2nd Battle of Friedland, KS Napoleon Battle Sunday, Nov. 29th

This 3 hr battle will take place on one of the random maps so no Gburg expansion packs are needed.  The usual 3 KS mods are required, including the newest version of the KS Napoleon Mod, version 1.15.



As the Allies push forward, the outnumbered French have had to slowly give ground.  Feldmarschall Schwarzenberg has found that by constantly maneuvering around the flanks of his enemy, he can force them to retreat while avoiding a direct fight with Napoleon.

Here in the region of Friedland, one such fight along the flanks will likely take place.  Opposing light cavalry traveling along the Leunenburg Strasse met in a short, sharp skirmish, NE of the village of Assamen.  Few casualties resulted and both forces pulled back quickly.

Both cavalry commanders reported the incident to their respective corps commander and are awaiting the arrival of the infantry.

We will need a minimum number of 6 players for this battle.  More would be better.  Specific information will be given to the respective CinCs, (hurry and volunteer as these coveted slots go quickly).

A doodle sign-up for Sunday is here: Doodle Sign-Up

Are these the 1807 armies or the 1812 ones?

It's the 1812 OOB. The Russians aren't pushovers.

No objectives? Will the winner be decided on points?

The winner will be decided by which side achieves its objective. Those are known only to each side. If neither side achieves its objective then both sides lose. It's a cruel world out there.

I will take the French CinC on sunday.

Well done, Pepe. The French briefing is on the way.

I signed up. The caveat is it is like a 75 percent chance. This weekend is definitely a negotiation situation with my lovely spouse. But I remain confident of victory.

I will take whatever position assigned to me. Pepe, of late you and I have been on opposite sides of the cannon muzzle so it would be fine to take a French command slot as your subordinate. But I do love everyone equally. The steadiness if Martin. The strong hammer of Kevin. That bat-s**t wildness of Mark. Ron's innate operational grasp.

And to that I add my own complete randomness of capability and execution combined with a sometimes acute lack of directional sense

In the game last Sunday I had changed the dll file per Kevin. Should I just go ahead an install the new mod? Or is that mod he same thing as what we did for last Sunday's game?

Kevin has a new .dll for us today. If it works I presume we'll be using it Sunday. v1.15 of the mod is still the current version that works with Patch v1.0043, the AI .dll just needs to be replaced.

Four of us played without any problem today, so we'll use the new dll in this game. I'll put the link up in T/S tomorrow.

I'll command the Russians, Kevin.

Well done. The briefing is on the way.

I am gathering my staff

See link

http://mashable.com/2014/10/27/napoleonic-wars-veterans/#oxWW3QJ0kkqo

Great photos. The French will be hard to beat today.

I've seen those pictures before. The men's faces are wonderful. So many stories behind those eyes.

It looks like the game will be at 20:00GMT, 15:00EST.

All I did of any value was to sit on my horse in the middle of a battalion square and stare down two Russian squadrons .... The fact that we were literally on the southern map edge completely surrounded with nothing left of the rest of my division at that point is something I will conveniently ignore.

The fact that we were literally on the southern map edge completely surrounded with nothing left of the rest of my division at that point is something I will conveniently ignore.

You should have done the honorable thing and jumped.  My hussar commander reported after the battle that he did call out and offer you a quick chop to the neck.

Pepe, Jeff and I had the best cavalry battle I've ever been part of.  7,300 cavalrymen participated.  Quite by accident, the cavalry of both armies segregated themselves on the north end of the battlefield away from the lower classes, (i.e. infantry).  The battle started out with just a few squadrons becoming involved, but as time went on, more and more were fed in.  Numerous charges and counter charges swept back and forth across the field.  By some miracle, Pepe and I managed not to get killed.  At the end, there were far fewer men on mounts with the ground covered in dead horses and men.  It was glorious.

Farther to the south, I think the infantry fought too.

The only downside was the lag I suffered I'm sure that was the reason I shuffled off this mortal coil

It was a magnificent battle. The Russians were unstoppable - though I don't know why as my artillery was useless. I was very worried as we advanced over the river and up that steep hill, expecting any second to be vaporised by canister but we got to the level ground on the top of the valley slope at which point the French would not stand against our bayonets.

Tom did a fantastic job as Batmetyev (?sp) on my right, trouncing SJ's Italians out of the woods in fine style.



Doesn't look like the good burghers of Friedland will be going hungry any time soon.

When I started to emerge from the woods to my north of where the main infantry was fighting I saw this mass of dead cavalry, I mean dead bodies ALL over the place. It was very impressive to say the least, but I was a bit worried because I was hoping that they were more French than Russians!

I was shocked at the mess Kevin, Pepe and Jeff had made as well. I made my usual panoramic montage of it. Those fond of horses should not click on the link.

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/TheEndAtFriedland.jpg

Sagas of this battle will be written. Women will swoon when hearing them.

IN BIVOUAC NEAR FRIEDLAND

Dearest Mother

I am sure by now you will have heard about our tragic battle, and no doubt were swooning when told of it. I am okay, which is to say I am not dead. I know you keep saying that because I am not in the cavalry, that I do not fight on horseback, that I am somehow less-than-important. And, yes, older brother Jacques is in the cavalry and I know his uniform is most awesome. But there are actually more of us than horsemen, mother. Our uniforms are pretty cool. And we have real guns and everything. Sometimes we get to shoot them.

Our battle plan yesterday was simple. "March forward, shoot, run for our lives, repeat." Sometimes we mixed up the order or skipped or added steps. Like early in the battle is was mostly "march forward, repeat." Towards the end it was "run for our lives, stop for breath, shoot, run for our lives, run for our lives, repeat." We are incredibly adaptable in execution of our plans.

At the very end we added a new tactic called "jump off end of the earth and cower behind a tree." We think we will use this tactic in our next battle because we found that the Russians could not shoot us very well in that cowering position. My tree in particular was solid and big. I was safe. It just would have been better if the rest of the brigade wasn't trying to use the same tree. I found it first.

General Le Charmead led us from the front the entire way. Which is to say he was in the rear leading us in our run for our lives. It was quite inspiring. As soon as we caught up to him he would lead us to the rear again. Such persistence!

I would have sent pictures to you -- I know you have seen the cavalry pictures and dead horses -- but I was too busy running. but if I could have taken the picture it would have looked exactly like the ones you have been seeing except there would be no horses and most of the bodies would be French.

Your dearest and most humble son.