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...