The Battle of Shevardino - September 5th 1812

Thanks though I think the bulls horns had me.Enjoyed it very much.
A question Does a CinC give any bonus to the units he is near?

Sorry I left the game everyone, especially to Matt who put so much effort into the scenario design. I was actually feeling unwell and had to go lie down.

Martin, I hope everything is gone and you are now feeling good, best wishes.

Taff wrote:Does a CinC give any bonus to the units he is near?

Off course, all commanders give a bonus, better bonus if the commander is better. And a longer reaching distance from the general according to the "category" of the CO, i.e. brigade or battery commander, divisional, corps or army commander.

A Pyrrhic victory.  The town of Shevardino and its redoubt was captured but at the expense of three wrecked infantry divisions.  Fortunately, Murat is also the king of Naples, so this result is not a career killer.

It all started out innocently enough with a simple plan.  Fix the Russian right in place while the bulk of the corps moves on the enemy left.  Once good progress is being made there, advance on the Russian right.  Then squeeze the redoubt from both flanks and crush it like an overripe grape.

Of course no battle plan goes exactly as envisioned.  That is especially true when an aggressive commander like Murat is in charge.  The Emperor should have sent Davout.  Compans', (Soldier), division, having the shortest distance to march, deployed on the field first and began bombarding the enemy.  After reconnoitering the enemy line, it appeared that the high ground near the river was held by a single brigade and a battery.  Such an opportunity is irresistible.  Compans asked permission to take the hill which was readily granted.  Walthier, (Digby), was ordered to support the action in case Russian cavalry tried to interfere.

Compans stepped off, quickly reached the hill and captured most of the battery.  More Russian troops came up, a division's worth in fact, but more worrisome, a regiment of dragoons came onto the field.  It was at that moment, I was informed that Walthier, who had been fortifying his courage with the local potato squeezings, fell from his horse unconscious.  His ADC was forced to take over, but as he was off on another errand, did not take the division in hand until after the dragoons had done their damage.  The result was that, although we held the hill, Compans had lost most of one brigade.  Only Dupellin's, (ej), was fit for further fighting.

In the meantime, the French right was moving into position.  As the fighting subsided in the east, Friant, (Palmer) and Morand, (Knight), launched a coordinated attack.  Progress was slow going due to the wooded nature of the field.  Russian guard uhlans joined the fighting so St Germaine's, (Mark),  chasseurs were sent in as support.

At about this time one of Morand's brigade commanders, Bonnamy, (MJP), was unhorsed by a bullet to the butt and had to be carried from the field.  It was also at this time that Morand began requesting cavalry support.  The requests became more urgent as time passed.  St. Germaine still had his heavy cavalry available, but it was nowhere to be seen.  It was determined later that he had become involved in a tryst with a local milkmaid.  He is French after all.

In the east, Compans had reorganized his division and moved west to capture the town.  This was bitterly opposed by the Russians, but to no avail.

With Morand still begging for assistance, it was decided to send Comapns' division to support Morand's left.  Walthier's light cavalry was brought onto the field in front of the town and redoubt.  It would take part in the final assault.

Friant, who had steadily push toward the redoubt from the west, finally got one or two battalions into the fortress and massacred the battery.  However a counterattack by both Russian infantry and heavy cavalry drove them out.

But now Morand with the assistance of Dupellin and St. Germaine's, (having finished being a Frenchman), cuirassiers broke the resistance of the last of the Russian defenders.  Walthier's light cavalry pursued, capturing or routing the remnants.  The Russian position was now fully safe in French hands.

This fight was a real bloodbath.  The Russians fought like Russians, nearly to the last man.  Taff did a fine job as CinC in holding the position as long as he did.  Well done to all the Russian commanders.  Now it is off to Naples and good pasta.  I understand the weather in Russia can be very disagreeable in the winter.

I told the bonny lass that she was a freeborn woman and of the ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Alas, she called me czar and led me to her hut. Barbarians these Russians.

It was a nice change of pace playing a historic set piece battle. I did not want to fight it using the 1812 strategy, so I decided to do the reverse and attack the flanks first, leaving the redoubt for last. It seemed unlikely that the Russians would commit their forces piecemeal as was done historically. Rather they would set up a solid defense with all their units and respond as needed to the French tactics. I suppose this fight was more like the Raevsky Redoubt in that respect. Is that next on the agenda?

Many thanks to Matt for taking the time to put it together. It was certainly a challenge to break the Russian line. The battle really wasn't decided until the last 20 minutes when the Russians could no longer stand. That was a historic result. We just didn't have to fight until midnight to reproduce it. Hopefully, we will see more scenarios from him.

I'm glad to hear you guys enjoyed it.   It was a bit of a difficult scenario to reproduce because of the timing of various events.   Historically Compans division and the cavalry would have assaulted themselves and pushed back 27th Division taking the redoubt only to be themselves pushed out by the counterattack of the Grenadier division moving up from the fleches.   Morand and Friant would come up for a few hours later.  There is no way to really force this kind of timing in an MP game and to keep it interesting for all players, i started the grenadier division up by the redoubt in reserve and tried to force a bit of difficulty on the French by forcing them to cross the bridges with a large number of troops in a very small space.   In addition, i created the Russian Advanced guard division solely to facilitate SOW MP Play.  Too difficult to have 27th division control the entire front.  

Having watched the replay a few times, i think the French did a good job overcoming the challenges of their deployment and i'm not surprised that they chose to attack the flanks.  Compans' attack was probably a bit rash, but it succeeded in that it tied down close to 40% of the Russian forces.   I was a bit surprised that 27th Division on the right didn't either advance to defend the woods rather than stay put behind the woods or pull back and refuse the line holding on the village and deploying southeast from there.   This is sort of how they ended up, but considerably bloodied.   Overall i think one of the big issues that hampered the Russians was the loss of several batteries to marauding French units.   Compans' initial assault took out a battery the the two batteries in/near the redoubt were lost as well.   These gun batteries are the biggest advantage of the Russians and without them, holding the redoubt is next to impossible i think.  Even so, the French certainly took heavy losses.

And yes, the battle does very much feel like the fight for the Great/Raevsky Redoubt.   Both are quite similar in terms of terrain and forces involved and when designing this one, i looked at the other one as well thinking it really could be either.  I have a few other ideas for scenarios though not the Raevsky redoubt as that would be something of a rehash of this.  I think the fighting for the Fleches from Borodino would be more interesting, though the troop numbers involved are pretty staggering.   I'm a big fan of the 1813 campaign so perhaps something from there....interesting episodes from Lutzen and Dresden has long been my favorite battle, so perhaps there as well. The biggest challenge of course is suitable maps. Lynchburg sans woods might make for an interesting Dresden setup.....hmmm

Any link to the replay I missed it?

I hope you see I wasn't out for a joyride haha I was capturing guns and causing chaos until I realized I was allowing myself to ride away from the battle!

Here's a link to the replay: Shevardino Replay

Thank you!