Tomorrow I will be hosting my annual holiday wargame at my place. This year it is the Battle of Eylau. This battle was fought during the Napoleonic Wars in 1807 between the French and Russians (with some Prussians arriving on day 2).
My scenario aims to reproduce the major events of the first day of the battle. The emphasis is the initial push of Davout's Corps into the Russian southern flank through the town of Serpallen. Additionally I'm looking to capture the moment Murat led one of the largest and most spectacular cavalry charges of the Napoleonic Wars!
The most excellent Thomas Foss, a truly talented painter, great friend, and generally awesome person painted up a new backdrop for me to use for taking pictures. Thomas based the background on this famous picture:
We didn't need all the foreground troops and such and targeted the upper part of the painting. Thee result of Thomas's excellent work is below ... amazing! I took the pictures with my phone - so they are a little "yellowish" in the result - you can see this better in the pictures of the troops further down.
The scenario uses an "L" shaped table (see below). The battle was fought in the snow and during a snow storm on the first day. It was a very bloody affair and the first time Napoleon was "checked" in a major battle. While the Russians ended up withdrawing after the second day of the battle, it was truly a drawn battle. This didn't stop Napoleon from declaring it a victory for the French army.
Visibility will be rolled for each turn (5D6") and units move at half rate in the snow. Augereau's divisions will start with some casualties already on them. His corps was order to attack the Russians but was lost in the storm and moved significantly off course. He ended up in front of a large Russian artillery position and paid a dear price. Napoleon, see the disaster unfolding before himself famously rode to Murat and said, "Are you going to let these fellows devour us?" (or some variation of this). This lead to a charge of 10,000-12,000 Dragoons and Cuirassiers into the Russians!
The French and Russian orders of battle that I will be using for Black Powder 2 are below. This is a good sized wargame and I expect it will be a close run thing. There are a lot of tactical options on both sides that can significantly change the course of the battle from the historical result.
Lots of pictures will be taken and posted after tomorrows battle. Here are a few pictures just to wet the appetite!
More to follow. Stay tuned!
Very interesting. Eylau has been getting a lot of attention from the boardgame industry over the past 2 years, with at least 6 designs being published. Very much looking forwards to your AAR.
ReplyDeleteYes. This is a battle I've wanted to do for a long time. Until recent years it has been very much overlooked. Nice to see more coming out for it. A very interesting battle.
DeleteLike others, it's a battle I'm interested in. Were you able to get many figures in winter dress for those lucky enough to have it?
ReplyDeleteThe background for the photos is great and all the better for being based on the painting.
I look forward to reading more.
Merry Christmas,
Stephen
Merry Christmas Stephen! My Russians are mostly in summer dress although most of my Cossack units are in winter dress. The French line and light infantry are a descent mix of summer and winter(ish) dress (greatcoats). The basing is all summer so I had to sprinkle a lot of Woodland Scenics snow flock over everything. That is the best I can do for a snow/winter game. My collection for both armies is large so I can run big scenarios - but given most of the battles did not take place in the snow it is hard to justify a dedicated chunk of winter dress miniatures :-( Hopefully what I did do still makes you chilly when you see the pictures :-)
DeleteThis sounds like it is going to be splendid.
ReplyDelete