KS Napoleon Game, Sunday 20th September 1812

VIII Corps, Général de Division Andoche Junot

https://2img.net/h/i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz347/SolInvictus202/Louhans%20heights.png

1. General Situation:

The war is going well. The Emperor, in his brilliance, has devised a plan to encircle the Russian army on its withdrawal to Moscow. Your Corps has been assigned a key role since the Emperor has high hopes for you to become one of his new marshals, should you be able to impress him!  In order to achieve that, you have to intercept and destroy a large Russian force to your front.
To ensure that the Russians don't escape you have concentrated your force with all possible speed and kept up a high pace of march, despite the heat these past few days.
Last night you have finally received reports of a large concentration of campfires at the Louhans Heights to your immediate north.
You have immediately called a meeting of all your present commanders, which took place in the late hours of the 19th September. All of them agreed with your decision: You need to keep up the pressure and continue the pursuit - or attack immediately should the Russians decide to take advantage of the formidable defensive ground they have set up camp on.

This morning your Corps deployed in battle formation - ready to both attack or pursue! Your cavalry screen just reported back to you: a large battery of Russian guns has been spotted on the crest of the heights, behind that countless standards and the sound of march music was also noticed, accompanied by the a constant "Urraaaahhhhh"!
This can only mean one thing: The Russians have decided to make a stand and offer battle!

This is what you have been waiting for - you need to take action now!



What will you do however?

Will you attack the Russian position head-on? Will you gather more intel on the exact disposition of the enemy?

However, the real problem is that you don't have your full corps with you. You haven't heard from your 3rd division in quite some time - it took a different road that the  rest of the Corps and you have yet to receive any news on their current whereabouts. They may have been slowed down by the fact that they have to take along 3 batteries of artillery. They can't be immediately to your rear, since you would have noticed them... are they even converging with your position at all? Have they been engaged by another Russian force?

Will you attack with the force you have now or wait for a possible arrival of your 3rd main division? Will the Russians fight a defensive battle or actually attack you - have you determined their numbers correctly?

The uncertainty is killing you - but what are you going to tell the Emperor if you let the Russians slip past you?

You may want to try and make contact with Claparède once the battle commenced - yet again... (pre battle planning with Claparède is strictly forbidden, however he may take a look at the map, since he has his own scouts etc feeding him with information on the general situation)

Objectives:

Destroy the Russian forces in your area and ensure that they don't escape - yet again!

Victory conditions:

Draw: Survive! (at the cost of you being demoted to Caporal and being sent off to Iberia to fight Guerillas)
Victory: Destroy the Russian force!

OOB:

VIII Corps: Général de Division Andoche Junot (22930 Inf.  4075 Cav.  62 Guns))

 23e Division: Général de Division Jean-Victor Tharreau (8920 Inf.  8 Guns)
   Brigade d'Alton: Général de brigade d'Alton (2750 Inf. 5 battalions  Avg. Exp. 6.4)
   Brigade Lecchi: Général de brigade Giuseppe Lechi (2490 Inf. 6 battalions  Avg. Exp. 6.3)
   Brigade Bonnamy: Général de brigade Bonnamy (3680 Inf. 7 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.4)
   9e/7e Artillerie à pied: Capit. 9e batterie à pied (8 Guns   Avg. Exp. 6.0)

 24e Division: Général de Division von Ochs  (10010 Inf.  14 Guns)
   Brigade Dufour: Général de brigade Dufour (3000 Inf. 5 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.4)
   Brigade van Dedem de Gelder: Général de Brigade van Dedem de Gelder (3055 Inf. 5 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.6)
   Brigade Groisne: Général de Brigade Groisne (3955 Inf. 7 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.1)
   2e/7e Artillerie à pied: Capit. 2e batterie à pied (8 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)
   7e/1er Artillerie à cheval: Capit. 7e batterie à cheval (6 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

 Vistula  Légion: Général de Division Michel Marie Claparède (4000 Inf.  600 Cav.  18 Guns)
   1er Brigade Vistula  Légion: Général de brigade Cholpicki (2700 Inf. 4 battalions  Avg. Exp. 7.0)
   2e Brigade Vistula Legion : Général de brigade Bronikowski (1300 Inf. 2 battalions  Avg. Exp. 7.0)
   Polish Lanciers de la Garde: Général de brigade Krasinski (600 Cav. 4 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 9.0)
   1er Garde batterie à cheval: Capit. 1er Garde batterie à cheval (6 Guns   Avg. Exp. 7.0)
   5 Polska Bateria Stóp: Kapitan 5 Polska Bateria Stóp (6 Guns   Avg. Exp. 6.0)
   3 Polska Bateria Stóp: Kapitan 3 Polska Bateria Stóp (6 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

 4th Cavalry Division: Général de Division Theodore Chabert (  3475 Cav.  22 Guns)
   24e Brigade de cavalerie légère: Generalmajor Hammerstein (1360 Cav. 8 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 5.0)
   Brigade Thielmann: Generalmajor Thielmann (1200 Cav. 8 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 8.0)
   3rd Cavalry Brigade: Général de brigade Seron (915 Cav. 6 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 6.0)
   3e/3e Artillerie à cheval: Capit. 3e batterie à cheval (6 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)
   5e/7e Artillerie à pied: Capit. 5e batterie à pied (8 Guns   Avg. Exp. 6.0)
   5e/2e Artillerie à pied: Capit. 5e/2e batterie à pied (8 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

Somebody's going to have to charge those guns.

I volunteer to charge those guns ... my horses are ready ... and I have a 90% chance of showing up today, too. I am going to have my dog guard the mo0dem power switch

Excellent. I shall write your wife and inform her you died a hero.

Who said I was leading the charge?

Follow the example here and success is guaranteed:

What time is this battle

As usual 20:00 BST and 15:00 EST.

Pepe I love the video!

But before I do THAT I was first going to arrange for THIS

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=stty9Qfz5DY

That's exactly the kind of charge I'm expecting, gloriously heroic and utterly useless. They'll write poems about you, Pat.

I see everyone is getting in the proper mood for tonight's game... I like it....



We'll be fighting on lovely ground!

We shall fight this in true Napoleonic fashion. We will concentrate our guns and create a weakness in the Russian line. At the appropriate time, we will advance and breech the enemy line at that point. Fighting will be done with the bayonet. Our cavalry will closely follow our columns and pour through the gap. The fleeing Russian masses shall be put to the sword without mercy. Question?

You may want to inform the Emperor about this - I hear he is currently at Minsk...

I know this is actually below me - the task of a simple messenger - but I would, generous as I am by nature, offer myself to inform him personally and report on your brilliant battle plan!

I could leave right about now....

Slight edit:

Our cavalry will follow at an appropriate distance, stopping where necessary (tavern, farm, inn) to ensure our troopers and horses are properly fortified. After pausing well beyond cannon range to organize ourselves and write letters home telling of great deeds, the commander will give a rousing speech, occasionally looking over his shoulder to see if the need for cavalry has passed.

Well I can tell you that I COMPLETELY forgot about Palmers division and I confused His poles with Russians (apologies to anyone of polish descent, including my spouse) ... Thus the concern on the left flank and let us say some confusion in orders lol

I considered it a thoughtful gesture that our fearless leader would greet my boys with a mounted welcoming committee.

... consisting of most of my division. I told our beloved CInC of the assault from the west and he asked me to see if Palmer needed help. Palmer? Whose brigade does he have? It was just Pepe over here. Oh crap THAT is Palmer! Yes these were the things going through my mind. And to top it off, my horse sat in a hollow so I could not see much of anything. And I was smack in the middle of 3 maneuvering divisions. Palmers, Pepes and my own. Then there was my brigade commander - who shall remained un-named for now -- who felt it was beneath him to scout ahead on the flank just prior to Palmers "attack" .... and how exhausting it was to go through the woods (so go AROUND the woods then) .... Truly excellent role playing of a haughty, well bred upper class wanna-be royalty. Okay so maybe I gave one or two orders in succession that were a tad inconsistent. But I was being assaulted by Poles! So in a way it made sense that they were leading the assault on my cavalry with a limbered artillery battery. I tried to charge it, twice, but nothing happened so I thought well maybe after a couple crashes this was just a real confused AI or something. Because I had also intercepted two Russian messages and doing my "line of sight 101" mechanics that reinforced my notion these were bad guys. It was a case of Confirmation bias at this point if you want the technical term.

Okay so maybe I gave my brigade commander some advice to move laterally ... Maybe I did that more than once in opposite directions. But when facing backwards to meet the Polish threat our flanks change nomenclature. Left becomes right. Standard operational procedure, right? One of my orders sent my Un-named brigade commander off to the other flank to kill Russians, lots of them. Not that I knew any Russians were there, but I did have a good location on the Poles.

So when the CInC requested his heavy cavalry to meet the Russian heavies in the center how was I to respond? Ask my brigade commander to move laterally yet again? Oh please. My pride is far more important than your little so called immediate tactical need, sir.

Eventually I did the right thing and reassembled my proud division into the center. The CInC took direct control of my heavy cavalry - clearly too impatient, possibly too much so for the responsibilities of higher command - but he is the boss. Thus began the process of preparation for "Operation Vodka" ... and the recall orders went out by courier. Not only did this allow for focusing of my awesome combat power, it also allowed me to quickly take the dog outside and hen feed him dinner whilst my awesome force gathered.

Soon the Russians scattered before my horsemen. Those that stood firm ... False hope ... Watched while my artillery I limbered in front of them. But, alas, 4 previous game crashes took me to my exit time.

Report respectfully submitted

Your Obedient (as far as you know) Servant

El Jefe del Huge Grande Horse

last night's battle was great fun from my point of view.... thanks to all for playing!

a few notes as the scenario designer:

Intentions:

I had a basic scenario idea: I wanted the French to attack the Russians for a change, since we usually get the huge advantage of the Russian guns. Furthermore I wanted to present the French with the immediate problem of having to attack an "Eylau"-like grand battery deployed on good ground...

Two problems came along with that: in order to give the feeling of a proper Corps deployment I had to pick the "Hunt them down" AI command or otherwise the lone cavalry brigade would never have stayed in front of the Corps as a screening force, but would have rather deployed alongside the cavalry division's commander. 2nd problem was the Russian guns - again only "hunt them down" would see them deployed in one massive line along the crest of the hill. That of course caused the issue of not knowing how the AI would react at all - since the "hunt" command is highly unpredictable.  To ensure that it would not run away I had to deploy the French within gun range of the Russians - so that the AI gets a hint as to attack or at least stay in contact with the French.


The other idea was to isolate the 3rd Division (Claparede) - but at the same time make the Russians powerful enough that only WITH Claparede victory could be achieved. Therefor I again deployed a small 4th Russian division consisting of 1 brigade of each arm  in between Claparede and the rest of the Corps as to make it highly unlikely that any courier would arrive from the CinC with this division....




restart issues:

I was highly disappointed that we had to restart the scenario twice, simply because it took away all the surprise for Claparede - I watched all replays and saw him advance exactly towards that small Russian division - having to engage it in unfavourable ground - thus delaying his arrival with the rest of the Corps considerably...
Once we restarted of course Claparede immediately wheeled north and managed to avoid this force - thus arriving with the main army almost without delay - of course the restarted caused some issues, but from what I have seen, most of his division arrived intact!

That is of course all not the fault of Claparede (Ron) - but rather a logical development - which I would have moved along with as well had I been in his position....



Conflicting orders:

I literally received 4 messages with 10 minutes:

1) before the restart: deploy on the far left of the Corps - an order which I executed immediately

2) take your brigade and SCOUT through those woods.... I had cuirassiers... I was to SCOUT? IN THE WOODS? - I was very happy about this - but took a squadron along anyway.... immediately reported that I had spotted the Vistula legion - and no other Russian force - thinking that this would make it clear to my CO that I had seen friendlies

3) I then received orders to DEPLOY ON THE RIGHT about 2 mins later - I hadn't even begun to scout properly.... I was rather annoyed -but took my command all the way to the right of the army - where I made contact with SJ - who told me about some invisible cavalry - which I ignored, because it stayed invisible- and I rather chewed up a few infantry bataillons - Russian guards no less... within 5 mins I had killed about 1000 of them - and SJ was free to advance and fight in the woods - I am sure he loved that...

4) while I was happy and enjoying myself killing defenseless prey I was again ordered to form up somewhere else - this time it was the center....
having learnt my lesson as to NOT immediately execute any new orders, I ignored it and kept going about my business of making Borscht out of Russian Guard Peasants. Once I was content however with the result and not seeing any more easy targets I figured I might as well deploy to the centre now...

5) having arrived there I received a message stating "keep up the good work - keep doing what you're doing" - ahm... more confusion.... should I now keep deploying to the centre? what if you have already done that? do you redeploy to the same spot?

6) by then I received a message from our glorious CinC to clear away the heavy cavalry in the centre - finally a task to my liking - Veni Vidi Vici- and half an hour later I was without a job again... but I saw some cossacks on the left....
TIME and again I besieged my CinC to let me have a go at them..... he kept insisting that this was work of the light cavalry... an outrage - so many cossacks all at my disposal...


the fun evening ended with me falling asleep around 0100 AM and handing over command of Bde to the CinC...




so a very enjoyable evening - lots of laughs, even if the scenario didn't quite work out as I hoped...

Our enemy  - only slightly stronger than we were...we had better quality troops!


6-y Korpus: General'nyy Infanryy Dmitry Dokhturov (24005 Inf.  4780 Cav.  84 Guns))

 11-y Diviziya: General-Mayor Nikolay Bakhmetyev I (4525 Inf.  1520 Cav.  24 Guns)
   Grenader Brigada Zheltukhin: Polkovnik Peter Zheltukhin II (2325 Inf. 4 battalions  Avg. Exp. 6.0)
   Grenader Brigada Tsvilenev: General-Mayor Alexander Tsvilenev (2200 Inf. 4 battalions  Avg. Exp. 6.2)
   Detached Kazak Brigada: Polkovnik Stepan Balabin II (1520 Cav. 4 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 3.0)
   6-y Konnaya Artilleriya: Podpolkovnik Yakov Zakharzhevsky (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)
   1-y Batareya Truppa: Kapitan Nikolay Shishkin II (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

 4-y Diviziya: General-Mayor Prince Eugene of Wurrtemberg (9360 Inf.  1280 Cav.  24 Guns)
   Brigada Rossi: General-Mayor Ignatii Rossi (2980 Inf. 6 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.0)
   Brigada Pyshnitsky  : Polkovnik Dmitry Pyshnitsky   (3160 Inf. 6 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.0)
   Brigada Ivelich: General-Mayor  Peter Ivelich IV (3220 Inf. 6 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.0)
   Gusar Brigada Dorokhov: General-Mayor Ivan Dorokhov (1280 Cav. 8 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 5.0)
   17-y Tyazhelaya Batareya Polozheniye: Polkovnik Ivan Ditterix II (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 6.0)
   32-y Batareya Truppa: Podpolkovnik Yakov Volevach (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

 23-y Diviziya: General-Mayor Aleksey Bakhmetyev III (7160 Inf.  1220 Cav.  24 Guns)
   Brigada Aleksopol: General-Mayor Fedor Aleksopol (2100 Inf. 4 battalions  Avg. Exp. 5.
   2-y Kombinirovannyy Grenader brigada: Polkovnik Sergey Ostrovsky (1160 Inf. 2 battalions  Avg. Exp. 6.0)
   Brigada Rosen: General-Mayor Grigory Rosen I (3900 Inf. 7 battalions  Avg. Exp. 7.0)
   Gvardiya Kavaleriyskaya Brigada Shevich: General-Mayor Ivan Shevich (1220 Cav. 8 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 8.0)
   22-y Konnaya Artilleriya: Podpolkovnik Yegor Khoven (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 9.1)
   7-y Batareya Truppa: Podpolkovnik Evstigney Talyzin (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

 Gvardiyas Diviziya: General-Poruchik Nikolay Lavrov (2960 Inf.  760 Cav.  12 Guns)
   Brigada Bogdanovsky: Podpolkovnik Andrey Bogdanovsky (2960 Inf. 6 battalions  Avg. Exp. 4.
   2-y Kazak Brigada: General-Mayor Nikolay Ilovaisky V (760 Cav. 2 squadrons  Avg.Exp. 3.0)
   44-y Batareya Truppa: Kapitan Berg (12 Guns   Avg. Exp. 5.0)

I was interested in this scenario because of the anticipated frontal assault on the Russian guns, uphill no less! One thing that I did not anticipate was, well what seemed anyway, the large amount of Russian cavalry.

Pepe’ gave the order for my brigade to take the hill. As I started to push the Russian artillery back, the Russian cavalry decided to charge me. So there I am, halfway up the hill trying to form square in anticipation of the Russian cavalry charge knowing that I am providing the Russian artillery with nice targets as well. I purposely tried to advance up the hill with 2 battalions in front at all times. To inspire my troops I stayed very close to the lead battalions to issue formation orders quickly (I do not know if I would have had the success that I did if we had not switched the courier method after one of the framerate errors, but I was very close to the 2 front battalions non the less). As I leap frogged my battalions forward (I think this is where I was able to take advantage of the instantaneous orders) I was able to advance on the guns as the Russian cavalry would cycle through their charges.

I had a moment of panic and then embarrassment when I thought that I was being charged on my right flank from enemy cavalry, so I formed square (I had really only been charged from the front and left up to this point) only to find out that it was our own cavalry! Again it was great fog of war in the heat of the moment and my not taking a few seconds to click on the units to see who they were since the flags were close in design to the Russians from a distance.

After I paused upon pushing the battery off the hill, I started to push north towards Verdun. My advance north did not find any Russian troops, so I started to move to the northwest, and finally found Russians hiding in the woods near the east flowing branch of the La Saone. As I pushed west, I found myself coming into the rear of the retreating Russian army where we stopped the game.

Besides the crashes it was a great scenario.

Thanks,
Tom W

Ahhh the continual conflict between "brevity" and "extra contextual information"

I read the words "Vistula Legion" in the message and My brain tells me they are "Russians so bad-ass they get their own name" ... in the heat of combat anything East of Paris is considered "Mother Russia" ... The geography lesson entitled "Rivers of Europe" dawned on me when I decided to click on a Polish unit and pressed the "up arrow" key repeatedly until I saw the word "Palmer" ...

but I saw some cossacks on the left....
TIME and again I besieged my CinC to let me have a go at them..... he kept insisting that this was work of the light cavalry... an outrage - so many cossacks all at my disposal...

Hairy men with pointy sticks are the domain light cavalry. Any self respecting heavy cavalryman would scoff at the thought of engaging such unworthy prey.

I had decided to use your regiment in its traditional role as a shock unit. Your fight in the center was exactly what I had in mind. You attacked a weakened line, creating a gap for our follow-on force, Ron's much maligned Poles, to flood through, while you continued to cause havoc in the enemy rear area.

This scenario is one we should replay with a CinC who wasn't present for this battle. It's very good with a lot of variability. In a month or two the details of it will fade and we'll give it another go.

I was surprised on several occasions to find the Russian infantry in front of my cavalry to not be in square ... Looked more like column of divisions. Is this just the AI being caught off quard? Or a reflection of troop experience?

My first time out as a cavalry division commander was a lot of fun. I took away some lessons learned for sure. Although let us speak no more of my first act as cavalry commander (repeated due to crash): that of fleeing before Russian guns the moment the battle clock started.

Roland - a most excellent experience working directly with you as always. Learning experience as well.

It was a very nicely designed scenario, thank you Roland.

With all the restarts it didn't play as it should have done and it was too easy to win. The last 30 minutes we were all looking for enemies to kill. Meanwhile a full enemy division was touring the NW side of the map and we almost didn't see them.

The first attempt to play was very impressive setup, with the Russian guns on top of the hill and their infantry and cavalry coming down. After the restart it was not the same, even when I got back my lost guns.

I enyoyed having a full brigade of French légère infantry and skirmishing against the Russian lines and mostly columns that they used as has been said.

I agree, we should try to play this scenario again in the future.