1/32 Napoleonic battle of the 1812 campaign (Part 1/2)
Date:September 19, 2010.
Scenario : the retreating Russian army makes a stand : a rear-guard vs advance-guard action.
10 French infantry units (6 of them veteran chasseurs) with 4 batteries and a cuirassiers brigade.
14 Russian infantry units (5 veteran grenadiers, 2 opolchenie green units) 2 dragoon units and 2 cossack units , 3 batteries.
Siegfried en Mark as Russians, Alex and Bart as French , and I as referee.
No one made a battle plan, so it was a straightforward encounter
On the French left, most of the fight was the dispute for the village. ,and an artillery duel. with the French at the end taking the upper hand, but having lost to many men in the process were not able, to push further. The cuirassiers confronted with the squares of the jäger units waited for their horse battery to weaken the Russian squares, but the artillery shooting proved to be poor.
On the right side, things evolved quicker. Alex went into the offensive, but his first charge resulted into the loss of one of his chasseur units. He was now outnumbered 2 to 1 and lost the initiative for the rest of the game. Siegfried started a slow and careful advance exploiting his superior numbers.
Alex was pushed back and his forces melted away.
Bart did send a cuirassier regiment to help Alex. They did charge a battery, overrun it but pushed to far in the enemy lines, resulting in a cossack charge in their rear with the destruction of the French unit resulting. On the far left, the other cuirassier unit wasn't able to break the the weakened square and lost halve their force. A charge of the Russian dragoons in the centre, was also driven back with heavy losses, but this didn't influence the outcome of the battle : a Russian victory.
The lack of plan proved to be fatal for the French. With their inferior number, they shouldn't have advance over the whole width of the table, but have concentrated on one point, or else should have relied on their superior artillery to first weaken the enemy before going into the offensive.
Dirk Donvil
Belgium
Many thanks to Mr. Donvil.