A small break

Well, not exactly... only a time with many and demanding laboral duties: the start of a new academic year at the University of Valladolid.
However, I expect to return to wargaming around October 12th, so... watch this space!

A table-top map for Göhrde

The above map is the first version of the table-top map for the Battle of Göhrde. I'll use my divisional version of Napoleon's Battles with a terrain scale 1"/25 yds and 1 figure: 30 men. The basis is the map of the previous post, but the terrain scale has been slightly modified to accommodate the three villages.
The position of the French units is marked with blue symbols, whereas the general entry area of the four Allied columns is shown with green dotted lines.

The unbalanced Göhrde

Göhrde was an unbalanced affaire. The French faced odds of 1:3.5 but, suprisingly, the tiny Pécheux's force was not completely crushed. According to Nafziger (Napoleon at Leipzig, The Emperor Press, 1996, p. 48) :

" ... The problem was not so much of Wallmoden's plan, but of the ability of any army in this period to coordinate such enveloping maneuvers .... 1) the frontal attack by Wallmoden's infantry occurred before the envelopment was completed. 2) the infantry and cavalry attacks did not wait until the superior allied artillery had time to break up the French infantry, though careful use of the terrain by Pécheux may well have contributed to the inability of the allied artillery to do this, and 3) the allied infantry appears to have been very fragile... ".

NB gives very poor statistics for the Hannoverian units so that point is resolved, the question of uncoordination must be covered by the Scenario rules. I am thinking to stablish a basic time-table for the Arrival Turns and Entry Points of the different Allied columns: Left (Arentschildt), Center (Tettenborn), Right (Lyon) and Cavalry (Dornberg). This basic frame will be randomly distorted by changing the actual Turns and Points according to a decimal die.

OOB for Göhrde

By using the books of George Nafziger and Digby Smith I have built the Orders of Battle for the battle of Göhrde as shown in the following summary:

French Army
50th Division (Pecheux )
6 battalions
1 squadron
1 foot battery
Total: 4,000 men (80 cavalry) and 8 guns

Allied Army (Wallmoden)
1st Division (Arentschild)
6 line battalions Russo-German Legion
1st Regiment of Russo-German Hussars
1 foot and 1 horse batteries
2nd Division (Tetterborn)
2 Jager Battalions
Lutzow's FreiKorps (2 battalions)
Lutzow's Hussars (1 regiment)
3 Cossack regiments
1 foot battery
3rd Division (Lyon)
Hannoverian infantry (5 battalions)
73rd Highlands (1 battalion)
KGL infantry detachment
1 foot battery
4th Division (Dornberg)
3rd KGL Hussars
Hannoverian Hussars (1 regiment)
3 horse batteries
1/2 RH rockets
Total: 9,600 Infantry, 2,700 cavalry, 50 guns

See the attack of the Hannoverian Bennigsen Battalion on the French (Röchling)

A bilingual Napoleonic Wargaming Forum

There is a new Forum addressed to hispanic fans of Napoleon's Battles/ Napoleonic Wargaming with miniatures. The Forum is a complement/alternative for all whose mother tongue is the Spanish. The URL is
http://www.alkaidediciones.com/ go to 'Foros' in the upper menu, or enter
http://www.alkaidediciones.com/foro
The Forum is bi-lingual, so all interested English-speaking are also welcome!
Regards

Desde hoy existe un nuevo Foro para los aficionados hispanos a Napoleon's Battles o al Wargame Napoleónico con miniaturas en general. El Foro pretende ser una alternativa o complemento para todos aquellos aficionados cuyo idioma materno es el español. La dirección es
http://www.alkaidediciones.com/
yendo a 'Foros' en el menú superior, o bien
http://www.alkaidediciones.com/foro
El Foro es bilingüe, por lo que todos los angloparlantes interesados son bienvenidos!
Saludos

A heroic death in the battle of Göhrde

The battle of Göhrde (16 September 1813) will the next installment of my Campaign of Leipzig.
It was an un-successful ambush laid by the General Count von Wallmoden-Simborn (14,000 men including the 73rd Highland Foot regiment and a British Rocket Battery), to surprise the small force of the General Pecheux (4,000 men). Because of the lack of coordination, Pecheux was not crushed although he suffered a staggering 50% of losses.
During this battle, Eleonore Prochaska , disguised herself as a man and enrolled in the Jägerbataillon of the Lützow Free Corps under the name August Renz, was heavily wounded. She seized the drum of a French drum major, and drove her comrades to attack until herself was wounded by a bullet. The field-surgeons, rushing to treat her wounds, discovered she was a woman and took her to Dannenberg, where she succumbed to her wounds three weeks later.
This combat is small in size so it will be adequate for divisional Napoleon's Battles.