Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The Battle of Zellerode - A Blucher AAR




After a long hiatus from gaming I managed to get a solo game of Blucher in this week. The game includes a couple of debuts in my collection. The first of my new toys are my Prussian 6mm minis from Commission Figurines . If you have not seen any of these minis and you game Napoleonics in 6mm go and buy them now! They are made from MDF so are very inexpensive and they look superb. The owner, Walt, is a joy to do business with, I highly recommend these figures! 

My next acquisition was via ebay and is a set of 75+ Geo-Hex terrain pieces. I didn't really get a super great deal due to some last minute bidding that drove up the price, but I am pleased with the purchase. It has made my table more aethetically pleasing and given me more options when it comes to hills. 

So, now the game...I used Sharnhorst to set up the battle which was in Northern Germany 1813-14. The battle of Zellerode (add your own umlauts) initial deployment is shown on the map below along with each army breakdown by points. 


French Army - 299 pts
Organization Unit/Personality Points Elan Traits
Subcommander
Drout 5 N/A Artillery
I Corps
Veteran Inf/Art 14 6 Skrm
Veteran Inf 12 6 Skrm
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Light Cav 7 5
Foot Art Btty 6 N/A
75
II Corps
Veteran Inf/Art 14 6 Skrm
Veteran Allied Inf 12 6 Skrm
Veteran Allied Inf 12 6 Skrm
Veteran Allied Inf 12 6 Skrm
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Light Cav 7 5
Foot Art Btty 6 N/A
90
III Corps
Veteran Inf/Art 14 6 Skrm
Veteran Inf 12 6 Skrm
Veteran Inf 12 6 Skrm
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Conscript Inf 9 5 Skrm, Cncrpt, Shock
Light Cav 7 5
Foot Art Btty 6 N/A
69
Cavalry Corps
Light Cav 7 5
Light Cav 7 5
Allied Cavalry 7 5
Dragoons 10 6
Dragoons 10 6
Heavy Cav 10 6
Horse Art Btty 9 N/A
53
Break Point - 9
Total  299


The French army is built for attacking with a large amount of infantry and a powerful cavalry corps.



Prussian Army - 299 pts
Organization Unit/Personality Points Elan Traits
CinC Blucher 30 Legend, Mobile
Subcommander von Roder 10 Cavalry, Inspiring
I Corps
Elite Infantry 18 7 Skrm, Shock, Steadfast
Elite Infantry 18 7 Skrm, Shock, Steadfast
Line/Art 14 6 Skrm
Line 12 6 Skrm
Light Cav 10 6
Heavy Art Btty 9
Foot Art Btty 6 N/A
87
II Corps
Line 12 6 Skrm
Line/Art 14 6 Skrm
Reserve 10 6
Reserve 10 6
Light Cav 10 6
Foot Art Btty 6 N/A
Heavy Art Btty 9
71
III Corps
Line 12 6 Skrm
LIne 12 6 Skrm
Reserve 10 6
Landwehr 6 5 Conscrpt
Landwehr 6 5 Conscrpt
Light Cav 10 6
Foot Art Btty 6 N/A
62
Cavalry Corps
Light Cav 10 6
Light Cav 10 6
Light Cav 10 6
Horse Art Btty 9 N/A
39
Break Point - 10
Total  299

The Prussian army is a defensive force with lots of artillery but a relatively weak cavalry arm.

In the setup phase the Prussians chose to place a road connecting the left and right flank (it did not come into play) and a hill on their right (it also did not affect the battle). The French added a hill on the left and a road on their side (both features played minor roles in the battle). 


Pictured below is the inital setup for both forces, the Prussians on the left and French on the Right. The French deployment suffered as a result of the Sharnhorst deployment, and as you will see the lack of coordination between the flanks will be the French army's downfall. 



The view from the French left flank


The French cavalry in the center


The French right


Prussian cavalry


Prussian Center



View down the French line of battle



And the Prussian


Opening moves...the Prussian I corps arrives on turn 2! (Edit: Should be turn 4, the Prussians second turn. Thanks Robert for pointing out the discrepency)


Opening moves on the French right...


The French cavalry deploy to counter the Prussian reinforcments



The Prussian III corps arrives on turn 6! Bad luck for the French.


                                       
The French counter attack on the Prussian right


Overhead view of the French attack


The French are stopped cold on the Prussian left



The French reinforcements finally arrive


The Prussian right holds



Close to the action!


The French II corps has "the slows"



The French redouble their efforts to break the Prussian right



The II corps finally enters the fray


The Prussian cavalry is driven off


The French army's last hope is to break the Prussian left


But command and control has broken down


This shot shows how the battle is really two separate actions in which the French were never able to coordinate to use their superior numbers to an advantage.



Shot of my MDF Landwehr



Prussian counter attack on the left...


...and on the right



The French attack stalls under the weight of the Prussian counter attack



The French withdraw with heavy casualties, the battle ends on turn 25.



The French end up losing 10 broken units and the Prussians 4. Using a highly "scientific" method that consists of total lost elan and educated guesstimating I put losses between 15-20,000 French and 10-12,000  Prussian.

The French really lost this battle for two reason 1) The early arrival of the Prussian reinforcements and B. poor initial deployment due to bad Scharnhorst-ing

I had a good time with this battle and it was nice to get my new toys on the table. I am still painting my Prussians and I have an entire Russian force waiting for paint as well, I hope to do Dennewitz eventually when I get through the mountain of MDF (seriously, go buy Commission Figurines figures!).

2 comments:


  1. I am curious to know if you changed the reinforcement rules because in Scharnhorst you need to roll d6x the reinforcement factor. since the lowest reinforcement is 4 the earliest any troops can enter is turn 4 i8e die roll of 1 times lowest RF of 4). Congratulations on finding Commission MDF figures . I have been using them from when he first started and have tons of the things. I love em.

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    1. Yes, as I said over on TMP, it should be turn 4...I still think of both sides acting being 1 turn whereas in Blucher each sides actions are a discrete turn. The Prussians rolled 1's on both turn 4 and 6! Thanks for reading Robert.

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