Vive la France!

Planning and organizing armies can be exhausting work.

 (Be sure to check out the French OOB page HERE or this post doesn't make much sense.)

(My previous POST on the Prussian OOB includes much of the philosophy
and ground work that was laid down before choosing the French OOB.)

After seeing them in action at AdeptiCon last year, Eric knew two things: he wanted to play French and he wanted to play Black Powder.  Other than that, he honestly didn't know too much about Napoleonics at all, so when he was looking to finally place an order with Perry Miniatures in August/September he asked me for some help.  And lots of advice!

After finally figuring out what makes playable 28mm force and what I was actually going to do for my Prussians, I started cracking open some my books and revisiting some old links.  After being immersed into the Prussian research for so long, I found I really didn't know as much about the French as I thought I did.  At least for 1813-1814.  If I would ever paint up French it would be from 1809 or maybe even 1812.  Those armies and Order of Battles are quite nicely organized and very straight forward.  But when most of the Grande Armée was destroyed in Russia the year before including most of the horses getting eaten, then the OOBs turn into a collection of Provincial Regiments, Combined Battalions, conscripts, and "Marie-Louises."  Pure chaos.

French Marines at Möckern

I approached this as if I was choosing what Division command and commander I would want to do myself.  Along with that, I wanted to try to find a force that wasn't over run with conscripts and specialty units, and could conceivably be used anywhere from 1810 to 1815.  Especially if we decided to run a semi-historical / fictional campaign someday.  Finding a command with a bit of notoriety and uniqueness would be a plus, but mostly I wanted something that was as straight forward and generic as possible.  Along with this I didn't want to saddle Eric with having paint up too many conscript level battalions and the historical shortage of horses/cavalry the French suffered in 1813.  I figured if conscripts made up roughly 25% of his infantry that would be enough to start, and as we both love cavalry I am willing to "fudge" a few things so those lovely units still appear on our tabletop.

As previously mentioned, we are using the northern front of the Battle of Leipzig (Möckern) for inspiration in choosing our forces.  Especially for the Prussians as well as for the Poles and Russians that we'll cover later.  So it made made the most sense to begin looking here.  The defense of Möckern was tasked to Marshal Marmont's VI Corps, and his command was heavily dominated by Marine Regiments.  These units definitely fought well, look good in their dark blue great coats, and are unique.  Unfortunately they might be a bit too unique since they really only fought exclusively during this campaign and few battles during the Fall of 1813.  Still, I might just paint up a regiment of these guys someday as Victrix's recently released Middle Guard boxed set is pretty much perfect match for their unis.  (Or Victrix's Old Guard if you do head swaps.)

I spy with my little eye something that begins with "M"...

Spreading out my search radius a bit more I came across a familiar name: Morand. That's Général de Division Comte Morand to you, son.  Morand is the commander I researched a few years back when considering collecting a French army for either 1809 or 1812, both times being the lead Division in Marshal Davout's I and II Corps respectively.  By all accounts Morand was one of the most capable divisional infantry officers in uniform, would have made an excellent Marshal, and was a major stud.  He started off as a Captain in the Doubs volunteers in 1792, was a hero in Egypt, made general in 1800, wounded at Austerlitz (1805) and was made Major-General after the battle.  He also distinguished himself at Auerstadt (1806), Eylau (1807), Eckmuhl (1809), Wagram (1809), and Borodino (1812) where he had his jaw shattered during the first attack on the Great Redoubt.  In 1813, Morand brilliantly led his division at Wartenburg (where my Prussian 7th Bde (Div) helped win the day) and Leipzig,  At Leipzig he spearheaded the attack of Bertrand's IV Corps which smashed Gyulai's Austrians on the Lindenau front (just south of the fight over Möckern).  He continued his distinguished service record in 1814 and again during the Hundred Days campaign where he commanded the Chasseurs of the Guard.

Now that I had a more than adequate recommendation for Eric's Division commander, I had to double check the actual units he commanded.  It seems I lucked out again as the divisional OOB was pretty straight forward and seemed to meet the criteria I was looking for.  It included one Light Infantry Regiment (8th), two regular Line Infantry Regiments (13th & 23rd), and the 137th Line Regiment which would fill my 25% requirement of conscripts.  It also includes the option for painting up a couple of unique green and yellow uniformed battalions of the Provisional Croatian Regiment.

 Needed:  Cavalry, lots of cavalry!

Looking at the various historical OOBs during the Fall of 1813, those for the 12th Division flux from having two to three brigade commands at times with multiple battalions per each regiment.  Seeing that most of the battalions were understrength, I decided to streamline Eric's command into two brigades with four battalions each.  He can always include a third brigade commander if he wishes or expand, and the more generic build also satisfies my requirement to keep things flexible so Eric can use his French anywhere from 1810ish to 1815.

The last thing I'll touch on is the French cavalry.  There's already some notes on the French OOB page, but I'd like to revisit the subject here as well.  After the disaster of the 1812 campaign, Napoleon had a major shortage of cavalry/ horses in 1813.  This greatly impacted his flexibility, reconnaissance, and ability to exploit success on the battlefield.  For the most part, the units he did have were a patchwork of the remnants of various squadrons thrown together to form viable units.  Both Eric and I are big fans of cavalry and would in no way want to limit their presence in our games or desire to paint up hodge podge looking units  We also have no plans to do an actual historical 1813 campaign where this crucial French disadvantage could not be ignored.

Although I have given Eric a few vaguely historical recommendations, I felt he should have a free hand in choosing whatever cavalry units he desired with uniform colors that met his fancy.  Especially with Hussars.  The only limitation is following the typical composition of a Light or Heavy Cavalry Brigade.  Although he has committed to doing at least two infantry brigades, he can paint up as much cavalry for the French side as his heart desires. :-)

Some of the resources I used:

Napoleon's Grande Armee of 1813 by Scott Bowden
Leipzig 1813, The Battle of Nations (Osprey Campaign) by Peter Hofschroer
Lutzen & Bautzen, Napoleon's Spring Campaign of 1813 by George Nafziger
Wagram, The Apogee of the Empire by F.-G. Hourtoulle
Borodino-The Moskova, The Battle for the Redoubts by F.-G. Hourtoulle

Nafziger 1813 OOB links:
The Grande Armée August 10th, The Army of Berlin Mid-August, Dennewitz, Wartenburg, Leipzig, and Möckern.

The Napoleon Series:
French OOB at Leipzig
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Für Gott und Vaterland!

Vorwärts meine kinder!

(Be sure to check out the Prussian OOB page HERE or this post doesn't make much sense.)

For me this 1813 Napoleonic project all starts with with the Prussians, so we'll start off there.  This is the first in a series of posts where we'll chat a bit more about the Order of Battle pages that have been lingering towards the top of the blog.  These provide a basic framework of our "planned" project forces.  I'm sure both will be tweaked more than a few times before those initial goals are met.

Although I've been aware of using OOBs for the basis of collecting wargaming armies for quite awhile, this still was a very new experience for me.  The last time I did Prussians it was in 15mm for the Napoleon's Battles rule set in the 90's.  Units were at the brigade level and force sizes collected were corps or even army level commands.  So I didn't really have to be choosey or understand the ins and outs of particular battalions, I just painted up EVERYTHING for a particular battle.

The rest of my gaming experience is solidly in the "army list" driven games department.  Although I might have created "story driven" Warhammer armies, figuring out how to collect a "historical" ones despite not actually planning on re-fighting any particular event was going to be quite different.  To make things more interesting, historical Order of Battles are just like snowflakes: no two are the same.  I really started to surf the blogosphere regularly in 2011, and spent a lot of time trying to make heads or tails of other Prussian armies to slowly figure out how I wanted to create my own.

Taking it to Johnny Frog!

First though, I had to figure out a few things.  What period / campaign of the Napoleonic Wars was my army going to be based on?  How large of army and what command level was a good size for 28mm wargames?  Then finally settle on a commander and OOB to serve as a background and structure for my force. 

The first question was easy to answer.  If I was going to do Prussians it was going to be in 1813 fighting the patriotic Befreiungskriege (Wars of Liberation).  I had no interest refighting a one sided affair in 1806, or the ever popular and overdone "Two Weeks in June" of the Waterloo campaign of 1815.  For me the army is an interesting mix of regular line infantry, reserves, and zealous militia Landwehr.  Although the period might not be as attractive for the post 1812 French player having to paint up a large fraction of "Marie-Louises" and conscripts, it does offer a very even parity between all the armies involved.  The variety of nations involved is also a huge plus.  Along with France and Prussia, there's also Russia, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Saxony, Württemberg, Bavaria, Confederation of the Rhine (More Germans), and the Duchy of Warsaw (Poles).  The French ranks also include Italians, Croatians, Neapolitans, Badeners, Hessians, and possibly some Swiss.

Choosing the right command...

The answer to the second question seems to be a Division sized force.  A force of two to four infantry brigades, plus cavalry and artillery a side commanded by one or two players is about the right size to knock out a game of Black Powder in around three or four hours.  For most part, our group is trying to paint up roughly two brigades each along with supporting cavalry and artillery.  This also allows for smaller one brigade projects like the Poles I hope to do, or even for players who wish to dabble in the period on a more limited basis.  I think the optimum sized battle for an evening's enjoyment is about two or three players a side, with things maxing out with four plus players and a corps level command each.

So now that I've determined I'm collecting a division sized force of 1813 Prussians, it's time for the real hard part: choosing exactly which one.  I'm not going get into more details on the organization of the Prussian Army here, but there is an excellent article by Martin Kelly over at Befreiungskriege 1813-14 written for Wargames Illustrated #268 that can be found HERE.  (The Prussians actually called their divisions "Brigades," but for simplicity I'll try to keep referring to them as divisions.)  At this point it might be easy to pick a more generic / cookie cutter looking division like von Kraft's 6th Brigade (Division) in Bulow's III Corps, but it's always nice and more motivating to pick an OOB or commander that's more characterful or personally interesting to you.  I think it gives you a bit more depth, meaning, and sense of connection with the units you're collecting, painting, and eventually playing.

 Marschall Vorwärts

By far, one of my favorite characters of the Napoleonic Wars is the hard drinking, hard riding, hard fighting old hussar himself, Generalfeldmarschall von Blücher.  Nicknamed "Marschall Vorwärts," his direct, aggressive, and relentless approach to warfare and the pursuit of Napoleon's final defeat is truly the spirit after which this blog, Immer Vorwärts! (Always Forward), takes its name.  Given the possibility of Blücher showing up on the battlefield as a random event to led some cavalry charge means my Prussian division had to come from his command: The Army of Silesia.

From there the Army includes Russians and the Prussian I Corps under von Yorck.  I Corps was known as Blücher's "Fighting Corps" and saw more than its share of action in the Fall of 1813.  In studying the various battles leading up to Leipzig, I came across an account of the Battle of Wartenburg were the Leib (Life) Regiment of von Horn's 7th Brigade (Divison) had distinguished itself and delivered the decisive blow of the battle.  The attack almost failed as the first assault was brought to a halt, before von Horn himself after having his horse shot from under him, grabbed a musket, and personally lead the second and successful assault with the words: "Ein Hundsfott der einen Schuβ thut!"  (A scoundrel that fires one shot!  Meaning: don't pause to shoot, just attack!)  Even though von Horn would have an even bigger day fighting at Möckern, my "connection" had already been made.  :-)

Yorck doffs his cap to the 2nd Bn, Leib Rgt, in recognition of their bravery at Wartenburg.

Von Horn's 7th Brigade (Division) not only includes the Leib Regiment and your typical Landwehr, it also includes the flashy ulhan uniformed 3rd Silesian Landwehr Cavalry Regiment and the unique but short lived Thüringian Battalion.  At times the 7th also included parts of the the Brandenburg Hussars, 2nd Leib Hussars, and the Guard Jaeger Battalion.  As already mentioned in the OOB page notes, given the ad hoc task force organizational nature of the Prussians means I can realistically choose other units from I Corps to paint up and include under von Horn's command from time to time.

Some final thoughts... although we do not plan to actually recreate a certain historical event, when choosing opposing OOBs, it's always more interesting to pick those that might have actually fought each other or were at least in the same vicinity and certainly could have.  With this in mind, we are also taking a lot of inspiration from the Battle of Möckern which was the northern front of the huge Battle of Leipzig.

Other notes:   Our individual battalion basing scheme and model count were already covered extensively in previous post (HERE).  As mentioned above, since we're not reenacting one particular battle we're also not needlessly limiting our armies/units based on the unit strengths recorded on a particular day in history. Although the focus of our forces are firmly from the period of August through October 1813, the same battalion that would have 800+ men on August 1st would have 500+ on the first day of Leipzig. Our battalions will have a good general look and feel, and can always be tweaked through Stamina points in Black Powder, or by adding or subtracting stands later.  If figure scale ever does matter again in the future, then our battalions can simply be thought of as 1:30+ in August and 1:20+ in October.

Immer Vorwärts!

Some of the resources I used:

Leipzig 1813, The Battle of Nations (Osprey Campaign) by Peter Hofschroer

Lutzen & Bautzen, Napoleon's Spring Campaign of 1813 by George Nafziger

Napoleon's Grande Armee of 1813 by Scott Bowden

Nafziger 1813 OOB links:
January, August 10th, August 17th, September 30th, October 3rd, Wartenburg, Leipzig, and Möckern.

The Napoleon Series: 
Allied OOB at Leipzig.

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