with a lot of ships.  With a large fleet you really need to be able to get all the info you need for combat by looking at the ship.  The command logs for controlling movement work fine for any sized action and mostly orders are by squadron & follow the leader anyway.

The main change is to modify the ship stats so there are less dice per broadside and less hits need to knock ships out.  With less hits to record, they can be recorded by using coloured counters on the ship counters.   I also took out some subtleties like secret chain & double shot options which add a lot to a small game, but become tedious en masse.

Cape St Vincent 1797:
British: 15 ships of the line with elite crews.  James in command.
Spanish: 25 ships of the line with raw crews.  15 in the weather group with Mark in command.  10 in the leeward group, Jim in command.

The Spanish are in two groups. Mark on the right, Jim on the left.   The British fleet has formed a single line sailing on a beam reach away from the camera towards the gap between the two Spanish fleets.

Mark has turned to starboard to try and get past the head of the British column.  Jim's fleet is struggling upwind to try & join their comrades.

Poor Spanish gunnery has allowed the lead British ship to survive converging fire & mark has got into the Spanish spirit by getting his own ships in the way or each other.

Things have got a bit messy at the head of the British column where the lead ship the Culloden has been cut off and forced to strike her colours.  But even so, the superior British gunnery is hurting the Spanish.

White flags are going up in the Spanish feet as the British gunnery take its toll, though the Prince George, 3rd in the British line, surprises everyone by sinking.  The leeward Spanish fleet still hasn't got near the action (nor indeed had Nelson in the Captain, 3rd from the end, this time the Spanish went the other way robbing him of his chance for glory).  

The Spanish that got past the head of the British column have hoisted more sail and are running for home.  Some of the others are getting away on the far side.  6 Spanish ships have struck their colours, one after being boarded.  The Spanish had no time to put a prize grew on the Culloden so she was recovered leaving the only British loss the Prince George sunk.

The battle didn't go exactly the same way as the historical, but the result was similar in the end.  With a large part of the fleet downwind, the Spanish just couldn't use their superior numbers to counter the  superior skill of the British. 

The whole battle took 2 hours and a enjoyed by all.  So now we have a one page addendum to the Man o' War rules allowing them to be used for large battles. 

Men o' War

This afternoon I introduced James to man o' War, our home grown Napoleonic Naval rules.  We fought two battles, each with the same fleets.  James had 4 British ships 1 1st rater & 3 3rd raters all with elite crews.  Jim had 4 French ships, 1 1st rater, 1 2nd rater & 2 3rd raters, all with average crews.

Battle 1:

The French are on the right with the weather gauge. 

The French crossed the British T with their starboard broadsides loaded with chain & inflicted some serious rigging damage.  The Brits had loaded their port broadsides with double shot and had to fire it off & reload with single shot when the French kept outside of double shot range.

Serious rigging damage one ship has caused disorder in the British line as the entire French line pound the unfortunate HMS Catastrophe.

The French have moved in for the kill.  Harry on the left & Repulsive in the middle have struck their colours, Catastrophe is a shambles, only Excrement can get away.  A rare French victory.

Battle 2:

This time the Brits on the right have the weather gauge and James has got a better handle on the game. 

This time it is the French who suffer most in an initial exchange of chain shot.

The battle turns into a confused melee as the two line break through each other and damage mounts on both sides.

Harry nearest the wind indicator has struck, but Fifi in the middle Merde, 2nd from the camera, are a shambles.

Fifi has struck, Excrement has slipped past the French on the left.  All ships have serious damage except Repulsive (far right).  The 3 French ships on this side put up sail and run for home.  The Brits recover Harry, plus have taken Fifi and the natural order of Britannia ruling the waves has been restored.

But both games were good fun.   The combined manoeuvre and damage log on magnetic boards works a treat.  The manoeuvre log takes a bit of learning to use, but once you get it, it works well.  The ships are really a bit big for the hexes - it would look even better with smaller ships or larger hexes. 

1806 Campaign: The Umpire's Summary

Victory Conditions
The result is a French major victory. The Prussians did better than in 1806. They avoided a total defeat as happened in the real campaign, but still suffered a major defeat. The Prussian condition for this level of defeat was ‘You cut and run, getting over half your army away across the Elbe.’ This is what occurred by day 11, but the Prussian army is in better shape and held out longer than I expected.

Initial deployment

In Jim’s account the difficult Prussian initial deployment is shown, but the French had their problems too. All their army had to enter at Coburg, Kronach and 1114. Most of it arrived over the first 3 days, but the last units did not come on until day 4. 

Days 1 and 2

As the French came on slowly, and for the Prussians an even fight was about the best they were likely to get, the Prussian decision for a forward deployment gave them a chance to strike south into the mountains on day 2 at Saalburg, and perhaps give the French a bloody nose. However, the Prussians would not have been able to stay there on day 3. But nothing like that happened, and the French moves that brought about the battle of Gera were good. Soult, using the superior French marching ability, went via Plauen to arrive at Gera before the Prussians. Meanwhile several French corps concentrated in the Saalburg-Hof area to advance via Polnitz to support Soult.

Battle of Gera, day 3

A battle description is on the blog so I’ll confine myself to the result. The Prussians assumed there were more French closer than was in fact the case (the Cavalry Reserve ended day 3 in Neustadt and all other French not at Gera were even further away) and decided to retreat overnight instead of trying to destroy Soult’s isolated corps on day 4. The Prussian retreat to Naumberg opened up a direct route to Leipzig for the French, and they took it.
The Prussian King had insisted the Prussians fight a battle before conceding the line Gera-Jena-Sommerda. The battle of Gera released them from this obligation and they were now free to manoeuvre as their CinC wished.

Day 4

A Saxon division was swamped at Jena by the second French force which was operating west of the Saale. This was Lannes, Augereau, the Guard and part of the Cavalry Reserve. Until now the French moves had been text book, but it seemed to me that the French were in danger as they were in two large forces well over a days march apart at the same time the Prussians were unifying their army around 0606 by bringing together their two bodies - a force previously in the Jena area and the force retreating from Gera.

Day 5

The French diverted half of their main body, now along the road between Altenburg and Gera, to Naumberg in the hope of a battle there, but the Prussians crossed the Saale to the west side and the French blow was struck in the air. At the end of the day the Prussians, with about 125,000 men, were concentrated in 3 hexes from Mersberg to Auerstadt, while the French were divided into three forces, of about 50-60000 men each, in 0608, Naumberg and Connewitz. From this point the French remained widely separated but, as things turned out, did not suffer a heavy penalty for it.

Day 6, fall of Leipzig

Scouting was a problem for both sides, as I had intended, so while the Prussians fell back on day 6 to be closer to Leipzig, they did not know that Soult and Bernadotte were poised to attack it. It was possible for Prussians at Merseberg in the morning to intervene and perhaps prevent the fall of Leipzig had the Prussians realised the threat. The fall of Leipzig resulted in the desertion of all the Saxons in the Prussian army.

Days 7 and 8

By the end of day 8 the three French forces were at Achersleben, Ney’s Corps was at Mersberg, and the main body was at Leipzig or immediately south of there. Meanwhile the Prussians had withdrawn to 0603 where almost their entire army was concentrated.
 

Day 9, Battle of Bittefeld, first day

Both sides blundered into each other in 0703. The French would have advanced from Leipzig a day sooner but for a staff error which cost them a whole day in bringing Davout and the Cavalry Reserve up to Leipzig. The Prussians, seeing their options as marching west towards Madgeburg, where they would have encountered 60,000 men of the French western force, or going east towards Torgau, chose to go east where they met the main body of the French. Here again the Prussians expected there to be more French nearby than there were - on this day the French western force was marching from Rothenburg to Dessau and only Ney’s Corps arrived to support the French main body.

Day 10, Battle of Bittefeld, second day

The Prussians, who should have gone for it on day 9, attacked towards Leipzig on day 10 as the French western force began arriving on the battlefield, uniting all the French in one place for the first time in the campaign. The Prussians were able to stage a fighting retreat via Eilenburg and, the following day, cross the Elbe to safety.

Camp Cromwell's 1806 Campaign: The Prussian perspective

Campaign Umpire:             Peter Williams (in Canberra by email).
Battlefield Umpire:             Mark Oakford.

French Players:                    Mike Nash (Chief of Staff)
                                               Chris Arthur
                                               Nick Bowler
                                               Peter Collidge

Prussian Players:                 Jim Gandy (Chief of Staff)
                                               Steve Jendrich
                                               James Fyfe
                                               Barrie Macdonald
                                               Byron Combes

Apart from the Chiefs of Staff, the players were not allocated specific commands.  The players on each side would act as a team devising strategy with the Chief of Staff acting as coordinator and in charge of communications with the umpire.  Battles to be fought by whoever turned up on the night.  As the campaign progressed, the Chiefs of Staff on both sides morphed into Commanders in Chief.

The Set-Up
Historically, the Prussian army had started an advance on the French and their army was scattered over the countryside when they discovered that Napoleon had mobilised faster than they thought possible and was coming towards them in great strength.
The campaign started with the Prussian’s 11 all arms divisions totalling about 145,000 men scattered across the theatre of war (their ID# are shown on the map at the start).  They had intel that the French were advancing into the Thuringerwald with an army of about 175,000 men in 8 Corps.
 The King of Prussia has insisted to his Staff that the army must not show weakness and cannot retreat behind the Sommerda-Jena-Gera line.  2 of the divisions (8 & 9) are unwilling Saxon Allies.  The possession of Leipzig is important, not only counting in the victory conditions, but also the Saxon troops will desert if Leipzig falls to the French.
The French have a big numerical advantage in infantry and their troops are more experienced.  The Prussians have better cavalry than the French, but it is spread out among the divisions, not concentrated in one Corps like the French.  They have much more artillery than the French, but half of it is small pieces distributed to the infantry where it partly makes up for the skill difference.  The French army & leaders have better command ratings than the Prussians.

Initial Prussian Strategy
The Prussian staff had a vigorous debate before settling on a plan.  The adopted plan was to concentrate in two armies:  Army East around Schlieux 0910 & Army West at Rudolstadt 0610.   The plan offered a prospect of catching a French Corps isolated as it emerged from the Thuringerwald to provide a battle that would convince the King that his staff knew what they were doing and lift his arbitrary ban on a retreat north of Jena-Gera.

Days 1 & 2
The concentration of Army West was always going to take some time, but some divisions had reached Rudolstadt by the end of day 2.  Army East was much less scattered and quickly consolidated and rested behind a heavy screen of hussars waiting for intel from the cavalry & spies. 
The intel told us that there were French in strength at Saalfled 0712 in the centre, approaching Schlieux 0910 from the south and pushing down the Hof-Plauen-Gera road in the east. 

Day 3
In the west, the concentration of Army West continued.
The speed of the French advance in the east told us that the French were working under different forced march rules than we had.  There was clearly a need for action to prevent Army East being outflanked.  Again there was argument in the Prussian staff over alternative plans 1) to retreat west and join Army West near Jena. Or 2) Attack the French advance guard at Gera before Le Grande Armee could intervene.  The army moved en-masse towards Gera hoping to smash the French advance guard before the main French army, believed to be south of Schliex, could intervene.  The result was the battle of Gera. 
In this battle, better French command and dice got them into Gera before us, but by the end of the day Soult’s Corps was all but surrounded in Gera and beat a precipitous retreat over the river to the north.  Meanwhile, a delaying action at Polnitz prevented the French main army joining Soult.

Day 4
Soult’s retreat from Gera & the gallant rear guard action at Polnitz was enough to convince the King of the seriousness of the situation and lift his embargo on retreat north of the Jena-Gera line.  The Prussians had two choices the next day: 1) To continue the battle chasing after Soult while holding Napoleon off, or: 2) Break off to the west, cross the Saale to join Army West.  Brunswick decided on the safer option 2), thinking that Soult would simply slip away to the east anyway and the junction of the two Prussian armies would be considerably delayed if Army West headed north.

Day 5
The Prussians completed a safe crossing of the Saale.  The gallant Saxon 8^th division, heroes of Polnitz were sacrificed in a delaying action at Jena & the two Prussians wings were finally together.

Day 6
As the Prusssians continued their move north on the west side of the Saale, they discovered that the French were attacking Leipzig in strength.  Only part of the French army had followed them west, Soult and Bernadotte launched an assault on the badly maintained medieval walls.   Outnumbered 4:1 the garrison comprising 5,000 Prussians & 5,000 unwilling Saxon militia put up a fight for a while, but once a breach was made it was soon overwhelmed.  The loss of Leipzig meant that the remaining Saxons deserted the Prussian cause and the French gained a victory condition. 

Days 7 & 8
The Prussian army recrossed the Saale at Mersberg & Halle.   With Leizig lost their main hope of gaining some kind of victory was to get the army to the Elbe intact to join the Russians who are supposed to be on their way.   There was again dissention in the Prussian camp with two plans on the table: 1) Move to Magdeburg. 2) Move to Bittefeld & thence to either Dessau or Torgau.   Brunswick chose 2), even though it was more risky, as the further west the crossed the Elbe, the better the spin was to make the movement a strategic move rather than a retreat.  Brunswick fully expected the march on Bittefeld might run into a French army moving west from Leipzig, but considered that enough French were in the west to make this an acceptable risk.  As it happened no French were encountered near Bittefeld.

Day 9
Brunswick turned right at Bittefeld to make for Torgau and the Russians.  Between Bittefed & Eilenburg the Prussians finally found the French marching out of Leipzig towards Bittefeld.   It was soon apparent that Soult & Bernadotte, who had taken Leipzig a few days before had been reinforced by Davout and part of Murat’s cavalry corps.  The actual numbers on the field favoured the Prussians by a good margin, but Brunswick feared that more French were on the way, either through Leipzig or from Halle in his rear.  His first priority was to clear the path to Eilenburg and secure a line of retreat to Torgau.   The French on the other hand were reluctant to attack until reinforcements arrived.  As a result, there was only limited combat this day. 
As it happened, the only French reinforcements to arrive this day was Ney’s corps from Halle and that arrived too late to get engaged.  So it could be argued that the Prussians should have attacked the French while they had the advantage of numbers, but it was a big battlefield and the Prussians had to march their army down a single road across the front of the French so it took most of the day before the Prussians were deployed facing the French.

Day 10
Both sides held their ground overnight.   The French stayed to fight as they had approximate parity in numbers and reinforcements on the way.  The Prussians stayed to fight as they saw a slim possibility of pulling off a last gasp campaign victory.   While outnumbered in the campaign, they have almost every man of their army on this field while much of the French are in the west, though no doubt marching this way.  The Prussians also knew that their cavalry superiority on the field should allow them to retreat should the battle go badly.
At dawn the Prussians advanced on Bernadotte on their left and Soult in their centre.  The first attack on Bernadotte went badly and it was soon apparent that the French reinforcements were coming up much sooner than was hoped for.  The attack was called off and the battle became a fighting withdrawal for the Prussians.  The superior Prussian cavalry covered the retreat and by noon the French gave up the chase. 
The Prussians lost a few more men in the 2 day battle than the French, but the French losses were mainly in cavalry, the Prussian’s in infantry.   The Prussians were able to withdraw to the fortress of Torgau and safely cross the Elbe where they can wait for their Russian allies to arrive.

The Battles
The campaign produced 4 battles, Gera, Leipzig, Bittefeld & Eilenburg.   These are described in detail on blog posts of 2^nd Nov, 11^th Nov, 19^th Nov, 25^th Nov & 2^nd Dec.  The battles were fought using Hail Napoleon, our house ruled adaption of Hail Caesar for the Napoleonic period.  The system allows us to use 28mm, 15m or 6mm figures at different ground scales, so small battles could be fought using 28mm figs, corps sized actions using 15mm fig and large battles using 6mm figs.  Leipzig, the smallest battle was fought using 15mm figures with a ground scale of 16” per km.   The larger battles which had about 100,000 men a side, were fought using 6mm figures with a ground scale of 8” per km – making the table 15km x 9km.   

Campaign Result
According to the campaign victory conditions the French gained a minor victory.  However, the Prussian players felt well pleased with them themselves for having done so much better than the 1806 Prussians & thought the victory conditions were a bit easier on the French than for them.   Outnumbered as they were, 175,000 to 140,000 it was always going to be hard for the Prussians to force a battle on their terms and win it decisively.   Their secondary objective of holding Leipzig until day 12 was also a big ask.
Regardless of the result, all involved thoroughly enjoyed the campaign.  Hidden movement and imperfectly known details of the enemy add a completely new level to wargaming.  Such a system relies on an experienced and skilful umpire and in this Peter did a grand job.     

1806 Campaign day 10: Battle of Eilenburg

After a day of manoeuvre and minor scrapping between Bittefeld and Eilenburg on day 9 of the campaign, both sides stayed on the battlefield overnight.   Units within 12' of the enemy were pulled back to make a 12" gap.  Units were allowed to move up to 12" overnight, but not forward of the front line.  Units broken the day before remained off table.  Shaken units were restored to black (1 less) & other casualties were retained.

The French stayed because they knew they had reinforcements coming.  The Prussians stayed because they had parity of numbers overall & a great advantage in cavalry.  They figured that they had an outside chance of beating the French before their reinforcements could arrive, and that if that attempt failed, their cavalry could still cover their retreat.

The Prussians are on the right in all the pics.  The battle started with the Prussians advancing on their left and centre.  This pic is after turn 2 and one Prussian infantry division has got a bit carried away and charged home down the road on the left.  Unfortunately the units on its flanks were not so enthusiastic.

The over-enthusiastic Prussian attack down the road has been broken.  A French infantry division has come out of Leipzig behind the French centre.   The rearguard in Bittefled has sent a message saying hordes of French are coming from the west.  On turn 3 the Prussians called off the attack and began to withdraw their right.

The Prussians are moving their batteries back to Eilenburg.   Their infantry is following while on most of the front, their cavalry holds the French back.  The 4th division on the far right (near the turn counter) is in danger of being cut off.

The gallant infantry of the 4th has been broken and the survivors have fled over the river.  A French dragoon division has lead the French reinforcements from the west and has nearly reached the front line.

In the foreground the Prussian retreat proceeds.  All the artillery is on the road to Torgau, most of the infantry is following on.   The French dragoons have broken one Prussian cavalry division leaving the rearguard looking  a bit shaky.

The Prussians have turned two cavalry divisions back, stopped the French cavalry & stabilised their right.  The French concede that that they can't pursue in the face of the superior Prussian cavalry and around noon the gun fall silent as the Prussians retreat to the safety of Torgau fortress on the Elbe (off table from the near corner). 

The casualties in today's fighting were:
French: 5 cavalry brigades broken.
Prussians: 6 infantry brigades & 4 cavalry brigades broken, 1 battery broken.
                 1 infantry (in Bittefeld) & 1 battery captured.

Total casualties in 2 days fighting:
French: 2 infantry brigades, 11 cavalry brigades & 2 batteries broken.
Prussians: 10 infantry brigades, 7 cavalry brigades, 3 batteries broken.
                 1 infantry & 1 battery captured.

So the battle ends as a French victory, but the Prussians have retired in good order - it's a far cry from Jena-Auerstadt.

This battle has ended the campaign,.  I'll add a history of the campaign as a whole in a later blog.