Dennewitz 1813

 

Continuing our quest for manageable sized 1813 games that can be played in an evening, we looked at the opening moves of the Battle of Dennewitz as a smallish scenario:

With the Prussian deployment area constricted by dense woodland, Daniel the Prussian commander got to decide which side would start deployment. He chose French. We then deployed Brigade by Brigade. The Prussians seemed to deploy fairly evenly across the area, I concentrated on my right as the Prussian artillery brigade looked to dominate my left:

We rolled to see who would start and with a cry of 'Vive L'Empereur' the Eagles were hoisted and the troops stepped off:

According to plan I pushed an infantry brigade out as far to the right as it would go. I was nervous of the masses of Prussian cavalry opposite, Landwehr National Cavalry notwithstanding, so gave them plenty of cavalry cover. Rather than disrupt their formation they stopped short of the Agger stream: 

My plan was not race to get into Dennewitz at all, but with the first move and an nice empty road stretching in front, it seemed rude not too...

Daniel's Prussian cavalry used the gap between my infantry and their supporting cavalry to menace my infantry and unlimber some horse artillery right in front of them. Forming square was an obvious solution, charging the horse artillery with infantry was not so obvious but just as effective!

However, with an astute application of combined arms tactics Daniel assaulted one of my squares with infantry. These somehow survived the onslaught!

Whilst initially all had seemed quiet on my left flank, Daniel's second large Infantry brigade started deploying against the western face of the town. The fire from my massed battery had not been sufficient deterrent!

However, assaulting prepared troops in a stone built town is never a good idea, particularly in a battle of attrition. My garrison withstood all assaults, albeit with some very lucky rally dice, whilst the Prussians were failing Fortitude tests regularly...

With my lovely, dashing regular cavalry...

twice as effective as the Prussian Landwehr cavalry, it wasn't too long before the Prussian horse had also been written down, and the Prussians withdrew! 

However, to be fair and in the interests of siting this skirmish within the whole Battle of Dennewitz, it should be noted that in achieving superiority of force on my left, I had completely denuded my right apart from the Gunners. In a larger game it would have been ripe for a deep outflanking move. Perhaps an interesting starting point for a larger all-day game...

Battle of Hagelburg 1813

 

For the first Horse & Musket themed meeting of the year at the Wollongong Wargamers, we found a scenario that, with a following wind, could be played in an evening: A Prussian Corps vs a French Division:

Objectives laid and deployment complete:

As to be expected, Caesar for the French defenders placed his objectives well to the rear, whilst Darren for the Prussian attackers placed his well to the fore.

I was surprised however that the French did not garrison more of the villages, only 1 Defended Terrrain Feature in Hagelburg was occupied, and none in Klein Glein. Caesar was obviously going for an active defense!

As the third, spare player I offered my sword to the Prussians and Darren allocated me the three Infantry brigades to the north of Hagelburg, on the right of this picture. He took charge of the cavalry horde on the left and the two Infantry brigades in the centre:

The spirit of Blucher was upon us and we lost no time in closing up on the French:

But yes, Caesar fought fire with fire, the French infantry columns meeting our assaults at the charge!

Over on the Prussian left Darren intended to use our hordes of half trained Landwehr National Cavalry as an ablative shield to soak up punishment prior to allowing our regular Dragoons to outflank and undermine the French defense from the rear: 

But a fortuitous combination of fate cards enhanced their combat prowess and ability to rally so that they remained in the front line steadily wearing down the outnumbered French cavalry...

Back on the Prussian right opposite Hagelsburg the French were trading space for time and inflicting severe losses on the attackers. This meant that the Prussians quickly gained two objectives and some very lucky rolling on our Fortitude test spared us too many defeat points...

But whilst the French Cavalry had lost half their strength, suffering defeat points, they somehow managed to keep the deep flank secure against our hordes of cavalry...So as night fell the French retained 2 of the 4 objectives, but had suffered one more defeat point for a minor Prussian victory!