Its taken quite a while to find a day to actually play this game, but finally today we completed the forth, and largest, battle of our Blücher Spring 1813 campaign.
This battle was over the town of Brandenburg which the French held. They needed to push beyond it to enable them to take Potsdam and make their way towards Berlin. The Allies needed to ensure this didn't happen and if possible capture Brandenburg.
On the Allied left flank the French had an impressive force. A thin line of Prussian infantry and artillery was all that stood in their way. They assaulted in columns behind their eagles...
On the road to Brandenburg Bülow's Russian Corps stood and considered attacking. But the French forces looked far too strong to even consider it, so they set up a line on the road and awaited the French attack. They must not allow the French to take the road.
And it was not to be. The French forces in the Brandenburg area proved to be mostly Marie Louises, the young conscript troops, fanatically loyal to their Emperor, but no match for the steadfast Russians. They broke on them like the sea against rocks...
On the left flank the Prussians held a desperate defence. Their numbers dwindled, but they kept the French at bay. Cavalry sallied forward to pick off French troops too slow to retreat to safety. Then the French reserve cavalry arrived. The crème de la crème of the Grande Armeé were reduced in stature after the defeats of 1812 and could not turn the tide for the French.
On the Brandenburg-Potsdam road the Russians saw their chance to begin an assault on Brandenburg, but it was not to be. The French troops, though massively reduced, were too strong and the assault faltered.
In the last few turns the Allies realised that they only needed to rout one more unit of the French to win the battle and take the entire battlefield, pushing the French out of Brandenburg automatically. But the French began to retreat and there was no way that total victory was going to happen.
As the sun began to set in the West, the battlefield became quiet. The two sides counted up their losses. Both sides had fought hard and lost many men, but the French were hit harder. They paid dearly to hold the key town of Brandenburg. The Allies had regained one location making it slightly more difficult for the French to manoeuvre next turn.
And with that this turn of battles is completed. We didn't have time to start the next campaign turn. That may have to wait until August now...
No comments:
Post a Comment