Burgos Campaign – Day One

 

 

26 August 1813 – North Spain – Day 1

British attack Pisuerga
1 British army – attack Pisuerga
2 British army – observe border
3 British army – observe border

French win battle of Pisuerga
10 French army – win battle of Pisuerga
11 French army – hold Santa Maria
12 French army – hold Cuellar

Battle of Pisuerga – End of Move 2

The campaign opens with a surprise attack by 1st British army on the border town of Pisuerga.

29th French corps is deployed between Pisuerga and the border
28th French and 30th Polish corps are in reserve either side of the town
They will not be able to move until the start of move 2
The British will enter the table at the start of move 1

On the left the Poles deploy their artillery and one infantry brigade on the hill.
The remainder of 30th corps are behind or to the left of the hi
3rd British corps have lost their artillery to the army reserve
They attack the hill, but quickly withdraw in face of the Polish artillery

The main British attack is in the centre
Wellington has taken command of the artillery from 2nd and 3rd corps
They advance to the left of the main road in support of 2nd corps
2nd corps have orders to attack the road junction in the centre of the table

Despite being outnumbered 29th French hold the road junction throughout the battle
Both sides suffer heavy casualties.

On the right 1st British corps send three infantry brigades to attack the village
28th French corps have one brigade in the village and two in reserve
The remainder of the corps is deployed to the right of the village
The British take and hold the village

At nightfall the French hold two of the three game objectives and win the battle.

Comments

Wellington took command of the artillery and one infantry brigade from 2nd and 3rd corp
He used this reserve to support his main attack on the road junction with 2nd corps
Despite this he failed to take and hold the road junction.

Without their artillery 3rd British corps were unable to take the hill on the left
The Poles reached the hill first, and moved their artillery onto the hill
Cavalry are unable to fight on hills, and without artillery the British infantry withdrew

On the right the majority of both 1st British and 28th French corps were inactive
Only one brigade can be inside the village, but two brigades can attack either side
The British were confident they could take and hold the village with infantry alone
They pinned the rest of the French with their cavalry and artillery, plus one infantry brigade
The French should have attacked, and thus forced the British to reduce their attack on the village
However they concentrated on holding the village, and lost it.

The main attack in the centre was interesting. The British won an initial advantage with their superiority in artillery. They routed half of the French corps holding the road junction.
However they could not redeploy quickly enough to engage the other half.
An extensive infantry melee would decide the outcome, and the French had better luck (dice)
During the melee I (as British player) rolled three 1s and one 2 out of four dice!

The French won, but they lost more casualties than the British. So in their next battle they will start with more casualties than the British. Battle casualty replacements bring all brigades up to strength less 10%. The French have casualties to six infantry and one cavalry brigade. The British have casualties to four infantry and one cavalry brigade. The French casualties are spread between two corps, the British confined to one corps. All of this will put 29th French corps at a disadvantage when they next meet up with 2nd British corps.

Start of Burgos Campaign Phase

Campaign map of Europe

There are five campaign areas in Europe, as shown on the map above

North Germany – French v Prussians
Central Germany – French v Russians
Southern Germany – French v Austrians
North Spain – French v British and Portuguese
Southern Spain – French v Spanish

This is a fictional campaign and is based loosely on the historical 1813 campaign.

The campaign is divided into campaign phases
Each phase is self contained and starts with both armies at full strength
Each phase is about the size of the historical Waterloo campaign

The map of Europe is divided into squares, and each square is a military district
Each campaign phase is fought for possession of one of those districts

The aim of my campaign is to allow me to use all of my model soldiers and scenery
To achieve this each campaign phase is fought in a different campaign area

The sequence is

North Germany
North Spain
Central Germany
South Spain
South Germany

This sequence was chosen to allow maximum contrast with uniforms and scenery.
For example we have a series of buildings for north Europe and Spain
The bland Prussian uniforms are followed by Wellington’s red coats
Bland Russians come next
Followed by the very colourful Spanish regulars and guerrilla brigades
And finally white Austrians, before we return to bland Prussian again

North Europe battlefield – Goslar campaign phase

The table is a collection of 2x2 foot scenic squares which replicate the campaign map.
The buildings, woods etc are placed on top of these scenic squares
6x6 inch fabric square are sued to show the area of the farm, village or town
A farm or village has one of these squares, a town two and a city four

On the photo above there is a farm top left, with a green square
Top right is a fortified farm, similar to Hougoumont or La Haye Sainte
Bottom left is a second fortified farm; normally this would be a village
Bottom is the city of Goslar, represented by four scenic squares

No attempt has been made to make my city look anything like the actual town of Goslar
To do so would require a lot of effort to make specific buildings or features
Just not worth the effort for a two month wargame campaign

Spanish battlefield – Merida campaign phase

You will see that I use the same scenic squares to create the wargames table
I live in Spain and have visited most of the major, and many of the minor battlefields
There are parts of Spain which are barren, particularly in the summer
But most of the country is similar to the UK, certainly in Valencia comunidad where I live
So I feel it is acceptable to use the same colour green for the base of each scenic square

The town buildings are all Hovels, of which I have a large and varied collection
The villages and farms are all homemade, from card.
My wife Jan did the artistic work, I did the basic painting
The town’s buildings are all light brown, to reflect the better construction
The farms and villages all white, which is very common on rural buildings

When there is a river involved there are less villages or farms
This is because I never have two buildings in adjacent squares
I have found that this allows a more open battlefield, which is more challenging
I also have eight squares with hills, which allows a good variation
And finally five river sections, including two bends.

This photo illustrates well the reason I use fabric squares to show the area of buildings
In the centre of the photo the city of Merida is represented by four such squares
The two nearest to the camera have been removed to show fighting inside the city

Burgos campaign map

I used to restrict the campaign phase to the area covered by the district being attacked.
In this came it would have been the nine squares with Burgos in the centre
But I had a problem when the attacking army lost the early battles and had to retreat
So I changed the campaign map to include the area either side of the district boundary
In this case the British base of Valladolid is on the left
The French base, and the campaign objective, of Burgos in on the right

I always have a twinge of regret when my fictional campaign involved a historical objective.
Some years ago my wife and I spent a week exploring Wellington’s 1812 siege of Burgos.
I know the ground extremely well, and would love to recreate the siege
But, again, that is not possible in a two month wargame campaign

Nor is the general area anything like the physical area around the city of Burgos
The river Douro does flow through the Burgos area, but not the city itself
And I am quite sure no resident of the area would recognise the route of my river
I long ago came to realise that the most important part of creating a wargame campaign is compromise

Conclusion

I don’t think I have any favourite campaign area.
The important thing for me is the wargame itself, which must be enjoyable
I have left behind the desire to recreate historical battlefields and battles
Or to attempt to make my tabletop battles just like “the real thing”

In my early years of Wargaming I read Don Featherstone’s Wargamers Newsletter
Don had fought through WW2, and had experience of “the real thing”
His approach was that Wargaming was an enjoyable recreation experience
He know only too well that it was impossible to recreate the horror of real war
And who in their right mind would ever want to do so

So I am looking forward to a couple of months of moving my French, British and Portuguese model soldiers around my well used wargames table. And when my wargame campaign visits a village or town which I actually visited I will have happy memories of the real thing, and not spoil the fictional wargames experience.

Summary of 1813 Campaign

 

1813 Campaign map

The campaign started in July 2009. 

The campaign has been reorganised six times since then, either because it ran out of days in the year, or when it changed from a solo campaign to PBEM (play by email).   Within each campaign there are varying numbers of “mini campaigns” or “campaign phases”.   Each campaign phase is a self contained mini campaign consisting of 5 to 10 (usually 6) battles fought as wargames.

There have been 95 campaign phases, each lasting about two months.    This map shows the location of each phase and the colour indicates the winner of the phase.   The campaign has also produced 507 battles which were fought as wargames.   There are a series of blogs covering the whole campaign from July 2009 with a continuous diary and battle reports with photographs of each battle fought.

Sixth Campaign map

The current campaign (The Sixth) started in June 2020.   This was the first campaign to use the new fictional maps of Europe with military regions and districts.   I decided to create a fictional map of Europe having spent 11 years trying to create a map which I could divide into squares which I could then transfer to my wargames table.   Trying to scale down my master map (a road atlas of Europe) to a series of wargame tables proved too difficult (for me anyway).  So I decided to scale up a wargame table to create a fictional map of Europe.   Each square on this map is a military district.   Each district is divided into nine towns, and each town is a wargames table.    Nine districts make up a military region.

 

There have been 21 campaign phases each of which is shown on this map.   These have provided 134 battles to wargame.

Hildesheim Campaign Phase

When I started the Sixth Campaign I fought each campaign phase on a map showing the nine towns of that military district.   However I soon decided it would make more sense to show the area either side of the district border and include the administrative HQ of each army.   In this case the French HQ is Hildesheim and the Prussian HQ is Goslar.   The district border is the purple dotted line in the middle of the map.

There were six battles fought during this campaign phase, and the location of each is shown by a coloured star.   French victories are in blue and Prussian in Grey

When I started the 1813 Campaign in July 2009 I never thought that it would last so long.   I had run quite a few solo campaigns before then, but each were based on an historical campaign, rather than a fictional one designed to provided battles to wargame.  The great advantage of a fictional campaign is that you can develop it as much as you like. 

The objective of the campaign has always been to provide interesting battle for my wife and I to wargame, using to the full our collection of model soldiers and scenery.   In 2009 that included identical armies in 6mm, 18mm and 28mm.   However we soon found that we preferred to use the larger figures, and the 6mm and 18mm were soon gathering dust on the shelves.

The maps and the orders of battle have changed over the years, but the objective has never changed.   Being able to restructure the maps and order of battle has allowed me to created different scales of battle so we never get bored with the actual wargames.   It also allows me to undertake lengthy projects, such as the fictional maps, to add interest to the campaign itself.

When I wrote the original campaign rules I also wrote a set of rules loosely based on  “Le Feu Sacre” Napoleonic rules.    Both have changed drastically over the years, and now bear little resemblance to those used in 2009.   But this also has maintained our interest in Wargaming. 

The beauty of designing campaign and wargame rules for yourself if that you don’t have to justify them to anyone else.   It has certainly worked well for us, and I would strongly recommend it to other wargamers.

Hildesheim Campaign – Day Seven

25 August 1813 – Northern Germany – Day 7

The Prussians retreat to Hildesheim-Goslar border
1st Prussian army – retreat to Seesen
2nd Prussian army – retreat to Holle
3rd Prussian army – hold Harsum

The French hold Hildesheim and win the campaign
1st French army – regroup at Hildesheim
2nd French army – hold Springe
3rd French army – occupy Alfeld

Comments
The failure of the Prussians to take Hildesheim created a problem as to who had won the campaign. They had won four of the six battles fought during this campaign phase. But the campaign objective was to take and hold the city of Hildesheim.

Having failed to take Hildesheim 2nd Prussian army has to retreat to Holle, just south of 3rd Prussian army at Harsum. This left 1st Prussian army isolated at Alfeld, so they had to retreat west to Seesen, bringing them into line with the other two Prussian armies. This allowed 3rd French army to retake Alfeld.

This seemed the most reasonable solution. The Prussians occupied the three border towns, reflecting their success throughout the campaign phase, in that all three were within French held Hildesheim District.

In truth the result of this campaign phase was a draw. Both armies had suffered considerable battle casualties, and neither were in any condition to continue the campaign. Both would need a week or so to regroup, resupply and reinforce. All this would be easier to do were the Prussians to move further west into Goslar District. But I could not convince myself that this was a decision Blucher would have made in similar circumstances.

It is perhaps a little surprising that this sort of compromise is not required more often. Given the unpredictability of our wargame rules one would imagine that it would happen more often. But in fact the “obvious winner” almost always takes the campaign objective of the enemy city and rightly wins the campaign phase.

So a rather unsatisfactory conclusion to an otherwise enjoyable campaign phase. Not a great problem, because the aim of the campaign is to produce interesting and enjoyable battles to wargame, and it has certainly done that.

Hildesheim Campaign – Day Six

24 August 1813 – Northern Germany – Day 6

The Prussians attack Hildesheim
1st Prussian army – occupy Alfeld
2nd Prussian army – attack Hildesheim
3rd Prussian army – regroup Harsum

The French retreat
1st French army – defend Hildesheim
2nd French army – regroup at Springe
3rd French army – retreat to the west

Battle of Hildesheim – End of Move 2

The city of Hildesheim is the administrative centre of Hildesheim military district.
It is also the main supply depot for the French army.

2nd Prussian army, commanded by General Bulow, attack Hildesheim
They have12 infantry brigades, 3 cavalry brigade, 3 corps artillery
They start the battle with 4 infantry casualties (1600 men)

1st French army, commanded by Emperor Napoleon, defend Hildesheim
They have 12 infantry brigades, 3 cavalry brigade, 3 corps artillery
They start the battle with 6 infantry, 2 cavalry and 2 artillery casualties (2800 men)

On the right the Imperial Garde hold the hill and area to the left. As the Prussians approach the artillery move forward to delay their deployment. The Prussian infantry are forced to advance through the fortified farm, causing considerable delay. The Prussian artillery deploy at short range on the flank of the Garde gunners, causing them to withdraw. This allows the Prussian infantry to attack the hill. After an initial success the Garde counter attack and rout the Prussian infantry

In the centre the Prussian reserve cavalry charge the French cavalry. They lose and are routed, allowing the French cavalry to threaten 5th corps and force them to form square. The Prussian cavalry rally, again charge the French cavalry and this time win the melee.

Only then can 5th Prussian corps advance and attack the woods. They quickly take the woods, and supported by the reserve cavalry break the French centre

On the left 6th corps infantry advance on the hill, causing considerable delay. Their cavalry and artillery pin the French to the left of the farm. The Prussian infantry take the farm, but are drawn into the melee for the centre. This allows the French to counter attack and retake the farm.

At nightfall the French hold two of the three game objectives and despite suffering much heavier casualties they win the game.

The French have lost 15 infantry, 4 cavalry and 2 artillery casualties (6600 men)
The Prussians have lost 11 infantry and 1 cavalry casualties (4500 men)

There are 7 French brigades in rout
The Prussians have 4 brigades in rout

Comments

The French started the game with more casualties than the Prussians. This prompted the latter to launch a very aggressive attack. Both CinC had created a cavalry reserve of two brigades. This often results in a stalemate, with both sides reluctant to risk a melee. However in this game the Prussian cavalry advanced early in the game and charged the weaker French. Much to my surprise (as Prussian player) the French won, and routed both Prussian brigades.

The French cavalry then charged the nearby Prussian artillery, forcing the gunners to abandon their guns and seek shelter in a nearby square. This left the French cavalry in possession of the centre, and forced 5th Prussian corps to form square. Fortunately the routed Prussian cavalry rallied, returned and again charged the French cavalry. This time they won and turned the tables on the French. It was now the Prussian cavalry which dominated the centre.

For most of the game it looked like the Prussians would win. In fact at the end of move 10 they occupied all three objectives. However the French counter attacked and retook two of the three objectives.

Despite suffering many more casualties the French were clear winners at the end of the maximum 12 moves. They had lost 2nd corps in the centre, but firmly held both the farm on the left and the hill on the right.

A fast moving and very enjoyable wargame. The rules are working really well, and allow for unexpected reverses – such as the late French counter attacks. This is the main advantage of using our simple, but effective, combat and morale tests with just one D6.

Hildesheim Campaign – Day Five

 

23 August 1813 – Northern Germany – Day 5

The Prussians attack Alfeld
1st Prussian army – attack Alfeld
2nd Prussian army – regroup Holle
3rd Prussian army – occupy Harsum

The French retreat to Springe
1st French army – regroup Hildesheim
2nd French army – retreat to Springe
3rd French army – defend Alfeld

Battle of Alfeld – End of Move 2

On 20 August the Prussians defeated the French at the battle of Seesen
The French retreated to Alfeld and the Prussians entered the city of Seesen
Both armies have regrouped and the Prussians now attack Alfeld

1st Prussian army, commanded by Marshal Blucher, attack Alfeld
They have12 infantry brigades, 3 cavalry brigade, 3 corps artillery
They start the battle with 3 infantry and 1 artillery casualties (1200 men)

3rd French army, commanded by Marshal Murart, defend Alfeld
They have 12 infantry brigades, 3 cavalry brigade, and 3 corps artillery
They start the battle with 5 infantry and 1 cavalry casualties (2100 men)

Murat has created a cavalry reserve by taking command of the cavalry brigades of 7th and 8th corps. He has placed them centre right between the two corps…

Blucher has created a grand battery by taking command of the artillery of 1st and 2nd corps. He has placed them centre right opposite the French cavalry reserve.

On the right 7th French corps have occupied the woods. 1st Prussian corps is advancing to attack the woods, with their cavalry on the far right. These cavalry charge the French gunners, who evade into a nearby square. The Prussian infantry are then free to attack and capture the woods.

The Prussian grand battery advance in support of 1st Prussian corps. They are charged by the French reserve cavalry, and one battery is routed. However one cavalry brigade fails to charge home and the second are counter charged by the 2nd Prussian cavalry. Both French cavalry brigades retreat is disorder.

This allows 2nd Prussian cavalry to force 8th French corps infantry into square, and they are routed when charged by the Prussian infantry.

On the left 3rd Prussian corps advance to attack the farm. Their cavalry and artillery pin 9th Polish corps, whilst their infantry attack and capture the farm

Comments

It is quite normal for the CinC to take command of either cavalry or artillery to form a reserve. Normally the opposing general creates a similar command, and this often results in a stalemate.

However this time the Prussian commander left all three cavalry brigades with their respective corps. Instead he took command of artillery and supporting infantry from two of his corps and placed them opposite the French cavalry. He then manhandled his guns forward, and the French cavalry have to either charge the guns or retreat. They choose the former option.

When cavalry charge enemy guns they advance half a move. The gunners must then test their morale to determine how they will react. If they pass the test they can choose to fire at short range, or evade if there are supporting troops within half a move.

In this game one Prussian battery started with 10% casualties, which is minus 1 on firing. They retreated to a nearby square. The cavalry charging them halted and withdrew next move.

The second battery remained with the guns; the French cavalry charged and received 10% casualties. If the cavalry charge home it is an automatic 10% casualties on the gunners and an automatic rout. However the cavalry failed the morale test and halted shaken. The nearby Prussian cavalry then charged and routed them.

The loss of the French cavalry gave a big advantage to the Prussian army and played a major role in them taking all three game objectives. However if the cavalry had won, and the Prussians lost two of their three corps artillery, they would not have been able to continue their attack.

This is the first time that we have used this tactic of opposing massed cavalry with massed artillery. It was a risky option, but fortunately it paid off. No doubt this tactic will be used in future game, and it will be interesting to see how often it works.

Blogger is very slow

 

Is anybody else having problems with Blogger .   It is very slow to post photos or amend text.   I keep getting a message "this page is not responding" and Post: Edit.   It started about ten days ago.