Blucher AAR Day One of the Battle of Kulm

Monday April 8 we played a Napoleonic game using Blucher rules, this is the first time we've used these rules in ages! There were three of us on the night so Dave took the Russian side, George took on the French and I would umpire!

The scenario is based on day one of the Battle of Kulm, day two becomes quite a one sided affair but day one poses an interesting situation. A quick summary of the situation; the Battle of Dresden had been won by Napoleon and the Allied Armies are retiring, a French Corps believing the main French Army was pursuing the Allies moved to cut off their retreat. So we have Marshall Vandamme's Corps deploying into battle against the Allied Army's Advanced Guard of Russians led by General Ostermann-Tolstoy.

In the game victory can be achieved by occupying Straden and Priesten after 20 Plyer Turns or breaking the enemy Army.

    How the game unfolded;

Both sides initial moves are arrows outlined in black and their later moves are the arrows outlined in yellow...red 'blasts' are where close combat or volley duels ensued...

The Battle

The French advanced rapidly and planned to weaken the Russians with artillery and skirmish fire before closing in to defeat them with cold steel, the Russians decided to used the stream as a defence line and hold the required towns at all costs!

Unfortunately for the French there plan was scotched by the Dice Gods, they successfully closed to skirmish range and then proceeded to roll a lot of shite dice, at one point they had got a single 6 after rolling 54 dice! Meanwhile the Russian artillery was hitting the advancing French regularly and their Units advanced to the stream as planned.

With turns running out the French advanced to get in close and things started to get better for them. They captured Straden and finally got some 6's while using volley fire. Several Russian units were hit hard and the Russian 14th Division was virtually obliterated! The Russians then used Guardsmen to recapture Straden at bayonet point, pinned the French horsemen and pulled their right flank back away from the now rampaging French! It was looking dodgy for them but the French were out of time. The Russians had held on as required!

At the end of the 20th Player Turn the Russians occupied both the objectives but had lost 4 Units and had several teetering on destruction, the French dropping just short of breaking them!

A Russian victory!

Some Pictures...

The battlefield at the games start the Russians in the foreground, the Units are all concealed.

The French advance on Straden, the pre attack fire had worn the defenders down to a single fatigue Point!

On the French left they advanced rapidly and despite the Russian artillery raining death on the columns started pushing the Russian flank back.

In the centre of the battlefield the French (in background of picture) engaged the Russian 14th Division with Volley fire, one Brigade is destroyed and the second retired with a single Fatigue Point left!

The overall battlefield situation after 10 of the 20 Player turns the French are to the left, for the attacking French half the game was gone neither objective had been captured and no Russian Units had been destroyed at this point, not looking good!

The French after taking Straden were ejected by the Russian Guard, below the French assault Straden a second time but on this occasion the Russians hold on!

The Russian left flank during the second half of the game was in disorder, Units were everywhere, the artillery was running low on ammo and the French were closing in!

On the Russians right flank they hold Straden but their Units are not well placed, many have taken losses and the French are across the stream! At this point the French ran out of time, a Russian victory.

The original Blucher Dice Shako got a good workout on the night!

So a good night, the French suffered from very poor dice rolling and there game was pretty much consigned to the dustbin because of it! This is not an easy scenario for the French to win but it is definitely possible, in this game they inflicted a lot of casualties on the Russians so a good tactic would be to try to win by destroying Units threatening the objectives the Russians must hold onto. 

We decided we would play Blucher again next fortnight!

Lastly we would like to thank Tim who runs a great blog called Tales from a Wargame Shed for sharing this scenario for everyone to use! He has a lot of scenarios for various rule sets on his site, here is a link...

Tales from a Wargame Shed Link