Eylau: The Assault on Windmill Hill
Background
This game was played in my basement on March 1, 2002, between myself, Rick Ferens, and Dave Richmond as the Russians, and Pat Butzerin and Joe Schab as the French.Historically, the Russian right commanded by Tutchkov made an attack against the French left flank under Soult, trying to capture Windmill Hill. Had they done so, they might have turned Napoleon's flank and forced him to either retreat or at least commit the Guard to stabilize the situation. In 1807, the Russian attack was driven off without too much trouble, as it was not a serious attack. This scenario takes the historical forces involved and assumes that the Russians will make an all-out attack, hoping to gain control of the Windmill Hill ridge in time for Lestoq's 9,000 Prussians to reinforce them.
The game rules were Column of Attack. The game was to last 4 actual hours, from 12 noon to 4PM. The Russians win if they control the three of the four points defining the red "victory line" ridge running slantwise across the table (see the maps below).
Setup Conditions and the Armies
The orders of battle were taken from an O/B developed and published on the web by Martin Soilleux-Cardwell. The unit sizes are my own. I assumed that each Russian battery would have had two sections stripped off to help form the huge grand batteries forming the Russian center. Therefore, the Russian batteries would be only 8 guns strong, not 12.The Russians
5th Division under General Tutchkov (+1)
Reserve artillery:
- 2 batteries 12-lb guns @4, grade D
- 2 dragoon regiments @18, grade D
- 2 Uhlan regiments @18, grade D
- 2 hussar regiments @18, grade C
- 2 Cossack regiments @18, grade E
- 1 battery 6-lb horse guns @4, grade D
- (144 cavalry + 4 gun models)
- 6 battalions musketeers @16, grade D
- 1 6-lb foot battery @4, grade D
- (96 infantry + 4 gun models)
- 6 battalions musketeers @16, grade D
- 1 6-lb foot battery @4, grade D
- (96 infantry + 4 gun models)
- 6 battalions jaegers @16, grade D
- (96 infantry)
The French
IV Corps, Marechal Soult (+1)
Light cavalry, General de Brigade Guyot:
- 1 hussar regiment @24, grade B
- 2 chausseur regiments @24, grade C
- 1 4-lb horse battery @4, grade B
- (72 cavalry, 4 gun models)
- Brigadiers Raymond-Vives, Schiner
- 1 demi-brigade legere @24, grade C
- 4 demi-brigades ligne @24, grade D
- 1 8-lb battery foot guns @4, grade C
- (120 infantry, 4 gun models)
- Brigadiers Ledru, Levasseur
- 1 demi-brigade legere @24, grade C
- 2 demi-brigades ligne @24, grade D
- 2 demi-brigades tirailleurs @24, grade B
- 1 8-lb battery foot guns @4, grade C
- (120 infantry, 4 gun models)
- Russians: 144 cavalry, 288 infantry, and 20 gun models.
- French: 72 cavalry, 240 infantry, and 12 gun models.
The Murphy Cards
Murphy cards are event cards that can be turned up and/or played to affect the play of the game. They are called Murphy cards because they are designed to turn up at the worst possible moment - for someone. Some Murphy cards are good, others are bad. They cover such events as firing on friends instead of enemies, loss of command control, inspired leadership, etc.In this game there were 13 Murphy cards, divided as follows:
Friendly Fire (1):
Play on any enemy unit at the start of the fire phase.
The unit must fire on the nearest friendly unit; if this is unclear,
the player playing the card selects the target.
The most effective possible fire must be used.
Inspired Leadership (1):
Play on any friendly unit, which is about to test morale.
The unit automatically passes the test.
Snow Squall (4):
Special for this scenario. Play this card at the start of the turn.
The squall covers a 2' X 1' area, and may be placed wherever desired.
Units covered by the squall cannot move voluntarily, or shoot.
They may not be shot at or seen from outside.
The squall is impassable and opaque. Units in combat continue to fight,
but with a -2 modifier to each side's chance to hit. The squall lasts one turn.
Seize the Day! (2):
Play on any friendly unit at the start of movement or fire.
The unit may move at double speed, or fire twice.
Rally, Rally! (1):
Play on any friendly unit at the start of the turn. The unit regains 1D6 losses.
Confused Command (1):
Play on any enemy general at the end of the movement phase.
The general's command radius drops to 0" that turn.
Ammo Shortage (2):
Play on any enemy unit at the start of the fire phase. The unit may not shoot that turn.
Sudden Panic (1):
Play on any enemy unit that has just passed a morale test. The unit instead automatically fails its test.
The cards would be used as follows:
Each side was dealt six cards; some were Murphy cards, others were just dummies. A side could play one Murphy card on any turn when it had the initiative.
Special Rules for this Game
- All Russian artillery has a -1 to hit with ballshot, and 4 rounds of canister available.
- Cossacks have several special rules. Since the French (we assume) have never faced Cossacks in a stand-up battle, these rules are known only to the Russians:
- Cossacks are irregular light cavalry who operate in a dense cloud. They only move 8" per turn due to general disorganization (regular light cavalry moves 12" per turn). They maneuver like skirmishers and are a skirmish target vs. shooting.
- They are always disordered, and are never "fresh".
- They are grade E.
- Cossacks may charge straight ahead or evade up to 16".
- Russian Jaegers cannot skirmish, but each battalion can send out 4 figures per unit as a skirmish screen. Musketeer units cannot use skirmish screens.
- All French units can use skirmish screens. Legere and Tirailleurs are fully skirmish-capable.
The Course of the Battle
The Two sides set up quickly. This was easy, because the number of units was relatively low, and the setup area of each brigade was already determined.The French concentrated both artillery batteries near Windmill Hill itself, and placed one of their elite tirailleur units in the "town". The town would be treated as a single town block: Hard cover vs. shooting, soft cover vs. combat.
The Russians set up with their musketeer units in column, and a strong skirmish screen protecting the jaegers. They began the fateful steps through the snow towards the enemy, while the two heavy batteries opened up on the town.
The cavalry brigades were the first to engage, although the French horse artillery had to retreat precipitously to avoid a sudden charge by one of the Cossack "clouds". From the first, the French had all the advantages, literally crushing even the Russian dragoons with their superior morale (and hot die rolls!). The Russians, failing test after test, were routed back off the table, with two French regiments in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, although the French won one initiative roll after another, they could not manage better than a '2' to rally from pursuit (cavalry pursues on a 1-4 on 1D10), and chased their enemies off the table. They would need an 8-10 to return, and would never score better than a '7'.
The French hussars met with disaster. They were busy wiping out the remaining dragoon unit, when three Russian regiments charged them from all sides, routing them and forcing the gallant Frenchmen to surrender. Some of the surviving Russian horsemen took up position to intercept the French cavalry if they returned, while the rest began a flanking movement around the French left. It was a case of numbers overwhelming quality.
In the center, Dave's brigade steadily plodded forward, absorbing artillery hits, but managing to advance the bulk of their men anyway. Column of Attack is a 1:20 scale set of rules, and each gun model represents a section. Artillery is therefore very powerful - as it should be. A battery firing canister can literally clear its frontage of enemy figures in 1-2 turns, even assuming the targets pass morale to take more punishment. To slow them even more, a sudden snow squall clobbered them for a turn.
However, they eventually clambered up the slopes west of Windmill Hill, to charge into Leval's division. Leval's artillery wreaked havoc on the advancing columns. But there were too many targets, and one charge actually reached the guns, wiping out the brave gunners.
The leftmost of Leval's battalions - the legere demi-brigade - faced a tough choice: infantry and cavalry in a "double whammy" threatened it. It chose to form square. This would give it advantages vs. cavalry, but leave it vulnerable to infantry. Due to its better morale, it stood for two turns despite losing both rounds of combat (it was heavily outnumbered). However, it then routed back, was hit in the flank by a Cossack unit, and left the table. The French flank had been turned.
On the French right, the jaegers and the remaining musketeer brigade marched across the valley, with two battalions peeling off to mask the town. The heavy batteries fired a few times into the town, but with their -1 penalty they needed 10's to hit, and so did little damage. In the event, the tirailleurs held their log cabins until the end of the game. The Russian guns switched targets, firing over the heads of the jaegers in the valley to heavily damage two of Legrand's demi-brigades.
The French battery on Windmill Hill decimated three Russian musketeer battalions, but the other three could not be stopped, and eventually forced the French to limber up and evade off the hill.
The jaegers, bypassing the town, engaged the rest of Legrand's battalions, pinning them while their comrades turned the French flank and gained the ridge.
But, alas, the 4PM hour struck.
The Russians held only two of their four victory areas: Their initial hill and Windmill Hill. The town and the south ridge were still in French hands, and therefore a French marginal victory was declared.
Just for fun we played a few more turns, until about 5:30PM, to see how things would turn out. The Russians continued to push the French steadily back, and eventually got both of their field batteries unlimbered atop Windmill Hill itself, at which point the French generals agreed they would have turned tail and hoped for the Guard to rescue them. The Russian cavalry also charged the French, hitting a couple of weakened battalions and routing them out of the game. However, it was all a mere bagatelle.
During the game, the French managed to play all three of their Murphy cards (a snow squall, a Rally! card, and an Out of Command card), while the Russians never got a chance to play a single card - yeesh!
Conclusions
After the game, the five of us had a short brainstorming session. We agreed the scenario went well overall; the French had really only won a marginal victory, so things looked pretty well balanced. However, we agreed that the French infantry should be grade C, not D, and that Cossacks should not be a skirmish target to shooting; this really made them a bit more effective than they should be. I also decided, after reviewing the historical maps, to make the "town" (a nameless collection of log buildings) merely give soft cover vs. shooting, not hard cover.
Photographs
Russian figures are old Empire miniatures from Wes Rogers's collection. The French figures are Minifigs from Rick Ferens's collection.
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