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| General Boucher contemplates tactical doctrine prior to engaging the French |
The last post had done great comments that are all very much appreciated and helped emphasise to myself the Napoleonic knowledge of the followers of the blog. The effective use of skirmishers and linear tactics of the Prussians was raised very well by Rob which got me thinking on how to be absolutely sure it’s reflected accurately in the wargame setting.
As always, when in even the slightest doubt I contact Doctor Dave Brown and he always comes through.
Thoughts on linear tactics etc were that all manoeuvre is in line however attacks on built up areas and redoubts are allowed to be executed in column. Everything else, in lines as the historical doctrine.
His thoughts on the skirmishers were as follows:
“Stick with the basic rule that all poorer skirmishing nations lose one skirmish base from the brigade screen.So, a four battalion brigade only produces 3 bases and so on.For the Prussians this is made up of the schutzen platoons and 3rd rankers.You could be very harsh on the Saxons and reduce them by 2 bases per brigade screen as I'm not sure how prolific they were at using 3rd rankers.If you did go down this route I'd suggest ignore a Falter result for a dispersal of a two base skirmish "screen".
So there we have it. A great result in terms of feedback from the rules creator and some excellent correspondence from my fellow gamers.
Now let’s roll a few dice!
Yes, I do think some special, minor modifications are needed for 1806 Prussians, and these seem apt.
ReplyDeleteI think so as well Peter.
DeleteI don't think the real problem the Prussians have is putting battalions in line most of the time it's more about aligning brigades / divisions into a line of battle before committing them. This means their troops take much longer to get into the fight. The French feed individual units into the fight when and where they are needed, both quicker and more flexible. Thus, what happens is when the next Prussian formation is committed, those already in the fight have been overwhelmed and beaten so the reinforcements end up facing the French on their own and get overrun before the next lot are ready to join in.
ReplyDeleteThe Prussians also have issues with their battalion guns that on several occasions are stymied by the terrain and either left behind or fatally slow the unit getting into action. The Prussian skirmishers seem fairly effective, albeit outnumbered, but often seem to have been ordered off on separate missions leaving their parent units unsupported.
Finally, their cavalry seem to think they can overthrow anything and go on to wreck themselves charging fresh infantry who decimate them almost without loss – not helped by the fact that French infantry are pretty much all veteran and not panicked by cavalry. Thus, when the French infantry is looking a bit ragged in what was usually a tough fight with the Prussian infantry there is no cavalry left to take advantage.
It will be interesting yo see how the Prussians manage to reinforce worn battalions in this game for sure Rob.
DeleteI somehow missed the previous post but since it involved intelligent discussion of Naps I didn’t belong there anyway.
ReplyDeleteBut I likes your miniatures! 😀
Ha ha Stew if it’s here on my blog it’s all very straight forward buddy. Thanks for your great comments as always Stew.
DeleteAs I'm away on holiday I've now got time to catch up on all your prolific recent posts You do know that all this is tempting me to buy 1806 AB Prussians don't you- get thee behind me Santa :-)
ReplyDeleteNow I would love to see that Kerry. I could just imagine what they’d look like.
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