The Battle of Lehtre

26 September 1813 – Hannover Campaign – Day 3

French abandon Peine
Prussians attack Lehtre

The Prussians occupy Peine and attack Lehtre
1st Prussian army – regroup at Celle
2nd Prussian army – attack Lehtre
3rd Prussian army – occupy Peine

The French retreat to Laatzen and defend Lehtre
1st French army – hold border
2nd French army – retreat to Laatzen
3rd French army – regroup at Soltau

Table at the start of the battle

All three French corps are deployed on and around the objectives
1st Guard corps on the right, 2nd corps in the centre and 3rd corps on the left

Prussian corps are deployed closer to the camera
4th corps on the right, 5th corps in the centre and 6th corps on the left

There are three game objectives
Woods on the left, hill in the centre and fortified farm on the right
The army who holds two at the end of 12 moves will be the winner

Table at the end of the battle

On the right the Imperial Garde are firmly in control of the walled farm.
Early in the battle their cavalry charged and routed the Prussian dragoons.
Without cavalry support 4th Prussian corps could not hope to take the farm

In the centre Napoleon has taken command of two brigades from 2nd corps
He holds the hill throughout the battle, despite a Prussian attack
As night falls 5th Prussian corps regroup and again attack the hill
This time they break and rout the French defenders

2nd French corps holds the area between the hill and the woods
Their artillery cause 20% casualties to the Prussian gunners, who rout
Without artillery support the Prussians cannot hope to attack

On the left the battle for the woods is undecided at nighfall.
Throughout the battle the Prussians have attacked.
But they are unable to take all three sections of woods
At night fall the Prussians hold one section, and the French hold two

The Prussians have been unable to take two of the three objectives
The French win the battle.

The French have lost 10 infantry, 1 cavalry and 1 artillery casualties (4200 men)
The Prussians have lost 7 infantry and 2 artillery casualties (3000 men)

There are 5 French and 5 Prussian brigades in rout

Comments
In most battles the attacker selects two of the three objectives to attack
He may move forward to attack all three, but usually abandons one objective

In this battle the Imperial Garde held the farm on the right
So this was always going to be the most difficult objective

Early in the battle the French cavalry charged and routed the Prussian dragoons
Without cavalry support the Prussians were content to observe and pin the French
Napoleon could have attacked with the Garde, and would probably have won
However it was too early in the campaign to risk the Imperial Garde.

In the centre Blucher took command of 5th corps.
His gunners were twice routed by the French artillery
Without artillery support he was unable to attack

The most interesting part of the battle was the woods on the left
This was the first Prussian attack, and it continued throughout the battle
There are three wooded sections and the Prussians would have to take all three
They managed to take two sections, but the French attack retook one section
At nightfall the French held two sections and the Prussians one.

Neither side managed to hold two of the three game objectives.
At nightfall they each held one objective, with the woods in debate
However to win the attacker must take two out of three
In a draw the defender is the winner
And in this case the French held two of the three woods sections.

An interesting wargame and the French player (Jan) deserved to win.

Designing campaign maps

 

Table at the start of a wargame

The wargames table is the starting point for both my wargames and the maps of my fictional 1813 campaign.   It is 6x6 foot and has space for nine 2x2 foot squares.   This area would represent one map square on my stragetic maps, and nine map squares on the tactical one.   The above table shows the area I mean.  

For the campaign to work I had to be able to transfer any battle fought onto the wargames table.   So first I had to decide how I would use the 2x2 foot scenic squares to create the wargame terrain.

Campaign map master

The best way to describe this is to explain how the campaign map is created.

The area covered is from the attacking army depot to the defending army depot, which is always the campaign objective.

There are 108 squares, divided into 12 squares each three wide by three deep.   This area is one days march on the campaign map and also one wargames table.  

The map is four tables wide and three deep.

In the campaign each French and allied army has 3 armies each of 3 corps.   At the start of the campaign the two armies are deployed either side of the District border (the dotted purple line in the middle of the map).   A maximum of 1 corps can occupy each of the smaller squares, and on the wargames table one corps can fit in one 2x2 foot scenic squares.

The master campaign map starts with nine buildings.  The centre building at each end is a city and the army depot.   The other 7 are towns.   Each is an objective in both the map campaign and on the wargames table.  

Campaign map for Hannover campaign

This map shows the completed map with the location of each French and Prussian corps at the start of the Hannover campaign.   Three types of roads have been added, major are red, secondary yellow and tracks brown.

Cities and towns have been named.   Hills, woods, villages and farms have also been added. 

Most  important each small square now has a number, and this corresponds with a 2x2 foot scenic square.   This is how it is possible to transfer every small square on the campaign map to the wargames table.

Next week I will cover making the 2x2 foot scenic squares and the scenery that goes on top of them.

Planning the armies of the 1813 campaign

 

Typical corps

 

I explained last week how I found myself with a large collection of painted figures, from which I now wanted to create all of the major armies of the 1813 campaign.

I had a very clear idea what I wanted to achieve, but not how to do so.

I wanted to use every figure in my collection in a series of campaigns

So do so I wanted to use them in sequence, with one allied nation in each campaign

I had 160 infantry, 16 cavalry and 4 guns in each allied “army”.    This was to be a fictional campaign based on 1813.  But I wanted to make it “feel” and look like a Napoleonic campaign.   So the basic army had to be a corps.  It would be very unusual for a French army to have just one corps, so my existing figures would have to represent three or four corps.  My wargames table was built by using nine 2x2 foot squares.

They were three wide and three deep.   I found that if I divided each army into four corps they would fit one corps to one square.    Thus I could have three corps wide and one corps in reserve for each army.

Fortunately my armies provided 4 infantry, 1 cavalry and 1 gun for each of the new four corps.   You will see what I mean in the photograph above.   Each corps would have 4 brigades of 8 infantry, one brigade of 4 cavalry and one corps artillery of one gun.   The four infantry figures left over would provide skirmishers if required.

I based the infantry and cavalry two figures to a stand.    This means that my infantry brigades could form column of march, column of attack, line and square.    My cavalry could form column of march and line.   I had to get used to 8 figures representing a brigade of infantry, but that was an acceptable compromise.  

Before leaving the UK I had discovered Le Feu Sacre (LFS) rules, which I really liked using.  However they are designed for a one corps game, with 12  infantry figures representing a battalion.  I decided to design my own rules, relying very heavily on the principles of LFS.   The only difference was that I replaced their orders of battle with my own 8 infantry figure brigades, 4 cavalry figure brigades and 1 gun for corps artillery.

These rules rely on command and control very heavily, which I liked.  It rewarded historical Napoleonic tactics.   Their command figure was brigade and division.   Mine would be corps and army.

I am very pleasantly surprised to find that the original planning back in 2008 has largely survived 18 years of frequent Wargaming.   We always have a game on the table and have a couple of moves four or five times a week.  It usually takes us about 10 to 14 days to complete a 12 move game.

The only major adjustment is that we soon adapted to three corps games.   This meant that each mini campaign order of battle would consist of slightly different armies as I switched the four corps to provide armies of three corps.

Next week I will consider designing the wargames table, which would be the foundation of the orders of battle and the campaign maps.