Erfurt Campaign – Day 3

16 March 1813 - Central Europe -  Day 3

First major battle/wargame of the campaign

French attack Erfurt with two corps and their reserve

Russians counter attack with two corps and their reserve

Start of Game

The city of Erfurt is represented by four town squares

The Russian army starts the game deployed to the right of the city

The French army is deployed to the left of the city

Each army has 9 infantry and 3 cavalry brigades, plus 3 batteries of artillery

The cavalry and artillery of the reserve corps are C class, minus 1 for melee and morale

End of Move 8

The battle is concentrated on the fight for the city

Both armies commit three brigades of infantry, each commanded by their CinC

As they enter the two sections nearest to them the buildings are removed

This allows us to measure movement, deploy to fight, and measure retreats

The Russians hold both flanks, but lose more casualties than the French

But the French win because they capture the city

 

Campaign Note

This was an unusually complicated game.   There were two reasons for this.

 

First the table was quite crowded for such a large army, and particularly the area taken by the city of Erfurt in the centre

 

Both flanks had terrain which was easy to defend, and the approaches were very narrow.   

 

The Russians occupied the terrain on their side of the table, and only advanced into the city.  

 

The French intended to attack, but found it too difficult to advance beyond their own terrain.   Consequently they also deployed to hold.

 

The French attack on the city was heavily supported by their artillery, and caused casualties to the Russian garrison.  This provided decisive when the French infantry attacked.

 

The Russian artillery concentrated on the French infantry and cavalry.  They caused a few casualties, but more important they made a French attack likely to be very expensive.  This resulted in a lack of fighting on the flanks.

 

Interesting wargame, but a little disappointing that it was again decided by town fighting.   This is always decided by the luck of the dice, though the French artillery did help the French attack.