My buddy was able to host game night at his house so I was able to get together with my group for the first time in weeks. He is a big fan of Et sans résultat! (as am I!) by The Wargaming Company and when someone he met on Discord lived only thirty minutes from us I knew what we were playing!
He set up a huge board representing the First Battle of Polostk, August 17, 1812, and when I arrived I found myself on the French side commanding as Marshal Saint Cyr defending the town of Spas and the valuable river crossings while Marshal Oudinot defended Polotsk and its river crossings. My two Bavarian infantry formations were arrayed against Wittgenstein’s Russians and his three formations while Oudinot’s three formations were arrayed against Sazonov and his (I think two) Russian formations. In this picture, taken from the French side of the field, you can see Oudinot defending the river across from Polotsk while Saint Cyr is mired down in the town of Spas. The Russians are mostly deployed on board, with one of Wittgenstein’s formations off board, acting as a reserve, and quite frankly having a hard time finding room to deploy on table.
In the first turn objectives were laid out for each formation. The French had decided Saint Cyr’s Corp would Defend Spas and prevent Wittgenstein from forcing the river while Oudinot would Attack Sazonov. In the second turn Oudinot was unable to successfully order Saint Cyr to his objective, getting a two turn delay, which of all the rolls to fail in this situation it was a non-issue as the plan was already to sit on the Defense, which is the default order for a Force that hasn’t been able to activate it’s order. Clearly Oudinot, in an attempt to discredit his fellow Marshal, sent his slowest courier to bring the order written in the sloppiest hand of his laziest aide-de-camp. Rumors that Marshal Saint Cyr was finishing his breakfast and couldn’t be bothered was clearly the start of a whispering campaign against him! The Russians ran up a section of guns and started putting fatigue on the Bavarians defending the woods, while Oudinot moved towards his objective in an attempt to engage Sazonov.
You can see in the top left of the picture Oudinot started his pivot to charge the Formation commanded by Sazonov while Wittgenstein launched an attack against the Bavarian line. While the Bavarians on my right had three fatigue and were only supported by one artillery battery the Bavarians in Spas didn’t have any fatigue and were well supported by guns. The troops in Spas put a significant hurt on the Russians that attacked them, but their comrades in the woods were not so well off and got the worst of it from their opponents.
You can see Oudinot about to swarm Sazonov. In an attempt to make up for his slow couriers Oudinot even sent two battalions against Wittgensteins flank.
Sazonov attempted to halt Oudinot’s forces but was quickly pushed back. The Bavarians in Spas rolled really well and were able to force the Russians who assaulted them to Withdraw, however, on their right flank the Russians and the Bavarians mauled each other forcing both Formations to Withdraw!
In the 6th, and final, turn of the game Wittgenstein brought his final Formation onto the board in an attempt to stem the route, however, the arrived too late to be of any use to the Russian forces. Meanwhile the French left flank attack started to tell on the Russians forcing Withdrawls, or Breaks, or something bad to happen. Saint Cyr saw he might need to order his troops to attack two turns prior so gave both his Formations pending Attack orders. While the Bavarians on the far right of the line had been mauled and forced to Withdraw the remaining Formation was still healthy enough to roll for the change in Objective and, having successfully rolled to change to Attack, was able to engage Wittgenstein with two battalions versus two battalions. Being the healthier Formation with more artillery the Bavarians won the combat and turned the Withdrawal into a full on Break. With this we decided the game was well and truly over as Wittgenstein was only able to Deploy two battalions (three was his favorite roll on two dice this game for sure) it would have been possible for Saint Cyr to catch the relieving Russians in column and with Sazonov in bad shape there would be no one with the strength to cross the river as needed.
According to Wikiepdia the battle ended thusly: “In the early morning of 17 August, the 1st Infantry Corps led by Wittgenstein attacked the French positions near the village of Spas, forcing the French to retreat. Oudinot transported additional units to the sector of the attack and also counterattacked in the centre. By the night both the French and the Russians managed to keep their positions. Oudinot was wounded and had to hand over the command to Gouvion Saint-Cyr.” So while historically the first day of the battle ended in a strategic draw in our game the French was able to push the Russians back and cause significantly more damage then they took.
In the middle of the battle we had dinner, but I didn’t think interrupting the battle report for a picture of dinner was as important as interrupting our game for actual dinner so here it is now! Our host made pulled pork, his famous smoked beans with bacon, coleslaw, and pickled onions for the pork sandwiches! Delicious!
I wonder if we will end up playing the second day, it would be interesting to see if the Russians could overcome their issues if we were to play as a linked scenario.
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 