Slitherine

Although the Battle of Leipzig is the largest battle of the Napoleonic wars, it lends itself quite nicely to FoGN scenarios since the battle was fought over a huge area with corps on corps actions in isolated sectors (such as this scenario the attack of the Austrian III Corps against the French forces guarding Napoleon's escape route to the west.

This scenario is inspired by one-half of "Scenario B" in the scenario supplement for Napoleon's Battles. The other half is the attack of the Austrian II Corps against the French positions along the Pleisse River. Initially I had planned both as one scenario but the impassable Elster River splits the battle in two parts with no ability to transfer forces between each part. So it made more sense to develop two single corps battles.

Note that "Scenario A" is the Battle of Mockern posted earlier. The Napoleon's Battles supplements recommends playing the Scenario B battles first since the attack of the Austrian II Corps begins earlier. However, this scenario, the attack on Lindenau begins at a similar time to the Battle of Mockern....about 10:00 AM.

French Order of Battle

IV Corps Commander - Bertrand (Skilled)

12th Division - Morand (Exceptional)
1 small average veteran French light infantry unit
1 small average veteran French line infantry unit
1 small average drilled French line infantry unit
1 small average veteran French medium artillery unit

Combined 15th/38th Divisions - Fontanelli (Skilled)
1 small average drilled Italian line infantry unit
1 small average drilled Wurttemberg line infantry unit
1 small average drilled Wurttemberg Chevaulegers unit
1 small average drilled Italian medium artillery unit
1 attached officer
1 skirmisher attachment

Leipzig Garrison - Margaron (Skilled)
1 large average conscript French Provisional line infantry unit
1 small average drilled Baden line infantry unit
1 small average drilled Baden medium artillery unit

Combined Cavalry Division - Cernay (Competent)
1 small average drilled French Dragoon unit
2 small poor drilled French (Provisional) Dragoon units
1 attached medium artillery

Total Points = 880

Deployed at the game start: Bertrand (corps commander), Margaron's division and Cernay's cavalry are deployed on the table at the start (10:00 AM) around Lindenau and Plagwitz (i.e, no futher forward than 6 MU from those villages). The Baden artillery are behind field fortifications. The French deploy before the Austrians.

Reinforcements: Historically Bertand's divisions 12th, 15th and 38th start arriving at 11:00 AM (game turn 4 assuming 20 min per turn) via the road to the east (right side of the table) in response to Gyulai's attack. To represent this, French player can start to attempt the activate these divisions the turn after the Austrian 3rd division arrives (i.e., there's a large enough force of Austrian infantry on the table to be a credible threat to Lindenau).

The Austrian III Corps

III Corps - Gyulai (skilled)

1st Light Division - Liechtenstein I (skilled)
1 small Tyrolean Jager unit
1 small Grenzer unit
1 large Chevauleger unit
1 small Dragoon unit
2 attached artillery

1st Division - Crenneville (competent)
1 small Grenzer unit
1 small Hungarian infantry unit [Note: attached from 2nd division as not all of that division was "off-table" with Murray.]
2 large Chevauleger units
1 attached artillery

2nd Division - Murray (competent)
2 large average drilled German line infantry units
1 small average conscript German line infantry unit
1 small heavy artillery unit
1 attached artillery
1 attached cavalry
1 attached skirmisher

3rd Division - Hessen-Homburg (skilled)
3 small average drilled German line infantry units
1 large average conscript German line infantry unit
1 small medium artillery unit
1 attached cavalry
1 attached artillery
1 attached skirmisher

Mensdorf/Theilemann Streifkorps - Theilemann (skilled)
1 small superior drilled Prussian Hussar unit
2 small Cossack units
1 attached artillery

Total Points = 1108

Deployed at the beginning: Gyulai (corps commander), the 1st LIght and 1st divisions are deployed on the table at the game start (10:00 AM) anywhere up to 10 MU (but no closer than 16 MU from any French troops deployed on the table) from the table edge between the road from the south (bottom of the table) or the northern most road from the west (top road on the right side of the table).

Reinforcements: The Austrian player can attempt to activate the 3rd division and the Streifkorps from turn 1 onwards. Historically much of the 2nd division was used to guard the flanks of the corps. However, it could have been used in the battle, so the Austrian player can attempt to activate the 2nd division the turn after the 3rd division has arrived.

Game map - for a 6' X 4' table

Lindenau on Flickr

The rivers are impassable. The light coloured areas around Schonau and to the south are high ground. If you prefer you can either ignore (treat as open terrain) or connect the oblong shapes with a continuous line of high ground all the way to the table edge to the west and south.

Marsh areas are difficult. It beats me how anyone could get their troops into those woods, but if they do the woods are difficult terrain.

VICTORY CONDITIONS:
Defeat the opposing enemy force - according to FoGN rules
If neither force is defeated, the side that holds the bridge and Lindenau has won a major victory. If the French hold only the bridge and not all of Lindenau the victory conditions on page 74 are adjusted two in their favour (i.e, a marginal French victory becomes a major French victory, a draw becomes a moderate French victory, etc.). If the Austrians hold all of Lindenau but not the bridge, then the victory conditions are adjusted one in favour of the French.

Thank you for working this one out too. How much time would you cover in one turn of FOG N? I am guessing you had a time/turn ratio in mind. I can almost field those forces, might have to make some Cuirassier into Chevau Leger since I only have 2 small units of them at present.

deadtorius wrote:Thank you for working this one out too. How much time would you cover in one turn of FOG N? I am guessing you had a time/turn ratio in mind. I can almost field those forces, might have to make some Cuirassier into Chevau Leger since I only have 2 small units of them at present.

I'm using the suggestion in the FoGN book on page 82 that a pair of turns = 20 min. But....keep in mind that "time" is the most difficult thing to get right; and timing is critical in this scenario. If the IV corps arrives too soon, it's too tough for the Austrians, but they're too late the battle will be over before IV corps arrives. So, any feedback in that regard would be very useful.

As for Chevaulegers, you can use "average drilled" hussars. They're the same cost and effectiveness. Also, you can use your cuirassiers as dragoons and dragoons as chevauleger (especially since dragoons look just like white coated chevauleger regiments).

We re-played Waterloo twice, and Austerlitz once during playtesting.

From memory, none of the games went past about 12 turns, I think Austerlitz and one of the Waterloo's was over in about 7-8 turns, or 2-3 hours if using the 20 minutes per pair of bounds that is in the rules.

The trouble is that wargamers being wargamers, we don't tend to sit around for 3 -6 bounds doing trading long range cannon fire, and taking pauses between 'events' but instead tend to throw in the lead, across the board, from turn 1. We then fight furiously until one side or the other breaks. Consequently even large games are usually over inside 8 turns for us.

Timing with historical refights is crucial in games where reinforcements are expected. Half an hour per per of bounds is the minimum that should be adopted in refights, imo. To get the reinforcement timings right for Waterloo, I think that you need to go to 1 hour per pair of bounds. Much less and there is no chance the Prussians will turn up in time to overly influence the battle.

I now generally look at the historical length of each battle and then divide that by (say) 8-9 to get a turn lenth. If you consider Waterloo as running from 11am to 8pm, ie 9 hours, then it would be reasonable to come up with 1 hour = 1 per of bounds.

Cheers
Brett

BrettPT wrote:We re-played Waterloo twice, and Austerlitz once during playtesting.

From memory, none of the games went past about 12 turns, I think Austerlitz and one of the Waterloo's was over in about 7-8 turns, or 2-3 hours if using the 20 minutes per pair of bounds that is in the rules.

The trouble is that wargamers being wargamers, we don't tend to sit around for 3 -6 bounds doing trading long range cannon fire, and taking pauses between 'events' but instead tend to throw in the lead, across the board, from turn 1. We then fight furiously until one side or the other breaks. Consequently even large games are usually over inside 8 turns for us.

Timing with historical refights is crucial in games where reinforcements are expected. Half an hour per per of bounds is the minimum that should be adopted in refights, imo. To get the reinforcement timings right for Waterloo, I think that you need to go to 1 hour per pair of bounds. Much less and there is no chance the Prussians will turn up in time to overly influence the battle.

I now generally look at the historical length of each battle and then divide that by (say) 8-9 to get a turn lenth. If you consider Waterloo as running from 11am to 8pm, ie 9 hours, then it would be reasonable to come up with 1 hour = 1 per of bounds.

Cheers
Brett

Thanks for that advice, Brett. The modelling of "time" is THE reason I think rules sets don't really scale upwards - even if you have enough miniatures and a big enough table(s). Far too much happens simultaneously and one doesn't get the proper feeling of the "phases" of the battle. Add in the desire of gamers to fast-paced games over in 2-3 hours and you've got an even big challenge. I've thought about, but haven't as of yet tried, to represent a large battle as a grand tactical campaign with linked "corps sized-ish" battles using FoGN.

Anyway, I've revised the timing for reinforcements in my posts above by relying on the activation of reinforcements in sequence.