Bonaparte's Day June 16, 1815 (fictional) part 1 - Yvoir

Within the Hundred Days Campaign that I have been adjudicating over the past few months, the forces under direct order of Napoleon Bonaparte had taken a flank march, crossing at Dinant on the 15th.

This was mostly unknown to the Prussian command as the message of the crossing and further penetrations would take almost a day to reach the ears of Blucher.

Then a day later Bonaparte himself could command a force of the Guard Heavy Cavalry in support of an assault by VI Corps of the French Armee Norde.

Now the battlefield would be set up for that morning ...

view from the south from behind the French lines

Prussians of III Korps make ready to hold off the French

along the French line viewed from the west looking east

Loubou was commanding and knew that his commander Bonaparte would be coming from the east later that morning, so took advantage of firing into the limited numbers of Prussians that could be used to block the one good crossing.

by 08h30 the battle for the crossing was started in earnest

while only one brigade was able to hold off the French infantry, it could not hope to keep them away indefinitely with the massed artillery moving up

by 10h00 the arrival of Bonaparte occurred

now the whole field would be brought into use

leading his black horse, Bonaparte himself was identified by Thielmann and messengers were sent to Blucher

Three brigades of the Imperial Guard Heavy Cavalry made for a terrifying sight to the Prussian light horse of III Korps

the field at 10h33

wasting no time the heavies were lined up against the light Prussian horse

a splendid sight - the whole of the Guard Heavy Cavalry

with Bonaparte looking on ...

The black horse charged in!

Shattering many Prussian horse, though not quite wiping them out, some Prussian foot were able to fill the gap in time before the Heavies could press on

meanwhile at the river the guns had started to pound out their deadly beat

within minutes of his arrival, Bonaparte had shifted the Prussians into a hopeless defensive stand.

Barely even an hour after Bonaparte's arrival on the scene the battle started looking already won for the French ...

the field tilted towards French Victory early

Prussian horsemen fought on valiantly just barely able to score some small victories against the superior French Guard Heavy horse

Thielmann could see the 'hat' of the hated French Emperor, yet was not in command of enough men to effect anything more than a gory delay of the inevitable

as the sun reached its zenith, Bonaparte took a number of ADC messengers from outside the tactical field of action.  Snapping shut his telescope a final message was sent off to Loubou, informing him of the Guard Heavy Cavalry success and that the horse would remain here at Yvoir under Loubou's command.  With that Bonaparte and his petit GHQ rode eastwards away from the field of action ... presumably some other action now needed his personal attention.

Still the action at Yvoir was not done.

A lull descended over the action, and it was not till 14h00 that the next significant events took place.

the river was nearly breached

while combined attacks by Prussian Horse and Foot delivered significant casualties to the French Heavies

Prussian Cavalry Commander Hobe was not going to surrender his command without a fight!

though the river crossing was temporarily held by the French, the Prussians did not stop with counter-attacks

Loubou realized that this was going to be a battle that could take all day

Guard Heavy Cavalry continued relentless attacks

French Artillery was also non-stop in their firing

Prussian numbers dwindled to a few wounded brigades and militia were pressed into hot action with regulars

undeterred the Prussians had resolved to fight to the end

Loubou had begun to withdraw wounded brigades from the river crossing and feed in new fresh units

the body count grew for the Prussians

still the French had not forced the crossing

Thielmann was down to only a remnant of his forces ...

At long last the casualty count had forced the Prussian troops into considering a retreat.

the river line was held to the very last man

outnumbered 4:1 this final brigade takes its last gasp in vain attempt to stop the French

not enough in the end though as the Prusians failed their 'army morale' check and the rout was on

Some more Prussians were lost in the rout that followed, they were unable to cross the river to the west and were forced to flee north in the forests of the western Ardennes.

The final surviving forces:

Guard Heavies lost 1/3

VI Corps was reduced to two under-strength divisions

All of Prussian III Korps was cut to one Landwher Brigade!

One bright spot for the Prussians, now they knew where Bonaparte WAS!

SHAKO 2 Game from InCon Convention :: refight of Marienberg from Campaign of Nations

The local game event, called InCon, was held over the March 29-30-31 weekend (yes it is taking more time for me to get to posting these details)

At the event I hosted a large (for me, alone) game of SHAKO 2 using nearly all of the cavalry I have, most certainly all of the Austrians and Russians that I have available in my collection.

There was a coordinator for the games demo area and he took this photo just after I had the table set up

Within a half hour we had players and deployed the whole force

 

The French had two 'chevrons' for defense on the right flank

The Allied force massed Russians to assault the chevrons.

Austrians were in the center.

Austrians on the right flank of the Allied line, with Prussians backing them up.

The general plan was similar to the one used in the first play of this battlefield.

A difference in this case, the Austrians were going to commit to the assault of the town center and the bridge, in order to cover the moves of the Prussian column and keep the French stuck in the town so that they could not shift to stop the Russians attacking the chevrons.   Essentially a 'full court press'.

Turn 3 was the arrival of the Russian Hussar Division

Yes, there were different players that came along to command the Hussars

the first line of Hussars

Austrians forcing the river Main

French allied troops from German territories stand the river Main defenses

yes, those are Polish Lancers filling in as Russian Uhlans

the mass of Hussars in behind the Russian infantry lines

Austrian advance guard Grenzers rush off to the left flank

Austrian artillery pound away at the town while the cavalry of the advance guard move to the flank

Prussians now join the line forcing the river crossing on the north side of Marienberg

While Austrians storm over the bridge and deliver fire into the town

French batteries traded shots with Austrians, while the Germans massacred Austrian infantry with their artillery

Leading Russian cavalry drive towards the river line

further columns follow up the foot

Russian battalions ford the river Main

more of the fording ... seen from further to the flank

the Cossacks were sacrificed so as to permit the infantry to cross the river without facing constant artillery fire

Then we had a number of player changes, and there were dozens of folks asking questions about the game and a steady stream of action in the game ... forgot to take photos.

another quick shot of the table sometime near turn 3

The battle at the chevrons, dragged on; there were no clear ways to break into the area for the Russians.  While the Austrians in Marienberg were routed and fled the field, another Austrian Division opposite the Germans was also blasted off the field, so the score was going against the Allies by turn 5.

Battle was not going well for the Austrians, who had been routed from the field

All the Russian Hussars were now prepared to shift to the center, as the chevrons were now tied down without room to maneuver

the view down the lines of the Russian Hussar Division (13 units)

Then even more folks were in the games demo room and at one point I was doing a discussion about Napoleonic tactics and painting the uniforms almost at the same time.  20 or so folks were in these talks around the table while troops continued to move.  Once again I was too busy to remember to take continuous pictures.

by turn 11 the score was 3 French losses and 15 Allied losses

the situation by the chevrons was loaded with bodies and disordered troops

the German division had lost 1/3 yet managed to rally and hold while huge cavalry formations clashed all around them

the Austrian Grenzers were across the river Main

Crenneville, the commander of the Advance guard had swept around into the flank and was threatening the French command as well as cutting off the French escape route.  They had killed off the French light cavalry division.

still though the French had managed to tear through nearly half of the Allied forces ...

No other pictures were taken of the field as the questions continued.

The final result was very close, as the French had lost 8/9 and the Allies ended up with 31/28 losses.

A brutal cost, yet the French held the crossing of the river Main at Marienberg, the opposite of our result in the Campaign of Nations game.

clean up from the coordinators perspective

The final commanders and the table covered in the casualties from the battle