Wismar Campaign – Day 5

Campaign Map                                                 

1st Prussian Army – retreat to Wismar
2nd Prussian Army – regroup and resupply at Schwerin
3rd Prussian Army – second battle of Ludwigslust

3rd French Army – advance to Boltenhagen
1st French Army – regroup and resupply Gadesbusch
2nd French Army – second battle of Ludwigslust

Battle of Ludwigslust – Day Two

Each army started day two in the same positions they ended day one
However they were allowed to regroup and redeploy
This left the French stronger than the Prussians

French Army – 11 infantry brigades, 3 cavalry brigade, 3 corps artillery
Prussian Army – 9 infantry brigades, 2 cavalry brigade, 2 corps artillery

French artillery opened the game, and proved more effective than usual
They had more guns than the Prussians, and concentrated on the infantry
The Prussian gunners were less effective as they opened on the French artillery

On the left the French advanced to take the bridge
Their cavalry were routed, and the infantry unable to reach the bridge
The Prussians only retreated when the rest of their army did so

The Prussians fought hard to hold the town and both brigades received casualties
The French artillery fired at long range, and their infantry skirmished
Only when the garrison was weakened did the infantry storm and take the town

On the right the Prussians also fought well, though they had to abandon the woods
Their cavalry were routed and the infantry had to retreat when the town was lost

The French won, but it was a hard fought battle

Comments

Reorganisation means adjusting the casualties to allow the corps to fight again
Previously all casualties were removed, except for one per brigade
However this results in very weak brigades, which often fail morale tests
This in turn means that an army fighting a second battle will be very unpredictable
That in itself is not a bad thing, but it does often result in very annoying results
For example a brigade with one casualty will often rout when it received one more
This in turn will often spread any brigades within 4”, who must then test their morale
It is not unusual to have a knock on effect resulting in a whole corps running away
And all because the first brigade rolled a low dice for their morale test

So in this game I did it slightly different.

Infantry casualties could be concentrated in one brigade in each corps
This would always be the one which had received the most casualties
If there were more than two casualties, the brigade would be removed
However all other brigade would start the game full strength

Cavalry and artillery casualties would be concentrated in one brigade for the whole army. Again this would be the brigade which had received the most casualties.

It worked well in this game. The French lost one infantry brigade, the Prussians lost three. However it did not make a lot of difference in this particular game.

The Prussians also lost one cavalry brigade and one corps artillery. The French has just one casualty in one cavalry brigade and one corps artillery. The cavalry did not make much difference, as they were concentrated in 8th corps, which held the town. The artillery did make a difference. On the flanks the Prussians had artillery, which kept the French guns at bay. But they had none in the centre, and the French infantry and artillery were able to approach the town without fear of long range casualties from enemy artillery.

This is the first time that we had fought a second day of a battle. It proved more even than I had expected, though the stronger French did win in the end. But they suffered equal casualties, and it could easily have gone the other way.