Halle Campaign – Day Four

Campaign Map

French attack Konnern
4 French army – attack Konnern
5 French army – rally and resupply
6 French army – occupy Querfurt

Russian retreat to Leuna
1 Russian army – defend Konnern
2 Russian army – rally and resupply
3 Russian army – retreat to Luena

Battle of Konnern – Move 2

The Russian army is deployed on and around the three game objectives.
The bridge on the left must be held at both ends
The hill in the centre must be held to deprive any movement towards the town
The village on  the right must be held

The Russians start the game as shown in the photo. They are not allowed to move forward to attack the French. If allowed to do so and they routed just one brigade the game would be over. So the French are allowed to cross the two bridges at the top of the photo unopposed.

Artillery can only fire on troops lining the edge of the hill, and cavalry can only move across hills, they are not allowed to fight on them. So the hill in the centre was always the most difficult of the three campaign objectives. The French do not attempt a determined attack, and the Russians still hold it at nightfall.

The village on the right is the easiest, and the Young Guard is given that objective. Despite their best efforts the Russians hold the village throughout the game, and still do so at nightfall

To take the bridge the French must attack along both sides of the river, in order to take and hold both ends of the bridge. 12th corps cavalry and infantry attack along the left bank. The CinC attacks along the right bank.   He takes command of the artillery from 11th and 12th corps, plus the cavalry and one infantry brigade from 11th corps. They finally take both ends of the bridge, but it is then too late to redeploy to attack the hill in the centre, which was the original plan.

The Russians held two of the three game objectives and thus won the game

Comments

The wargame has twelve moves, to keep it in line with the campaign which has 12 active hours in each day. This decision was taken back in 2009 when I started the campaign and was not based on any serious consideration about how long the wargame need to last. It was just a nice fit to have one move equate to one campaign hour.

It has worked very well during the 482 wargames which the campaign has produced. I particularly like the fact that it results in a fast moving game, because if the attacker waits too long he will run out of time before achieving the game objective.

We use a 6x6 foot wargames table, consisting of 9 2x2 foot scenic squares. The table is an accurate reproduction of the wargames map, which has a square grid. Each square on the campaign map is a 2x2 foot scenic square.

The game always starts with 2 foot between each army. Cavalry have a movement rate of 12”, so would cross that distance in two moves. Artillery has a rate of 8”, as do infantry in column of march, and would take three moves to cover that distance. Infantry in attack column have a rate of 6”, and would take four moves to cross the distance. 12 pounder guns have a maximum range of 12”. These distances determine how all games are played.

In general terms it takes the attacking army 3 to 6 moves to advance 12” from the enemy and deploy into attack formation. The artillery is usually deployed within 4 moves, and then has four moves to soften up the defenders, and for the cavalry to engage, and hopefully, defeat the enemy cavalry or gunners.

The attacking infantry usually has 4 to 6 moves to attack the game objectives and defeat the enemy infantry.

If this timetable is followed the attacker usually has a slight advantage. This is because he can reinforce the attack on the weakest of the three game objectives. He has to take and hold at least two to win the game.

However just one set back can throw the attack time table into disorder. The attacker always has to move into attack range, just under 12”. This allows the defending artillery to fire before he can, and the defending cavalry to charge him. If the defending cavalry win the melee, or if a lucky artillery shot results in a rout, the attack stalls until the attacker can rally the shaken or routed brigades. This usually takes at least two moves, and often results in the attack running out of time.

When the attacker has to cross a river at the start of the game, as in this case, the odds are against keeping to the timetable. Major rivers can only be crossed by one of the limited number of bridges. The attacker can concentrate his artillery against their side of the bridge and have a very good chance of routing one of the brigade columns before they can clear the river. They must rout directly away from the artillery causing the hit, which means routing through the remaining columns waiting to cross the bridge after them.

To avoid this I have recently either allowed the attacker to start the game on the enemy side of the river. Or, as in this game, had a special rule which stopped the defender from advancing to less than 12” from their side of the bridge.

Worked well in this game, though time was a factor and worked against the attacking French once again.