ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake
That is a great story. So you are saying you meet in person for these team Napoleonic games..or is it handled live on-line or by PBEM?
It was a PBEM. The moderator completed all the moves and determined the result of actions etc.
And then notified each player of the results. Positional information for tactical play was displayed using the Talonsoft game system with the maps and units edited to reflect the actual terrain. Strategic play was handled in a larger scale map. I 'm not sure where that came from it might have been scanned in from a boardgame.
If your interested I still have most of the email text which went back and forth and have listed it below. The only thing I misled you about in my earlier message the fact that I was playing Dohktyarov not Bagration. (memory playing tricks again)
III Corps
South of Keidany en route to Kovno, 15th July 1812
GOC IV Corps, III Cav Corps
I acknowledge your information and have passed it to Gen. Barclay. My Corps
will be at Kovno tomorrow where it has been ordered to support II Corps.
If it is confirmed that the French have crossed the Neimen in strength SW of
Rossieny I shall seek his approval to march to your assistance. In the
meantime keep me informed of developments.
And here the famous sequence of orders leading up to my heroic assault:
The French are withdrawing from Vilna. Attack the French at once to try to tie them. They have to be prevented from escaping to the Northwest at all costs. They are eluding the trap and have to be stopped.
General Barclay de Tolly
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Your excellency,
In obedience with your instructions the 7th Div are attempting to seize the town but I beg to report that far from withdrawing the French are in fact defending Vilna most vigorously and are actually attempting to secure a
bridgehead over the river to the south.
I fear our attack may have the opposite effect to which you intend and could actually prompt the French to abandon the field before the I Corps arrive to block their escape. With the river between us there is little that can be
done to prevent this should they so decide.
Dokhtyarov
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[After spotting that my 7th Division had advanced on Vilna without my orders]
Riding up to Gen. Kaptsevich I shall greet him warmly and ask him to provide me with an update on the local situation and his current orders and intentions.
Amongst other things this should confirm whether he has been ordered to launch a full scale assault on the town by Gen. Barclay, or whether the current deployment of the 7th Division is a misunderstanding of my earlier instructions.
How I respond will therefore depend on the content of his report.
Dokhtyarov
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[Reply from the Moderator]
You can see the situation of 7th Division.
Kaptsevich has very much the same order as you from Barclay, sent directly to him. He has committed one of his three brigades to an attack to prevent the French from withdrawing by disrupting them and stop lateral movement to the
bridge (and stopping them having breakfast).
One battery is moving to the right flank to fire along the river line, the only clear field of view and allowing flanking fire to the citadel, while the others are staying among the infantry.
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[Not happy at having the chain of command by-passed in this way, I decide to reaffirm my own command]
Verbal Order to Gen. Kaptsevich
I shall acknowledge the report of Gen. Kaptsevich and instruct him to withdraw his artillery from the streets of Vilna and to have them deploy on the high ground north of the bridge over the Tigoda stream from whence they are to engage any troops moving between Vilna and Ofadoe.
He is then to invest the Citadel by occupying the surrounding buildings with skirmishers whilst 3rd Brigade is to retire and reform. Whilst the 2nd Brigade is to launch a direct assault to seize the eastern threshold of the bridge.
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[Recognising that I have no choice but to comply with Barclay's order]
Verbal Order to Gen. Kaptsevich
The 2nd Brigade will move forward and prepare for a direct assault to seize the redoubt (Citadel) guarding the eastern threshold of the bridge. I shall dismount and lead this attack personally at the head of the Libau Regiment. But I wish to wait until the Sofia Regiment is in position and ready to join us so that the full weight of the brigade can be brought to bear in a single assault.
I shall explain all this to Gen. Kaptsevich and instruct him that should the assault fail he is to try again with the 1st Brigade.
(Hopefully common sense will have prevailed by then)
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An aide is to be sent to Gen. Likhachev informing him of my intentions and instructing him to be ready to assume command of the Corps should I fall.
Another is to be sent to Gen. Tschulski commanding the 1st Brigade 24th Division informing him of the impending assault and requesting that he maintains the pressure on the French right flank.
A third is to be sent to Gen Barclay informing him of my intentions.
(presumably all these aides can be briefed together and sent their separate ways in fact I see this as some sort huddle where I am brief everyone on what I intend and then send them off on their various tasks)
Dokhtyarov
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Once the 2nd Brigade is assembled, my team has been briefed and the couriers dispatched I shall ride over to the Libau Regiment and present my compliments to General Balmen informing him that I wish to address the men. When I have their attention I shall give them the standard 'We're all going to die hero's speech'.
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Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, we have been given a shitty job to do. If it could be avoided then I would have avoided it but there is no alternative. Just down the road there is a regiment of Dutchmen defending a bridge. They are the 124th Regiment and they are a long way from home, they are scared, and they are homesick. They are too scared to face us in the open so they have built themselves a wall to hide behind. We are going to show them that a wall is no protection from the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade. We are going forward, we are going to cross that wall and we are going to drive those Dutchmen into the river with the points of our bayonets. No man is to fire his musket until he has crossed that wall, no man is to stop and help a comrade who has fallen. This will be a bloody business that wall is the key to the French position they will not give it up easily but take it we must. I am not prepared to send you where I would not go myself therefore I shall lead this attack in person all I ask is that you follow me and avenge me should I fall before you. Now prepare yourselves and lets show these Dutchmen how Russian soldiers fight.
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I shall then dismount and pass my horse to my batman or whoever to take to the rear. I shall then join the Commander of the Libau Regiment and remind him that his men are not to fire until we are inside the redoubt. I shall then ask him if his regiment has any singers and assuming it does I shall instruct him to have them sing the most popular raunchy song in their repertoire. We may not be able to shoot them hidden behind those walls but we can damn well give them earache.
Once all is prepared I shall draw my sword throw away the scabbard and give the signal to advance.
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[The advance begins. Message to the Moderator]
I'm in no position to issue any orders this turn so I shall just make sure my sword chains are out of the way and won't trip me up as I walk. I've already fallen off me horse today so I don't really want to show myself up still further by tripping over and going face first in the mud in front of the entire 2nd Brigade.
Glad to see the artillery are moving off and the 3rd Brigade are reforming.
Bit disappointed that Tschulshi's Brigade are not engaging the enemy more closely I don't want the French given the freedom to move against our flank. Hopefully, he will move his brigade forward as we commence the assault. The
battle at the southern bridge seems to be going well. Likhachev and Uvarov are working well together on that flank, I still feel we ought to be seeking to exploit that situation rather than wasting lives here. I just hope the situation in the town doesn't go completely pear shaped and ruin it for everyone.
No point worrying about that now I shall just compose myself for the off.
I hope the French haven't done something really clever like mine the approaches to the redoubt, mind you surely if they had been that clever they would have demolished the surrounding houses to create a clear fire zone for their artillery.
I don't think we stand a cat in hells chance of carrying that redoubt but its the only way to deny the French the bridge. At the very least the presence of the 2nd Brigades assault column will make it difficult for them to move troops through the redoubt and over the river. Unless of course they have boats but its too late to worry about that now. If we do by some
miracle carry the redoubt then we probably won't be able to hold it anyway with that artillery battery on the far side of the river waiting to spray canister into any defenders through the open rear face. Wouldn't it be ironic if I ended up ordering an assault over the bridge in order to take those guns after all my moaning about the stupidity of doing so.
I was amused to notice that group of French staff officers cowering on the far side of the river. It appears that apart from one lone General the French on our side of the river have been abandoned by their leaders.
Clearly the French Generals are not so keen on dying for their Emperor as we are. I think the French troops should suffer a morale penalty for the cowardly example being shown by their officers. Don't you? (Well its worth a try)
Now where's my hip-flask I need something to stop my hand shaking.
Dokhtyarov
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[Approaching the Citadel. - Message to Moderator]
I have no change of orders and probably would not be in position to issue any even if I had.
Looks like the fight at the southern bridge is going well. I believe we just captured a battalion of the 2e Ligne (apparently that regiment had the strange distinction of serving at the Battle of Trafalgar when it was on Naval duty)
As for our little party in the town. I think the French General Staff must have heard my taunts and I note that they have now crossed the bridge to join their troops in the redoubt. But I'm a bit puzzled as to why all the defenders have just turned their backs to us, unless of course they are preparing to do a mass 'mooney'. Now that would be frightening, all those spotty French butts hanging over the parapet.
Dokhtyarov.
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[Response from the Moderator]
So, you spotted the latest French deliberate mistake. I have to admit I can't fathom their tactics from top to bottom. On which subject: must revise the icons by adding mooning infantry - more effective in line than column, I think.
It seems we have some inexperienced players among the French who should perhaps have been given commands among those farther from the action for their first time out. One, commanding at the southern bridge, has given up entirely. I suppose he realised he was only embarrassing himself with his tactics and lack of grasp all round. The strange thing was his mode of exit: I received an email from his address telling me he was unable to use his email and would not be in touch, signed 'his wife'. Found it too hard to make a tactical withdrawal in more ways than one, it seems.
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[Message from the Moderator: After the assault]
Well, the speech seemed to work. After clearing the enemy from the redoubt you peer through the settling dust and dispersing smoke to the other side of the river to see......that the French you have isolated are far from finished, though in considerable disorder and really only in need of having their hopelessness demonstrated to them. I will give them a turn or two and see how things stand before deciding who, if any, flee, surrender or fight on.
I'm afraid this hasn't been pleasant for the French and player morale may be waning, so once this attack is fought through to a conclusion I may ask everyone their intentions and adjudicate what may be the end of the battle.
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In fact the French threw in the towel and ordered a general withdrawal abandoning all the troops still on the Russian side of the river to the tender mercies of a Russian prison camp.
The Warhammer figures are ok (still over priced), it's their models of tanks (or what they call tanks) that are sheer refuse.
