RAGUHN (OCTOBER 9, 1813)
A close pursuit
INTRODUCTION
The
Blucher’s Army of Silesia has crossed the Elbe River at
Wartenburg and is advancing towards the Mulde River
to unite with the Bernadotte’s Army of North. Seeing an opportunity
to catch the isolated Prussians,
Napoleon has moved northwards at
the head of a groups of several Army Corps. The rapid French
advance, caused the hasty retreat of the Blucher’s forces that were
almost taken at
Duben.
In the confusion, the Osteman-Sacken's
Russian contingent, became isolated and outnumbered it
was forced to make a westwards flank march, passing along the
Bertrand's IV Corps and the Sebastiani's II Cavalry Corps
before reaching the safety with the Army of Silesia’s main force.
The Scenario is based on the published by Rick Babuto in Lone
Warrior #156. The background and the forces are taken from George
Nafziger and Stephen Millar (Napoleon-Series). This is a "What if"
Scenario not only because the actual history was slightly different
and
neither Bertrand nor Sebastiani catched Osten-Sacken
and, but also because of the solo mechanisms used, only part of the
Russian forces will appear on the tablegame (although the French
forces do appear in full).
Bibliography
- Lone Warrior
Rick Barbuto’s Scenario
- G.F. Nafziger. “Napoleon at Leipzig: The Battle of Nations 1813”.
The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996
-
Nafziger Orders of Battle Collection. Combined Arms Research
Library.
- Stephen Millar.
French OOB and
Allied OOB (Napoleon-Series)
TABLE-TOP ADAPTATION
GO TO THE BATTLE IN PICTURES
Actual movements of the Russian and
French forces
Fabian Wilhelm von
Osten-Sacken
Game map
The actual
battlefield
Scenario pdf file for 'Raguhn'
GO TO THE BATTLE IN PICTURES
Summary of the oob
French Army
French IV Corps Bertrand
- Infantry: 14 battalions
- Artillery: 2 Foot batteries
2nd Light Cavalry Division Roussel
- Cavalry: 6 Regiments
- Artillery: 1 Horse battery
Russian Army (Army Moral 59; Break point 20) Not
applicable
C-i-C Osten-Sacken
10th Division Lieven
- Infantry: 8 battalions
27th Division Neverovsky
- Infantry: 7 battalions
16th Division Repninsky
- Infantry: 4 battalions
Artillery: 2 Position, 2 Light and 1 Horse batteries
Cavalry Vassilshikov
- Cavalry: 6 regiments
- Cossacks: 8 pulks
Notes The Russian forces are a pool from which the actual units will
be extracted. The basic duration of the game is 24 Turns (3 hours).
Bonus Turns are allowed rolling 2D6 ( p. 66 of the e-Lasalle book). The
French are the first side.
OPTIONAL RULES
Solo mechanics (for the Russian units)
The gaming table is divided in three zones
(A, B, C) and each had 10 numbered locations (1 - 10). As the French
enter the southern (bottom) edge of the table and move north, they would
first see the enemy in zone A, moving westwards, and a die will be
rolled to generate and locate Russians forces. When the French enter
zone B, another set of Russian forces will be generated and the same
when the French arrive to zone C.
See the
pdf file for a full description
of the solo rules
French dispositions
French forces belong to Morand’s 12th Division (Bertrand’s IV Corps)
and Roussel’s 2nd Lt Cavalry Division (Sebastiani’s II Corps) and make
up for a total of 14 infantry battalions, 6 cavalry regiments and 2 foot
and 1 horse batteries. All these units will be used, and must be divided
into
Advance Guard
(3 battalions and 1 cavalry regiment), Main Body (10
battalions, 1 cavalry regiment an 2 foot batteries),
Right Flank Guard (1 battalion and 2 cavalry regiments)
and Left Flank Guard (1 battalion, 2 cavalry regiments and 1
battery) and will enter following the blue arrows of the game map.
See the
pdf file for a full description of
the solo rules
Reinforcements
There are not any units in the table map at the start of the game (see
map). The French Advance Guard enters in turn 1. The rest of the French
units may enter as reinforcements. Use 2D6 for the Arrival Turn (p. 91
of e-Lasalle). The units arrive in march or attack column as desired.
The Russians units enter according to the Solo mechanisms described
above. Try to maintain the integrity of the organic brigades and
divisions.
Optional rule: Assaults of defiles (bridges and fords)
1) A march column can assault a defile like a bridge, a fortified gate,
a ford, etc. It represents not only true march columns, but also all
those formations with a very reduced front.
2) It fights at 1/2 dice and with no previous shooting, adding a -2 for
"bad terrain" as they will be fighting in cramped quarters.
3) The enemy can use the "cover" or "higher elevation" modifiers when
applicable.
4) However the small front, the enemy never halves their dice.
Optional rule: Irregular cavalry (Cossacks)
1) Irregular cavalry units may charge enemy units standing in 'limbered'
or 'march column' formation in open terrain.
2) Irregular cavalry units must to pass a 'Discipline' test to initiate
the charge in open terrain.
3) If routed in 'decisive combat' the irregular cavalry unit is
immediately broken.
Victory conditions
The French goal is to block the Russian retreat, while these last must
to accomplish the contrary. The victory assignment must be made on the
basis of the total number of Russian units exiting by the west side of
the table, but taking in account that the Russian units not appearing
actually on the table are assumed to have escaped French detection. The
following table could be one possibility:
Russian units exiting the west (left) side of the table including the ones
not appearing on the table / Final result
75% - 100% / Russian Victory
50% - 75% / Drawn battle
Under the 50 % / French minor Victory
Under 25% / French major Victory
See a story version at the
Project Leipzig (1813)
blog
THE BATTLE IN PICTURES