LANNES Campaign: Set up for Battle #2 (1805)

Barry and I got together for an hour or so this past Sunday (during an April snow storm!) to work out the final effects of the first battle of the campaign upon our forces, and set up the next battle.


FRANCE

Unit #	Unit Name	DD	CD	Routs Caused	Final UI loss	Routed, etc?	End Game Result
1	Vendémiaire Line	D6	D10		4	Yes	CD Up 1
2	Brumaire Line	D4	D8		0		NC
3	Angoulême Chasseur	D6	D10		0		CD Up 1
4	Ardennes Light	D4	D8		1		CD Up 1
5	Bordeaux Chasseur	D6	D8		3	Yes	CD Up 1
6	Chaumont Chasseur	D6	D10	1	0		NC
7	Vertu 6# Ft Artillery	D4	D8	1	2	Yes	NC
8	Génie 6# FA	D6	D10		0		CD Up 1
9	Bouches-du-Rhône Light	D6	D8		1		DD Up 1
10	Frimaire National Gde	D4	D8		0		Promoted to LINE
11	Nivôse Line	D4	D10		2		NC
12	Côte-d'Or Light	D6	D8		0		NC
13	Rhone Light	D6	D10
14	Morvan RDragoon	D4	D10
General	Name	LD	Special	Hit?	Outcome	Year	End Game Result
C-in-C	Francois Faucon	D10	-			1799	NC	Hawk
A	Simeon Souris	D12	Poltroon			1799	NC	Mouse
B	Blaize Bassier	D8	-	Yes	"He's Dead"	1799	Repl D12 Fabian	Bear
C	Rene Renard	D10	Fabian				LD Up 1	Fox
D		D12	Fabian

As I had 2 Morale points left at the end of the battle, I could add +1 to two unit rolls (or +2 to a single roll); in the event this had no effect upon the results. As can be seen, I did pretty well with my rolls, with more than half of the units receiving an upgrade. The starts listed are before any upgrades. I rolled downgrades on 2 units as well, #7 Artillery battery and #2 Line  infantry, but as they were already as bad as they could be, that had no effect! General Bassier was, sadly, pronounced DOA ("Il est mort, Jacques!") at the field hospital, and will be replaced by General Fabien LaFerme.

As per the scheme set forth for our LANNES campaign, 2 new units and a new general were added to my forces, and I rolled them up as highlighted in blue above: yet another unit of Light Infantry (very Republican flavor to the force, no?), and another cavalry unit, this time a unit of Dragoons. The new general, Henri Hibou, rolled up with an LD of 12 (very good), but is now the THIRD Fabian general in my force. This will make it difficult to take full advantage Double and Triple "Magic Moves".


RUSSIA

Unit #	Unit Name	DD	CD	Routs Caused	Final UI loss	Routed, etc?	End Game Result
1	1/Alexapol	D4	D10
2	3/Alexapol	D4	D10
3	1/Ingermannland	D4	D10
4	3/Ingermannland	D4	D10
5	6# Battery #1	D6	D12
6	1/Smolensk	D6	D8
7	3/Somlensk	D4	D10
8	1/Simbriski	D4	D10
9	3/Simbriski	D4	D8
10	6# Battery #2	D4	D12
11	1/20th Jager	D6	D10
12	1/21st Jager	D4	D10
13	Siberia Dragoons	D6	D10
14	Cossacks	D4	D8
General	Name	LD	Special	Hit?	Outcome	Year	End Game Result
C-in-C	Boris Badenov	D10	N/A
A	M. Smartov	D12+1	N/A
B	Trembalalotsky	D10	Epileptic	LD Roll of 2 = no move; re-roll officer survival
C	Boramirov	D12	N/A
D	Scardikatzky	D8	Poltroon	Down 1 for Rally Rolls

Barry did his list a bit differently, so this is the final result of the entire post battle process and reorganization of his commands. He added a Cossack unit and another Line unit. General Boramirov's injuries were determined  to be a concussion; as a result he did more than "See the Elephant", he believed that he had been impregnated by one! Perhaps not surprisingly, the men under his command now view him as being rather more unbalanced than Heroic!

We then went on to set up the second battle of the campaign, which conceptually takes place in 1805, prior to Austerlitz. Using the process in Field of Battle, first we did the Fate rolls:

French

D4	Decision Area	D12	Narrative	Effect
4	Deployment	`12	Approach March	Up 1
3	Reconnaissance	12	Cavalry Screen	Up 1
1	Tactical Adjustment	5	Outposts	Down 1

Russian

D4	Decision Area	D12	Narrative	Effect
4	Deployment	2	Withdraw	Down 1
1	Tactical Adjustment	7	Threatening	Up 1
3	Reconnaissance	1	Poor Reconnaissance	Down 1

Applying those adjustments to the allocation of our 4 Command Die Types (D10, D10, D8, and D6), gave the final die types and results as below:

Area	Fr Die	Fr Roll	Russ Die	Russ Roll	Result
Tactical	D4 (6)	6	D8 (6)	7	2 of winner’s Cmd groups may do Tactical Adjustment
Strength	D10	10	D10	3	⅛ of loser’s Cmd groups late D4+D6 MOVES (=5)
Recon	D12 (10)	10	D10	7	Winner adds one zone for Deployment
Deploy	D8 (10)	6	D8	7	NE; winner gets to choose table orientation or side

Thus it seems that a swift French approach march, coupled with a poorly executed withdrawal by the Russians, has resulted in a battle. The superior French cavalry screen resulted in poor Reconnaissance for the Russians, and thus the French will add an additional Deployment zone when the troops are set down. This means in one sector, French troops may be up to half way across the table at the outset! To make matters once, it seems that one of the Russian Command Groups was already well into the withdrawal, and must be recalled and will reach the battlefield only after a considerable delay. The only redeeming aspect is that the threatening conduct of the cornered Russian troops, coupled with consumption of rather too much wine by the French outposts, means that the Russians will be better able to make last minute adjustments to their tactical arrangements immediately before the battle commences.

We then went on to generate a Warplan 5/5 district for the battle. We actually did 3 in case the first two were unsuitable (deep sea, lake, etc). In the event, our first roll was fine:  8A.23

The Battle will take place in 8A.23; surrounding districts shown for overview purposes only. 


As you can see, the battlefield is pretty open, just roads and some woods. The Warplan 5/5 Atlas describes the district as "soft cultivated land with fences and ditches", so we'll add some of those to break up the table. 

The surrounding squares are a bit more interesting - 

17 - Firm grazing land, Palatial mansion, River fordable during June, July, August

18 - Firm Grazing land, Farm. Cottage. Fences

19 - Firm grazing land. Ruined Abbey on Hill.

22 - Firm grazing land. Fences. Farm. River Deep. Stone Bridge (Max loading). 

24 - Rocky terrain with three stone quarries and 2 sets of sheds.

The nearest village (not shown) is Loverna; Thus this may be known as the Battle of Loverna and Shurleigh Fields...

Snow in April, even in Southern New England, isn't that unusual, and it wasn't too bad when we got together on Sunday. But it got very cold and snowed AGAIN all day Monday, and this is what the garden looked like by 6PM!

And the rest of the back yard, too!

By comparison,it was  60 degrees on Easter a week before - wild violets in bloom.

and also Daffodils in bloom

not to mention some Pickwick crocuses.

Finally, back in Ithaca, NY in February on Valentine's Day, here is a shot of Taughannock Falls at zero degrees F!  Still. the weather is part of what makes living in a "Temperate" climate fun!