Impromptu Games

I think small in the context of anything Russian is the french equivalent to big.

+1

Great game everyone, I very much enjoyed facing hordes of russians and being shot at as cannonballs teared through human flesh.
Ooo.. The life of a soldier.. er.. I mean, commander.

The Briefing

The plan Leval had laid out was quite a simple one. Legrand would decrease the width of his division and get closer to Dupas's division.
Dupas would hold the left and center whilst Legrand would hold the right. Leval didn't know how many russians they would face, all he knew about the ruskies was the horrible stories of how powerful their artillery could be. It sent shivers down Leval's spine just thinking of it.

"No matter", Leval said to his fellow divisional commanders. "I will stay in reserve and place myself where I'm needed. If a situation arises that blows a hole in the current plan, we will adapt to that situation."

Leval dismissed the staff and prepared himself for what was to come.

Decision Making

Leval assessed the situation and made his way to meet up with Dupas. Leval left his force behind him in reserve as he rode away in great speed towards Dupas. When he arrived, he made a stop at a small hill, big enough to look upon the horizon towards Msitislavl.

Dupas told Leval that there was no sight of the enemy. That was soon about to change..

A message had arrived from Legrand, "An enemy force has been sighted at my flank." his message read.
Dupas had already seen the force arrive with his big googly eyes. Dupas told Leval that he would look towards the East in case the enemy would cross the bridge on the Orsha road whilst Leval would tell Dupas if something nasty would come out of a bush or something like that.

Leval looked towards the enemy force and a plan of attack came to his mind.

The Paranoid Leval

Leval, now with a brilliant plan in mind (at least it was brilliant to himself), ordered Dupas to prepare a wing attack towards the enemy force. With Dupas telling Leval to advise caution, Leval came to doubt himself, perhaps it would be a bad idea. However, Leval's gut told him it would work.

Leval assured Dupas he would assert caution, however, he knew that Legrand would need help, and eliminating the first enemy force whilst the rest of the russians have yet not appeared could be an invaluable opportunity. Leval told Dupas what he thought and after a heated debate, Leval finally surrendered his masterminded plan to the heavens, possibly a machiavellian angel took that plan to his own use and used it to defeat the forces of Satan.

No Russian in Sight

With no russian in sight except for the force in front of Legrand's division, Leval took great caution that an enemy force could arrive from the location of Msitislavl. Leval did not yet know how correct that assumption would be. Leval rode towards Legrand and ordered his reserve artillery to be sent up to support Legrand's batteries.

Leval had the best artillery in his division. It consisted of two regular batteries but the third one was apart of the Imperial Guard's artillery. He ordered the reserve artillery to form a grand battery and assist Legrand.

Soon, Dupas told Leval that he had sent his brigade commander, Veaux, to overlook the road of Orsha in case they would cross the bridge. Leval did not believe the enemy would be seperated as much as one of them having to cross a bridge in order to attack. However, Leval respected Dupas opinion and allowed him to carry on.

The first shot fired

Soon, the first cannonball would hit the ranks of russians and french as the first shot had been fired. A grand battle of display between the french and russian artillery began to take place, but as the cannon fight carried on, the true intention of the russians soon came clear, at least it did for Legrand, who bravely fought back the Russian attack that was slowly winging itself towards him.

Leval soon received a message asking for immediate assistance from Legrand, as the enemy had heavy cavalry and Legrand only light cavalry. Leval assured Legrand that his reserves were on the way and that he would try and send for help from Dupas, since Dupas had the best cavalry in the corps.

Helping Legrand

With the situation turning dire, Leval ordered Dupas to send his cuirassier brigade to assist Legrand. Dupas responded with an angry message that turns out to not have been meant to be sent to Leval. In the message, Dupas lamented on how twitchy Leval seemed to be and that he was annoyed at how Leval requested cavalry support.

Leval ignored this as it most likely was a harmful prank that a lot of officers like to play on Leval. To Leval, it seemed odd that whenever he was in the field, people would laugh behind his back and send prank letters to him, however, Leval did not mind as he was kind of laid back ever since he got that head injury from a horse shoe. It was surprising Leval even got to command at all. But this did not concered Leval, since, he probably couldn't process such advanced command, for he was a man that had been hit severely on his head.

Leval now shrugged of the pranky letter and continued with the mission to send his reserves to assist Legrand. Leval also called off the need for cavalry support from Dupas.

Leval Orders the Maneuvre

Soon, the entire Russian force came down from the forresty hills and attacked Dupas center. With no enemy attacking the left corps flank it seemed pointless to have such a wide front facing no enemy at all. Leval ordered the immediate retreat of Legrand's division towards the Orsha road where he planned on making a last stand.

He ordered Dupas to turn to face the enemy and move back to the Orsha road, this would be one big frontal maneuvre that would have failed, had it not been for the slow speed of the Russian center forces. Quickly, the corps set up at the Orsha crossroads, Legrand taking the right and center and Dupas taking the left. Leval took the center as a reserve force.

Now, with the russians at the whites of everyones eyes, the french would make their final stand.

Defending the Orsha-Shasse Crossroads

The French line was strong and so was the massive Russian front that slowly tumbled down from the hills, moving to attack the center and right flanks. An artillery battle had begun between all the divisional forces on both sides. Leval's grand battery took many losses in the beginning but towards the end, they had become the victors.

Dupas held firmly and pushed the Russian right and center back with all odds against him. He was fighting an uphill battle, with the only thing in his favour was his strong cavalry and the cover of the woods.

To the french right flank, Legrand was holding firmly, until he became paralyzed. No one could wake him up, he just sat on his horse like he was admiring the view. And oh, what a lovely view it was. Many Russian men were breaking through his line, and soon it began to fail.

The center held firmly, and soon, with the help of Dupas, the French would counterattack.

The flanks are breaking

The flanks on both sides were failing. Legrand couldn't be awoken from his paralyzed ecstasy and the russians struck with hammer blows, surely it made even the god of Thor envious. Dupas broke through with the help of Leval's attack on the center. Soon Dupas would unleash his cuirassiers and a russian bloodbath would ensue.

With the battle looking even, the clock had stopped and a victor had been decided.

A Succesful France

With France as the victor, the Russians soon realized with their flank breaking down, that a continued engagement would only result in defeat for them. With that knowledge in mind, the russians withdrew to fight another day.

Leval, Dupas and Legrand along with the brave brigade commander Veaux had held firmly and pushed back the russians. France was victorious and Oudinot's Grenadier Division had won the day.

Wine, cheese and lots of vodka would soon be the meal of every french soldier on that great night.

Afterthoughts

It was a lovely battle everyone. I wondered what would have happened if Phil's Russian Reserve Division had moved in to help Andrew. And with Legrand's division losing on the french right flank, would Morsey been able to break through the center as well?

I don't know. All I know for sure is, it was one hell of a battle.

Hehehe

Great write up!

Great game. Thanks everyone

Mike (the less jovial but no less sober Mike)

Its hard to say who would have won. Sometimes these battles that ring up "time gentlemen please" make for more interesting conversation afterwards than the obvious won it/lost it games.

It certainly was an intense battle on a very cramped field with little space to manoeuvre. I get a sense now of what Borodino may have been like, except for the smell of course. Visually it was one of the more spectacular SoW I've been in and that was with a flat battlefield. I wish I could have enjoyed the spectacle from a hill but there were none to be found after the withdrawal ordered by Leval required me to give up the only one around

Veaux, my brigade commander, was glum about the prospects of fighting after giving the Russians the only thing worth calling a hill for miles around but I (Dupas) assured him that we had to only hold our ground for an hour before nightfall would give us victory and that proved to be the case.

Jeanathan - sorry about that message! It really was a mistake to send it to you, but Veaux and I were genuinely worried you were going to commit all our resources to face off what could be a diversionary attack. In the end your instincts proved to be better than mine. I blame Veaux who strangely bore more than a passing resemblance to General M T Georgia and whose pleas that we don't get into a fight but "clean up when that buffoon LeGrand is finished" swayed my more honourable intentions.

On a related subject, these 2 hour scenarios are really good. They seem to give a nice time for a fight without them becoming sweaty desperate marathons. My suggestion though is to begin the two armies closer together so we have time for a climax and don't suffer "de bellum interruptus".

After Joe's awesome score of exactly 6000 on Sunday, he ended yesterday's game with this...



More pics of my division grimly holding near the crossroads:

The Slavic hordes approach. The stench of rotting cabbage was more than some men could stand. Some of my young conscripts had to rub their whole month's garlic ration under their noses just to stay in the line.
http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/screen0001.jpg

The monolithic tidal wave of ye olde feudal Europe crashes upon the rocky shore of liberty, brotherhood and republicanism!
http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/screen0003.jpg

Bavarian cavalry of Leval's reserve charging bravely into a maelstrom of flying cabbage and other hideous foreign substances, most of which involved potatoes and dismembered parts of serfs.
http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/screen0004.jpg

I think you mean that the armies should start the game closer to the objective as we were already pretty close at the start.

It was an interesting battle, no doubt. Thanks for the scenario, Kevin!

Ahhhh, for the 1st time I did not have to endure the treacherous rivers on this map!

Martin, remember that Joe was disconnected just as the drama was exploding. I’m quite certain he was about to rack up 6000 more points on the French right flank. Ho, ho, ho, hee, hee, hee, HAA! HAA!! HAA!!!

I had two fresh brigades (1 inf & 1 heavy cav) partially behind Andrew, being committed as the clock ran out that might have stabilized the Russian right.

Having no large hills in the immediate area, there was nevertheless some undulating terrain which the French took advantage of for cover. My artillery had to frequently relocate to get at the retrograding enemy.

Crowd control was tuff on such cramped frontage.

A very enjoyable game, y’all.

Is anyone up for a game today?

I am spending the evening plotting various moves on various maps.

As I am sick I feel like watching a film; perhaps Barry Lyndon is appropriate. Nothing feels more "in character" for the 18th century.

It is a spectacular film. I watched it again a year ago. The sadly now passed away Leonard Rossiter as Captain Quinn is a wonderful cameo and steals that segment of the film. The attack of Barry's regiment in the orchard against the French regiment is one of the most incredible battle scenes filmed - very simple but grotesquely realistic.

I've made a small scenario to play today against the AI. We don't need any big numbers. Joe and me are already on teamspeak if anyone has any interest in joining us.

I totally agree Martin. And it doesn't have the Hollywood ending either. Barry gets what Barry deserves. Life isn't fair.

Any games scheduled for today?

Tomorrow being Friday shall we try Part II of the Niemen River Battle as a warm to the first Campaign game?????




Doodle Poll

If we do not get enough for today can you put one together Kevin?

Mike

Yes, I'll throw something together. Brits vs French.

Throw in some Bavarians for the French please.

After hours of searching and tinkering i have found the reason for my server connection problem.


Now to get rid of this headache.

A game today perchance, gentlemen?

Sorry, can't play today.  But will show up Sunday in case there is a game.

I think I can do today.

I can play at the usual time. Merckel Map with the Russians perhaps.

I think Angela Merkel has had enough of the russians for a lifetime.