Battle of Gorodeczna, 1812

Background

By late summer, Napoleon's Grande Army stand poised to capture Smolensk, deep in central Russia. However, to the south of Napoleon's advance,the Russian 3rd Army of the West took to the offensive and on 27th July, General Tormassov defeated Reynier's Saxon Corps.

Tabletop,with Allied base line to right

With the right wing of his advance now threatened, Napoleon had no choice but to order Prince Schwarzenberg's Austrian Corps to unite with Reynier and his Saxons to counter-attack the Russian Advance.

Just prior to the battle of Gorodeczna was a cavalry skirmish near Tychin. The Russian 'Vladimir Dragoons', 'Loubny Hussars' and some Cossacks were driven back by General Frolich's Cavalry Brigade.

Scenario Map

Frolich's cavalry consisted of 'Kaiser (Emperor's Own) Hussars' and 'Hessen-Homburg Hussars' and was considered the best light cavalry brigade in the Austrian Army. These hussars located the Russian camp despite being screened by General Chaplitz's force (Pavlograd Hussars, Alexandria Hussars, three infantry battalions and 24 guns).

Frolich immediately informed his superiors about the situation and Prince Schwarzenberg send him some infantry reinforcements to exploit what he had found.

Russian Jaeger Regiment

The Austrians were eager to avenge the defeat at Kobrin and resumed their advance. They met Tormasov's army near Gorodeczna. It is estimated that there were 13,000 Saxons and 25,000 Austrians facing Tormasov's 18,000 Russians.

The Game

Staged on March 9th & 16th  by John, using his huge collection of Austrians & Russians, supplemented by Mikey N's new Saxon Napoleonics and fought over an 8' x 6' table.

Russian Cavalry Regiment

Shako were selected as the rule set for the game and it was  scheduled to run from 11:00am to 16:00pm (15 game turns). In actual fact we managed to run through 10 game turns in the first week so John extended the game duration to 20 game turns to ensure two balanced weeks of game play....

The scenario has a couple of specific rules,notably that some commanders are classed as 'Charismatic' and can change orders immediately (like the French), everyone else suffers a turn's delay.

Additionally all Russian players get an additional '+1' on command rolls Russians deploy first,Austrians arrive at umpire's discretion and entry points are pre-planned.

As noted by John this is one of the few Napoleonic battles where there were actually no French troops involved.

Early stages of game in play

Victory Points are assigned to each side,with the Russians getting 1 VP per Allied unit destroyed and the Allies getting 1 VP per unit exited off the Russian base line.

Terrain & Weather: Marshy areas and the river are only crossable by infantry at half speed,other troop types may only cross by bridges. Woods are as per Shako rules. Weather is warm and clear.