On a sunny Saturday in Hong Kong the monthly meeting of the Hong Kong Society of Wargamers saw the armies of Napoleon and Davout go head to head with the 6mm armies of Hohenlohe and Brunswick (freshly painted by Chris Doran). Given the competition from other games from colonial India to the depths of outer-space, only four generals could be assembled for this two table encounter. We drew for commands, Chris ending up with Brunswick against George as Davout. I drew Hohenlohe, finding myself facing off against my son as Napoleon and his cohorts under Lannes, Soult, Murat, Old Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.
The rules being used were Sam Mustafa's 'Blücher'. The scenario was worked out by Chris, overlaying old battle maps on Google Maps to get the relative positions of rivers, streams and settlements right. Both battles began in fog, limiting visibility to 2 base widths. This would lift by turn 13 at the latest but the French would roll at the start of their turns and it would lift earlier if a 6 was rolled. A special restriction for the Prussian force at Jena was that Grawert's reserve division could not move until the fog lifted. Hohenlohe could only communicate with Brunswick after the fog had lifted as well, reducing the chance of collaboration.
The main restriction on the Prussians was a rule that they could not make any Corps activations. All actions would have to be either by individual bases or by a Commander activation of any bases within command range, such activation precluding any further actions in the turn. The French had no such restriction. Indeed, Napoleon's excellent staff work trait and Soult's vigorous trait gave them very high mobility. On top of this, French units would be allowed to rally - using command pips to remove losses, provided the unit is more than 2 base widths away from the enemy - while the Prussians could not.
Victory conditions for the French at Jena were to break the Prussian army by destroying 7 units (rising to 9 if Ruchel arrived). They would be given an historic victory if they could do this without involving the Guard or Reserve Cavalry. The Prussians needed not to be broken and still be holding the road running north to Apolda at the end of Turn 30.
Victory conditions for Auerstadt was for whoever broke the enemy army - French break point was 4, Prussian's 6, rising to 8 after Kalkreuth's arrival. If neither army broke then the army holding Hassenhausen would be awarded the victory.
Given the pressure I was put under at Jena I had little time to take pictures of what went on at Auerstadt, so what follows is slanted towards the former part of the action.
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Close up of the end of Grawert's line, looking across the fields to Hohenlohe's forward line on the Dornberg (but fog still covers the field under the scenario rules) |
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Auerstadt starting positions, French to the left. |
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By advancing over the ridge, the French give up their advantage in skirmish range action and have to face the disciplined Prussian volleys at close range, to rather unpleasant effect. |
As the smoke from the Prussian volleys cleared, so did the fog. Hohenlohe could now see the huge mass of French forces still advancing on his position and was allowed to send a message to his C-in-C Brunswick. He advised that despite his initial success, his present position would inevitably be turned so he aimed to make a steady withdrawal, holding back the French as long as possible, unless he could be reinforced.
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The majority of Soult's Corps advances to relieve Lannes while Augerau's men start pushing through the woods on the Prussian Right. |
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To win some time, Hohenlohe sent in his Saxon Grenadiers to blunt Augerau's outflanking move. It was a great success, one unit being destroyed and another driven back deep into the wood. |
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Hohenlohe has no answer to Soult bringing one of his brigades onto the flank of the Prussian main line |
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Hohenlohe begins to retreat before the flood of Frenchmen can engulf him. The narrow space enables him to command most of his men, but the heroic Saxons are left abandoned in the woods. |
Knowing that Ruchel is about to arrive, raising the breaking point of the Prussian force from 7 to 9, hesitant to face the Prussian muskets again and still shaken by the treatment dished out to Lannes, Napoleon held back his men and the guns here fell silent, allowing the sound of gunfire to the north around Auerstadt to reach the ears of the men at Jena.
By the time Hohenlohe received his message about Kalkreuth's return, Brunswick lay dead upon the field of battle but his men were fighting on in a sweeping battle of individual manoeuvre.
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A gigantic melée at Auerstadt. The French hold Hassenhausen after recapturing it from the Prussians. |
So, the day ended 2-0 to the Prussians. As we packed up, we thought that the scenario settings had been pretty good. The outcome at Auerstadt was not unexpected but good troop handling did allow the French to contest the battle right up to the final turn. At Jena, the terrain constrictions on the French deployment were realistic. Impatience at the delay these imposed cost the French dearly. It is unlikely that Hohenlohe would have had the command capacity to manage Ruchel and Kalkreuth's men if they had come on to the field but the chance of the French breaking his position was very low by the end. I appreciate the subtleties of the Blücher rules more each time I play them - this is now my third game with them - but still struggle with the geometry of movement and remembering terrain effects. It is good to be able to fight large battles in an afternoon but maintaining the concentration needed when in sole control of an army is taxing on me.
Complements to Chris Doran for the scenario and for his beautifully painted Prussians. All he has to do next is paint up some proper pre 1808 French!
Enjoyable battle reports on these famous, twin battles. I guess Davout with not be awarded the title of, “Duke of Auerstadt”. With the Prussians overturning history in both battles, would this have ended the campaign?
ReplyDeleteThere is still Bernadotte to bring into play!
DeleteBernadotte. The general who always maneuvered his army to be nowhere rather than somewhere.
DeleteThe French only "lost" vs history - Davout's corps was pushed aside so Brunswicks main army would escape, but Hohenlohe has a very hard overnight retreat with the French bloodied but with a 2:1 numerical advantage - likely to be caught given relative marching speeds, to set up a second day battle of Apolda.
DeleteAnd don't forget Bernadotte! He might march on Apolda, or he might not.
DeleteGreat write-up! Do want to emphasise that the Prussians got hot dice on both battlefields. Auerstadt appears balanced, given the Prussians only won on their last turn, despite the hot dice. Impossible to match Davout's historic result, no Prussian general will send one division in at a time. Jena is too hard for the French; I have tweaked the scenario as suggested, the Dornberg hill will now affect close combat but not shooting, and ALL the Prussians are now unable to move until they see the French or the fog lifts. Looking forward to replaying to see if this returns too much edge to the French!
ReplyDeleteThanks for setting everything up and for expanding on what happened at Auerstadt. How about Hohenlinden next?
Delete