Sunday 26 May 2013

Wargaming Leipzig 2013 (5): Preparing For Lützen; Part One Of The Prelude to Leipzig


The table is all set for our slightly belated game to recognise the bicentennial of Lützen. We have scheduled the game to begin on 15th June. We plan to run it over two of our ANF ‘sessions’.
I have provided an overview of the scenario in a previous post. The table for the game is pretty straight forward, featuring the ‘quadrilateral of towns’; Rahn, Kaja, Gross Görschen and Klein Görschen, the Floßgraben, Monarch's Hill, Starsiedel and Eisdorf.
Looking roughly north-east along the table. Starsiedel is in the left foreground, Monarch's Hill to the right and the quadrilateral of towns in the centre; Rahna the closest of them, Gross Görschen beyond that, Kaja to the left and Klein Görschen the furthest of the four. The Floßgraben is represented by the line of trees and Eisdorf is just beyond it. The table is 4.8 m x 2 m, scaling to 9.6 km x 4 km.

From the north; Eisdorf and the Floßgraben in the foreground. Most of the action will occur on the other side (SSW) of this.

This time from the east looking towards Eisdorf, the Floßgraben and the quadrilateral of towns beyond it. MacDonald's XI Corps will enter the table around the road to Eisdorf in the command phase of the 16:00 turn. 

Looking north-east across Monarch's Hill. Dolff's Prussian Reserve cavalry will begin the game around the area of the left foreground of this photo, facing north-west.

 A close-up view of Starsiedel with Monarch's Hill in the distance. Girard's 10th Division of Ney's corps will begin the game around this town.

The victory conditions reflect the battle (of course!). Lützen was the battle for the quadrilateral of towns, so these are the geographic objectives for this scenario. Since the destruction of the enemy army was the true objective, points are also awarded for broken and ‘damaged’ enemy divisions.
The names of the objectives and their value for each army are given in the table below. In order to claim the objective points for a geographic objective it must be either occupied by friendly units (only) or clearly within the area controlled by the friendly army. If neither side controls an objective, neither may claim the objective points.

Objective
French objective points
Russian objective points
Rahna
40
40
Kaja
0
100
Gross Görschen
80
20
Klein Görschen
20
80
Each enemy division broken
Equivalent to MR of broken division1
Each enemy division in retreat
Equivalent to 1/2 MR of division in retreat1
Each enemy division demoralised
Equivalent to 1/3 MR of demoralised division1
1Refer to the MR values given in the army list

At the conclusion of the battle objective points for each side will be tallied. The side with the greatest number of objective points being the ‘winner’. The magnitude of the victory is determined by subtracting the total objective points of the ‘loser’ from the total objective points for the ‘winning’ side and then consulting the table below.

Difference in objective points won
Result
200 or above
Crushing victory
150–199
Decisive victory
100–149
Tactical victory
50–99
Marginal victory
Less than 50
Draw
Revised plans for the 1813 Bicentennial

We have decided that, having pushed ourselves really hard to meet the deadline for the bicentennial of Borodino, we are gonna do things as and when we can for the battles involving the “big battalions” of 1813. After all, Lützen is nearly as big as Borodino and Bautzen is larger!

Our preparations for Leipzig continue and our games of Lützen and Bautzen are a key part of this preparation. At this stage we expect to stage our bicentennial game of the Battle of the Nations at least a year after the event.
So, it will be Wargaming Leipzig 2013 (in 2014)!

7 comments:

  1. Waiting to see another great game!
    Regards
    rafa

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  2. Fantastic battlefield...waiting for more pics!
    Phil.

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  3. Thanks Rafa and Phil. It has been a while in the planning, so hopefully it will play out okay.

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  4. Another nice looking terrain - looking forward to the battle!

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  5. Nice layout - does the line of trees represent something?

    I look froward to the report next month... and seeing what I can steal, err, adapt for my own future use!

    Peter

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    1. We are using the line of trees to represent the Floßgraben, as I/we considered that to represent it as a river is overkill, at this scale--you can read my musings about it in the post of 18th April, if you are suffering from insomnia...!

      More than welcome to steal away. I'll email it to you. Actually, I have a trade in mind based on your most recent post...

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