Sunday, October 23, 2011

Battle of Peine Day Two – Set Up

0800 5 August 1813

Tactical Map

Campaign Background

Davout had suffered a serious defeat on 4 August 1813, resulting in the loss of XIII corps. His remaining two corps were down to half strength, and they faced odds of two to one. He had ordered a retreat towards Celle.

He was unaware that IV corps had reached Brunswick the previous night. Unable to contact Davout, Reynier ordered his corps to attack Peine

Blucher was not expecting a second day of battle. He was aware of IV corps at Brunswick, but was convinced that they would not dare attack after the defeat of Davout.

3rd corps were ordered to move towards Davout’s retreating column, and to follow them with their cavalry.

1st corps, now no more than a reinforced brigade, were ordered to hold their ground to the east of Peine and observe IV corps at Brunswick

4th corps sent their cavalry to pursue XIII corps and were held at Peine just in case the French should attack. This was considered so unlikely that they had provisional orders to follow XIII corps at midday.

Table at start of game

Peine is at the bottom left

4th corps are to the right of the town, and 1st corps deployed in front of them

3rd corps are either side of the farm in the centre

V and VI corps are retreating along the Celle road at the top left

IV corps will enter the table on the bottom right on the Brunswick road

Note: The hill is on the wrong side of the road. This was an error in setting up the previous game and has not been changed as it played an important part in the Prussian deployment.

1st and 4th Prussian corps

1st corps in front has only one infantry brigade and corps artillery

4th corps behind in reserve and not expecting to fight today

3rd Prussian corps

Ready to advance to drive Davout north on the Celle road

V and VI French corps

Both corps retreating along the Celle road are reduced to half strength

One brigade is still shaken from the previous days fighting

The retreat is covered by the cavalry brigade facing the enemy cavalry

Davout observes the rear guard from the hill

Game Note

The position of the Prussian army prevented Davout and IV corps from communicating in the campaign, and he is unaware that they are about to attack Peine.

Davout will retreat until he becomes aware that IV corps is attacking. From his position on the hill he will see them as soon as they enter the table, and he can then order V and VI corps to halt. However he must retreat with his army, and if they move off the table before IV corps arrive they will not be aware of the attack until IV corps open fire.

Three corps are reduced to half strength and one even weaker. For this game a commander who has complete brigades missing from his order of battle will deduct one CP for each brigade missing. He will never fall below the additional CP awarded for his grade.

Wargame rules can be found at

http://napoleonicwargamerules.blogspot.com/

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2 comments:

  1. JWHOctober 23, 2011 at 10:13 AM

    Please accept a thank you for continuing to post these fascinating campaign and battle reports.

    I take it that, in its primary aim, to generate interesting wargames for you and Jan, this campaign has been very successful? What do you think now of the the decision to appoint yourself CinC for each side - has it detracted from the campaign or not? And have the players been satisifed with their role as subordinate to you?

    Regards

    John

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  2. paul lenistonOctober 25, 2011 at 1:01 AM

    Hi John

    Thanks for your kind comments.

    The PBEM element of the campaign has been more successful that I could have wished. The games are so much more interesting, varied and challenging. The player element results in games that I would never have even considered, but they have proved more enjoyable than I could have though possible.

    I think taking the role of both CinC has greatly increased the smooth running of the campaign. My reason for doing so was to be able to control the direction of the campaign, and also to ensure that it would not fall apart if one of the cinc players dropped out of the campaign.

    I THINK the players are happy with their role. I have tried really hard to give them more responsibility and control, and I just hope that it has worked. I do not get a lot of feedback from the players, so I am not really sure how happy they are with the campaign. On the other hand it has been running for almost six months, and five of the original players are still taking part. So I guess that is a vote of confidence?

    regards

    Paul

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