Monday, November 23, 2009

New Year's Day '09 Mega-Game

After a spirited discussion following our 1813 campaign battle yesterday, it's been decided that we're going to try a New Year's Day Napoleonic mega-game! We've been talking on and off for some time about trying a massive game with all of our 28mm Napoleonic collections together. The New Year's Day mega-game will be based very (and I mean very, very loosely) on the Battle of Leipzig. In fact, the only things that the two may have in common is a horse-shoe type battlefield and the gathering of all available forces in one place. Everything is preliminary at this point but I've thrown together a quick and dirty order of battle and table set-up to give some impression of what's going to happen. I'll update our progress on this project.

The tables in the diagram are 6' x 4' giving us 28-32' x 14' on the outside of the horse-shoe. The Allies will deploy around the outside and the French on the inside. The reserve tables will have labelled zones that correspond with tables in the main set-up. This will allow reserves to move off-table (rules to be determined) and onto the main table with little fuss. The terrain in the diagram is not as it will be on the day. This is just a basic representation to give an idea of what it may look like. The two main rivers, will, however, be in the final set-up. These will divide the Allied attack into three sectors. On the left will be the Prussian sector, the Russians in the center, and the Austrians in the left flank sector.

Orders of Battle (preliminary)

Most infantry brigades are 4-6 units strong and probably average out at about 60-70 figures each (the exception would be Prussian brigades which are closer to French divisional strength). The cavalry brigades average about 16-24 figures each.

ALLIED ARMY

Russian Imperial Guard

1st Division

1st Brigade (guard infantry)
2nd Brigade (grenadiers)

2nd Division

1st Brigade (guard cavalry)

1st (Russian) Corps

1st Division

1st Brigade (infantry)
2nd Brigade (infantry)
3rd Brigade (infantry)

2nd Division

1st Brigade (infantry)
2nd Brigade (infantry)
3rd Brigade (infantry)

Attached Division

1st Brigade (militia infantry)

2nd (Russian Cavalry) Corps

1st Division
1st Brigade (light cavalry)
2nd Brigade (light cavalry)

2nd Division
1st Brigade (dragoons)
2nd Brigade (dragoons)

3rd (Austrian) ArmeeKorps

Advance Guard Division
1st Brigade (infantry/cavalry)
2nd Brigade (infantry/cavalry)

1st Division
1st Brigade (infantry)
2nd Brigade (infantry)

2nd Division
1st Brigade (infantry)
2nd Brigade (infantry)

4th (Austrian Reserve) Korps

1st Division
1st Brigade (grenadiers)

2nd Division
1st Brigade (heavy cavalry)
2nd Brigade (heavy cavalry)

5th (Prussian) Corps

1st Brigade (infantry/cavalry)

2nd Brigade (infantry/cavalry)

3rd Brigade (cavalry)

FRENCH ARMY

Garde Imperiale

1er Division
1er Brigade (old guard infantry)
2e Brigade (old guard infantry)
3e Brigade (young guard infantry)

2e Division
1er Brigade (guard cavalry)

Artillerie de la Reserve

1er Corps d’Armee

1er Division
1er Brigade (infantry)
2e Brigade (infantry)

2e Division
1er Brigade (infantry)
2e Brigade (infantry)

3e Division
1er Brigade (light cavalry)
2e Brigade (light cavalry)

2e Corps d’Armee

1er Division
1er Brigade (Berg infantry)
2e Brigade (Berg infantry)

2e Division
1er Brigade (Hesse-Darmstadt infantry)
2e Brigade (Hesse-Darmstadt infantry)

3e Division
1er Brigade (Berg cavalry)
2e Brigade (Hesse-Darmstadt cavalry)

3e Corps d’Armee

1er Division
1er Brigade (Wurttemberg infantry)
2e Brigade (Bavarian infantry)

2e Division
1er Brigade (Saxon infantry)
2e Brigade (Baden infantry)

Brigade de Cavalerie (Saxon cavalry)

4e Corps de Cavalerie

1er Division
1er Brigade (dragoons)
2e Brigade (dragoons)

2e Division
1er Brigade (cuirassiers)
2e Brigade (cuirassiers)


4 comments:

  1. You have a great drawing programme for maps? What do you use?

    John

    ReplyDelete
  2. Believe it or not, I use MS Word for my diagrams etc. It doesn't have all the functionality of some more "complicated" programs but for simple maps etc, it's easy to manipulate.

    Dave

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know you've done it before, Dave, but by chance there is a current TMP thread about running Big Battles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Dave, I gave it a go and actually got a pretty good result.

    John

    ReplyDelete