Vive le Empreuer Trois Battailles en Allemange : Legion Games
1 — At start, 0600
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French, in column, east and south of Cospeda. V Corps 2nd Division the 103rd and 100th Ligne on the Cospeda road. Somehow [lets blame fog] the 88th from 1st Division is at the village edge with them, while the rest of V Corps 1st Division led by Suchet the, 34th , 64th and, 17le arrange themselves to move on Closewitz. The horse battery V-A-Ch, hussar and Cuirassier stack together to sweep to the Dornberg woods. Lannes centre.
Thick fog, shrouded the LAnnes troops as they formedup along the road from Cospeda to Lutzeroda. After hours of delay Napoleon had urged him to close and clear the way to that village and Closewitz. All of Lannes arty would follow the farm trail to Closewitsh and set up on a slope scouts had reconned late yesterday. Lannes Cavalry would guard their right and the infantry would take care of things the old fashioned way; with shot and steel in Column [+1 to melee value].
The V Corp advances through the fog at a slow but steady pace. What is interesting and I mentioned it in prior post. Is that my setup, barring the mistake with the 88th replicates Lannes dispostions at start. – Available forces, and terrain dictate the deployment.
2 — First shots, 0600
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As the arty moves the 17th leger get into firing range and clear the way, killing what would likely have been picket forces, inflicting a step loss. As the rest close on Closewitz.
French troops stumble into range as the pickets and edges of town come into view and they take light fire. In the Prussian turn they suffer defensive fire and lose a step.
Noteworthy that the regiment that walks into it first is the 17th Légère — the same regiment Fisher (p. 58) names as the one Napoleon sent forward first that morning!!
3 — 0630, the line as it stood
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Lützeroda held by Det-45 and Det-12. Between the villages Det-5, Det-7 Fs, and the Prussian battery 3Dv-A3-2. Cavalry Det-Ch L3 centre-right, who pivot to receive the French cav threat from the rear. Grenadiers Det-Gr Wn, 3Dv-Gr3, 3Dv-Gr4 toward Closewitz.
French 103rd , 100th , 88th , along with 21st legere closing on Lützeroda from west and south; While the 40th, 34th and the batteries V-A-1, V-A-2, V-A-Ch on the Closewitz side; Lannes forward as he will participate in the upcoming melees.
During the turn Prussian defensive fire phases generate no effective fires in teh dense fog. Still in column the French attack Lutzeroda, from the three hexes. Generating a melee check which the Pru shrug off safely ensconsed in the village. French columns fire in their defensive fire phase also missing, the PRussians begin to zero in and inflict a step loss on a column. The first French assault into Closewitz is repulsed , for no effect and re form to try again.
4 — 0630, Lützeroda about to go
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The 100th carries the day forcing a retreat and the first objective is secured. A ‘D’ result force theh Prussians out, and they retreat down teh road.
Meanwhile Lannes has Suchet’s men pepper CLosewitz to soften them up more as the barrages continue. Prussians are distraught as they are now facing infantry to the front and Cavalry in the rear!
5 — 0700, Lützeroda in French hands
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The 100th line takes a step loss from desperate fire of the Prussians in Lützeroda with a 1. Garrison survivors retreat back at Krippendorf, Prussian centre Det-5, Det-7 Fs, the battery still standing, one formation elects to take up square and suffers deadly fire from French.
Offensive fire from arty put hits on both units in Closewitz . French survive defensive fire including an Arty salvo into the flank as they close of Closewitz. French suffer light casualties. – 1 step.
6 — Elimination, Prussian centre
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This close up show the demise of Det-5 under an orange burst marker. Det-7 Fs alongside, in square. Prussian hussar stack above. Det-5 is being attack by the 103rd from flank and Cav to the rear. It’s a disaster and the break, fleeing or dying. Cut down by Hussars charging line abreast. The Prussian cavalry, fail to counter Charge!
7 — The Prussian left collapses
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The grenadier groups toward Closewitz and the Dornberg [ Det-Gr Wn, 3Dv-Gr4, Det-Ch L3 ] all were disrupted and retreat. The 40th advances into the village, having survived multiple rounds of arty fire. V-1-17le and Lannes up behind supported that melee. Which with the losses accumulated by the Prussians, allows the assault to go smoothly. The Prussians retreat, disorders the cavalry, and this means all the units are NOT going to be able to do much of anything before the scenario ends.
8 — Krippendorf, & Eliminated units
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Units out of play for Prussians.
9 — Disorganised
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3Dv-Gr4 and Det-Ch L3 each disorder 3 markers. The grenadiers — morale 9, the steadiest infantry in the detachment, deliberately placed to hold the village that mattered, broke and had to retreat.
10 — The Prussians give way
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French now hold both objectives. The Prussians acknowledge they have no capacity to attack or re claim the villages and capitulate.
What the play did to the two pre-registered plans
Notes from the plan I had the AI build for its defense and its assumptions.
The AI “speaks”
1. “Six fog-shortened turns are not enough.” This was the Prussian prediction outright, and it is the one the game answered hardest: over an hour early by turn 4 by the clock, means 0730 against a 0830 finish. The prediction wasn’t narrowly wrong, it was wrong by a third of the scenario.
2. “Closewitz can be taken but not held — Lannes has to win it twice.” He did win it twice, but not in the sense the plan meant. He was repulsed at 0630 with no effect, reformed, shelled it at 0700, and carried it on the second attempt. The counter-attack fist never swung the 45th and 12th, held adjacent rather than inside precisely to retake the village, are among the units that end the game disordered and retreating. That is the whole revised Prussian plan failing at its one load-bearing point, and it failed by never getting a turn to act.
3. “The fog is what forces the assault.” This is the one the play argues against, and it is the most interesting finding in the set. The draft has fog as the mechanism that denies Lannes the stand-off shooting gallery. What the notes show is fog degrading the defender worse: “Prussian – defensive fire phases generates limited or no effective fires in teh dense fog.” The French went in still in column and the garrison could not punish them for it. The fog didn’t force the assault so much as make the assault cheap! Per point 4 below, column turned out to be the formation that wanted to assault anyway.
4. The French plan was built on a wrong rule, and the play corrected it. The registered plan was: shell Closewitz first, switch to line where melee value comes up to 3 or better, then go in from three hexes. Line is not the assault formation.
Checked against the series rules this session: [my edit, it took some convinicing with teh AI that this was the correct method and then it kept arguing about the multiplier…sigh 🙂 ]
Which means the attack from three hexes in column was not a deviation from the plan — it was the right play against a plan that had the formations backwards. That is a fourth planning error, and it belongs in the record beside the three the intro already keeps: cavalry steps, the town/village rule, and the counter-attack fist that couldn’t work. This one is the best of the four, because the table play corrected it in play rather than in reading. End AI comment.