AFTER ACTION - Sunday battle vs Russian Horde

First of all thanks for your patience in letting me try my hand at CInC. It helps me develop my KS skills and I feel more confident returning to a brigade. Definitely will have more situational awareness.

As Roland pointed out, definitely don't do CInC as a brigade commander. I tried to keep my horsemen in reserve as much as possible but once they got in engagement range I did not handle them as well and they did not fight cohesively. I returned in time to get them together but at that point the game crashed.

I did not grab the replay file. So I will report based on memory.

From a CInC perspective - and I would love feedback on this - I think I held my own okay. The battle plan developed per design. Martin led attack from West. Kevin to exploit success. Roland in close reserve. Pepe a combination of left flank and rear guard as he slid southwest to join main line.

We encountered reinforced brigade in woods de Amanda. Digby attacked them perfectly. I let it up to Kevis discretion how to support that attack. Hitting the woods was not and option for him but there were troops behind the woods. As Pepe came on the field I ordered him to attack due south (martins left) and hit Russian on flank. When he told me he was concerned about Russians to his left I told him to only use a brigade and have that unit rejoin the command once Russians were routed

In effect I used the Russian brigade as a way to reunite my units. Going left to right that was Pepe, Martin and Kevin with Roland behind.

At that point the nature of the battle changed because we were about to encounter Russians in force. I had Martin rest his troops for a short while as rolan took the advance to the right of Pepe. In face I wanted Roland to slide left as he advanced because riding to the left of our line I saw an opportunity to flank the Russians who were on the other side of Amanda woods preparing to resist martins attack from the west.

I left Kevin to his own discretion there on our extreme right, advising him to take objective from south knowing that our own infantry would be coming from the center and left of our line. I also asked Martin to shift his artillery to the right of his line (Kevin's left) to help break up the infantry squares facing Kevin.

At this point I returned to my brigade to try to make up for lost opportunity in supporting Roland my division commander.

I felt good in terms of maintaining situational awareness and adjusting my attack as conditions changed. I also kept my commanders in the loop. I left tactical discretion to them most of the time. My biggest weakness was not effectively employing cavalry at corps and division level. And of course aforementioned brigade command at same time as CInC.

I personally think we had a real good shot at taking the objective seeing that we were approaching it from 3 sides. Too bad it crashes.

I would love feedback. Your thoughts? Helps me learn the game.

Also a thank you to Roland for his patience in relaying messages to our commanders. Since I was riding left to right across the line and knew he was more or less in the rear for most of the time, I asked him to relay and repeat messages in case direct messages from me got intercepted.

Pat, I agree with you that you did fine. The attack was coherent and effective. I felt at all times that you were aware of where I was, what I was doing and had the support I needed. I also felt the other commanders had the same knowledge which gives a strong sense of confidence in all divisional commanders. I was able to be more aggressive than I usually am because of this. My Polish brigade (Tom W) was out of sight from me for a long time down in Fangorn Forest and although I could see a few French legs, Russian gun wheels and such I had no idea how he was faring. I did ask for a couple of reports but got no reply - understandable given that Tom was doubtless a busy boy at this time.

The final attack east for me and Tom along the high ground to the target town was quite frustrating as despite what looked like an excellent gun platform on rising ground on the east end of Fangorn, my guns hardly fired. Eventually I switched Tom to my right where he formed the corps' extreme flank and then was able to swing two batteries to face SE and these finally began supporting him. Tom did very well with the Poles who were rated pretty poorly (3s for the most part) which was my error as being Poles I assumed they'd be very good! My cavalry was largely spent driving away an annoying Russian battery that was NE of the town and facing W, making my men uncomfortable. After those guns were removed I unleashed a couple of squadrons down into the Valley of Death where I saw them capture at least 3 Russian flags, maybe 4 before they went their own way and I never saw them again.

From my hill east of Fangorn I had a great view of Pepe and Roland's divisions on the far side. I took a few screens and will post them soon. There were some epic views. One particular shot I got had a line of three batteries firing away with infantry columns advancing between the batteries. It looked very cool.

Lastly Kampfgruppe Kevin arrived with the Napoleonic equivalent of a Panzer Kompanie and proceeded to annihilate the Russian hordes in fine style, the bad morale domino effect taking hold of the enemy so that none would stand in the face of his Lancers attacks.

The enemy had a large mounted reserve but I was confident that had the battle not ended by a sudden and fierce hailstorm we would have won the day.

Well done Pat. Great job.

Replay file for those who lack it.

When Pat stated his intentions of attacking the Russian position through Amanda woods, I was a bit concerned.  It meant our artillery would not be as effective as it could be.  Also, if the Russians chose to heavily contest the woods, they could hold us up for a very long time.  Luckily, the enemy had only one brigade near the forest and Tom's Poles did very good work clearing them out and allow our attack to proceed.

The concentration of our forces was key.  After the woods were taken, Martin and Roland had the unenviable take of assaulting up a steep slope to the plateau that held the town.  Fortunately, Pepe's division was farther north and the enemy had to turn his forces to face that threat which gave our other two divisions the opportunity needed.  They were able to establish good positions from which to deliver the final attack.  It also gave the Russians limited ability to defend properly and make proper use of their artillery as the town partially shielded our men.

The result showed Pat came up with a good plan which the infantry divisions executed very well.  I was kept informed as to what was happening out of sight in the north, which gave me a good tactical picture of the battle.  From the reports he sent, I never had the sense that the battle was in danger of being lost.  That meant we could all go about our tasks without rushing and attacking in an uncoordinated manner.

I was in charge of the corps reserve cavalry division.  My orders were to support Martin's division and exploit any breakthrough he might make.  As the first part of his battle was the clearing of the woods, my division was a mere spectator.  My Polish lancers shouted words of encouragement to their horseless comrades, but little else.  Once the woods were emptied of Russians, my division followed Tom's Poles up the long slope to the outskirts of the town.  As I reached the top, I observed Russian light cavalry, hussars and cossacks, attacking some of Martin's infantry and chasseurs.  As I began to bring up two regiments of cavalry, the enemy darted back into the town which was teeming with Russian infantry.

About that time, Pat send me several messages to attack.  A town is a lousy place for a cavalry attack.  There is just no room for maneuver.  I told the commander of my lancers what was ordered.  Turning red in the face, he spat out a long vitriolic reply in Polish.  Although not speaking the language myself, I am pretty sure that part of it had something to do with our CinC's head being placed on the tip of his lance.

No sooner did the lancers begin to make their way through Martin's lines, did a sotina of cossacks followed by several battalions emerge from the west end of the town.  I believe it was  the sight of men in rags carrying pointy sticks that enraged the Poles.  Without any prompting on my part, they charged.  The cossacks fled in terror.  Unfortunately for the Russian infantry, the cossacks drew the lancers to them.  Without time to form squares, the battalions were caught up in the charge and tried to flee, one after the other and were skewered one after the other.  Not satisfied, the Poles continued the rampage into town and soon had the western half covered in dead Russians.

With no more easy prey, they took noticed of an enemy brigade  south of town that was advancing on their foot-bound countrymen.  The Russians had launched an attack on our extreme right which was guarded by Tom's Poles.  Slowly, one squadron of lancers advanced, forcing the enemy into squares.  Then another and another squadron joined.  Once several squadrons were in position, the false charging of the squares commenced.  Most of the Russians held firm, but one square lost its nerve and broke.  It was mercilessly ridden down.  The lancers were just beginning to resume this tactic on another potential victim when the game crashed.

I don't think the outcome of the battle was in doubt.  The Russian forces were in some disarray and were being destroyed piecemeal.  It was a well earned victory by the human players.

It was a well earned victory by the human players.

And Roland!

This was a good example of a CinC needing to be where the critical action was at the right moment. And the main reason I was not there was that I had to remain on the Northern side to tend to my cavalry brigade to support Roland's division attack (you would think my horsemen would be able to read my mind after so much campaigning but noooooo ... they need orders)

As Martin threw the last future-socialist-state troops out of the woods, I was on the southern side of the field scouting out what looked to be a great path for Kevin to exploit. It gave me a good idea what his terrain was going to be like and from my vantage point, few bad guys in the vicinity.

Of course I did not go far enough East to see the town and beyond, as I had to go back north. Roland was saying ever-so-nicely how it would bring great joy to him if I visited his portion of the battlefield lest he assault with an understrength division. Plus he was saying something about his troops performing random acts of navigation that were not in line with his intent (later to be known as the "Charmead Tactic," a way of throwing friend and foe alike off balance via random map interpretations). It was worth a visit, I thought.

As I galloped -- and by the way kudos to my horse and his ability to gallop non-stop for over 2 hours -- back North I received a message from Martin that his Poles had missed their supper due to the unfortunate timing of the Russian encounter and needed to stop and rest. I had nothing but admiration for his performance this day and obliged his request, knowing that my old warhorse Roland would be glad to go into whatever breech I pointed him to, to include taking over the attack for the man some call Digby.

I figured Kevin would know what to do on the Southern flank. He had an open road to the objective. Whilst I tried to re-gather my cavalry brigade -- half was with Roland in good spirits but exhausted and the other half clearly were back in some stables in a local farm and ensuring the picture to the North (ain't nothing like watching Pepe's guns with a beautiful height advantage rip apart their foes) remained well in hand, I received an interesting note from Kevin. It said in a most respectful way "what the F**$$%#& are your trying to do with my G#$@& cavalry" ... it made me realize at that very moment what I forgot to account for: cavalry alone might not be in the best position when facing combined arms in the town.

At that point I realized I had to ask Martin to put supper away and continue his attack. The combined pressure from his and Roland's force, followed up by Pepe's pressing the northern flank (which was in the process of being formed as he shifted his troops behind covering fire of artillery) would help Kevin. All I could do was tell him to find an advantageous position to attack and wait for the right moment ... that was definitely where I did not think the whole thing through in terms of cavalry. Speed, yes. Position, yes. But the crushing blow I wanted would have to wait. And clearly it wasn't going to happen down narrow cobblestone streets. Same deal in the woods itself. I wanted Kevin to exploit Martin's breakthrough but I didn't think about horses, trees and underbrush.

I also wanted to eat dinner, so the crash happened at a most opportune time. My lovely wife gave thanks to the errant electrons producing the collapse.

We deployed on the big hill north of Amanda’s woods, a very good position. But I could guess what might come next. As planned we attacked the woods from the north, my Tom (7thGalaxy) handled his huge, 9 battalions brigade extremely well pushed back an enemy brigade and was about to cross the river and move uphill when a swarm of Russian Gussars appeared from behind the trees, I called off the attack and Tom held the river line. Time for our guns to work I thought. But I got an order to send a brigade to stab in the back the Russian brigade holding the woods against the poles and so they did. I spent some anxious minutes fearing about my open left flank and the Gussars slowly moving in that direction.

The only “but” to the development of the battle, too narrow frontage of attack, as there was not enough room for everyone to deploy, I was ordered to move east to turn the Russian flank, that meant crossing the low ground in front of the town in full sight of the enemy, a perfect killing ground for their artillery, and after that an assault up the slope. So I was very happy when I started to see broken Russian guns running through the Valley of Death and luckily the batteries around Schneiders were busy with the threat from the West, Martin & Kevin’s attack.

We were looking for a good place to take on the slope where plenty of Russian cavalry was deployed when the battle ended.

I believe Pat did a great job as CinC. His Command & Control skills are excellent, orders were clear, information about the other divisions constant, and he knew what was doing everyone.

The moment you master the principle of Economy of Force, you will achieve the highest status between the tacticians of our century. A place reserved to names like Soult, The Prince of Orange or Borozdin I.

General Charmead gets instant access to our active CinCs roster, where you will find your Marshall Baton in any battlefield from now on.

something about his troops performing random acts of navigation that were not in line with his intent

Yes he always pretends this when he is in reseve to be late in the field. It is best to put him in the Recon-in-force role.

I just don't understand these people... they literally imply that I make things up in the heat of battle??? Why on earth would I do that?

I mean who would possibly come up with the idea of creating certain "difficulties" for the CinC or a fellow officer... why would one ever consider such a thing as deliberately altering the perception of a situation??? - All I can say is that it has been done to me for over a decade now - something I always gladly pass on....


I am seriously misunderstood in this group here... all I ever tried was to do my best and support the rest of you.....everyone who really knows me understands what a sensible nature I am... I really am a people's person...



yesterday... .for example - I was faced with countless difficulties... the ground was muddy, the thunderstorm... then the hail... the horses were tired and did you notice that earth quake that happened right near my divisional HQ???
My couriers were killed by Partisans and my wife told me to change my underwear right in the middle of the fight... it was all so very stressful....





PS: all fun aside: I really did have those control issues for my troops - it was very weird... never happend to me like this before...

I had no doubt about your issues Roland, just kidding.

We have you in very high esteem, it was me who recommended Gral. Charmead to take you as second in command for this battle.

yeah - I knew that... I rather expected that from Kevin...

but thanks for making me his secretary anyway... that is a Corporal's job... maybe a young lieutenant.... certainly not that of a Field Marshall like myself  

We have you in very high esteem

Absolutely. We try to place you in the front line of the first attack whenever possible. We like to lead with our strength.

I just don't see my place in this whole strategy thing.

well.. having Kevin behind you as support is about as relieving as seeing the Italians arrive on the field - especially when they are supposed to be on YOUR side...

THE SCENE AT CHARMEAD HQ

A courier arrives, horse wheezing and lathered. "Sir Marshall Digby sends his compliments and wishes to ..."

Charmead leans over from his saddle. "I do not care for any news other than that of Roland. Tell me how is my old war horse?"

"Uh sir he is stuck in the marshes behind Digby sir and ..."

"My warhorse does not "stuck" to anything young man. He fights. Send him anywhere. He fights. I bet right now he is fighting the local farmers. The man must fight. That is his very essence"

"We yes sir indeed. I doubt there are any local survivors along our line of March today. And yes he executed a 3-pronged attack against that lady's farm last week and that was impressive and all but point I was trying to make sir is that Roland is not really.."

"I wonder where my warhorse is. Surely once the enemy sees him as I see him our foes will scatter"

"Well actually, sir, if you turn to your left you can see him along the slope next to the battery and..."

"I shall send a courier to him and praise his movements, let him know of our situation and tell him of the history of our profession so at he may command better than anyone. He must have all the information I know just in case the couriers get intercepted."

"Sir that is certainly admirable but your history story is only up to the Fall of Rome and he already started shooting Couriers when you were telling him about the Punic Wars and Hannibal. Seriously sir you can see the pile of dead couriers yourself right next to him. Interception is really not the issue here sir."

"Does he not appreciate what I am trying to do here?"

"I am sure he does sir. We all do. He enjoys the chance to shoot his pistol at close range. Sir I really don't want to take a message to him. I really don't. I know ... How bout you send me to Kevin?"

"Kevin knows what to do already. I told him. No we must communicate with Roland again."

"Seriously sir. We have no other couriers left. Except me. Maybe send me to Pepe?"

"Pepe? An outstanding combat commander he is, yes. But I haven't heard back from him in months."

"Well sir just send me there to check on him. Roland know you are talking to me sir. He can see it. He is reloading his pistol as we speak"

"Tell Roland to attack and drive the enemy. Explain to him how it relates to the Germanic hordes of old. Then have him explain it to all my commanders in case my other messages don't reach the other commanders."

"Sir it would be easier for you -- and me - if you just ride over to him yourself and ..."

"Off with you. Relay my message. My intent. The history and context"

"As you wish sir. Tell my parents I died facing Roland"