The AAR of Surprise at Kosen (A SDS Scenario)

I have found some spare time today (winter weather helps!) to compose the AAR of the last SDS Scenario, "Surprise at Kosen". You can see below some highlights:

The alarm has been sounded and the Grenzer sentinel opens fire while the French are approaching under the cover of the cemetery walls

French and Grenzer are facing across the stream after the first moments

The hand to hand combat on the bridge is becoming more and more bloody

The French and grenzer officers are fighting one with another

A lucky French shot kills the Grenzer officer before he could finish the fallen French lieutenant

A 'forgotten' Chasseur watches his officer standing defiantly amongst a pile of wounded and dead men

A more detailed account (40 pictures) has been uploaded to the main web site (here) along with the Scenario rules (here). The game was fast and fun (including a forgotten Chasseur and the redemption of a previously frightened Chasseur!) and the Activation step was carried out by using the Doghi’s mechanism.

Enjoy it!

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Kosen for Song of Drums and Shakos

Today is holiday in Valladolid (and Castilla y León). We are celebrating the battle of Villalar (1521) when the Comuneros of Castilla were routed by the imperialist forces of Carlos I (or Charles V). It was a rout, but in that day we commemorate our autonomy from the Spanish central state! 
With no job and some hours for me, I have run the Kosen SDS Scenario (see here, here and here).
It was a fast and furious game, reaching its outcome, a French victory,  in 12 turns, including a calling for help to the Yahoo Song of Blades and Heroes forum, immediately answered by Andrea Sfiligoi and Sergio Laliscia themselves!

The French lieutenant standing amongst the fallen

The central event was a bloody encounter over the bridge involving both chief of the squads and the Grenzer sargeant. Despite their gallantry, Natporučnik (lieutenant) Kocsis and Sargeant Spasic resulted dead in that melee along other private (the "Big" brother) and other four Grenzers resulted dead around. The French had four dead (including Sargeant Funes) and two wounded fantassins in the same of the battlefield.
In addition to the bridge melee, the most striking fact was that the final shot killing Natporučnik Kocsis  (and breaking the Grenzers, was fired by a Chasseur that was previously forced to flee by the Grenzer "Big Brother" (Fear rule). Once recovered, the Chasseur fired his lucky shot. Incidentally, the question posted on the Yahoo Forum was related with the behaviour of a fleeing man after his flee moves.
A final curiosity: after the end of the fight, a French chasseur was discovered hidden behind a tree. The poor guy was forgotten during the advance!
A more detailed AAR will be posted in the next days.. If I find some spare time!

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Getting used to the new scale for SDS

After so many years using a distorted scale in the gaming table, I'm finding very hard to visualize the houses, trees, streams, bridges, roads. etc to the same scale, 1/72 (HO), of the figures forming my wargaming armies.
Before, when Napoleon's Battles (NB) was my only ruleset (the scenery of my previous wargaming efforts was too stylised) one figure represented always 120 men, and a 4-figures base the area covered by 480 men. On the other side, a NB building or B.U.A. was the representation of a village or small town, while several buildings or BUA's made for medium-sized towns. A forest consisted of an area with several randomly scattered model trees and with the ground covered with lichen or model foliage. Obviously, roads and streams were oversized, while rivers were undersized, a bridge was a bridge, a lone tree was only an ornement... in short, a small chaos where everything was abstracted. However, my brain was perfectly accustomed.
When I moved to Lasalle, which has a larger scale and allows to game smaller battles, the things began to change slightly, but everything was still easy to fix by simply increasing the number of buildings or B.U.A.´s or increasing the forested area... and so.
But we arrived to Song of Drums and Shakos (SDS), a skirmish game where one figure is one man. Here, the things definitely do not look good, because the soldiers look like giants when they are side to side to buildings or trees.
The solution is simple: to build new scenery elements at the correct scale... and there we are.
The following pictures show the play area of Kosen, the next SDS scenario. The scenic elements are not yet fully finished (mostly need the final painting touches), but the overall look will be about the same.

Too realistic for me!

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The rules for Kosen SDS Scenario

Taken from http://iron-mitten.blogspot.com/

Deployment (See the previous post)
Austrian Grenzer
On sentry duty (see map) 1D6 Grenzer
Inside the cabin/ houses: Officer, NCO and the rest of the squad.
French
Deployed within 1M of the table edge or inside 1M of a wooded edge.

Scenario Special Rules

These rules are similar to the used in the  SDS Wethau bridge scenario, with the only addition of a rule about bridge demolition:

 Destroying bridges special rule

·      At the cost of 1 action, a model armed with axe may try to destroy the wooden bridge. Treat this as a hand-to-hand “combat” between the model and the bridge. All possible modifiers (strong, better weapon, engineer, multiple combatants) apply, with the bridge having a C3 Combat value. The opponent rolls dice for the bridge and combat is resolved normally.
·      Only sappers can use the +1 Combat modifier, which is only applicable to this “combat”.
·      If the model loses the “combat” or the model wins without doubling the bridge’s score, nothing happens. The bridge is only slightly damaged.
·      If the model wins doubling the bridge’s score, the bridge has been damaged. Decrease its Combat value by 1.
·      In both these cases the model can try to attack the bridge again if it has actions remaining. If the feature was damaged, the lowered Combat score is used.
·      The bridge is destroyed when its Combat value reaches zero.
 

Victory conditions

The French goal is to break the bridge whereas the Grenzers must to avoid it.
·      Normal rules and morale tests apply to attackers (i.e. they lose if their Squad breaks). The French mission is to destroy the bridge, so if it occurs the game automatically ends with a French victory.
·      Grenzer with bad moral runs towards the village where they can continue the fight (if they wish).

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Kosen: A Scenario for Song of Drums and Shakos

The French Army has been routed at Leipzig and is retiring westwards. In an effort to cover the French withdrawal, Napoleon has sent General Bertrand, with a strong force, to destroy the bridge over the Elster River at Kosen, thus delaying the Allied pursuit.
Lieutenant Michel from the 2/8e Léger (Belair's Brigade, 12e Division, French IV Corps) has been sent, with a pair of sappers and a small detachment of his battallion, to destroy a small secondary wooded bridge, located in the outskirts of Kosen over a watermill channel. However, a Grenzer squad from the Waradisner Kreutz Grenzer No. 5 Regiment (Crenneville's Light Division, Austrian 3rd Armeeabteilung), has already occupied and garrisoned the area.

Old Glory French Elite Company Skirmishing

French Squad 12 men 552 points
- Lieutenant Michel
Points 82 Quality 3+ Combat 2
Special Rules Elan, Leader, Light, Pistol, Sword
- Sergeant Funes
Points 66 Quality 3+ Combat 2
Special Rules Light, Musket, NCO, Sword
- One Light Voligeur (marksman)
Points 50 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Elan, Light, Marksman, Musket
- Two Sappers
Points 27 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Blunderbuss, Engineer, Strong, Axe
- Seven Light Voltigeurs
Points 42 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Elan, Light, Musket

My Hat 8204 Grenzer Infantry Close order unit

Grenzer Squad 12 men 503 points
-  Natporucnik Kocsis
Points 70 Quality 3+ Combat 2
Special Rules Leader, Light, Pistol, Sword
- Sargeant Spasic
Points 66 Quality 3+ Combat 2
Special Rules Light, Musket, NCO, Sword
- One 'Big Brother'
Points 62 Quality 4+ Combat 3
Special Rules Light, Musket, Strong, Fear
- One Marksman
Points 41 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Light, Marksman, Musket
- Eight Grenzers
Points 33 Quality 4+ Combat 2
Special Rules Light, Musket

The gametable is shown in the Figure. The central square is the legal SDS playing area for 20mm figures: a 90x90 cm square. The general description is a wooded zone traversed by a channel with a wooden bridge. The outskirsts of Kosen are in the southwest side. A small cabin and a stone walled cemetery are near the bridge. Some scattered trees provide the only cover besides the cemetery.

Next: the Scenario specific rules and the Solo solutions

Note: The French Voltigeur model is taken from Macphee's Miniature Men blog. You can find more Grenzer information in my blog and also at my main web site.

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And the Kosen winner is....

The next game will be a Lasalle battle 'The crossing point. Kösen. October 21, 1813'. The scenario is an adaptation of the C.S. Grant’s ‘Crossing Point’ scenario of his book ‘Programmed Wargames Scenarios'(Wargames Research Group, 1983) but located after the battle of Leipzig. Summarising up, the French must to destroy a bridge to cover their retreat, whereas the Austrians, which have seized it previously, try to prevent it.
As indicated in a previous post (See this post) all the Scenarios of the book “Programmed Wargames Scenarios” are heavily randomised, giving a different game each time. The map, deployments an orders below was one of the four designed after rolling all the required dice in the Gran’s Scenario altough an EXCEL spreadsheet was used instead, when applicable.
Due to the different scales, the actual procedures were a combination of Gran and Lasalle ones. Bold sentences refer to Gran’s scenario. The full OOB appears in he previous post on Kosent and the AAR of a previous re-fight, done with a home divisional version of Napoleon's Battles ,can be found at the main web site, or in the posts of this blog with the label Kosen.

Deployment
Austrian (blue) forces
- Its mission is “to hold the crossing point” in order to ensure the bridge over the Elster, thus allowing them to outflank the retreating Grande Armée.
- The Vanguard (all the Infantry units of the Light Division plus its Brigade commander) must be deployed on th table “50% north and 50% south of the river”. Their orders allow for “A flexible defence with the ability to respond to attacks, follow up and counter attack. Well ordered and controlled withdrawal if required”.
- Reinforcements: the rest of the units (: Chevaux-Leger No.5; Chevaux-Leger No.7 plus Horse battery; IR No.8 plus Brigade battery; IR No.7; IR No.37 and IR No.60 plus Brigade battery. The normal arrival procedure (p. 91 of the e-Lasalle book) is used.When a unit arrives, a dice will indicate the entry point with 1 or 2 being F, 3 or 4 being G and 5 or 6 being H. The first unit in a brigade marks the enter point used by the others units in the same brigade.
- All the Austrian reinforcements will enter in march column formation The Brigade commanders arrive with their first arriving unit, Divisional commanders will enter with their first or second arriving brigade (50%/50%). The C-i-C will enter with his first, second or third arriving brigade (20%/30%/50%).
- The orders for the reinforcementes depend on the situation at the bridge:
Situation good (no danger to the crossing point) Reinforcements disciplined and deploy as ordered
Situation in balance (50/50) Reinforcements rush exuberantly into the battle
Situation bad (crossing point about to be lost) Reinforcements rush exuberantly into the battle
French (red) forces
- Its mission is “to seize and destroy the crossing point".
- There are no French units on the table at the start so all enter as reinforcements. The arrival Lasalle procedure is slightly modified: “Take the number of the current turn. Add to this the Vigor modifier of the subcommander in command of that reserve force. Then roll one die, and if it is less than the modified turn number, the reserve force has arrived “
- The order of march is the following:
       Point K: 1/12th; 2/12th; 3/12th; 12th Division battery Division; Young Guard Light Cavalry; Old Guard Horse Artillery
       Point L: 38th Wurttemberg; 15th Italian Division Division
- Each Brigade commander enters with his brigade. Each Divisional commander enters with his first division. Morand can arrive with his first, second or third arriving brigade (50%/30%/20%). Bertrand enters along Morand.
- The initial Bertrand’s battle plan is “Advance to medium range and send forward a parley party under white flag to debate the crossing. If this is rejected then a unit of cavalry, close at hand, should attempt to rush the crossing by surprise”.
- However, “the response to the arrival of reinforcements will cause varying stages of increased urgency in his attempt to achieve the objective. A single dice throw for each enemy unit to appear will provide a gradually accumulating score which will reflect the response of the Red Commander.
      Less than 10: no change in orders or activity.
      10-20: increased urgency. Troops in charge range will come to contact. Troops still not deployed will advance at 'forced march'.
      21-35: attempt to seize crossing immediately. Troops still not deployed well forward will 'double' forward.
      36-50: panic attack on crossing by all forces which if repulsed will result in disorder and poor morale.
      51 or more: all attempts to storm bridges will falter and retire. Assaults will break down into fire-fights and forward movements will cease.”

Watch this thread!

P.S. By the way, the winner was.... Scenario number two

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Kösen 1, 2, 3, 4

The next thing will be a re-fight of Kösen. The scenario is an adaptation of the C.S. Grant’s ‘Crossing Point’ scenario of his book ‘Programmed Wargames Scenarios'(Wargames Research Group, 1983). The General situation is as follow:
"Blue has a small force, which has moved north at great speed to secure the crossing point and arrived there in the early hours of the morning. They know that a Red Force is on the way to seize the crossing and is likely to start arriving from the north shortly after dawn. Blue has reinforcements on the way but they are being hastily assembled and may arrive at any time during the day and in any order. Dawn is 0630."
The historical background is taken from G. Nafziger's 'Napoleon at Leipzig. The Battle of Nations 1813’(The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996) and is located after the Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig and his western retreat:
"On 21 October Napoleon sent General Bertrand with a strong force to attack and destroy the bridge by Kösen [on the Saale River], in an effort to cover the French withdrawal from attack by the allies via that avenue. On the left bank, where Neu-Kösen lay, the road crossed a nearly unclimbable ridge, an important tactical position to seize as to stop the allies, who were advancing through Naumburg in their pursuit of the French”.

The real combat involved elements of the Austrian 3rd Armeeabteilung under FZM Gyulai and the remaining rests of the Bertrand’s polyglot IV Corps (comprising French, Wurttemberg and Italian units). The O.O.B's were modified and adapted from the Nafziger's book cited above as well as from “The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book” (Greenhill Books, London, 1998) of Digby Smith. The Napoleon Series web-site (Allied OOB at Leipzig and French OOB at Leipzig) provided the names of the brigadiers. I have also added a division of French Young Guard Cavalry under Lefebvre-Desnoettes to add some color to the French units. The final OOB's, used in the previous fight with my divisional home-version of Napoleon's Battles were:

Austrian 3rd Armeeabteilung (Blue force)
13 Battalions/2 Regiments/3 batteries; Army Moral 47 Break point 16

C-i-C Gyulai (-/¶)

Light Division Crenneville (-/-)
Infantry Brigade Hacht (-1/¶)
Waradisner Grenz R/I/SK2 +
St George Grenz R/I/SK2 +
7Jaeger R/E/SK2
Cavalry Brigade Kopp (-1/-)
Chevauleger No. 5 R/E/Pu +
Chevauleger No. 7 R/E/Pu +
6pdr Horse Battery Horse/2 cannon/Medium/1 Howitzer

2nd Division Murray (-/*)
1st Brigade Lamezan (-1/-)
1/Erzherzog Ludwig-Josef IR 8 R/E/SK1 +
2/Erzherzog Ludwig-Josef IR 8 R/E/SK1 +
3/Erzherzog Ludwig-Josef IR 8 R/E/SK1 +
1/Kurfurst von Wurzburg IR 7 R/E/SK1 +
2/Kurfurst von Wurzburg IR 7 R/E/SK1 +
3/Kurfurst von Wurzburg IR 7 R/E/SK1 +
6pdr Brigade Battery Foot/4 cannon/Medium
2nd Brigade Lowenwarth (-1/¶)
1/Mariassy IR 37 R/E/SK1 +
2/Mariassy IR 37 R/E/SK1 +
1/Gyulai IR 60 R/E/SK1 +
2/Gyulai IR 60 R/E/SK1 +
6pdr Brigade Battery Foot/4 cannon/Medium


French IV Corps (Red force)
14 Battalions/3 Regiments/3 batteries; Army Moral 44 Break point 15

C-i-C Bertrand (-1/*)

12me Division Morand (+1/*)
1st Brigade Belair (+1/-)
1/8e Légère R/E/SK2 +
2/8e Légère R/E/SK2 +
2nd Brigade Toussaint (-/*)
1/13e Ligne R/E/SK2 +
2/13e Ligne R/E/SK2 +
3rd Brigade Hulot (+1/-)
1/23e Ligne R/E/SK2
2/23e Ligne R/E/SK2
1/137e Ligne R/A/SK1
2/137e Ligne R/A/SK1
1/2 Foot Artillery Foot/3 cannon/Medium/1 Howitzer
2/2 Foot Artillery Foot/3 cannon/Medium/1 Howitzer

38me Division Franquemont (-1/*)
Wurttemberg Converged Line R/E/SK1
Wurttemberg Converged Light R/E/SK2

15me Division Fontanelli (-/-)
Italian Converged Light R/A/SK1
1/Converged Line R/A/SK1
2/Converged Line R/A/SK1
3/Converged Line R/A/SK1
Italian Sapper Company

2me Guard Light Cavalry Division Levebvre-Desnoettes (-1/*)
Young Guard Lanciers V/A/La +
Young Guard Chasseurs V/A +
Young Guard Grenadiers V/A
5/Old Guard Horse Battery Horse/2 cannon/Medium/1 Howitzer


The Grant's book presents always several alternatives for deployments, orders, goals and reinforcements for both sides, thus opening an almost infinite variety of Scenarios, that are randomly chosen (i.e throwing several D6 dice). With the help of an EXCEL worksheet, I have designed four Scenarios... but only one will be fought.

Follow this thread!

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The narrative and pictures from Kosen

I have uploaded the narrative and pictures of the combat at Kosen to the main site. Apart from the demolition of the Kosen bridge over the Saale River, the main combat achievements were those of the French 1/23me Ligne. That battalion leaded by the divisional commander, General Morand, evicted the Saint-George grenzers from the nort riverbank, assaulted Kosen through the bridge evicting the Waradisner grenzer from Kosen and rejected until three Austrian assaults before being routed. Their sacrifice allowed the demolition of the bridge.

Kösen bridge is blowing up

The battle for the bridge at Kösen is finished. After rejecting the Light Austrian troops (Grenzer and Jaegers) from the north bank of the Elster River, the General Morand at the head of the 1st battalion of the 23me de Ligne evicted the Austrian garrison from Kösen. After this exploit, that heroic unit rejected several Austrian attacks being at last routed by the force of Austrian numbers. However, his sacrifice bought sufficient time to allow the Italians sappers to prepare the explosive charges and to demolish the bridge. The left flank of the defeated Grande Armée is safe.
Until the upload of the after action report and pictures to the main site, you can watch the instant of the explosion with the French and Italian Light troops lining the northern riverbank and the Autrian Line infantry starting their useless ocupation of Kösen after routing the 1/23me.

Bridge demolition

My next scheduled game: "The crossing point at Kösen" is based upon an engagement around a bridge over the Saale River that the French want to demolish whereas the Austrians need it in good shape to pursue the defeated Grande Armee. A question arose during the design: what's the time span needed to demolish (blow up) a permanent bridge?The author of the 'Programmed Wargame Scenarios', C.S. Grant, did not give any clue about that topic, but in the 'Notes on bridge demolition' (accompanying 'The bridge' scenario in the same book) he indicates that 5 hours were needed to make the plans for demolition.A search for more information lead to Napoleon-Series Forum where Ned Zuparko provided the following info:
"Charles Totten's 1880 "Strategos: A Series of American games of War Based upon Military Principles..." In Volume II, pg 23, Table G ("Time required for various purposes) includes:
98. Destroying a pile bridge........... 2 to 6 hours
99. Burning a wooden bridge (esch 50'), Case 5 Table II................ 30 to sixty minutes
100. Extinguishing same, if possible (after 20 minutes, 10:1 against) 15 min- 1 hour"In Google books I carried out an Advanced Search with bridge demolition. The best result was: Aide-mémoire to the Military Sciences: Framed from Contributions of Officers... where some useful information was found but not about the necessary time span. After several attempts I discovered American Kriegsspiel (p.124)"DESTRUCTION OF BRIDGES AND FORDS.
§ 264. When four three-inch guns fire upon a bridge 1,000 yards distant with shells it will in the general case be destroyed in about 10 or 15 minutes.
§ 265. A wooden bridge is rendered impassable by tearing up the planks in 15 or 20 minutes; a brick or stone bridge in 30 minutes or 1 hour. To burn a wooden bridge at least haif an hour’s preparation is required. To prepare to blow up a wooden bridge at a particular time, 90 minutes; a brick or stone bridge, 2 or 3 hours.
A ford may sometimes be destroyed in 1 or 2 hours"
So the consensus lies from 2 to 6 hours with the older sources giving smaller time spans. The mechanism finally incorporated in the Scenario was:

The sapper detachment accompanying the French force must be in contact with the bridge. Then, 4D6 are thrown and their sum is the number of (10 minutes) turns that sappers must be in contact with the bridge to demolish it. If the contact is lost for more than 3 turns, an additional D6 must be thrown.
In that way a pseudo-gaussian probability of distribution is found with a maximu likelyhood centered at 14 turns, i.e. 2 hours and 20 minutes. The play-testing will say if this was a correct estimation or not!

A bridge too far. Kösen (Saxony) october 1813

Napoleon has been defeated at Leipzig and the Grande Armee is retiring westwards.
"On 21 October Napoleon sent General Bertrand with a strong force to attack and destroy the bridge by Kösen [on the Saale River], in an effort to cover the French withdrawal from attack by the allies via that avenue. On the left bank, where Neu-Kösen lay, the road crossed a nearly unclimbable ridge, an important tactical position to seize as to stop the allies, who were advancing through Naumburg in their pursuit of the French” (G. Nafziger, 'Napoleon at Leipzig. The Battle of Nations 1813’. The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996).
This combat was fought between elements of the Austrian 3rd Armeeabteilung under FZM Gyulai (Light and Line divisions) and the rests of the Bertrand’s polyglot IV Corps (comprising French, Wurttemberg and Italian units). The orders of battle are modified and adapted from the Nafziger's book cited above as well as from “The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book” (Greenhill Books, London, 1998) of Digby Smith. The Napoleon Series web-site (Allied OOB at Leipzig and French OOB at Leipzig) provided the names of the brigadiers. I have also added a division of French Young Guard Cavalry under Lefebvre-Desnoettes to add some color to the French units.
This scenario is an adaptation of the C.S. Grant’s ‘Crossing Point’ scenario of his book ‘Programmed Wargames Scenarios'. I hesitated whether to run this Scenario or to run the Tabletop Teaser No.1 "The Bridge Demolition" (from the same author) but the 'Programmed Scenario' is best adapted to the real situation..