Somewhere in Saxony, 1813 - Battle report

 As I wrote several posts about it - there is an annual historical wargaming event in Hungary, called Historikum. This time together with my friends we set up a Napoleonic game.

The topic was 1813, the campaign is Saxony. One of my friends who collects the French fought against us. I was on the other side together with a fellow wargamer, who just painted an entire Russian brigade for the purose of this event.

Both armies had two brigades of infantry and a small cavalry detachment. The French only had a hussar regiment, but their artillery was superior. Whilst the coalition side had an entire Russian cuirassier regiment as cavalry, but only one artillery battery for their whole army. We used the old fashioned Foundry Napoleon ruleset for the game.

Both sides advanced slowly and and very cautiously against each other. The only exeption were the Russians: their cuirassiers charged a French infantry square while their advancing infantry fired several volleys in line. The Prussians on the right wing on the Coalition Army had to be cautious because the French brigade in front of them had a strong superiority in terms of artillery support. Also there was the French cavalry threatening the Prussian advance while the Prussians do not had any cavalry to counter this.

On the other hand, the French were defensive throughouth the game. They sent out their hussars to force the advancing Prussians to form squares, but did not charged them for several turns.

The charge of the Russian cuirassiers was repelled by the French square. But their infantry managed to rout an entire light infantry battalion.

In the coalition centre the Prussian reserve and landwehr infantry struggled to move forward due to command issues. 

At this moment the French commander decided to launch a hussar charge against the Prussians. The 2nd battalion of the 2nd West-Prussian infantry regiment was formed up in line. Despite their unfavourable position they fired devastating volleys at the charging cavalry and after a short melee they managed to repel them while still in line formation!

After that, the battle had to be finished, both sides quit fighting. There was no evident victory, but the Coalition side had better positions at the end.