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.
On the Coalition side command fell into three broad areas - field, reserve and the King. There are three reserve areas - the western (Hannover/Westphalia), central (Brandenburg/Mecklenburg) and eastern (beyond the Oder). The rules of the scenario keep eastern forces from moving west until things become critical, or until the Russians reach the Oder, so no troops there will see tabletop action for at least a couple of months. That command - both Prussians (Anton von l'Estocq) and Russians (Mikhail Kamenskoi) is therefore held by Joe, who is in Melbourne so cannot easily make it to the tabletop in any case. He is also King Frederick William of Prussia, who can make strategic logistical arrangements and have some influence over field operations.
The central command is held by Sheldon and the western by Neil, as Franz Kasimir von Kleist and Gebhard von Blücher, respectively. All three reserve generals made a start at once on mobilising divisions in their regions, something that historically was neglected. No doubt it would have occurred as time went on and the Prussians realised that they had a real fight on their hands, but early over-confidence followed by the twin catastrophes of Jena and Auerstadt caused all such prospects, and plans if there were any, to fall apart.
The players in this game are of course less over-confident, and determined not to let that happen here. The Prussian field armies are held back, not even exposing scouts to hint at where they are. The main army is commanded by Michael (B), with a main body, an avant-garde and a reserve. These are only semi-independent, and not really comparable with French corps. The must stay close to each other (adjacent hexes on the map). Apart from his army, and only loosely subordinated to him, are Angus, as Prince Fredrick Ludwig von Hohenlohe, and another Michael (W) as Ernst von Rüchel. They can move independently, but only Hohenlohe is strong enough to fight a battle by himself, and only as long as the Saxons are active, for most of the Saxon contingent (integrated, as historically, into the Prussian army) is in his column.
The Coalition have the home-ground advantage that the populace is friendly to them. This means that they can draw supply easily from and through most places, and also that they get reports (albeit somewhat vague and delayed) of enemy locations from parsons, postmasters and retired officers across the country.. Within days of the French crossing the border they therefore knew where the main force was, and could lay plans accordingly. The French, on the other hand, must rely on cavalry scouts as their eyes, and only secure territory for supply purposes as their corps move through the land.
The first French concern was to find the enemy, but they were disappointed in that for some time. First contact was made on 18 October by dragoon scouts - they encountered a Prussian force marching from Halberstadt to Magdeburg on the Elbe, but were not able to identify it. With nothing further to go on they pushed on to the Elbe, and to Dresden.
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