1806 Campaign Overview: The War Spreads

Neither side, in the opening days of the war, had been idle diplomatically.  One of Napoleon's fears was realised in a British landing on 16 October on the North Sea coast - in the absence of an actual British landing force in 1806 we are using the order of battle for the Copenhagen expedition of a year later - the actual landing was an (unlikely) random event.  

The Swedes historically played only a small part in the war, defending Stralsund against attacks first by Mortier and later by Brun.  There was also a small contingent at the Battle of Lübeck.  A fuller participation was certainly possible, though, and the Coalition players activated to the hilt, spending victory points not only to allow the garrison of Swedish Pomerania, under Hans-Henrik von Essen, to operate outside its borders, but to call for a reinforcing expedition from Sweden, under Field Marshal Klingspor.  These landed at Anclam, at the western end of the Stettin Lagoon, on 18 October and set off after Essen, who was already on his way to Berlin.

In addition to all of these, of course, the Russian armies were approaching from the east.  Historically they met the French on the Vistula in December, but what progress will they make in the game?  And to what end?

1806 Campaign Overview: The War Begins

Initial Dispositions and Invasion

The Grande Armée started the war with a fairly historical deployment - the major exception, as mentioned in my earlier article, was that no provision was made for guarding the left flank - Mortier joined the other army corps in Thuringia to invade from the south, rather than watching for a threat from the British or the Electorate of Hesse-Cassell.  The army crossed the Prussian (at Bayreuth) and Saxon frontiers on 8 October, with commands and missions distributed between the players:

The two reserve cavalry corps (heavy and dragoon), commanded by Robert, marched on the left flank, starting west of Coburg and travelling via Gotha and Duderstadt, careful to avoid crossing into Hessian territory.  Historically the dragoons were led by Bessières, along with the guard, but in the game both cavalry corps were given to Murat.  To their right, in order, Robin had IV and VI Corps (Soult and Ney, respectively) and John commanded I and III (Bernadotte and Davout), heading to Magdeburg and Leipzig.  Gordon, on the right flank, took V, VII and VIII Corps (Lannes, Augereau and Mortier) to Dresden, in hopes of knocking the Saxons out of the war early, and also, of course, demonstrating along the Austrian border.  Omar had the Imperial Guard, bringing up the rear, with David as emperor.