Some Allied troops arrive at (neutral/Saxon) Torgau
Some Prussian reinforcements are sent to the Grossbeeren table. to guard the road to Berlin
Von York has withdrawn from the Wittenberg table, leaving Lauriston's French Corps free to advance.
The French "Grand battery" is making room for the rest of the French troops to deploy outside Altenburg, and Oudinot's French and Bavarians strive to enlarge their foot print (right). Note the almost complete lack of French cavalry, resulting in the use of square to anchor their lines!
Masses of French troops swarm onto the Haale table, and prepare to overwhelm the small Prussian garrison left there.
Prussians duly driven out!
Who ARE those guys??! As Lauriston prepares to depart from the Wittenberg table, a new force of Russians appears to his rear! Lauriston, whose Corps is largely made up of conscripts, did leave an infantry brigade to protect his rear... fortunately!
Latour-Maubourg's Cavalry Corps on the march through Luckau!
Latour-Maubourg's men exit from a road, and now they have to find what that road connects to...
GM Mike used a slightly different system than in the past, where the player reads of the road number, then goes to the road network and Transit table center, finds the appropriate card, and then discovers where he is headed to, and any delays that might apply.
Marshal Bessieres and the Guard Cavalry find a garrison at Lutzen... but they are friendly Wurttemburgers.
Marshal Marmont prepares dispatches from the outskirts of Leipzig; the Russian Guard corps is visible to the right!
Marshal Bessieres and the Guard cavalry arrive near Leipzig just as von Bulow and the last of his Prussian Corps are exiting.
The Haale table cleared of enemy troops, the French are on the move again!
Latour-Maubourg arrives near Breslau, finding the are garrisoned by a couple of Prussian infantry brigades.
Still more French arrive to join the Battle of Altenburg!
Von Bulow countermarches towards Leipzig, as French and Wurttemberg infantry arrive to support Bessieres and the Guard Cavalry!
Russians and Prussians and French, oh my! The scene at Wittenberg is looking quite fluid!
Latour-Maubourg deploys his forces to attack Bautzen. Unsupported cavalry are fairly impotent against infantry in towns and cities, but as soon as there is artillery present, the calculus is every different, and the French General puts his Horse Artillery to excellent use!
The French bubble at Altenburg keeps expanding!
Some Frenchmen arrive on the Grossbeeren table, and observe Prussian infantry entrenched to guard the road to Berlin... which also happens to be the supply source for the Prussians. !
Latour-Maubourg has seized Bautzen; if he can hold it, this will cut off the Russian supply line to Breslau!
And just as he basks in his accomplishments, a dusty cloud of Russians is seen approaching from the West! Mount up!
Allied lines have pulled back, as more Russians move to support Von Blucher's hard pressed Prussians.
Reynier's small Corps arrives at Leipzig from yet another direction, threatening to make von Builow into a very tasty sandwich!
Tormasov's Russian Guards Corps advances on Bautzen, as Latour-Maubourg's men deploy to counter them.
Now it is Lauriston's Corps doing the countermarch to meet the advancing Prussians and Russians at Wittenberg!
Marechal Marmont, observing the departure of the bulk of Tormasov's men from Dresden, returns with his whole Corps!
Situation on the Bautzen table. By now, word of the capture of Bautzen has reached the King of Saxony, and he decides to return to the side of the French!
As Marmont deploys to attack Dresden, a new Russian Corps arrives to support the garrison of the Saxon capitol!.
Bertrand's Corps arrives at Leipzig! Caught between 3 French forces, von Bulow settles down for an uphill battle at Leipzig!
Cat and Mouse at Bautzen!
With no infantry support, Latour cannot "siege" Breslau (requires exiting 2 infantry and one artillery unit), but they have still cut the Russians off from their supply lines. Almost all of the Russian troops have to take a single morale check!
"Russians go right, Prussians go left, Frenchies go BANG!" Von Yorck makes his return, supported by von Berg.
Latour faces some Cossacks and a Russian Grenadier brigade. It seems the rest of Tromasov's men have marched back towards ? Dresden.
"I'm hit" General Bertrand falls at Leipzig!
Cossacks charged by Wurttemburg Chevau-legers.
Just as the Duke of Dalmatia readies his attack on Dresden, here's Tormasov's men returning from Bautzen. "Merde!"
Bertrand and Bessieres discuss how best to crush the unfortunate General von Bulow. Leipzig itself has been captured by the French and Wurttembergers!
Herr Gott, was is das? Just as Von Yorck deploys to press his advantage upon MacDonald, a most unwelcome visitor appears to his rear at Wittenberg. We haven't seen much of Marechal MacDoanld's Corps (Steve Tarro) thus far, but that is about to change. At this point, he's just a few fries short of a full Happy Meal!
French Garrison at Chemnitz...
and a Russian one at Luckau; evidently having learned their lesson, the infantry are supported by artillery this time!
The epic battle of Altenburg continues!
Although there are allied reinforcements on the march, it certainly seems like the French have the "Big Battalions" here. !
Continued cat and mouse around Bautzen. Around this time, Baden's adherence to the French cause wavers, and the Baden units must take a single morale check.
Von Bulow strives to hold off annihilation at Leipzig, heavily outnumbered and with French in three directions. He does still have a line of retreat though, via the deployment zone (tan rectangle along the right edge of the table.
With a huge battle at Altenburg, the conflicts at Leipzig, Wittenberg, and Dresden, the day is far from done!
Fascinating study, Peter.
ReplyDeleteThere was a real lot going on during this campaign, with multiple battles on different tables!
DeleteI am finding this really interesting, the whole concept is mind boggling and as it is unfolding is really fascinating, looking forward to the next instalment.
ReplyDeleteIt is often not until these write ups that even the GM and the C-in-C's have a the full picture of what happened. As a player,. it really is like being a Corps commander. Sometimes you fight all day. Sometimes you do a lot of marching and not so much fighting. Sometimes you curse your C-in-C for placing you in an impossible position!
DeleteAltenburg does seem like a large battle with a nice concentration of forces on the part of the French, who very much appear to have the upper hand.
ReplyDeleteIndeed; the lack of French cavalry seems to be forcing them to inch forward slowly at 1-2" per move... but it's kind of like a lava flow!
DeleteThe mechanics are interesting for the movement phase and the index card routes a clever method. The raw power of numbers in the right place showed earlier than other years. Continued showcase of a neat series of events.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this post, it is probably about 2 PM game time. I liked the Travel table idea a lot. I probably wouldn't use the index cards myself, preferring the old system (too much work, too easy to mistake card54 for 55!), but it worked just fine.
DeleteGreat stuff with lots of important action and movement across the whole area
ReplyDeleteYes, a big tip of the hat to GM Mike on the table and force designs - I want my campaigns to have 3-4 important battles, and NOT have everyone on the same table (the supply rules make doing that pretty risky!), and a fair amount of maneuver, at least for most of the players. Sometimes you walk head on into a big battle (Altenburg!), and slug it out much of the day.
DeleteThe excitement mounts! This is tremendous stuff - vastly entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be reading this through several times to grasp it all. What an achievement, creating this project.
Cheers,
Ion