Defence of Irgendwo crossroads
La Feu Sacre, Prussians vs French, 03 Jan 2008

Setup

Opposing Forces

• 6. Infantry Regiment (1. West Prussian): B SK1, C SK1, B SK2 (fusiliers)
• 28. Infantry Regiment (1. Berg): 2x C SK1, C SK2 (fusiliers)
• 2. Westphalian Landwehr: 3x E Inf
• 1x foot and 1x horse artillery battery
  

• 29. Infantry Regiment (2. Berg): B SK0 (grenadiers), C SK1, C SK2 (fusiliers)
• 1/2 Silesian Schuetzen Btn: B SK0
• 1x foot artillery battery

• 4. Hussars (Silesian): B Light Cavalry
• 5. Dragoons (Brandenburg): C Line Cavalry
• 1x horse artillery battery
  

• 1. Kurmark Landwehr: D Light Cavalry
• 2. Kurmark Landwehr: D Light Cavalry

• 2nd Line Infantry Regiment: 1x B SK2, 3x C SK1, D SK1 Inf
  
• 11th Light Infantry Regiment: 2x B SK3, 2x C SK2 Inf
  
• 37th Line Infantry Regiment: 1x C SK1, 2x D SK1
• 4th Swiss Infantry Regiment: 1x B SK1
• 3x B foot battery

• Light Brigade
• 8th Lancers, B lancers
• 5th Hussars, C Light Cavalry
• 23rd Chasseurs a Cheval, B Light Cavalry
• 24th Chasseurs a Cheval, C Light Cavalry
• Heavy Brigade
• 6th, 7th, 13th Cuirassiers, C Heavy Cavalry
• 14th Cuirassiers, D Heavy Cavalry

• Brigade 1: 4x D SK1, 1x C SK0 Line Inf, C medium foot battery
• Brigade 2: 2x C SK2 Light Btn, 1x D Line Inf
• Detached Cav Brigade: 1x B Light, 1x B Lancers, 1x C horse battery

Prussian Orders and Deployment

Objective:

French Orders and Deployment

The French Saxons arrive During the first turn, the French troops arrive on table, a covering force in semi-deployed formation, followed by a number of march columns. Spotting fails miserably in the first turn, but the next turn it gets interesting. On the left flank the advancing Saxons are spotted, and they manage to spot von Pirch's brigade covering the central hill. Seeing the cavalry, von Pirch orders his leftmost battalion in the corn field into square formation. Initial artillery exchanges manage to cause some light casualties on the Saxon cavalry, who are soon overtaken by the infantry advancing towards the yet unspotted von Jagow. Von Jagow decides to reveal his artillery to open fire on the advancing Saxons, causing some casualties.

Paris traffic Before they can advance again, the French cavalry is unveiled by the alert eyes of von Ziethen himself. Expecting to be slightly outnumbered, the overall amount of hostile cavalry still came as a shock - but apparently not just to the Prussians. Still on a semi-deployed blinds, the French cavalry is formed as one massive block of horse and men, which will obviously take some sorting out before they can take an active interest in anything other than traffic management. Having confirmed the main hostile cavalry to be exactly where he expected them to be, von Ziethen orders von Lutzow to move the light cavalry to the right flank, in support of von Treskow's brigade. Obviously von Treskow was going to need all the help he could get.

More Paris traffic Von Pirch's looking glass brought more to the eye than the cavalry - the massed ranks of Legrand's division were now seen. Also still on a semi-deployed blind, this massive division deployed well in depth behind the blinds frontage. Apparently the cavalry was only a first taste of close parking of troops, as this division alone already outnumbered the Prussian infantry. The chaos caused by their premature unveiling, combined with their attack orders forcing them forwards, would mean that Oudinot spent more time helping organise his divisions, than on keeping the larger picture and using his PIPs to give the right orders to the relevant divisions. Von Pirch, meanwhile, figured that his day would not be a happy one, with these masses of troops deployed to his front. Especially since a third of his troops consisted of the crack Westphalian landwehr who may be good at downing lagers, but certainly did not have a reputation for fighting spirit. Still, there seemed little to do other than to order his extreme right flank battalions into square as well.

Saxon advance on the left flank Some atrocious dice rolling by the Prussian artillery meant they were not hitting a thing. The Saxons were generous enough to demonstrate just how artillery should be used - and with one salvo of ball caused casualties in the Silesian schuetzen, the Berg grenadiers and the Berg fusiliers behind them. Truly amazing dice rolling for the bombardment test meant that direct intervention by von Jagow was required to prevent the schuetzen from becoming shaken, and caused the Berg fusiliers to indeed reach a shaken state. Meanwhile the Saxon infantry had advanced to within pinning range of the Prussian square, which as a result could not revert back to something more appropriate like a column. Von Jagow moved his musketeer battalion up on the right hand side, to cover the guns in case von Pirch's square failed.

Death ride of the Brandenburg dragoons On the right flank, von Treskow had been watching the deployment of the French cavalry with some concern. Obviously the French had to be contained in the narrow space between the woods and the squares on the hill - allowing them any further meant they would easily be able to overwhelm his few troops. To make things worse, von Lutzow's landwehr cavalry was nowhere to be seen yet. At least von Ziethen seemed to share his view, given the 'Attack' orders he had just received. With 2 regiments of French light cavalry (5th Hussars, 24th Chasseurs) facing his Brandenburg dragoons, and the 23rd Chasseurs facing his Silesian hussars, von Treskow ordered his cavalry to charge down the hill. As far as casualties go, the results were nothing spectacular - primarily due to abysmal die rolls by the Prussians. All sides were thrown back, blown. But first of all his cavalry was still intact. And what was better, forcing the French cavalry to fall back blown, caused massive disorganisation for the French heavy cavalry. Over the remainder of the turn, it took the full attention of the French cavalry commander and CiC to get regain some semblance of order.

Saxon infantry assault On the left flank, meanwhile, the Saxon infantry assaulted the Prussian lines. 2 battalions of the 1st brigade ran into firm resistance from the Berg grenadiers, with both repulsed shaken. A volley of cannister would soon see one of them routing, as well as the line that had formed behind it. In the other corn field, the odds were reversed. The Saxon line battalion (D class) attacked the Berg infantry square, breaking them in the process. The route of these troops would also sweep up the battalion von Jagow had placed behind them to cover this eventuality - unfortunately just too close. The arrival of 2 fresh battalions drawn from von Pirchs center, however, stabilized the situation. Watching von Jagow's success, von Ziethen issued a clear order - grasp the initiative, attack and send the Saxons packing.

Death ride of the Brandenburg dragoons, take 2 After the French artillery caused significant casualties on their Prussian artillery (2 hits, causing a 'shaken' result, which was rallied since), Oudinot personally oversaw the advance of his cuirassiers, supported by the lancers - giving the remainder of the cavalry some time and space to regroup. On the Prussian side, the arrival of the Landwehr cavalry provided some relief - but very shaky relief at best. Unfortunately for the French cuirassiers, their advance and that of their infantry now blocked the field of fire of his artillery. At the start of the next turn, von Ziethen's card came up. He ordered his artillery to fire cannister into the cuirassiers at the bottom of the hill, causing 2 casualties and shaking the French. Even though von Ziethen could not order the charge of the dragoons, the next card up was the Prussian bold commander. Just what von Treskow needed to send his dragoons back into the fray. They hit the French 7th cuirassiers, and never stopped going. Breaking the cuirassiers, they sent them crashing through the 2 deployed batteries behind them. Tasting blood, the Brandenburg dragoons kept going, chasing off both of the battery gun crews, when their charge ran out of steam, blown. Unfortunately von Treskow had been unable to get his Silesian hussars moving again (not enough PIPs), leaving the dragoons very exposed with fresh French cuirassiers ogling the dragoons' flank for a charge. Von Lutzows landwehr cavalry had now arrived on the right flank, but were they close enough?

Surely those dragoons will die now? When the French cavalry activation came up next,  the dragoons fate seemed sealed. The 8th lancers charged the landwehr cavalry facing them, and the 14th cuirassiers charged the flank of the Brandenburg dragoons. Two surprises came up next. First of all it was now the French who scored abysmal die results, with the cuirassiers and dragoons both falling back blown. In other words, the Brandenburg dragoons survived, much to everyone's amazement. The 8th lancers did manage to get a decisive result against the landwehr cavalry, throwing them back behind the Silesian hussars. Overall, this meant that the French cavalry division had been severely blunted, and would no longer play a meaningful part in the remainder of the battle, and a stand-off had been reached on the right flank. On the left flank, the Berg grenadiers were ordered to attack the Saxon infantry in front of them. Even though they severely outclassed them, this attack fizzled in it's entirety and the left flank came to as grinding a standstill as the right had.

Running up that hill The last area where a speedy breakthrough could be reached was the center. Two French infantry brigades were advancing on von Pirch's brigade, but short range cannister fire took the most of the sting out of that, in fact sending two battalions routing by sheer fire volume. Three battalions of the  second brigade however did reach the West Prussian musketeer line, flanked on each side by an artillery battery. The odds here were close and slightly in favour of the French, but apparently the Prussian line proved strong enough that the French could not fight their way through. A firefight ensued, which was won by the West Prussians. Luckily it never came down to the landwehr troops that had been drawn up as supports, as they were very poor quality troops indeed. With the last imminent danger dealt with, night fell - giving the Prussians time to bring up the remainder of the 1. Corps, and the French to lick their wounds and figure out just what went wrong.

Evaluation