The Relief of Danzig, 15 May 1807

Another smallish battle from the excellent Battles for Empire scenario book is the attempted Russian and Prussian relief of Danzig, then under siege by a small French army under Marshall Lefevbre. In an attempt to raise the siege some 8,000 Russians disembarked on the Baltic coast at Weichselmude, held by a small Prussian garrison, and moved towards the French forces on Holm island, west of the city, and blocking the way to Danzig.  Most of the besieging army were on the other side of the Vistula so reinforcements would take a few hours to arrive meaning the French would be outnumbered for much of the game. Oh, and did I say the Russians had support from a British sloop of war on the river?

Danzig is off to the right. The Baltic is north amd the Vistula runs down the left side. The Vs are the objectives for the Russians, 2, 4 and 3 are the entry points for the French reinforcements. The red stars are the Russian entry points. The open woods restricted movement by one third but otherwise had no effect on the game. The river/canal was only crossable at the bridge.
.

Richard and Nigel were the Russians and Prussians, and Neil and Conrad were the French. The French started the game with two brigades of French, Poles and Saxons, totalling no more than seven battalions, one squadron of cavalry and two batteries of 4-pdrs. I classed the French and Poles as veteran and the Saxons as, well, Saxons. The French also had the support of the Vistula Redoubt (on table), the Holm Island Battery (off table) and the 12-pdr coastal battery (also off table). One brigade was deployed in the woods behind some  defensive works while the other remained in reserve to quickly head off any flanking movement by the enemy or provide support to their comrades in the front line. The Russians were limited to bringing onto the table only what would fit in their slightly limiting deployment area. Their plan was to send the Cossacks and two infantry battalions over the dunes to capture the bridge and then to attack the enemy rear. Meanwhile the Russian jäger brigade would advance directly towards the French in the woods, supported by the small attached Prussian brigade, while Nigel and ultimately 10 battalions of Russians marched south to outflank the French in the woods and take control of the objective areas. 

The lonely French brigade in the woods at the start of the battle.

Richard sent his Cossacks and a couple of battalions down the left bank of the river/canal to outflank the French position. Meanwhile the Russian jägers and the first of Nigel’s infantry begin their advance. The redoubt is actually off the table with only a limited range. For some reason the Russians appeared to march round it, even though it was two feet to their rear. I didn’t say anything at the time…..

Richard’s flanking force.

Neil ordered his French to advance which caught them on the back foot a little. The Russians close to the camera threw the first of at least five 1’s when trying to activate his brigade which delayed their advance considerably. They could have been in the French rear by turn 4 but didn’t get there until turn 10!

The French exchange fire with Prussian schutzen.

This brigade was made up of Polish infantry, a squadron of French Chasseurs a cheval and some 4-pdrs.

The Chasseurs charged the Russian jäger battalion and as it was caught in line the infantry were routed. The battered Chasseurs withdrew to lick their wounds and sink a few bottles of cheap vodka.

The Chasseurs had to take four fortitude tests due to the losses in the melee and passed them all!  

Conrad’s Franco/Saxon brigade moved to be in position to head off Nigel’s infantry on the other side of the wood.

Nigels leading brigade.

On Turn 4 the French received some much-needed reinforcements in the form of some Saxons, two battalions of the Garde de Paris (who were involved in the real battle) and a light battalion (with the Tirailleurs Corse) standing in for them on this occasion.

The reinforcements heading off the Russians. Nigel’s second infantry brigade had been sucked into the fighting at the other end of the table so was unable to offer any support. 

The Prussian brigade included a detachment of dragoons who charged the French cavalry and drove them back. The dragoons also retired, job done and threat removed, as being a detachment they were very brittle.

The defenders of the woods were attacked by Nigel’s brigade and Richard’s Prussians. The Russian jäger brigade was down to 50 percent strength so was wisely kept out of the action. The French battalion closest the camera broke, and although the Fortitude test was passed Neil decided it was time to pull his troops back before they were overwhelmed.

The French reinforcements attacked Nigel’s brigade while Conrad’s original command pinned them from the front. 

The Cossacks finally made it to the bridge after a string of 1’s for activation, only to find the now recovered French Chasseurs waiting for them.

The infantry of the outflanking brigade were too far behind to offer any support. However although the leading Cossack sotnia was destroyed by the French, the French became shaken. This was taking place at the same time as the Polish battalion in the woods was routed. The Fortitude test was failed which meant that shaken units within 6” of the enemy had to be removed, so bye bye Chasseurs. 

The pressure is mounting on the Russians attacking the southern end of the woods as they are now outnumbered and out classed.

The Garde de Paris. One regiment wore red faced green and the other green faced red. They look superb I reckon.

An example of Nigel’s unfortunate run of crappy dice rolling.

Nigel’s entire brigade was wiped out.

Neil’s brigade escaped being overwhelmed by a great mass of Russians and Prussians and pulled back to Conrad’s position.

Neil’s retiring survivors of his brigade.

Neil even managed to save his artillery.

The last surviving battalion of Nigel’s brigade about to be put in the box.

Well, that didn’t go as I expected! The Russians were the first to admit that their actually quite well thought out plan didn’t work as they were unable to execute it properly, especially with the second Russian brigade getting sucked into the battle for the northern end of the woods. This involuntary diversion from the plan was a killer in the overall scheme of things. Were it to have moved as planned, this brigade would have avoided the fighting in the north and would, I expect, have tipped the balance against the French at the southern end of the woods. Of course, if the flanking force had not wasted at least five turns failing activation tests they would have forced Neil to pull back sooner, but it was not to be. The Russian plan was a sound one but as with such things it didn’t survive first contact with the enemy. 

We played from around 10:30 until just after 3:00, including lunch, and managed 12 turns out of a total scenario length of 14. It was a resounding and unexpected French victory. Oh, and do I say that the RN sloop was sunk by the French 12-pdr battery off table? Well, it was.

The game was excellent and both sides had to work hard; it’s just that the French were less unfortunate with their dice rolling. The rules remain, in my opinion, rated OK. I think that despite the fact that they were written with big multi-player games in mind they’re perhaps too brutal. IMHO a better set is Black Powder with the house rules I’ve included for several years, e.g. the fire then move sequence, so maybe I will go back to them? And when GdA 2 arrive I look forward to trying them out.

. 

The battle of Golymin, 26 December 1806.

As it is the York show on Sunday and there’s Six Nations rugby on today I hosted a smallish game yesterday. Richard and Nigel gamely took the Russians and John and Paul the French in what proved to be a challenging game, set in Poland in 1806. An account of the real battle can be found Here, although I took as my inspiration for the game the venerable Age of Eagles scenario. The Russians were the rearguard for the main Russian army, who had to hold on until nightfall. The numerically superior French, led by Murat, were tasked with destroying the Russians. The French outnumbered the Russians by something approaching 2:1, but a large proportion of the army was cavalry, which in the close terrain would be difficult to manoeuvre effectively and bring numbers to bear.  The French were also without artillery as it was sunk in the mud that passed for roads in this part of Poland in winter. The Russians did have artillery, not in abundance but more than enough. We used Valour and Fortitude again. Paul and John contributed to the French army with some figures of their own as my French are still a work in progress, with some French Revolutionary Wars units standing in for the moment. Game length was to be eight turns or 3:00pm or thereabouts, whichever came latest. Time was not on the side of the French so they’d have to push hard from turn 1 to crush the Russians as quickly as possible. 

The Russians were deployed within the green box, with reinforcements arriving at point C, which was also the road they needed to keep open. Lasalle and the light cavalry division was deployed as shown, with reinforcements arriving  at points A and B. The marshy area was unsuitable for cavalry but the woods, while plentiful, were classed as open, thus permitting cavalry and infantry to enter at a penalty.

The game about to commence. 

The Russians held the central box shown on the map, with jäger dispersed in three woods on the edges of their deployment area. With only French light cavalry on the table on turn 1 Richard pushed his cavalry division forward.

John commanded Lasalle and Klein’s cavalry as they advance towards the Russian positions, jägers in the woods taking a few pot shots and shaking one French regiment.. 

John’s cavalry decided to charge the jäger in the woods. Open woods or not the terrain clearly favoured the Russians who beat off two attacks before being overrun. 

Over at point B Paul brought Aguerau’s corps into action. Again, Russian jäger grimly held on, delaying the French advance for a vital turn.

Russian jäger defeated the first French attempt to evict them from the woods.

Meanwhile, the woods were bypassed as Augerau’s corps advanced towards the village.

The French form up to assault the Russians in and around the village.

The cat always lies down to sleep on the umpire’s rules and notes!

John’s cavalry supported by several infantry battalions begin the make profession the right.

One of my new French units. 24 Chasseurs a cheval.

The Garde de Paris moving up on the right.

More French surging forward, the Tirailleurs Corses included.

Paul launched a furious attack on the village. Richard’s men held on inside the village but the supporting units were driven off.

The Russians had husbanded their cavalry and were waiting for an opportunity to let them loose on the French assault. French cavalry and infantry were by now working their way round the Russian left flank, guarded only by a jäger battalion and a brigade of dragoons.

The French eject the defenders of the village.

Richard ordered a counterattack against the village, retaking it at the point of the bayonet!

Seen from the French rear, their assault on the Russians. 

It was hotting up around the village again.

John’s cavalry on the right are now trickling round the right flank, driving the Russian jäger back through the swampy area.

The Russian counterattack was successful and they recaptured the village.

By now we had completed eight turns and it was 3:30 so night was falling and the battle came to an end. The Russians had suffered heavy losses, with one brigade annihilated holding the village. They had also collected five failed Fortitude test counters. Had they not been carrying these negative points they would have actually achieved a narrow victory as they still held both villages and their line of retreat off the table at point C. As a result a slim victory was awarded to the French, but the Russians would have been able to slip away so they didn’t disgrace themselves.

The French found that having so much cavalry was no great advantage due to the terrain, which was an issue in the real battle. Not having any French artillery was probably an advantage as they were forced to attack without any time wasting while they softened up the enemy.

There were a few issues with interpretation of the rules, mainly around the ability of open order infantry in the woods to hold on and defeat their French cavalry and infantry attackers. Ok, perhaps where the cavalry were concerned but against an assault column? There seems to be no facility for light troops to evade, unless they are just supposed to stand and die if they are caught.  Oh well, we shall make a house rule perhaps. To be honest I’m not sure that these rules are what I am after. They’re quick and give a good game but I’m not totally excited with them. Roll on General d’Armee 2. Hopefully guys enjoyed the game. I did, especially the way the scenario played out.

York tomorrow for Vapnatark. Looking forward to it.

The Battle of Oravais 14 September 1808 - Russian Invasion of Finland 1808-1809.

This is my adaptation of one of the scenarios from the excellent Scenarios for Wargaming the Swedish-Russian War 1808-1809, volume 2, entitled ‘1808 Turning the Tide’. The main limitations I faced were not enough terrain and not quite the right Swedish units from my 28mm RSW 1808 collection. The terrain issue was fudged easily enough by liberally dotting the landscape with trees, and the clearings marked with the things I normally place my trees on to define the boundary of any woodland. As for the discrepancies in the order of battle (no Swedish Horseguards and technically not enough Swedish cannon) I just used what I have, which was more than enough. Anyone wishing to read more on the battle can read a good account at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Oravais. 

Paul, Jim and John took the Swedes and Conrad, Shaun and Dave were the Russians. The Swedes were required to hold the Russians up and prevent them from reaching the far end of the table. (See the map). The Russians had to drive the Swedes off and get half their army within striking distance of the road leaving the table on the Swedish baseline. We used Valour and Fortitude again.

The yellow marks show the Swedish positions at the start. The green arrows show the Russian starting positions and axes of attack.

The photos have undergone the usual Google Blogger Randomiser nonsense but I think they’re now in more or less the correct order.

The Russians advanced blindly (they had to ‘spring’ the tripwire that was the Swedish vanguard). A bold (?) attempt by the Russian hussars to take the bridge failed miserably. They overran a gun defending the bridge but were then cut down and routed by musketry from both flanks.

The Russian hussars on the road before their fateful charge

Dave deployed his guns and infantry intent on driving the Swedish off before launching an assault. The Russians were actually loosing out in the firefight against Finnish jäger and infantry across the river from them. It all seemed a little pointless as this stretch of the river was impassable except by the bridge. 

The Russians edged to their right, giving a perfect target for the Swedish infantry who poured volley after volley into the flanks of passing Russian infantry columns.

Meanwhile far to the rear Swedish reinforcements were arriving.

Paul deployed his best infantry (of the Savolax Brigade) along the stream where they remained for the entire battle.

A casualty of war….

The Russians then pushed their Cossacks over the river to attempt a flank attack on the Swedes. 

Meanwhile, John’s Swedish brigade had raced up the table to support Jim’s exposed brigade, and they were just in time. 

Shaun’s Russians had made very slow progress through the woods, failing to even activate on several occasions, which meant that they were not in a position to support Dave’s frontal attack by the ridge. Worse still, the rear battalion of grenadiers was charged in the flank by a couple of squadrons of Swedish dragoons and destroyed. The Swedish dragoons then turned and dispersed the Cossacks.

A lone piece of pizza the only survivor of a very nice and unhealthy lunch.  Jim’s daughter had made us a Victoria sponge which hadn’t survived until lunchtime!

Gradually the Russian numbers were growing, as Conrad’s reserve was now in position to support an all out assault.

The firefight across the river continued while the Russians sorted themselves out ready to attack.

With their blood up the Swedish dragoons caught the Russians in the river and smashed another battalion before falling back to regroup.

Finally, the main Russian assault began, with four battalions launched across the river towards Jim’s thin line.

More Russians crossing the river upstream from the fight around the bridge.

The Russians are now across the river in some strength.

Meanwhile, Dave’s assault ground to a halt in the face of determined Swedish musketry. The Russians failed to break the Swedish line and the melee continued.

The Swedes in melee then withdrew from combat, meaning that the Russians would be forced to make another assault on their now reformed line.

The second Russian assault fared no better than the first.

By now we had played 14 turns (I lost count after 12) out of a possible 15. The Russians were nowhere near achieving their objectives so, with night falling and only one turn remaining,  a Swedish victory was announced.

It will come over all critical if I were to unpick this game but I need to a little. For example, Dave’s brigade should have been tasked with pinning Jim while Shaun and Conrad outflanked him. Instead, Dave was pinning and outflanking all by himself. That might have been the plan but some unfortunate activation dice put paid to that idea somewhat. The Russian artillery was also badly deployed as it blocked the road and access to the bridge, and several battalions of jäger were wasted as despite being perfectly capable of doing so, none were deployed to skirmish with the Swedes and protect their infantry columns.

Anyway, everyone agreed it was a very challenging scenario and an enjoyable game so what more could be asked? The Russians were victorious in the real battle so with a Swedish victory on the tabletop, honours are even.

The rules worked really well. They’re quite brutal but make for a good game. Dave and Shaun had not played V&F before but they picked them up easily enough, and the rest of us are warming to them nicely. Mind you, when GdA2 come out we might have to try them out. I could also do with finishing off a couple of Swedish units still in the box of doom,  not necessarily to give more for the table but to give some variety.