AAR: Campaign Battle of Haschendorf

The Russians force marched West to catch the French off guard. General “Justin” de Tolly chose his prey carefully. He found what appeared to be a vulnerable French division probing South toward the sleepy valley town of Oberlenz.  The Russians struck first and the French reeled. A pitched battle ensued around the town of Haschendorf. Ultimately the French line recovered from the initial shock, to include losing 9 artillery pieces. Napoleon “Miko” Bonaparte struck hard and with a vengeance. Multiple Russian battalions melted away, some surrendering their standards.

Dawn broke to find the Russians gone. The campaign continues

Player comments welcomed. Feel free to share maps, drawings and screenshots.

One unique aspect of this scenario was each side’s actions were shaped by an operational construct and campaign considerations. Also, one player on each side controlled 2 divisions which is awfully tough to do in player vs player HITS scenarios

Shall we comment in campaign thread?
Can we watch the replay now?

Okay, I see it's actually in separate thread in Arranged games... still would be better in Campaign section of the forum...

One thing I will insist from now on - the number of players on all levels must be absolutely equal - had Smoke played on Russian side then French would have suffered heavy defeat.

I can take a brigade command when there is odd number of brigade commanders. And if somehow we get another Division commander then I can take a division.

Honestly I have not kept track of thread locations since I usually use my smartphone on this forum. If there is a more systematic way to do this I am good with it.

Yeah time to take a look at the replay.

My role was to set up a good defensive anchor on the high ground on our right so as to screen our withdrawal. We were ordered essentially to make a hit and run attack. Hurt the French a bit, inflict casualties and get out of there. Once I set up a good defense anchored in artillery I would then send a brigade towards Vogelsang to hit the French on flank about the same time our two other divisions arrived in their front

But there was no French division in Vogelsang. So I probed farther north with a cav squadron and found a French division on the southern outskirts of Haschendorf. My scouts had also discovered a French formation a mile farther NNE opposite Tapiau. Once I was satisfied that latter formation was stationary I decided to harass the French flank at Haschendorf. I managed to wipe out a battery and could maintain some skirmishers there.

By that time the other 2 Russian divisions appeared and I turned the attack over to them because a second French division to my north appeared. Since my position was already a mile wide I did not want to extend it further. So I spent most of the rest of the scenario on the defensive as I interpreted my orders. I did manage to take out a few guns from the division in front of me. Hit and run. Parry and shift. But as the French division remained in place I could fulfill my original orders and send the guard cavalry to secure a screening position at Lapiau. In the last 30 minutes of the scenario after a couple desperate calls for support from the other divisions (Grog) I sent a brigade to support. The division in front of me was not moving. And there was a clear gap thru which a brigade could pass. But it was too little too late. I felt I needed to preserve our screen so that tended to make me more conservative in the tactical fight that I otherwise might normally be. I really had no idea how the fight was going off to my left.

Without giving away much of what happened to the French in terms of numbers it was a tough fight. There were a few instances where cavalry came and sniped off something of mine while I was off managing another front, but by the end of it I think casualties had been largely returned in favor, and would have definitely equalized had I not had a brief struggle to get my cavalry to charge into a fully unprepared brigade out of formation right at the end.

Having a brigade commander in my other division was pivotal as well, as it enabled me some security on one front while being able to fight on another, I reckon if there's an unequal number of brigade commanders it would probably be more fair for one side to just promote someone to a level of command that doesn't have any actual game-commanding to do. AKA have someone be either the dedicated CinC or even an ADC role or something. Though ultimately there's only so much we'll be able to accommodate and we'll just have to do our best per situation.

In regards to commanding two divisions I was under the impression that the idea was that one of those two divisions would be largely in reserve for the majority of battles, leaving the person commanding two divisions to focus on fighting with one, while the other is available to the rear ready to cover any long outflanking maneuvers. It seems like in this fight both sides used all 3 of their divisions across a wide frontage. Yet it seems like there's a definite diminishing of returns to using more divisions than we have commanders for. It may be the case that I could have more consistently defended that location with less losses if I had just one division, and brought in a brigade or two from reserve if there was a need for it at some point. It was largely Kevin that stopped the probing attack on the right as I was busy elsewhere.

On an unfortunate note it's the tail end of the season so I'll be busier for the next few weeks. I can make it Sunday, but will miss next Tuesday and Friday for certain.

Yes, I thought when confronted with the task of commanding 2 divisions, players would leave one in reserve in order to have better command and control of the battle. I have a feeling if this doesn't become the norm then it might be a short campaign, as the two armies will quickly run out of replacements.

I will reflect on that and adjust the tactics for the next battle so Ehey can handle it better. This and Phil starting following orders will secure victory Justin, prepare to surrender your snails and samovars

I will reflect on that and adjust the tactics for the next battle so Ehey can handle it better.

In reality I don't think it would actually have looked too much different from what we did. More or less just organizational changes. I think maybe putting Morand in front of Friant and then using Friant as reserve and Kevin as eyes on the flank would have been a little easier for me. I think the main difficulty was I was still positioning Morand AND Friant when the cavalry approached me early on and the terrain just didn't let me see them coming in time. With this I reckon it still would be a tough fight if I was attacked by two divisions, but I might have had them in position and I probably would have fought on a smaller frontage, meaning I'd have to be slightly less places simultaneously.

I think ultimately just planning for a slightly smaller frontage with a deeper reserve for me would work out well. I could probably manage fighting with four brigades or so, a fifth if I get a player brigade commander. Beyond that and I have to ride so far to manage them or support them with cav that they're probably more efficiently used in reserve.

Also since I think Mike said he couldn't make it until Tuesday, but I will be missing Tues and Fri if it happens that there's enough division commanders and someone is willing to take two feel free to play without me of course.

Is a replay available?

Is a mercenary brigade commander needed by either highest bidder side?

It would be fun to keep the same brigade and have it show up at different battles on different sides like a Wild Geese unit but it would play merry hell with the scenario creation and OOBs.

Is a replay available?

Right here from the French perspective.

Thanks for that, your usual entertaining quality! Is there a replay file?

Try this...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GXLvc5pm9e3u-eGls9gsCp4oAq2xdzXY/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for that. Who won?

That's a good question.

Victory was claimed by both sides. It is truly in the eye of the beholder.

Each battle takes place within a specific operational construct in the respective commands. The opposing armies have their own goals. Thus “success” will often be a relative definition. At least for now.