Campaign Battle of Küstrin

This is a hasty re-publication of an AAR sent as an e-mail to campaign participants.  

The context, for those not in the campaign (and I must bring the overall campaign history up to date here) is that it is March 1807.  Most of the action is in Lusatia and Silesia, with French columns also penetrating deep into Poland.  Davout's III Corps has marched from Berlin to take the city of Küstrin on the Oder to support an advance along the Baltic coast.  He knew there were some Prussian forces lurking to the north, but was a little surprised when they offered battle.

The French found themselves in a tricky position, with Davout and his strongest division in the town (having marched in the previous evening), but the other two divisions and the artillery still cooking breakfast on the other side of the river when  the dawn revealed Prussians approaching from the north, emerging from the concealing woods a mile away, and more apparently coming from the north-east.  Orders were immediately sent to Morand to get his division across the Oder, which he did.

Küstrin from the east at dawn.  Both gates are guarded, with a reserve behind able to support either.  Morand's division is approaching the bridge through the "Long suburb" on the west bank of the Oder.  The "Short Suburb", east of the town, is not depicted, although the villages of Warnicke and Drewitz are just visible at bottom and right respectively.  The approaching Prussians are just out of shot past Drewitz.

(Campaign) Second Battle of Berlin

Following the failure of the attack on Berlin from the south on the 17th, Emperor Napoleon determined to renew the attempt from a different direction.  Three pontoon bridges were thrown across the Spree - one opposite Charlottenburg palace and two upstream of the city, on either end of the marshes that extend there on the river's left bank.  The crossing point at Cöpnick, ten miles upstream at the outflow of the Müggelsee, was secured (having been held only loosely and intermittently before), and the bridges allowed a veritable flood of French troops to re-deploy to the east and north.

The battlefield, outlined in red, on the campaign map.  People more familiar with the real geography
 will note that I have Charlottenburg, and the Spandau road, on the wrong side of the river. Oops.

Campaign Battle of Berlin

In preparation for an assault on Berlin the French army threw two pontoon bridges across the Spree, one by I Corps a mile or so west of the city and one by V Corps a couple of miles to the east.

The upstream bridge was immediately detected and thrown down by the Prussians, but the other remained in place when the attack on the city began at midday on 17 November.  With only five hours of daylight to achieve their objective the French knew that they would have to go hard.  Outnumbered by more than two to one, and recognising that the French must pass through two choke-points, the Coalition for their part determined to defend both of them to the death.  Eight French divisions faced one Prussian and two Swedish - one side had the advantage of numbers and the other of position.

Berlin from the south - Drouet preparing to assault across the pontoon bridge in the background, Dupont (centre) about to cross into Cölln on the way to attack the Swedes (top right)

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.

New Campaign: War of the Fourth Coalition

I wrote earlier that the 1805 campaign would be followed up with one on the Prussian war of 1806.  I had the scenario pretty much written, the armies ordered and the map drawn.  It looked like this: