Marching to Battle : Part II

 

Galician IV Corps Cavalry - 5th & 6th Hussars - scouting ahead of the infantry divisions.  Cavalry figures are Airfix British Hussars, infantry a mix of Airfix and HäT French.

The previous post left Generals Monton and Kertež taking stock as night fell and their men sought what rest they could.  The outposts of the Galician II Corps could see the glow of fires from the camps of their enemies amid the low hills to the west, south and east but no fires to the north-east where they had expected to see signs of the IV Corps moving to join them.  Anxiety lay heavy on the Ruritanian lines as well.  They had been disconcerted by the swift movement of the Galicians in the afternoon, crossing the river and threatening to cut off the Ruritanian Corps from their lines of communication.  Few among the Ruritanians placed much faith in the Karatanian Corps coming to their support.

For Kertež the position was clear.  He had to move his Corps as quickly as possible to ensure it was not cut off, and to avoid engagements until he had better information both about the enemy and about what Miradič and the Karatanian Corps were doing.  He gave orders for his second and third divisions to move up as quickly as possible to the position of the first division, which would then cover the movement of the Corps to the South-east.  He sent messengers to Miradič to inform him of his intentions and requesting Miradič to secure a strong position to hold until the Ruritanians could join him.

Monton had a more difficult decision to make.  II Corps had advanced quickly and might be able to cut off the Ruritanians from the Karatanians, but with IV Corps having failed to move up quickly there was a risk that if he pushed forward he might find himself caught between both enemy corps before Guerrand could reach him with his Corps.  He decides that it is safer to concentrate before pressing forward.  He directs Cadinet-Sulpice to hold back until his second division and the Reserve have come up before advancing further, while sending messengers to spur Guerrand to get moving at first light to join him as soon as possible.  Unbeknownst to him, Cabinet-Sulpice has already ordered his first division to keep advancing and has sent his Corps Cavalry to probe to the south-east to get intelligence on the forces whose camp fires have been seen in that direction.  Monton's messenger finds Cadinet-Sulpice with his second Division.  This he orders to follow the first division with all speed while he heads for Monton's HQ to urge more aggressive action.  

Away to the east around Teglendorf, Monton's messenger arrives to find Guerrand and his Corps already up and on the move.  Guerrand assures him that he will be up with II Corps by midday.

Miradič is happy that the enemy appears to be causing Kertež a lot of anxiety.  He decides to concentrate the rest of his Corps on the position of the 1st Division but, to avoid any imputation that he has not given attention to the messages that Kertež has been sending him, decides to send the reserve light cavalry to the west as a token of support - and to warn him if the Galicians have already cut off the Ruritanians.

The map below shows the position by around 9:00 a.m

Monton is horrified to find that II Corps has continued to race forward, especially as reports start to come back from his reserve Light Cavalry that the entire Ruritanian Corps is now in line to his south and from II Corps' cavalry that the entire Karatanian Corps has moved up to the east.  Far from heading off the Ruritanians it now looks as if he will become the meat in the sandwich.  He orders II Corps to halt while the Reserve and IV Corps move up, telling Cadinet-Sulpice to take himself to his first division and personally lead any rear-guard action that may be needed if the enemy launches an attack.

Miradič is equally horrified to find enemy cavalry closing with his left as his own cavalry screen continues to spar with IV Corps cavalry to the right.  He assumes that this is screening an advance towards him from the right while the other enemy corps moves on his left.  Clearly the Ruritanians have left him in the lurch.  Why did he send the Reserve Cavalry to help them?  He orders his cavalry to pull back to his main position to cover the retreat he now orders his divisional commanders to prepare.

Having not heard from Miradič and being aware of enemy troops moving across his front - though his scouts are still not giving him any detail about the size of the force before him - Kertež decides that he must move to the south before trying to move eastwards to join Miradič.  He directs his three divisions to move back while leaving his cavalry to screen his movements.

The next map shows the position around 10:15 am.

Monton's scouts report that the Ruritanians have moved away to the south behind a cavalry screen while the Karatanians have halted.  Messengers from Guerrand assure him that IV Corps is making good progress.  Relieved not to be under attack but uncertain of enemy intentions he directs II Corps 2nd Division and the Reserve Infantry and Heavy Cavalry to move up to 1st Division's position while waiting for IV Corps to come closer.  The Reserve Light Cavalry are sent south to try to get better information about the movement of the Ruritanian Corps.  IV Corps Cavalry follow up behind the Karatanian Corps' Cavalry as it falls back towards the main line.

Miradič decides that no purpose is served by staying where he is any longer.  He orders his Corps to fall back.  Kertež orders his corps to move east to try to link up with Miradič and sets off to find Miradič himself and assert what control he can over their joint movements.  On the way, he encounters the Reserve Light Cavalry moving towards him and sends them on to join the Ruritanian Corps cavalry in screening the movement of his infantry.  The Reserve Heavy Cavalry is some way behind, so he does not run into them, but not having received orders from Miradič, the Brigade Commander decides that he should try to keep with the Light Cavalry and so finds himself encountering and joining the retreating Ruritanians.  Kertež arrives at Miradič's HQ just as it is being packed up and joining the columns of infantry moving rearwards.

Galician Reserve Heavy Cavalry Brigade.  Newline Russian Dragoon figures painted in my Livonian uniforms

Kertež compliments Miradič on his good sense in retiring as this ensured that their Corps can unite sooner and thanks him for sending the Cavalry Reserve to his support.  He is saddened, but not surprised, to find that Miradič has no better idea of the enemy positions and strength than he does.  He instructs Miradič to establish himself in the best defensive position he can find, to block any enemy advance until the Ruritanian Corps comes up to join him and sends messengers to the Ruritanian Corps to come up to the left of the Karatanian's position as quickly as possible.  The Corps cavalry are ordered to patrol aggressively to the north to try to identify enemy directions of movement and strength.  Miradič is pleasantly surprised by Kertež emollient tone.  This reduces the chance of his continuing to retreat from 1:2 to 1:3 - so retreating on a 1 or 2.  He rolls a 3, so hurries off with his staff to select a position that best bars the road south.

Positions at around 11:30 a.m

The Gallician cavalry patrols have lost contact with the enemy columns.  Monton can be sure that the Karatanian infantry have fallen back but their cavalry is still active, preventing his moving further forward.  To his right, his cavalry patrols report that fresh enemy cavalry units have appeared leaving them unable to probe to observe the Ruritanian divisions and under considerable pressure to maintain their own screen against the enemy.  He decides that it is best to move eastward to link up with IV Corps rather than push forward, much to Cadinet-Sulpice's anger.

Kertež stays with Miradič to discourage that gentleman from changing his mind, but the latter seems quite committed to holding his position and has brought up his engineers to build some fieldworks to strengthen his defensive line.

The 1st Division of the Ruritanian Corps in the foreground.  Figures are Newline Bavarian Infantry except the Grenadiers on the left which are Airfix.

The position at about 1:30 pm

The Galician force unites and moves forward, pushing back the Karatanian cavalry screen and uncovering Miradič's command busy taking up a defensive posture.  No sign of the Ruritanian Corps has been found, other than the cavalry which have been pushing around the right flank of the Galicians but prevented from getting much information by Monton having strengthened his cavalry screen on that flank.  Urged on by both Cadinet-Sulpice and Guerrand, Monton decides to commit to an attack on the Karatanians immediately, before they can entrench themselves further and before the Ruritanians can put in an appearance.  Monton orders IV Corps to attack the eastern end of the Karatanian position - the Galician left - while the 2nd Division of II Corps holds the rest of the Karatanian line in check. The 1st Division of II Corps is held back in echelon behind the 2nd Division, just in case the Ruritanians put in an appearance on the Galician right.

Kertež and Miradič can both see the Galician columns moving rapidly towards them.  It was too late for second thoughts.  Miradič rode to each of his divisions to encourage his men to hold firm and show the Ruritanians how well they could fight.  Kertež sent urgent messages to his troops to advance quickly to take up position on the left of the Karatanian position.  He was confident now that no Galicians could threaten his own left and hoped to be able to put the enemy under pressure on their flank and show the Karatanians that the Ruritanians could fight hard too!  Battle was on!

Karatanian Corps 1st and 2nd Divisions.  Mostly HäT Brunswickers.  Artillery and Mounted Officers are Newline

In the approach to battle, after each turn I assessed the courses of action open to each commander and assigned probabilities to them in line with the extent of information they had about friendly and enemy movements and the character assigned to each of them, rolled dice to select the choices and made movements for the next turn in line with those decisions.

To set up the tabletop battlefield, since I had no opponent to decide how to place terrain cards, I diced for features that would appear in each 12" square on the 6' by 8' table available, then allowed myself as the Ruritanians to move 4 features as they had chosen the ground.  I also allowed them to place one earthwork as there had been a turn for the engineers to do this before the Galicians arrived.  Since the battle was going to take place in the northern segment of square C2, which was an area of low hills with small woods, farms and villages, these features were rolled for initially.  Then, in all squares with no hills, I rolled for the presence of any water features.  Where adjacent squares had hills, these were merged to form larger (not higher) areas of elevation.  Adjacent streams were connected.  This led to the battle map below.  

The game will start with all of the Karatanian Corps on the table and the Galician IV Corps and 2nd Division of II Corps able to enter on turn 1.  1st Division of II Corps and the Galician Reserve can come on whenever Monton decides after turn 4.  The Ruritanian Corps is lined up by divisions behind the Cavalry Reserve.  The latter can enter on Turn 2.  Each following division has to test for when it can start to enter after the prior formation has moved on, with a possible delay of 1 or 2 turns.  The game will last for 12 turns until dusk and may extend another 3 turns if a decision has not been reached.  The Ruritanian Corps and Galician IV Corps have had to do some hard marching and must test all units for loss of strength due to straggling.  II Corps and the Galician Reserve have not moved as far but started the day under the effects of rapid marching the day before.  Every other unit has to test for loss of strength.  

When I have time I will set up the battle.  If I can get enough clear time to invite an opponent over that will be great.  If not, I will run it as a solo game.

Galician II Corps Cavalry.  Airfix British Hussars again.

Update : 11 December 2023.  

Another battle to be held in suspended animation as events did not allow me to fight it while still in England.  It will have to await my return, whenever that may be.