Fast and Furious!

I have just finished another Play By E-Mail Napoleonic campaign. Which ended very abruptly!

It was set in the frankly horrific 1807 winter campaign that historically ended with the Battle of Eylau.

Fortunately for our virtual soldiers, this campaign only lasted for I think four days.

I was Davout, the "Iron Marshall" with his veteran 3rd Corps.

Starting bright and early on 22 December 1806, I bridged the Vistula and marched north from Plock, covering the main force's left and providing a link with our distant left wing (Lannes and Bernadotte).

The changing weather complicated matters. Snow or mud caused extra fatigue. Even standing still on a muddy day added to fatigue levels. So it was slow, laborious, going. 

I made for Soldau, hoping for a rest day in the town, before marching to Mlawa and reinforcing Ney and Napoleon's left in a build up around Pultusk. 

I bumped into the Prussian Auxiliary Korps (commanded by the Mad Padre) at Soldau with my 4 divisions. They, occupying the only shelter for miles, were to be evicted.

I defended with my right, where the biggest Prussian division was, pinned in the center around the village, and attacked on my left with my biggest division and my cavalry. It was hard slogging, but I decided it was a "victory or death" situation and kept pushing.

A close run battle on a muddy Christmas Day followed, with me finally routing the Prussian right hand division just before nightfall. The next morning it took a couple of turns to get organized and pursue. I then hooked right to march towards the ongoing mighty battle of Pultusk. 

I had just bumped into the worn Prussians at Mlawa, who had bumped into Ney (my friend Scott), who had a shattered Russian cavalry division on his other flank... when the game ended.

The division I routed, added to Russian divisions routed that day at Pultusk, got us enough VPs to win the game.

And it was only 26 December 1806.

Definitely an interesting experience. 

Thunder on the Danube

 

As faithful podcast listeners know, I am in a second Play By E-Mail (PBEM) campaign hosted by Wendy. And as everyone, including my opponents know, I am commanding the Bavarian army, which formed Napoleon's VII Corps. 

I will endeavor to keep this updated more frequently. 

Theater of campaign

This time I dutifully read my briefing and spent the week pondering my initial deployment. My analysis, as I outlined to Napoleon's HQ, was that the threat to Davout around Ratisbonne was greater than the threat to Munich. So I deployed my infantry divisions to cover the three northern crossings, while the cavalry screened to the south and burned bridges.

Initial deployment 16 April 1809

The first communication from the Emperor, which fortunately arrived at 8 am on the first day of game time, promptly turned this upside down. "Defend Munich!" were the orders. And he outlined a  grand strategy of crossing at Munich and taking the Austrians in their left flank.

Gallopers are thus dispatched hither and yon, and the closest divisions begin marching immediately, or noonish, allowing time for orders to arrive, camps to be struck etc. 

Moves afternoon of 16 April 

Because my divisions were scattered, my control over them was not immediate. I sent orders for the next two days. My map skills told me that 12 hour marches on the 17th would get me to here:

Ordered movements for 17 April 

The Cavalry Division should be at Landshut to cover my northern flank. 1st Div also at Landshut en route to Moosburg. 2nd Division at Moosburg en route to Freising. And 3rd Division about a 4 hour march from Munich. 

That was the carefully thought out plan, at any rate.

A turn or so later, I am informed that 3rd Division at Landshut,  has been threatened by at least a Corps since 6 am. More gallopers are dispatched. Everyone is told: "Move. Move now!" I don't expect to stop the crossing, but if 3rd Division can delay and then retire towards me, that'd be great. Then I'll have all 3 infantry divisions together threatening the Austrian flank. 

Hopefully, the cavalry division can circle around the Austrian bridgehead and join me by the 18th.

I'm getting reports from cavalry patrols all day (stalwart chaps those Bavarian troopers) of large Austrian columns crossing at Moosburg and Freising.

But 3rd Divisions holds out heroically at Landshut and I reinforce them with 2nd Division as evening falls on the 16th. "Super!" I think.

The 17th dawns quietly only to find that a Corps of whitecoats have marched up from the Moosburg crossing.

Well poop.

Not liking the idea of fighting in two directions with 1 fresh division, 1 not-so-fresh division and some cavalry that have forced march through the night, dodging Austrian cavalry vedettes, I elect to retire north east to link up with 1st Division.

I manage to extricate myself, thanks to Imperial troops marching twice as fast as the Austrians and I get all four of my divisions together on that unnamed Y-junction just to my north east. The Austrians pursued. I elected to "fight a delaying action" which forces the enemy to deploy and then while they regroup I'm getting out of there. Stupidly I designated my cavalry as rearguard, thinking their horses would allow them to elude the whitecoats easily. 

Being exhausted and attacked by Austrian heavies, they broke and galloped up the Isar river like a pack of panicked sheep. I took the rest north towards Ratisbonne and Davout, fighting a second delaying action around Neufahrn as I went. I then stopped at Eggmuhl and sent staff officers to gather in my cavalry. They finally arrived in the small hours of the morning and needed 24 hours rest to be ready to fight again.

So I spent the next campaign day, at 2 hour weekly turns, sitting at Eggmuhl, patrolling south, east and west while my cavalry recovered from their fit of vapours. I was briefly menaced by some Cuirassiers and Grenadiers, who then sloped off westward after making rude gestures at my pickets. 

All this day I'm getting no dispatches from Davout or Imperial HQ or anyone and I'm just alone in the dark wondering where the war went to. Late in the day I heard some artillery fire from around Abensberg as Vandamme, and possibly Davout, set about thrashing the Austrian 2nd Korps.

After 24 hours of sitting on my hands, I decide "Right well, since everyone seems to have forgotten me, I'll push south to Landshut and try to get in behind the Austrians!" After four hours of marching I bump some Austrians.

So I sit and wait, figuring I'm at least keeping these divisions from heading north west to the big fight around Abensburg. I finally get some messages as well. Vandamme and Davout are going to be pushing the Austrians towards Landshut and can I be ready to pounce?

Morning of the 20th I attack a Division of Cuirassiers and a Division of Grenadiers guarding the Landshut bridge.

North

Cavalry

Lefebvre

1er Div west	2e Div center	3e Div east
west	center Cuirassier Lichtenstein	east Grenadiers

South

I had assumed that they'd do a fighting withdrawal, so ordered "Attack!" Well, the white coats stood and bloodied 2nd and 3rd divisions until 1st and the cavalry outflanked them. Then they withdrew in good order over the bridge. In retrospect, I should have defended with 2nd and 3rd while attacking on my right to outflank them.

Meanwhile I've been hearing a lot of artillery fire to my north and west the past day or two. Massena and Davout got themselves into hot water but only the faster march rate of the French got them out of it. Massena calls for aid, but I've got a tiger by the tail so to speak, with 1st Reserve Korps bottled up on the south side of the Iser River now. I march to Massena and all those Austrian elite troops will just follow me.

Bit of an embuggerance, really.

Oudinot is down river at Moosburg, but my latest intelligence had the Austrians still holding the river crossing at Freising, so my cutting their LOC isn't much help.

While reorganizing and trying to figure out what happened to Vandamme, who was supposed to be coming down the Rottenburg road, Oudinot with the tattered remains of his II Corps, amounting to a worn out cavalry division straggles in, along with reports from my cavalry screen that a large Austrian force is coming from my north where Vandamme was supposed to be, while the 1st Reserve Corps is getting ready to attack across the bridge again.

Bugger.

So much for keeping the Austrian elites bottled up on the wrong side of the Iser and out of the fight.

Oudinot and I are close enough we can message instantly, so we hatch some plans and bugger off. Oudinot acting as rearguard and retiring to Postau. I march back the way I came towards Eggmuhl.

At Eggolsheim, just south of Ratisbonne, I encounter the Wurttemberg cavalry division who are pretty beat up having been driven off from the main battle raging around Rohn and Rottenberg. I camp with them and ponder my options. Communications with Imperial HQ being somewhat awkward, what with all those very pretty Austrian hussars swanning  about, drinking wine, seducing the women, and intercepting dispatches, between me and Napoleon.

I have a few ideas in mind. 

Either I could swing west to join the main army around Abensberg, but that would take a couple of days marching. Or I could dash south east, cross the Iser, and strike the Austrians from their southern flank. Again that would take a few days. Third choice is to rest for a day and strike south again at Landshut, hoping to at least draw off some Austrian reserves from the main event happening loudly only 20 kilometers to my west. I even calculated how long it would take to go cross country and fall on the Austrian rear, but I concluded that would be too much for my weary troops.

Right, so rest today, strike south towards Landshut tomorrow. That's the quickest way to get back in the fight and do something useful.

But

This morning I receive this dispatch ending the game. I'll let Wendy give the game wrap up:

The game ends on turn 47 at 1000 hours on the 21^st of April 1809.

 At 0800 hours on the battlefield between Pfeffenhausen and Weihmichl Davout orders his cavalry division, which by this time consisted of less than 1000 Cuirassier, to retreat covered by Friant's 8,000 infantrymen. As the Cuirassier tried to disengage from the centre they were hit by massed volleys from Jellacic's 13,000 infantry, Fresnel's 4,000 elite Grenadiers, and charges from the Ulm and Keinmeyer Cuirassier divisions which combined was about 7,000 elite Cuirassier. Against this the exhausted and vastly outnumbered French Cuirassier shattered like a basket of eggs after having an anvil dropped on them. Friant's men covered the routing Cuirassier but were themselves devastated by volleys from Hohenzollern's Corps which outnumbered them by over two to one. After taking heavy casualties Friant limped off the field in good order but with damned few men left and only 6 morale points remaining. Davout's shattered Corps limps north away from the sound of Austrian cheers and hymns being sung in victory behind them.

 On the Rottenburg road Napoleon is hustling his ad hoc force of three infantry divisions southwards. His lead division is Morand's Division from Davout's III Corps which is still strong in numbers and in decently high spirits after taking part in the victory over Kollowrath the night before, although they might be less impressed if they realized how hollow that victory was since Kollowrath managed to hold them up long enough for the rest of the army to gather at Weihmichl and crush Davout before he and Napoleon could combine their forces. Morand catches up to Hillier's rearguard at the Klein Laber river and after a short skirmish the exhausted Austrian cavalry forming that rearguard is quickly defeated and sent routing off to the south. The other two infantry divisions in Napoleon's ad hoc force are from Massena's Corps and they begin to slowly march cross country towards the sound of the guns around Pfeffenhausen little knowing that they have no chance of arriving in time to effect the battle there which is already over by 10:00 am.

 Most of Napoleon's divisions in Corps at this time are either shattered or scattered to the winds completely unable to support each other. Ouidinot made himself combat ineffective a day and a half ago when he split up his divisions and scattered them to the winds leaving one in Munich, sending one east from Moosburg towards Landschut on the south bank of the Isar, and sending his cavalry east from Moosberg along the north bank of the river. Ouidinot now sits in Postau with what's left of his cavalry division, just a few hundred strong, completely alone and cut off from any support. Lefebvre's Corps is pretty exhausted after tangling with Bellegarde and Lichtenstein multiple times over the past two days and has retreated to Eggolsheim where he is recovering with Vandame's shattered cavalry division. He is too far away and too tired to be able to effect the outcome of the campaign at this point. Vandame's small Corps has been completely shattered after multiple valiant attempts to stop Kollowrath and Hillier. He will need at least a day to let his Corps recover a fraction of their morale. Massena's Corps is now divided. He sits with his shattered divisions just north of Rohn while his one half decently battleworthy division and one exhausted but still holding together division accompany Napoleon south to their inevitable doom.

 The Austrian army meanwhile is consolidated just north of the Isar with half their Corps in great shape, well rested and fighting fit and having just won another battle. Kollowrath and Hillier's Corps are both exhausted and will require a day to recover even a portion of their morale once they make it to the safety of Landschut. At this point there is little that Napoleon can do except retreat to either Ingoldstadt and/or Ratisbonne and wait for his fresh troops currently on the march from Spain while he rests his remaining men in Bavaria. The Austrians in the meantime have the initiative and would no doubt follow him and besiege him with their main force while probably sending a Kollowrath and Hillier to besiege and recapture Munich and Ratisbonne either consecutively or one after the other. The fall of both places would be only a matter of time.

 I hope that you enjoyed this campaign. It was a real nail biter for me, it went back and forth and there were times when I was sure that one side and then the other was about to win it. I will post a series of day by day campaign video after action reports on my Youtube channel as I complete them over the next few weeks but basically I think the crisis point of the campaign was on the 20^th of April when Davout and Massena where destroying Kollowrath and Hillier who had been fighting them all day long while being completely abandoned by Bellegarde who was just 5 km away. If Bellegarde had come to their aid then it would have been a complete game changer. At the same time Napoleon missed his opportunity to consolidate his two strongest corps with Lannes elite Cuirassier divisions and then fall on and destroy Bellegarde, Kollowrath and Hillier when the later two were absolutely on the verge of collapse. If he had done so he would have defeated half the Austrian army and been able to consolidate the rest of his corps on his position and then attack the other half of the Austrian army somewhere around Moosburg or Freising most likely. 

Orange squares are battle sites. As you will note, there's an awful lot of Austrians waiting for me at Landshut.

So I think my initial mistake was covering Davout at Ratisbonne, instead of deploying to block the crossing at Munich, Freising, Moosburg and Landshut. My corps would have suffered badly, but stopping the Austrians for a critical day, or even two, and perhaps shattering a few of their divisions in the process, would have bought the Imperial side a chance. Of course not knowing where the Austrians were massing and threatening to cross initially didn't help.

Ah well. Once again this experience gives me profound respect for the generals of the past who are often criticized for "blunders" when they are operating with out of date, vague intelligence, out of date orders, and restricted to a road network that might not go where they want to go.

Heaven and Earth (Samurai Movie)

A random post on the Feudal Japanese Miniature Wargaming Facebook group helped me find this 1990 Samurai epic. I rented the DVD many many years ago but have never been able to find it since. Mostly because in 1993 Oliver Stone also released a movie of the same title.

So Sunday lunch was spent watching this extremely colourful retelling of the struggle between Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin over Shinano province that resultd in the five battles of  Kawanakajima.

There's also an Osprey about the campaigns. 

Back in the Saddle

My painting mojo has been lagging since middle of April. Looking over past posts I can see I've done a few things; knocking off some things I've wanted to do for my Expanse project for some time and poking at the Quar. But my ability to just sit down and bang units out has not been there. Lack of enthusiasm? Lack of time? Not playing any games? Distracted by Quar? All of the above?

My friend Dick has been having Friday night paint and chat Zoom sessions ever since Covid began, and he's kept them up since. He recently started including me in the invitations, and this has helped get me painting again. Since it's awkward to show up for a Paint and Chat and not have anything to paint. 

Consequently in the last two Friday sessions I've finished off a 12 figure shieldwall of Conqueror Model Dwarves. This is the third shield wall unit and has a blue raven banner. The banner delayed finishing the unit for a week as I searched for a raven design that I liked. I finally found one on Twitter,  on the shield of a viking warrior painted by @PaintsPirate. I modified his design a bit, mostly by adding a ring in its beak, something I'd noticed in First Nations raven art. In First Nations iconography it's probably the Sun, but this being Middle Earth, it's a Ring.

I do like the warrior's full face mask. Very dwarven. 

Trying to suggest a coiled dragon in the corners of the cloak. And I love the detail of the great axe on the warrior's back.

Detail of banner. Raven with ring flying over mountains

I just love Colin Paten's sculpts

This is the third shield wall unit. The fourth will have a red field and yellow dragon. I suppose for proper colour coordination I should have really done the bear banner with a yellow field? Although the next dwarves I paint should really be the archers I bought with my Christmas bonus. But at least the end is near for the dwarves and Middle Earth. 

Which is more than I can say for my Napoleonics. 

Last night i smashed out this 17 figure, 2 groups plus a Big Man, formation of Austrian Landwehr for Sharp Practice. Basic grey with red facings and black belts. I had abandoned them in April because I had tried something different and got frustrated. 

I find plastic figures on plastic bases knocks a day off production time. I can get the bases painted and flocked as soon as the glue sets, instead of leaving them for a day.

I've got more Austrians primed and ready to paint. I started a group of Cheveauxleger last night too.

A second PBEM campaign, this time set in the 1809 Danube campaign, should help inspire me to get more done. Although I'm expecting an order of Quar too.

Rabbitman Lost in the Fog of War

This post has taken literally months, to write, as I periodically updated it as things where fresh in my mind. But we started playing in September 2022.

It would have be nice to post monthly reports, but the Mad Padre reads this blog too, and he was on the other side. So OpSec was paramount.

A listener to our podcast heard the Mad Padre's desire to experience the grand sweep of Napoleonic strategic maneuvering and invited us to join her Play By E-Mail (PBEM) campaign refighting the 1806 campaign which ended in the Prussian defeat at Jena.

I thought this sounded like jolly good fun and volunteered for a minor role.

Then I got my briefing, only to find myself to be the Prussian C-in-C, General Charles William Ferdinad, Duke of  Brunswick.

The Duke of Brunswick KIA IRL at the B. of Jena

Of course, I was distracted by Real Life before the game kicked off, so I didn't sit down to read anything until the night my orders were due! No time for a Council of War or issuing orders to corps commanders. One of my Corps (General Ruchel) promptly galloped off into the blue to cause havoc among the French around Meiningen and Ohrdruf, and I occasionally got unexpected and much delayed reports, but my ability to support or coordinate with them was minimal. I just sent encouraging replies, outlined a few broad options, and hoped they are enough of a disruption to tip the balance for me.

Zany hijinks ensue as I figure out how to deploy my divisions and get them moving without too much congestion. My main body of 6 divisions ends up maneuvering in two separate columns and I get updates such as "You hear artillery fire to your south which lasts for 2 hours." 

I anxiously await the arrival of a lathered staff galloper with a report from the other large Prussian Corps commanded by another player.

And wait....

And wait....

For a contact report that never comes.

Fearing the worst I'm imaging their corps shattered and retreating in disarray and start worrying about a French outflanking move to my left, when I get a message that they're still comfortably ensconced in their original position at Hof while I'm engaging a French corps that has slipped between us.

Area of Operations

End of each turn I get lovely situation maps like this and report of what I've encountered. But, note that my map does not include the locations of the other Prussian corps!

The road South

At the rate of 3 kph it is slow going on the tiny map. A 10 hour march only moves you about an inch!

Where is everybody?

Contact! "More than a Division" 

Finally there is contact, but with who? and how many of them? I issue my orders and draw up my deployment. It's all very exciting! I compose a suitably stirring Order of the Day hoping that it might get me a +1 modifier. And for fun to keep in the spirit of things.

My deployment for the first engagement 
Pretty complicated, huh?

See attached photograph of deployment.

1Div and Arty Reserve Center

2Div west 

2Res Div east

Can I add that batteries should be dug in, infantry deployed in dead ground as much as possible and 2nd Reserve Div should refuse it's left wing? because I really think the French are going to fix my front and come around my open left flank.

I will give battle if the French attack me. If they do not then I will attack the detachment holding Schleitz. I want 2 Res Div to patrol to the east and look for the French and Hohenlohe.

From General Charles Wiliam Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, before Schleitz, 1900 11 Sept 1806

To: Generals Scharnhorst (3Div) Kuhneim (1 Res Div) Blucher (advance Guard), Prinz Louis (Adv Guard of Prince Hohenlohe's corps)

Gentlemen, I have encountered a strong enemy force occupying Schleitz and will give battle in the morning. I require you to march to the sound of the guns.

Leave your baggage at Saalfeld and force march through the night to Schleitz to envelope the enemy's left flank. Destroy all the Frenchmen before you. We will shake hands when we meet on the road to Hof.

From Duke of Brunswick, before Schleitz, 1900 11 Sept 1806

To General Ruhl near Morningen

Sir,

In the morning I expect to be attacked by the French main force. You are too far away to give aid in the coming battle.

Continue in your harrying of the enemy Lines of Communication and if you can return via the Neustadt-saalfeld pass you will discomfit Bernadotte's Corps considerably. 

Order your reserve division to march to Saalfeld as well.

Order of the Day to be read to all ranks

"Soldiers of Prussia! The invader is before you! Your homes are behind you! The eyes of God and your King watch over you! The fate of Fatherland is in your hands today!

You are the inheritors of Frederick the Great, who defeated enemies greater than this. Be firm in your resolve, steadfast in your courage and strong in the iron discipline of Prussian arms!"

After all that, the French promptly retire to Lobenstein, seeking, I suspect, to pull me out of position and into a trap. I fall back to Saalbourg where I can support Hohenlohe. 

Just in time as 2 French corps come thundering up from Hof. So my flank is threatened from Lobenstein,  but I am in a position to fall on the flank of the French main force too.

We fight a two pronged battle at Saalbourg and Schleitz. I try to hold my front and send half my force to help Hohenlohe by flanking Napoleon.

We give the Corsican Ogre a bloody nose but have to break off at night fall. I squeak north with just two divisions, while Hohenlohe and the rest of my corps sideslip over the hills to the east. There are many turns of anxiety and I conduct an epic night march north and slip from the French trap. I hope the German poet Korner writes something stirring about it. I am pursued and fight a few rear guard actions but manage to get into Altenbourg unmolested where I can rest, recover stragglers and dig in. The rest of my corps, followed by Hohenlohe join me there.

Unfortunately, so do the French, with Napoleon and the heavy cavalry reserve close behind.

Of course, whenever things get complicated, the weekly turns are only two hours long! So it can be quite anxious, and confusing, when you're sitting and waiting while the clock slows down for something going on somewhere else, and it takes 5 or 8 weeks of real time just to play out one day!

Okay! At last. I'm rested. My entire army is concentrated behind a river and dug in. I'll put Hohenlohe into reserve to rest and I'll fight the French Tyrant with my entire force behind redoubts!

Hohenlohe takes his corps against orders to engage the French corps coming from Gera. Which I said was a diversion to pull us apart, and we'd be better off staying concentrated behind all my lovely earthworks. But no, he swallows the bait.

FUCK!

Idiot. His corps would've come in handy during the battle.

Here is my feedback after the first two hours fighting at Altenbourg:

Reserve

1^st Div Orange

1^st Res Div Funheim

2^nd Res Div Arnim

NORTH

Blücher Advance Guard (7000) Warten's Div (8000) west	Brunswick Heavy Artillery Wurtemburg's Reserve (14,000) centre	Scharnhorst's Div (12,000) east
Inf Division (8000) west	Ney Inf Division (7000) Light (2000) centre	Napoleon Murat 1 Div Cuirassier (2000) 2 Div Cuirassier (2000) 1 Dragoons (2000) east

SOUTH

 The heaviest fighting takes place in the east sector where the French heavy cavalry comes wading through the water and up to the earthworks in multiple short probing attacks looking for any sign of weakness but they find none and after two hours they are forced to retreat back across the stream. Despite the fury of the action casualties are light (-5 to morale for Scharnhorst's Div) but you inflict twice what you suffer. In the centre Ney leads his troops forward more timidly and here the casualties are extremely light on both sides  as the French make no attempt to cross the river but just try and soften you up with their light field guns and skirmishers but you get the better of it and the French once more take twice the casualties that you do (-1 to morale for Wurtemburg's Reserve)

In the west the French make a more concerted effort, pushing hard to get across the river but they are thrown back by Blücher with significant casualties while Blücher's and Warten's casualties are quite light (-5 to morale for both Blücher and Wartens and twice that for the French). 

You will notice that there aren't many French infantry or the Guard revealed yet. So who knows what the Ogre is up to? My orders for the next two hour turn:

"Well we'll stick to our positions and I'll give a saddle bag of Thalers to whoever puts a ball into Napoleon, and I'll stand as Best Man at his wedding and God Father to his children too!"

And I offer up a prayer that Ruchel is marching east.

Turn 43 ends at 10:00 am on the 17^th of September 1806

 There is a lot of movement across the river in the Grande Armée. At 8:00 am a new Corps comes up and relieves the heavy cavalry in the West sector and immediatley presses forward into the attack. They cross the river and slam into the troops of Scharnhorst's Division. Scharnhorst is able to keep them out of the redoubts but his losses are heavy (-12 to morale for his Division) and he is not able to push Davout's men back across the river this time (this means that you lose the defensive bonus of the river in the West sector from now on). Scharnhorst's men are visibly wavering. Napoleon joins Ney in the center and urges the Division of infantry and cavalry there forward. They cross the river  shouting "Vive l'Empereur!", but they don't make it more than a couple of paces up the bank before they fall back to the safety of the south side again. Casualties in the centre are quite light on both sides (-1 to Wurtemberg's morale). In the West the Infantry Division facing you is reinforced by three Divisions of green coated Dragoons who all come on trumpets sounding and blades flashing but they are met with a firestorm from the Advanced Guard and Warten's Division and none of them make it across the narrow stretch of water. Casualties in the west are moderate (-6 to morale for both Divisions there) but you inflict twice what you receive on the French.

Reserve

1^st Div Orange

1^st Res Div Funheim

2^nd Res Div Arnim

NORTH

Blücher Advance Guard (7000) Warten's Div (8000) west	Brunswick Heavy Artillery Wurtemburg's Reserve (14,000) centre	Scharnhorst's Div (12,000) east
Inf Division (8000) 2 Div Dragoons (3000) 4 Div Dragoons (3000) 5 Div Dragoons (5000) west	Napoleon Ney Inf Division (7000) Light Cavalry (2000) centre	Davout 1 Inf Div (8000) 2 Inf Div (7000) 3 Inf Div (7000) Light Cavalry (2000) east

SOUTH

I commit Orange's Division to reinforce Scharnhorst.

Turn 44 ends at noon on the 17^th of September 1806

 At 1000am Soult and his IV Corps begin relieving the troops in the west sector and then forward across the stream behind a thick screen of skirmishers. By noon he is across the river with out any casualties. On the right in the east sector Orange’s Division comes forward and joins the Schaenhorst there to a chorus of grateful cheers (+5 to morale for Scharnhorst). Davout redoubles his offesive and his men can be seen scrambling up the sides of several of your redoubts bayonets gleaming. The fighting on the left is like a see-saw back and forth, whenever it looks like a redoubt is about to fall your brave me manage to throw the French out again until finally at noon one Scharnhorst’s Division has had all they can take and gives way. The men begin streaming to the rear! Seeing their friends running  Orange’s Division looks like it is wavering but their officers beat and cajole their men back into ranks again. As the sun reaches it's zenith Scharnhorst and Oranje’s casualties are heavy (-11 to morale for Scharnhorst, -21 to morale for Orange) while the French appear to have taken half of what Scharnhorst has the earthworks are still contested.

In the center The light cavalry withdraws the  Good order to be replaced by Cuirassier and Dragoons to the cheers of Ney's 1er Division, who give the dashing cavalry a heart and together they dash forward and into the great redoubt in the centre of the batlefield. For two hours Wurtemberg struggles mightily, shot and shell rain down on both sides, bayonets and sabres run red everywhere and then a loud groan can be heard as 14000 men who have been pushed past all endurance cry out as one and then break and run! The French with theor damned eagles are in the redoubt! The Wurtemberg is running! the wings hold but the centre has broken! 

The casualties in the centre are monumental (-30 to morale for Wurtemberg’s Division). One of the French Divisions moves into the North Center sector.

This is the situation as of noon:

North

Blücher Wartens Division (8000) Advance Guard (7000) west	Unknown French Division center	Orange's Division (8000) east
Soult 1er Div IV Corps (7000) 2e Div IV Corps (9000) Guyot's Lt. Cav (2000) west	Napoleon Ney 1er Div VI Corps (7000) Nansouty Cuirassier (2000) Klein Dragoons (2000) center	Davout  1er Div III Corps (8000) 2e Div III Corps (7000) 3e Div III Corps (7000) east

SOUTH

Things are looking grim. Hohenlohe's separate fight to the west is going badly as well. I cannot throw my 2 reserve divisions directly at the center. Reinforcing either wing is pointless, because you'll notice that the Guard Infantry and Cavalry are uncommitted. Napoleon will just push those into the gap, and each wing will be destroyed piecemeal. I order a retreat and suggest that the king seek peace and send Hohenlohe into exile on some remote estate. 

The turn summary that arrives a week later is rather climactic:

Turn 45 ends at 2:00 pm on the 17th of September 1806 in a welter of blood and chaos.

  At Noon Brunswick, with his centre stove in and two Divisions broken and routing orders a general retreat. As the wild eyed and terror stricken men of Wurtemberg’s and Scharnhorst’s Divisions run through Altenberg they are joined by the shattered remnants of Zechwitz, Louis, Pryttwitz, and Grawert’s Divisions (Hohenlohe's Corps) racing into the already chocked streets from the west. It was pandemonium in the town while on the field of battle in the west sector Blücher tried to form a rearguard with Warten’s Division so that the Advance Guard could retreat in good order but unfortunately there was no escape since the streets were gridlocked by the terrified ruin of Hohenlohe’s army and the ruins of Wurtemberg’s Division.

  Soult’s Corps hit Blücher’s rearguard like a ton of bricks while Ney, who had brought forward one of his infantry divisions to take the ground vacated by Wurtemberg slammed into Blücher’s left flank. Caught like a nut in a nutcracker the rearguard shattered while in the east sector Orange tried to withdraw his exhausted Division but Davout’s men, with their blood already up from seeing off Scharnhorst surged forward and hit Orange like a lightning bolt thrown by an angry war god. Inevitably this was too much for the Prussians who immediately began to rout along with the rest of the Prussian army.

  The 17th of September 1806 will be remembered as the greatest day to be a French cavalryman in the history of the cavalry. There is nothing that a cavalryman likes better than there sight of a fleeing infanteer and before them were thousands!  The pursuit began at noon and it continued for six hours and twenty kilometres. It finally ended as the sun set at 6:00 pm. Brunswick hoped to get a chance to attempt to march all night and reform the broken ruin of the Prussian army in Leipzig but at 7:00 pm he learned from a courier riding south from that city that at 6:00 pm General Lasalles had risen in from the west and Seized the city, cutting the line of communications to Madgeburg and any further hope of retreat.

  Meanwhile far away in the Thuringerwald northeast of Meiningen the shattered remains of Ruchel’s flank guard were also being run down by Lannes’ light cavalry. This rout had begun in the morning just north of Ohrdruf and went on all day long.

 

  With the majority of the Prussian/Saxon army destroyed King Frederick William III was forced to submit and offer terms on the 18th of September 1806. The treaty of Magdeburg was signed a few days later ending Prussia’s part in the War of the Fourth Coalition.

Wendy has produced animated maps showing all the maneuvering. Here is the first episode:

I'll put up the links to the remaining episodes and the link to our post game interview with Wendy on the Canadian Wargamer Podcast as they are ready.

"All Out of .Gifs. God Save the King!"

Social Media. It's supposed to bring us together. It's supposed to make the sharing of ideas and creating connections across the globe easier. I've made some good gaming friends over Social Media that I would otherwise have never met, and thanks to things like Virtual Lard, I even get to play with some of them sometimes.

Sometimes it doesn't though. People have opinions and like to share them. We like to share our hobby and exchange ideas and enthusiasm too. But folks can hold their opinions very strongly. You think something is fun, so it's hard for some people to understand that not everyone has to enjoy the same things, or in the same way.

It all started with newsletters and magazines. Type written and run off the office Gestetner. Stapled and folded and mailed out. Back when production costs were reasonably low and there were no other outlets for the enthusiasm. But we still argued. I had a multi issue argument with the writer of Napoleon's Battles in the letters column of the now gone MWAN. I was a cheeky bugger.

Newsletters have pretty much died. I think even digital newsletters like Bell of Lost Souls have trouble gaining traction since they tend to be very focused to a specific game or region and are actually very work intensive to generate for little to no income. Must Contain Minis is a labour of love and enthusiasm, but I wonder how much attention and ad revenue it garners? The creators have to keep flexing their other Social Media presence to direct people to their newsletter.

Magazines seem to be in a death spiral. As production and mailing costs rocket they become less viable. Especially in North America were our expansive geography makes life hard for the small companies so they have even less money to buy advertising. Wargames Illustrated has stopped sending physical copies overseas. Digital is the obvious solution, but I find Digital magazines hard to read on small screens and honestly I forget about them. I've got a few issues on my hard drive and rarely remember them. Since I don't read a magazine in one sitting, they're easily forgotten and left unfinished when I get up from the computer. Not that I want to read a magazine sitting at my computer.

My library of old magazines which I still dig through on occasion.

The one I subscribe to. Good balance of interesting articles and eye-candy.

E-mail Listservs. Remember these? They weren't bad, but gosh was it easy to get into arguments in those early days of social media when we were all unaware of written versus spoken tone and discovering that our sarcastic sense of humor was often lost in the translation. I'm happy to have less in my email in box anyway. I'm still on one for Two Fat Lardy games. Not sure why.

Forums. I'm a member of a few forums. I forget to go visit them. You can get good in depth discussion and build threads over weeks and months as you add to a project, which is cool. But sharing photos is clumsy since you have to have a photo sharing site like Flickr, which all want money nowadays. Or older posts (and the archived posts are part of the appeal) get broken as those photo links break when the author drops older pics from the free photo sharing site because they've hit their memory limits.

Blogs. Well, you're here reading this aren't you? A few folks have talked about the death of blogs, but I'm sticking with them. I like the writing. I can share my stuff, write battle reports, reviews and more in depth musings than is appropriate for a Tweet. I can turn the battle reports into short stories when I get the creative inspiration. I suppose this post might fall into the "TL;DR" category. I'm sure it won't get as many hits as a game post with lots of pictures. But this is my public access gaming diary. I will often go back to older posts to refresh my memory about what I did, or just to enjoy an amusing story I wrote. So I'll stick with blogging. As Oscar Wilde said so well:

Facebook groups. Easy for quick shares of painting and battle reports. There is a Facebook group for any game system or genre that you want. Probably several. Of course anyone can join, so you do run into the occasional idiot. Most Administrators are good, but I left the 15mm Science Fiction game group because of politics. Got into a slight argument with a button counter on one of the Napoleonic groups too. "Hide" and "mute" are essential to keeping one's sanity and not getting dragged into flame wars. But you aren't going to see anything new that is outside of your interest.

Vlogs and Podcasts.  I'm not really into the YouTube, but from what I hear from those who are, it seems to be an awful lot of grief from trolls just to make your painting or history video. But even the trolly engagement generates traffic and ad revenue so I gather it's a careful balancing act. I don't watch videos much unless I want a quick primer on a historical topic or a game play through to see if I want to buy a new set of rules (a trio of game play videos sold me on Xenos Rampant and helped with learning O Group and General d'Armee). I don't understand how people can watch a Youtube video while they paint. I'm too focused on my hands to pay attention. Ironically I'm on Youtube, some of the CWP (see below) has been published as video. But I don't often watch it to be honest, because I'm painting.

Podcasts. Well I'm co-hosting one aren't I? Find it here at The Canadian Wargamer Podcast. I'm starting to think that I don't really have anything new or novel hot takes on the hobby. When I do think I'm onto something, someone smarter says it better somewhere else, so I'm mainly there to have a friendly chat with my bestie Mike and whoever we get on to interview. Talking about wargaming is always fun anyways. This blog post is really me just organizing my thoughts for an upcoming Podcast on the subject. 

App based sites like Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Hive and Mastadon. I've been trying all these as alternatives to Twitter, as that site is breaking under a billionaire's egomaniacal mid-life crisis. Instagram and Tumbler you can't have really good conversations. Instagram is for me, really only good for watching cheering cat videos. Hive and Mastadon are very siloed and it's hard to get conversations going. Tumbler, well it seems to be full of lonely people screaming into the void and pornbots.

My little corner of Twitter is full of amusing fellows with similar attitudes to games and miniatures. Maybe it's an echo chamber, but I'm there for miniature gaming, not political philosophy. But the easy banter and .gif humor is good, which is why so far I've stuck with it. I've certainly discovered some things that I wouldn't have heard about on Facebook as some of my connections show off their interests. 

So I'm sticking with Twitter for the moment. I carefully curate who I follow and what I interact with. Regularly use "Block" and "Mute" and avoid interacting with political posts, even if I agree with them, to keep my feed pretty gaming and history focused. It mostly works. But Twitter wants to keep pushing stuff at you, which is super annoying.

But that is the tension isn't it, as we learn to manage staying connected with people while avoiding the trolls and keeping Digital Big Corporate Brother's hands out of our wallets and data.