$80 Katzbach AAR

Katzbach, 1813, using Sam Mustafa's Fast Play Grande Armèe Rules

Scenario Available:  Here
The scenario begins around noon, it's raining, and can end at some point after turn five.


Initial Set-up

Turn 1

Pulse 1

The scenario begins with 8 Corps and the Russian cossack cavalry pouncing on III Corps.  The trap is sprung! 

In the above you can see the Prussians advance on both flanks, hoping to pin III Corps, then overwhelm it.  The Russian cav was supposed to flank but ended up attacking.  The Russian hussars attacked the 9th divisions 2d brigade, who formed square and beat the hussars back with moderate casuatlies.  York’s Division begins heading for the road to widen the front against Southam and crush his left flank.

Attack in echelon!

On the south side of the river the Russian infantry begins moving forward, planning to drive the French backwards towards the ominously named village of Nieder Crayn  The French plan is to put together a grand battery to stop the numerically superior Russians in the gap between the twin villages of Schlaupe and Hermannsdorff (the left and right village above, respectively).  This is thwarted by some delays in deployment of the XI corps ( rolled a "Hold" result for the control test, so no units could move other than artillery, and minor changes of facing).  Compounding this issue, General Lauriston has already begun the advance.  Seeing this gap between the two French corps open up, the Russian cavalry under Korff begins a mad dash through the town of Schlaupe to exploit it.

Situation at the end of Pulse 1.

Pulse 2

The French V Corps (Blue, middle right) opens up on the Russians under Langeron (Red, above V Corps).

The Russians under Langeron had just filled the gap between Schaupe and Hermansdorf when the French attack.  The remnants of the 22nd Division of the 10th Corps are hammered by the French as they exit Hermansdorf.  The Far right Russian flank holds but the First Brigade of the 19th Division slams into the Russian 10th Corps, 8th Division and pushes them back towards their supports.  The French brigade takes heavy casualties but opens a gap on the Russian right flank.  Unforunately, the withdrawing Russian brigade reveals a 12# foot battery facing the advanding French…

General Gerards XIs corps begins moving forward, its horse batteries leading a race with General Korff’s cavalry, who are just passing through Schaupp.

On the far side of the river, III Corps remains in position to absorb the 8the Corps attack, and moves its 10th Division laterally to expand the left flank of the corps.  III Corps is praying for an earl finish to the game to give it a chance to escape across the river at nightfall.

The Cossacks exit Schaupp into a wall of steel... and capture one battery and run off two!

The Prussians march is aided by Blucher availing himself of the "grab-the-lapels" rules to guide York into position.  I Korps rapid deployment is too important to be left to chance, especially given the punishment 8 Corps is receiving.  The Russian cavalry on the armies extreme far right flank have had some success, breaking through the squares of the French infantry and scattering the feeling men.  III Corps destruction has begun.

Langeron’s troops and V corps are locked in a death struggle South of the River.  The retreating Russians reveal a 12# battery that blasts the advancing 19th Division with grapeshot, taking them down to 1 SP.  The brigade reels from the blow.  French artillery inflicts some light casulaties on the Russian’s right flank,  but in the middle Russian counter battery knocks out a French 12# battery.  The French brigades follow in on the middle and left flank.  In the center the 2nd and 4th brigades of the 19th division barely miss the same 12# battery that just knocked out the French foot battery.  On the next turn it will likely retreat after firing grape shot at them, allowing the Russian brigades behid it to then attack. 

To the rear left of V Corps XI Corps is moving up rapidly now, and deploys a row of 6 batteries opposite the Russian cavalry now exiting Schauppe.  But Tchaplitz’s cossacks are watching, and bursts upon the gunners of the French horse artillery as they move into position.  They surprise the French artillery, saber the gunners of one 6 pound horse battery without taking a single casualty and run off another horse battery and a 12# foot battery!  The revealed French infantry quickly form square in the face of the marauding Cossacks.

On the other side of the river the Russian hussars crush the last squares of the 9th Divisions 2d brigade.  A few hundred meters down the line the Cossack brigade melts away under the fire of the French squares.

The left flank of III Corps begins to crumble.

The Russians under St. Priest would have been best served awaiting Yorck to fall in on their right, but St. Priest orders an assault across the line.  The Russians move towards the grimly waiting French. The 2d Brigade of the French 8th division and the 2d regimetn of St. Priests 11th Division engage in a wild exchange of fire, which inflicts heavy casualties on the French, but annihilates the Russians, who have been weakened by a march through French artillery fire.  The 1st regiment does better.  With the Corps Commander leading from the front they push the French back and inflicting heavy casualties  while taking many casualties in return.  The French line is now breached.  The effort is for naught, as the French right flank holds firm and cooly sends the Russians of the weakened 17th Division scurrying to regroup.

Turn 2

Pulse 1

It has begun raining to there is no skirmish phase, command radius of generals reduced to 6 inches (I made these up on he spot because FPGA doesn't have a weather section in the rules- simple enough to make it up on your own!).  MacDonald rolls 5 CP, Blucher 8.  The French get the initiative

Lauriston launches an attack in the rain in an effort to push the Russians out of the gap between the villages.  The Russian flank finally gives, the French 19th Division pushing themback through the village of Hermansdorff.  In the middle, Lauriston personally leads the attack of the 4th brigade of the 19th division.  It succeeds, bursting thorugh the Russian line.  The 2d brigade of the 19th division hits the Russian line, but even with the benefit of the flank it bounces off after a sharp fire fight that damages both sides.  However, the fighting to its flank unnerves the Russians in the 7th Regiment, just at the moment that the French 16th Division launches an impetuous assault against its front.  The 2nd Brigade bulldozes the Russian center, who go fleeing to the rear.  The 1st Brigade strikes a minute later, and in a moment the entire Russian line is in retreat.  Langeron’s attack is in shambles.

On the far side of the river there is a lull in the fighting (The French are trying to play for time, so aren't launching any attacks when they can help it).

The Prussian battle plan has hit against stiff, aggressive French resistance. I Cav is bottled up, and Lauriston’s line is shaky.  He decides to withdraw, if he can, to await the arrival of reinforcements (and hope the Frnech are too tired to pursue)…

Chaos ensues.  The left flank of Langeron’s corps successfully begins to withdraw, but the right is suddenly caught up in firefight with the French that turns into a Russian advance!  Stunned, the two divisions of the 9th Corps, a division sized element sitting in reserve, remains rooted in place (in game turns I rolled 2 x 1’s for 9th corps, and the 3 x 6’s for what was left of 6th corps). This resulted in the French left flank suddenly being flanked.  Seeing this, and being in the neighborhood anyway, Lauriston leaps in and gives a +1 modifier to the attacking Russians.

Depiste rolling 7 dice, with re-rolls, the Russians tie the 2nd Brigade of the 16th Division with two hits.  The Russians fall back, and the French flank is secure.  Further down the line Lauriston personally joins the fight once more, and the Russians are pushed back.  The French have shoved them out of the line between Hermansdorff and Schlaupe, and for a brief moment it seems like the battle has been decided…

Russian dragoons burst from Schlaupe and fall upon the French left flank.

...then a division of Russian dragoons burst from Schlaupe and descend on the heroic 2nd Brigade.  This is too much, and the French break and flee, the Russian cavalry chasing them down and sabering them as they run!  The French flank is gone, the battle going from victory to disaster in a heartbeat!

I Korps steadily moves into position to deliver the hammer blow.

On the far side of the river, Blucher wants the 3rd Cavalry division to maneuver so he can deploy Yorck's corps and crush the French left. Tchaplitz succeeds in moving some of the remnants of his corps out of the way, but the hussars of the 2d brigade are beyond recall and charge a wall of French infantry. 

8th Korps was in so deep Blucher didn’t bother sending orders.  The attack went forward desperately. (I rolled a 10, and didn’t both giving any order dice!).  To support the infantry Yorck throws his prussian dragoon division forward against the prepared French.  St. priest personally joins the attack of the 11th division in thie effort to push through the French lines.  The attack fails in spectacular fashion on the right, where the Prussian 17th Divisions 2d regment tries to effect a passage of lines with the crumping 1st regiment.  The attack fails, and the brigade falls back onto the exhausted 1st, who’ve had enough and break fleeing to the rear.  This debacle doesn’t help the French opposite St. Priest, who is able to push his brigade even deeper into the French line but is now dangerously isolated.  The Russian dragoons do surprisingly well against the French infantry, inflicting 3 hits between the 1st and 3rd brigade of the 9th division, but are somewhat predictably unable to shift the infantry squares and are forced to retreat.

I Korps artillery is in place to blow out the middle of the French line, even as Yorck's infantry begin moving in for a hammer blow Bulcher hopes will crush III Corps left flank.

The 4 sided dice (which has been reduced to 3 sided for the sake of speed) rolls a 1, and the second turn ends after only 1 pulse.  I rolled a 6 to see if Sacken arrived, but no luck for the allies.  Puthod failed to show up as well, so no reserves in sight for either army.

Turn 3

Pulse 1

The French get lucky, rolling doubles on the initiative and thus winning 3 extra CP.  MacDonald, rated poor in this battle, rolls a 6 on his one LD die, maximizing French CP for the turn.  Blucher, rolling 3d6, still manages to beat them with 12.  The French go first.  There is a break in the rain, so the troops can skirmish again.

The French situation is critical.  XI Corps must attack now, to relieve Lauriston.  Langeron is weakened but he retains an untouched division sized element that could split Lauristons force in two with some luck.  

II Cav will be sent north to aid III Corps, possibly to attack through the gap left by 8 Korps and harass Yorck.  II Corps must remain steady, so one CP is added there also to keep them from launching any precipitous attacks.  It is turn three- if III Corps can old out for two more turns they might be saved by nightfall.

French skirmishing sees off the final remnants of the line once held by Langerons corps. 

Lauriston rolls 3 x 1s, a withdrawl result.  Once more, the 6” friction rule plays havoc with the plan.  One brigade of the 19th division plunges far from support in persuit of the Russians, and another rolls a six, but is so close to the Russian cavalry it seems absurd to let it attack, so I consider it stuck in square.  V Corps has been mauled.    

But so have the Russians.  XI Corps is able to get into the outskirts of Schlaupe just as the Russian cavalry is exiting the other side.  Outside the village the XI corps infantry arrives on the flank of V Corps and chass off the Russan dragoons, who escpe behind their infanty.

The Prussian counter attack to the French counter attack.

On the far side of the river the battle has become desperate. The Prussian guns from I Korps pummel the middle and right of the French line.  III Corps rolls 2 x 6s and a 5 for the control test, meaning the entire corps must attack.  This was not according to plan.  A feature of FPGA is that once units are in combat all bets are off regarding control.  In a surprise, III Corps’s counter attack actually manages to push back the right flank of the Prussian army, even as Blucher marches the rest of I Korps up to secure it. 

Sebastiani’s cavalry begin to cross the river, and the indepdentnt cavalry detachment is attempting to interdict the threatening Cossack cavalry hanging about on III Corps far left. 

The Prussian counter attack grinds the French flank assault to a hault, reducing both attacking units to 1 SP each.  It’s all over for the10th Division, surrounded by swirling cossakcs, Russian hussars and steady Prussian infantry.  Blucher holds off on an attack on the middle of the III Corps line, however.  He’s assembled 4 I Korps batteries, three 6# and a 12#, in canister range of the French center.  He knows that at the beginning of the next pule these thiry odd guns will begin to tear the French to pieces. 

The turn three then ends after two pulses.

Turn 4

Pulse 1

The Prussian artillery is less destructive than expected, allowing the French to rush some guns and capture one battery and run off three.  But on the far left flank the 10th division’s attack has been decimated and the division destroyed.  The French have now lost 5 brigdaes, 4 of them from III Corps. 

The battle on the southern side of the river has seemed to reach its natural end.  The French have managed to repel the Russian attack and establish a line between the two towns.  I call this side a draw so I can focus on resolving the III Corps battle.  If the corps can hold on until turn 5 it might have a chance to avoid complete annihilation.  Sebstiani has now arrived, which may help.

Pulse 2

Situation right before Prussian Counter attack.

III Korps rolls four dice and gets all two's and a one.  A hold.  Probably the worst roll it could have gotten in its situation.  Sebastiani gets an activation roll, and the independent cavalry unit gets a hold.  Its not looking good. 

And… it isn’t.  The Prussians get the initiative and launch a final attack, completely destroying the attacking French infantry brigades.  Sebastiani has arrived, and his heavy cavalry are able to create a screen behind which the remnants of the 8th, 9th, and 11th divisions begin to withdraw.  The Russians under Langeron suffered the loss of three of their infantry battalions out of their initial ten.  V Corps, badly mauled, still managed to withdraw all but one of it's brigades intact, and XI corps was barely engaged, winning the battle on the south side of the stream simply by falling into place at the right moment. 

Final Positions

AAR

I’m not really an expert on this battle, but the destruction of III Corps seems to have been pre-ordained when it crossed the river.  XI Corps was also sent over, which resulted in its destruction.  Had MacDonald used it on the south side of the river it could probably have been more instrumental in blunting the attack of the Russian troops there.  Sam mentioned that Puthod’s force may have aided V Corps and XI Corps, but they ultimately would not have made much of a difference regarding III Corps fate, unless, perhaps, XI corps could have counter attacked past 8 Korps and struck I Korps in the flank.  How realistic is that?  I’m quite dubious, but I suppose it could have happened.

It’s been years since I played FPGA, so I had a bit of re-learning to do.  I’d forgotten how hard it is to extricate a corps from combat.  I tried on two occasions to pull units back, and at least one time it resulted in almost an entire corps attacking when I’d wanted it to withdraw.  The FPGA rules, as written, tend to force opposing corps to attack one another to the point of mutual destruction.  There is probably some truth in this. Then again, some times you’ll end up having a lull in the middle of a combat, with uncontrolled localized attacks here and there along the line; these are caused by those 6’s on the friction roll under the 6” Rule. 

I also made the major error of forgetting that many of the French and Prussian units were conscripts on one side, Landwehr on the other.  I played this game out counting everything as line.  Since the difference was essentially the same between III Corps and the Prussians, I think it balanced out in the long run.  Next time I’ll bear this in mind; I neglected to print out the OOB from the scenario, and I wasn’t about to keep track of it on a computer anyway. 

Because of all the back-and forth action, and because turns have multiple pulses, and because I was solo gaming and re-learning it as I went, the game took a bit longer than I expected.  Almost five hours.  If you had two people who know how to play they could probably do this battle in half of that, if not less.  For my part, I’m going to tinker with these rules a bit before my next go-around.  I really like the idea of the maneuver unit being divisions made up of brigade bases, instead of independent brigades moving around.  Next time, I think I’ll centralize all the SP in the division, and made it harder to push a division back.  That may make things a bit faster, and avoid the situations where brigades go flying ahead of their division when they roll a 6 on the 6” Rule, and end up 1200 meters out after a turn or two. This did bug me a bit; it’s possible I missed some other rule that balances that one out.  Otherwise, the ebb and flow of brigades is interesting, but essentially an abstraction of the actual combat that would be taking place.  [Some] people [not me], complain about the abstraction in the GA/FPGA games, and VnB for that matter, but I think they are rather missing the point.  The end result of this battle was completely realistic, from the casualties suffered, the results of battles and even where they ended.  The battle between Schlaupe and Hermansdorff was particularly interesting, with a completely believable outcome. 

The big take away though with FPGA is that once in combat you have almost no control over your brigades because of the 6” Rule.  I’d change that, and possibly make divisions roll instead of each brigade.  The 6" rule definitely needs a tweak; even if it were limited to a single, 300 meter advance, and not up to 1200m, as written.

And finally, one nice thing was that there was no problem whatsoever with the size of the bases or the figures.  The eBases and 3mm figures worked great, and let me put on a very detailed, very complex game on a small table.  My rules regarding divisions sort of went out the window on this game, although I kept the division officer bases on the board just for show. On a certain level they did help, because I did want to generally keep the divisions together and separate.  This was easier said than done one the 6" rule came into full effect, but it was still pretty neat, I thought.  

And that said, it's late here, so time to get some sleep!