Sunday, April 28, 2013

SN 1813 - Epilogue

I got a little more from the New Jersey Contingent about this event, so I've added it as an epilogue here. First, some notes from Dan, and then a nice, lengthy discussion of the game from Russ (Blucher's perspective):

From Daniel Burkley (Schwarzenberg, Allied C-in-C):

As the Allied CinC, the opening plans were to have all the commands rendezvous at Bautzen. Bernadotte & Blucher had aggressive orders (PROBE)to attack any French they encountered as they moved to Bautzen, while Seivers was given a MANEUVER order to scout west to avoid contact until I knew another army could support him (eventually fulfilled by Blucher).

Schwarzenburg's starting board was a little confusing, initially, but I soon recognized that I could either go towards Dresden (which was how I was initially facing in road column), or go east (to the next board) and go north to reach Bautzen for the planned rendezvous. This initial plan unfolded without a hitch, encountering a French detachment sent through the north mountain pass from Bautzen that was eventually reinforced with a couple of Saxon units. These were easily swatted back, but considering that the exit was a mountain pass and two players' units had tried to make a stand, I decided that there was probably a very large "welcoming committee" waiting for me on the other side.

Seivers sent word that the French were at Bautzen, but I did not change his orders (since he was an all-cavalry force and alone at this point). The benefit of being the CinC now manifested itself, as I could change my orders on my own whim, so I left a covering force at the mountain pass and trekked further east to take the eastern pass, leaving a garrison of Landwehr at the crossroad.

The eastern pass led to Gorlitz, which Blucher was advancing on. Blucher took the northwest bridge [Guben], and the Austrians took the southwest bridge (after dispatching the French garrison at Gorlitz). Bernadotte sent word of his encounter with the Bavarians and that he was driving them away with zeal. Now I could change Seivers orders to PROBE, since I knew Blucher was entering the board where Bautzen was, which the Austrians also entered a turn or two later.

The Saxons were waiting for the Austrians, but most were deployed facing the other mountain pass (that "welcoming committee" I knew was waiting for me, earlier, when I was on another board). The lead Hussar unit was repulsed, but the Austrian Grenadiers threw back the Saxon square and a bridgehead was established. Now I could see that we had three armies fighting the French and Saxons from three different corners, but St.Cyr was bearing down on the detached Austrian cover force on the other side of the south mountain pass - so I knew the local superiority at Bautzen had to be pressed hard before St.Cyr evened the odds.

There were two moments where the Allies could have broken the game wide open (one where Blucher had a shot at charging the rear of Ney's cavalry, and one where the Austrians had a shot at charging three limbered batteries of St.Cyr), had we won the Initiative - but fortune favored the French, and those moments vanished as quickly as will-o-wisps.

Nonetheless, the Allies enjoyed a local superiority most of the game and ground the French/Saxon armies down significantly by the time St.Cyr was in a position to deploy properly. There was still a lot of fight left for both sides, but with the setting sun, Schwarzenburg had plenty to be happy about. Bernadotte has captured Leipzig and the other Allied armies gave at least as good as they got.

All the players were courteous and the game was well organized - an essential element to any successful gaming event. Thanks to Peter for the invitation and the game.



A few pictures form Dan which give a better impression of the venue:
Russ/Blucher,trying to keep his Corps in command on the approach to Gorlitz.


James (Ney) and Barry (Sievers) work out some combat
 on the Northern end of the Bautzen table.


Greg (McDonald) deploys his Saxon "Welcoming Committee"
 opposite the Mountain passes on the Bautzen table.

Greg maneuvers to oppose Schwarzenberg's Austrians near Bautzen


From Russ Lockwood (Rules author, Blucher):

Snappy Nappy Day: 1813 Campaign In A Day was held at Time Machine Hobby in Manchester, CT with eight players and with about a half dozen or so more people stopping by to see some of the action. Players commanded a corps -- all troops were 25mm. The umpire, Peter, handed out a theater map, which stretched from Breslau to Leipzig and contained only the most general details about Saxony, Silesia, and Austria. The area was divided into 10 tables, rivers and mountains making up the edges, and cleverly, the umpire separated the tables so they were not adjacent *and* spun the orientation so that north was not always in the same direction. Better, players had no idea what was beyond the edge of the table. The result was a nice touch of fog of war. Each player started on a different table, within 12 inches of a major city.


    In the interest of full disclosure, I authored the Snappy Nappy rules, but although I have umpired many a "campaign in a day" game, I recall only one that I played in -- I'm almost always the umpire. When you use multiple tables, you need an umpire who does not play. A single battle on one table -- the umpire can be a player and I've done that plenty of times. But for multi-table gaming, you need a dedicated umpire (in more ways than one). So, this was a real treat for me.


I, Blucher

In any case, as Blucher, I started around Breslau. As it turned out, I was basically the corner...but I didn't know that, and the last thing I wanted was to be surprised by some clever French player barreling into me. Thus, I had the two ends of my force, generally placed on or alongside the main road, in combat deployment. With no surprises, I headed west, with my 24 units.

A note here about corp composition. In my previous campaigns in a day, players controlled about a dozen units in a corp. Here I was controlling a double sized-corp with 24 regiment-sized units! Yikes! And these were 25mm units, not the 15mm units we usually command. Double Yikes! Command control could become difficult to maintain because 25s take up some real estate. We used two house rules: You could voluntarily interpenetrate without taking morale checks and when in road column, as long as the commander is within radius of the column and the column is chugging down the road, then the rest of the column follows, even if the individual units are outside the 12-inch command radius.

As to my particular corp, I had four infantry units of Militia, four of Conscript, four of Seasoned, and two of Veteran. I had three light cavalry units; one each of Militia, Conscript, and Seasoned, and a heavy cavalry unit, the vaunted 4th Cuirassiers, that were Veteran. I did have five batteries of artillery: three 6lbers (all Veteran), one 12lber (Seasoned), and one 6lber horse battery (Veteran). When I looked westwards, I saw one road heading to the one bridge at Liegnitz over the River Bober. Hmmm. Traffic jam's a comin'.

The first two turns of the campaign were co-ordinated in that all players followed the turn sequence in order simultaneously. This is important for two reasons: one, it gives the players time to sort out the sequence and figure out movement mechanisms, and two, it gives the now massively overworked umpire just a bit of breathing room to move players from one table to another. The umpire, not the player, moves the first units from table to table. Remember, the tables are *not* adjacent, so only the umpire knows which connect to which. With every player clamoring to move, the umpire charges from table to table to make sure troops got to the correct table.


Command Dilemma

My corp poked across the river at Liegnitz and the umpire duly put me on another table on the road to Gorlitz, where I saw the tail end of a French corp moving west across the Neisse River. Gorlitz had a two-unit garrison, while a 12lber battery sat astride the road, blocking the way to the bridge -- and I knew what had gone on ahead of me over that bridge.

My original orders from the C-in-C were to Screen (half of units to be within 6-12 inches, or move towards, Bautzen or enemy troops) -- and Bautzen was across the bridge to the west. However, upon meeting French, the orders were to switch to Probe (half within 6 inches of enemy troops or objective, the other half within 6-12 inches, or heading that way). However, upriver was another crossing point at Guben that would bring me towards Bautzen. Note, no player had a pontoon bridge, so the only way across a river was over a major bridge.

Classic command dilemma. If I split my force, half to head towards Gorlitz and half to swing north to Guben, would the French mount a counterattack back over the Gorlitz bridge? Could I make it over the Guben bridge before the French set up a defense on the other side of the river (and on another table -- delicious fog of war -- that I could not see)? Was another French force coming from an unexpected direction? Sure, I can read a map, but...where were the French? They'll probably show up at the worst possible moment! My comment -- expressing admiration at this wonderful dilemma -- to the umpire was: "So that's what's it's like to play my rules!"

First thing I did was exercise command prerogative and change my order back to Screen (Prussians can select an order one level up or down the seven-level order hierarchy  The better French command structure can go up or down two levels). I took the cavalry, kept it and as much as I could keep in Blucher's command control and headed 'cross country' towards Guben. My other units took their chances on advancing on their own towards Gorlitz. The result was an ugly, ugly straggling of units.

And then, from a side road in the south, came troops marching up the road towards my strung out, out-of-control troops that were heading for Gorlitz. Friend or foe? I wasn't expecting any friends. Friend or foe? The plan didn't have any friends heading towards me. Friend or...

Whew! Friend. Austrian troops headed my way on their way to Bautzen. But what are they doing here? The original plan was a pincer movement towards Bautzen -- Blucher and the Prussians from the East, Austrians from the South, and Russians and Swedes from the North. Uh-oh. Did the plan fall apart?

Last I had heard from the C-in-C, which was a note dated Turn 3 (12:55pm in real time said the time stamp as we had started around 12:30pm or so), Schwartzenburg reiterated that the French had been contacted at Bautzen. "This is where the big battle will be," said the note.

To digress, communications were on index cards sent from players to umpire, time stamped, and then delivered to the appropriate player. I am not sure how many turns were done or what the time was when the Austrians made their appearance, but the C-in-C must know what he is doing.


Surprise!

At about that time, my Prussian cavalry crossed the Neisse River at Guben to the utter and complete surprise of the French. How could this be? Well, it seems the bridge model had been set up on the table with Guben and the corresponding bridge was not set up on the Bautzen table. The Prussian cavalry fanned out to form a bridgehead -- and was gratified to see the Russian cavalry entering the Bautzen table from the north. The French had bottled them up -- cannon and a garrisoned town doing a fine job of keeping the cavalry at bay and stacking them up back onto the other table with the faux town of Keineburg.

No matter. The Prussians had a tenuous bridgehead and the French were reacting and forming a wall of cavalry and artillery, with infantry marching to help. Blucher raced back to urge his struggling, straggling troops on the Gorlitz table to march for Guben. Macht Schnell!

The Austrians bombarded the town of Gorlitz, while the Prussians kept the French cannon busy as an artillery battery and the 7th Reserve Infantry Regt worked to the north of the enemy gun. Well, the out of command French gun rolled to relocate and sure did, pointing directly at the Conscripts, who were in column for an even better target.

The French gun thundered, the conscripts took it on the chin, and the gut, kneecap, and the left foot, and had two morale checks to do, needing an 8+ on a d10. I rolled the dice, and when the smoke cleared, two magnificent eights appeared on the faces -- both passed! An unexpected mighty roar of approval came from the Prussians. On the return fire, a lowly shell from the three Prussian batteries that had been ineffectively firing at the French gun finally hit...and the French blew the morale check, and the next, and then next, and so on until it routed (eliminated from play).

In Snappy Nappy, hits cause morale checks (MC), and units roll until they pass said MC, which means that one shot and several unlucky die rolls can do in a unit. In this case, at least for this story, the three Prussian batteries had fired for three turns (three hours) at the single French battery until it had enough. Meanwhile, the four Austrian artillery batteries pounded Gorlitz and broke the French defenders. The way was clear to Bautzen!


Over the River

Blucher collected the troops he could grab within his command radius and headed back for Guben. The rest, well, they did the best they could to keep up. Blucher gave up on some and had them form square on the southern road where the Austrians came from and on the intersection of that road and the main east-west road to Bautzen. A third regiment tried valiantly to head for Gorlitz, but often stopped to smell the flowers.

Back over the river, the Prussians infiltrated through the woods seeking to outflank the French line. A key move placed the vaunted Cuirassiers in column just as the French cavalry turned away and presented buttocks. If only Blucher could win the initiative for the turn, the French cavalry would be doomed!

Alas, Blucher must have spent too much time cajoling his troops across the bridge and the French won the initiative. Their cannon boomed, the cuirassiers were hammered and after many failed morale checks, fled in Panic back to the bridge. Even attaching Blucher to try and rally them failed for three straight turns. Blucher left the 4th Cuirassiers milling around the bridge pylons and nicknamed them the Trolls.

Meanwhile, Prussian artillery pummeled the 81st Ligne, which fled in terror through the woods and away from the Prussians. With troops emerging from the woods and more and more Prussians coming into line, the French withdrew back towards Bautzen.

Not that it would do them much good, for the Austrians had pushed over the Gorlitz bridge and grabbed a bridgehead. Frantic French counterattacks bent the Austrian line, but more regiments took their place. The French streamed back too, and saw the Prussians advancing south along the river to try and link up with the Austrians. The French put a 3lber horse artillery and two cavalry against the mighty Schutzen regiment, which charged the guns in column. The horse artillery fired cannister, but to the amazement of the Prussians, missed -- obviously rattled by the charge. The Schutzen swept away the gun and even caused a morale check on a cavalry unit that had sat too close behind, which failed.

At this time, around 5:30pm, the umpire called the game. A good five hours of battle had gone by in a flash. I am not sure how many turns that would be, but my guess is around 20. I remember being turn 3 when I entered the Gorlitz board, and then another six or seven turns to cross at Guben -- it's diagonal across the long way of the table from where I entered. Then another four turns of setting up a line and trading shots, then another four turns of pushing forward, and then another couple of turns following up the French and hitting the Austrians.


Night Falls

The situation on the Bautzen board was that the Prussians lost two cavalry units of four (both were Panicked and the 4th Trolls, er, Cuirassiers, defied Blucher's efforts to bring them back), had three infantry units guarding the backdoor, and the rest were untouched. The Prussians would need some turns to deploy, for most of the corps was still crossing the river.

The French in front of the Prussians were starting to falter. The Russians had lost considerable cavalry, but plenty left to put up a fight. The French originally at Gorlitz and now in front of the Austrians looked to be on their last legs. The Austrians had been dinged a bit and still had half or so of their force remaining in the field. The Saxon Corp, which had been delayed in part by marching towards France and then countermarching back to the sound of the guns and in part by rearguard Austrians, looked as intact as the Prussians, but would need time to deploy against the Austrians -- but that's from a view across a table and not seeing what was on the next table over.

In the "north," rumors of a slugfest on the march from Berlin to Leipzig came to Blucher, along with the news that the French supply center at Leipzig had fallen to the Swedes. The state of those troops were unknown to me, but the French apparently got the worst of it.

All told, the French were beginning to crumble as the Allies pressed forward. There was still plenty of battle left (thanks to the large corps), but the Allies were holding the better position and apparently had more troops in the fight than the French.


Enjoyable

I can't say enough how much I enjoyed playing Snappy Nappy Campaign in a Day. Well, yes, I authored the rules, but I just about always umpired these large multi-table games, not participated as a player. Here I was dealing with uncertainty as much as the enemy in a marvelous fog-of-war situation, unsure how to proceed but hewing to my orders, and debating in my own head how to make the best of the situation. And the other players are trying to do the same. That's just a great day of wargaming. Thank you, Peter, for running the game and thank you, Time Machine Hobby, for hosting.


And thank you, Russ and Dan for driving all the way to Connecticut and playing!

Peter

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Snappy Nappy 1813 AAR part 3: Endgame and Comments


Picking up the narrative begun in Part 1 and Part 2 of this report, the game was now clearly moving to its climax and resolution.


St Cyr's Corps barges onto the "Lonely Mountain" table. There is a unit of Austrian  Landwehr (Militia) garrisoning the nearby village, and another Landwehr unit along with a Uhlan and artillery unit defending the distant village which overlooks the mountain pass that leads to the Bautzen table.


 
Bernadotte presses on against Oudinot, pushing the Bavarians back towards Leipzig; shortly after this picture, Oudinot concedes that his troops are shattered and must withdraw with all haste to reorganize the remnants. 


The Austrian defenders guard the pass!


*Finally* able to roll some dice in anger :-), St Cyr's artillery easily forces the militia out of their village; they will later be run down by some French light cavalry, hence the smile on Peter D's face. The rest of his Corps loses little time in pressing on for the pass. 


Schwarzenberg's Austrians enlarge their bridgehead on the Bautzen table; the point of the triangle of roads at the top of the picture is the location of the mountain pas that leads to the lonely Mountain table and St Cyr's advancing Corps.


Ney pulls back his Dragoons under heavy pressure from Blucher, who now has infantry and artillery arriving to support his cavalry. 


Frustrated by their long day of marching, St Cyr's men mean business!


The Prussians continue their advance on the Bautzen table...


while Sievers' Russian cavalry stands off against Ney's defensive forces. 


another view of the Northern half of the Bautzen table.


McDonald's Saxons regroup to contain the Austrian advance. White coats against white coats!


Close up of the cavalry stand-off.


More Prussian infantry pours across the bridge over the river Niesse.


St Cyr's French corps arrives on the Bautzen table, and his troops march away from the enemy, towards Bautzen proper. The Emperor is not amused, with Ney and McDonald both fighting for their lives, but his orders to St Cyr were to "Come to Bautzen Immediately!"  No mention was made of attacking the enemy, etc, so an Imperial Aide de Camp was then dispatched to the Marshal with the instructions to "Attack the Austrians and take over the defense of the southern part of the table ,so that McDonald can shift his forces North to oppose the advancing Prussians". 


St Cyr's almost completely fresh Corps should suffice to put a halt to Schwarzenberg's advance.

Situation Map #5

McDonald's Saxon's disengage from the Austrians, and head North to face the Prussians.


The Prussian Artillery is battering the French of Ney's corps.


Ney struggles to find troops to make a new defensive line, but the noose is closing...


Sievers calls his Horse Artillery to the front.


How will they contain Blucher?


Sievers is still bottled up for now, but Oudinot has been defeated near Leipzig, McDonald's Saxons are severely battered, and Ney's Corps is fatiguing rapidly. We had started play at about 11:30 AM, and had reached our scheduled stopping time of 5 PM. The overall situation seemed clear, and so we called the game a major Allied victory. 


Some player feedback:

1) "A great day's gaming. Having never played SN before, it was tons of fun, and quite challenging as well for my battered Saxon Corps, who at one point were stretched out between 3 tables (garrison to probe). Glorious action indeed, with Gorlitz held valiantly (one conscript unit passed many morale checks; the other, which was clearly disheartened by the loss of both the 1st conscripts and the 12 lb  battery, quickly caved."
Greg (McDonald)

2) "I had a great time. Loved the game, the system, the scenario, battles, and challenges, and particularly meeting Russ and Dan from NJ, truly stellar gamers and gentlemen. Some retrospective thoughts from Napoleon's perspective on how the overall battle progressed: The distraction caused by the early Austrian drive from the South coupled with the Russian cavalry corps pressure from the north had no little influence on Napoleon freezing (and largely keeping inactive) Ney's centrally-located corps at Bautzen. Indeed, the overall concentric inward driving pressure of the four Allied corps more or less had them all engaged pretty much most of the day in either actively driving/destroying French or at least tying them down. In contrast, the better part of two French corps (Ney and Oudinot) were tied up one way or another not seriously engaged with the enemy, leaving the brunt of the fighting falling on the unfortunate shoulders of MacDonald and St. Cyr. Certainly an equation that served to dish up victory to the Allies. Kudos to the Allied command."
James (Ney/Napoleon)

3) Joe's  (Bernadotte) comments were posted to his blog: Fishtales.


4) ...thank you for umpiring! I so rarely get to actually play in a campaign-size Snappy Nappy battle because I'm the one who umpires, so this was a real treat for me!


I loved your remark as Blucher, maneuvering towards Gorlitz. "So THIS is what it is like to play my rules!" Classic!

Kudos for putting me in a 'Uh-oh, what do I do now?' situation.

Right then and there, I was in a classic command dilemma -- no idea what was beyond the enemy-held town of Gorlitz, and no guarantee that the French corp that exited beyond wouldn't be coming back, and yet, taking Gorlitz would take time and trying to cross a river presumably held by troops beyond would be difficult.

I could take the option of moving to the other crossing at Guben, but that was a long way from Gorlitz, I had a limited command radius, and if I was caught twixt and between an enemy counter-offensive, my corp was going to be down to a division by the time I could get back. 

My gamble of heading for Guben, meant that Blucher kept up with the cavalry, gradually leaving infantry and artillery behind in a strung-out line. Rolling MCs to move can get nerve-wracking. Many a brigade just sat and watched the grass grow. The photos show this clearly.

Would I make it to Guben before some counterattack came? Would the Guben crossing (on the other table) be defended heavily by the French corp that escaped from Gorlitz? 

In the back of your mind, you know, you just know, that if there was a time when the enemy could really put a monkey wrench and entire toolbox into your efforts, they would do so at the worst possible, strung-out, no commander in sight moment. 

And that's when it hit me...

Russ (game author, Blucher)

<Incidentally, the record for unit's movement in a SN game is 23 feet, and I believe Peter (St. Cyr) came pretty close to that by the end of the day.>


Conclusions and GM Observations:

   First, this project was well worth all the time and effort put into it by the players and myself, and I was very pleased with how it all worked out. I have wanted to do a project like this since first reading Russ's articles about it in the old MWAN. The 200 point Corps were probably a bit on the large side, especially if we had had more players. The Infantry Corps typically had about 12 infantry units or about 48,00 infantry men in Snappy Nappy terms. Add the cavalry and artillery and it is close to 60,000 men with 100 - 120 guns. Of course, the presence of substantial numbers of Militia and Conscripts in all of the Corps inflated the numbers somewhat. With more players, somewhat smaller forces for each would probably have been preferable. I also might have increased the Command radii somewhat to allow for the size of the forces, maybe to 18" for the Allies and 24" for the French to allow for the larger commands. Still it worked OK as we did it (which is as written in the rules).

    All of the players were great, and many contributed the troops and/or terrain that made it all possible. Peter D. deserves an award for patience and perseverance as St. Cyr!  It was a special treat having Russ and Dan join us from New Jersey. The new gaming space at The Time Machine is awesome, and should get even better with a few additional improvements they hope to make to the space. I just hope that they can support it financially... which  is of course in part up to us to help out as much as we can.

   I would definitively do another of these again in the future. Field of Battle remains my favored tactical rules, but Snappy Nappy is ideally suited to this unique and challenging Campaign in a Day approach. It would also work pretty well if (? when, LOL) I am insane enough to consider doing all of Leipzig some year...

Peter

Monday, April 22, 2013

Snappy Nappy 1813 AAR, part 2: Middle Game


    Part 1 of this report covered the initial deployment and the first two (synchronous) moves or so. Using the master Table map that I had to keep everything straight, here is what the opening moves of the Campaign, covered in that post,  looked like.  Keep in mind that the players only had the very general theater map, and had to gradually figure out how that related to the tables as well as the overall situation, communicating only by handwritten (delayed) messages.

Opening Moves

The Prussian advanced guard  (Blucher) has just crossed the Bober at Leignitz onto the Gorlitz table.


At the same time, the Austrians (Schwarzenberg) have advanced onto the Lonely Mountain table. A weak French garrison in a small mountainside village sends the alarm to Ney on the adjacent Bautzen table!


Bernadotte's Army of the North is passing through Dennewitz on their way South.


Shortly thereafter, Bernadotte's Advanced Guard crosses the Elbe near Dennewitz, and runs smack into Bernadotte's Bavarian Corps, headed North!


St Cyr's Saxon Corps has crossed over the Neisse onto the Bautzen table, joining Ney's French Corps.. This table is readily identifiable because it is the only one with a brown table cloth; we will be seeing a lot more of it as the campaign progresses!

Situation Map #2


Meanwhile, St. Cyr seems to have been having trouble with his map and compass. He initially marched West to Leipzig, apparently thinking it was Bautzen. Upon being informed of his error by the Burgermeister, his Corps headed South, but took the Westernmost fork in the road. Upon reaching the edge of the table, his scouts were informed that up ahead the road rapidly degenerated into mere mountain tracks (i.e., there was no table in play to represent that part of the Theater map!). Thereupon, his (doubtless cursing) Marie-Louises reversed directions for the second time, and took the correct Eastern fork in the road. The lead elements of St. Cyr's Corps are seen here, entering the Torpitz table. 


Schwarzenberg's Corps bears down upon the weak French blocking force, as Ney hurries trio send reinforcements to stop or at least delay them from entering the Bautzen table! 


Siever's advanced guard, a unit of Miltia quality Bashkirs, encounter's the lead elements of Ney's Corps. Somehow, the Elite rated, armored Carabiniers a Cheval managed to rout the bow armed Asiatic light horse shortly afterwards...


Bernadotte has very successfully established and expanded his bridgehead over the Elbe, and is advancing to the attack; the garrison of Torgau  (two units of decent quality Vistula Legion infantry, plus a 6# battery) is seen in the background. Oudinot's initial orders apparently required him to avoid becoming too heavily engaged. 


On the Bautzen table, the arrival of McDonald's Saxon Corps (to stymie any attack from the South by Schwarzenberg) is allowing Ney to once again turn his attention Northwards towards Siever's large Russian Cavalry Corps.


St Cyr has left a moderate garrison behind at Dresden (seen in the distance, with the Erzgebirge mountains beyond), whilst Oudinot has left a Bavarian cavalry unit or two on the Dresden table as well, in order to maintain communications and act as an early warning of any allied advance in this sector; none ever develops. 


The bulk of Siever's cavalry Corps remains on the Keineburg table, hesitant to advance  too far on a narrow front against infantry and artillery in well established positions on the Bautzen table.


Bernadotte calls for reinforcements, reducing the garrison of Berlin to a minimum. Here Russian infantry and artillery march towards Dennewitz and the bridge over the Elbe.


St Cyr's Corps makes headway on their way to Bautzen via the Southern route; here they are approaching the town or Torpitz. St. Cyr's confusion resulted in the Emperor (Ney/James) being equally confused as to St. Cyr's whereabouts - even though he was on a table in plain sight less than 15 feet away!  At one point, St. Cyr wrote that he had reached Bautzen (except it was actually Leipzig), whereupon the exasperated French C-in-C wrote back to St. Cyr "You are NOT in Bautzen; *I* am in Bautzen!" St. Cyr also neglected to relay that he was on the same table as Oudinot, who was heavily engaged with Bernadotte, nor did he ask if he should march to the assistance of the Bavarians. Evidently it is not just the historical marshals who failed to cooperate effectively!  

In fairness to Peter D. (St. Cyr), I must point out that the game was deliberately designed to foster the maximum uncertainty in the players despite all the tables being in plain sight. None of the Cities or Towns were labeled on the individual table terrain maps, and the Theater map was of very limited detail, and didn't always correspond exactly to the more stylized table configurations. The whole point of the exercise is  gain insight into the duties and uncertainties of higher command in the Napoleoic era, both as C-in-C, relying on less than perfect or up to date information to implement and revise your grand strategy  and as Corps Commander, trying to implement the orders you are given, even when they don't seem to make sense.


Bows against armor, Elite against Militia, Heavy against Light. Anyone want to guess the result?


Blucher's Corps streams onto the Gorlitz table; McDonald has left Gorlitz garrisoned by 2 Conscript Infantry brigades and some heavy 12# artillery.  Blucher anticipates a prolonged bottleneck at Gorlitz, and decides to take the risky step of sending his Corops cavalry off across country towards a seemingly forgotten bridge over the Neisse at Guben.


Meanwhile, Bernadotte and Oudinot, ex comrades in arms, continue to battle it out near Torgau. 




St Cyr, soon to be under orders to "Come to Bautzen Immediately!), labors to keep his strung out Corps in command as they stream South through the Mountain passes; he could have arrived in Bautzen much more rapidly by back tracking  across the Elbe (on the right of the picture) onto the Dresden table and continuing due East to Bautzen, but the table configurations made that not so easy to appreciate! The Emperor, being in the dark as to St. Cyr's exact location, was also somewhat vague in his instructions, and by the time he made it clear that Bautzen was St. Cyr's destination, his entire Corps was already well South of the Mountains. 


Overview of Blucher's advance on the Gorlitz table; the city is down the road off the right side of the picture.


Close up of the continued bitter fighting between Oudinot's Bavarians and the polygot Army of the North. Bernadotte (Joe) evidently had hot dice all day. His vintage Minifigs Swedes probably felt like they had something to prove, this being their first time  back on the wargames table in almost 15 years!


Schwarzenberg's Austrians have defeated the French and Saxon troops sent to delay them at the Mountain pass South of Bautzen. A brief reconnaissance reveals the forces on the Bautzen table are far too powerful to make an assault here wise. Instead a small covering force is left to guard the passes, and the bulk of the Kaiserlicks are seen "coming around the (lonely) mountain" towards the Easternmost pass. 

Situation map #3


Having routed the Bashkirs, the Carabiniers try their luck on some lance armed Cossacks. Still Elite Heavy cavalry facing Militia Light cavalry; this time the Cossacks are merely Panicked (instead of routed and destroyed outright)! 


The leading troops of Schwarzenberg's Austrian Corps enter the Gorlitz table, joining Blucher's Prussians. 


as the Prussian cavalry crosses an overlooked bridge over the Niesse onto the Bautzen table.
(GM note: although the bridge was clearly marked on the Table map used to set up the terrain, it wasn't placed when the table was laid out. This was easy to miss, as there was NOT a road connected to it (deliberately so). Ney (James) took it in stride, but it was certainly an unpleasant surprise!)


The Carabiniers aren't feeling quite so smug about their position now!


Back on the Keineburg table, Sievers rallies his repulsed Cossacks. 


Oudinot and Bernadotte continue to battle it out near Torgau.


Blucher's Prussian Infantry and artillery advance upon Gorlitz.


as the battle of Torgau continues.


St. Cyr passes  throughTorpitz, and the Emperor is finally made aware of his exact location!


Schwarzenberg's Austrians join the advance upon Gorlitz.


Bernadotte (Joe) and Oudinot (Roger) continue their private battle, ans St Cyr (Peter D) prepares to move the last of his troops off the Torgau/Leipzig table. 


Ney moves French Dragoons and infantry to contain the newly arrived Prussian cavalry.


Between them, Blucher ans Schwarzenberg concentrate the fire of no less than SEVEN artillery units on the Saxon garrison of Gorlitz!


The Bavarians are slowly but surely being pushed back by the Army of the North.


As the advance upon Gorlitz continues.


Ney's defensive lije shapes up... but his troops are becoming rather thinly stretched!


Despite the overwhelming odds, the Saxon conscript infantry and heavy 12# battery stationed at Gorlitz put up a brave and stubborn defense!


Dan (Schwarzenberg, in cap) and Russ (Blucher) confer on the conduct of the Siege of Gorlitz.


James (Ney/Emperor) left, Barry (Sievers) center, and Greg (McDonald) right in action around Bautzen.


The army of the North continues to press Oudinot's Bavarians slowly backwards from Torgau.


The Prussian cavalry pushes forward from their bridgehead.


Russian Cavalry General Sievers deems it time to resume the pressure upon Ney, so as to tie down more of his troops as the Prussian attack develops. These three units of Russian dragoons represent almost 5,000 troopers!


St. Cyr's French Corps finally picks up speed as it nears the edge of the Torplitz table.


Russian Dragoons charge to cover the deployment of their Horse Artillery!


Oudinot's Bavarians are severely battered, but not yet (quite) broken. He advises the Emperor that it is unlikely that he will be able to hold out much longer...


The Hanoverian garrison of Berlin has been enjoying the fare at the Ratskellar!


Gorlitz has fallen!

but all remains quite around Dresden, much to the relief of the King of Saxony.

Situation map #4

Conclusion (part 3) to follow...

Peter