Blucher Russian v Ottoman Turkish

Another Blucher game against Gordon, this time with me using Russians and Gordon his Ottoman Turks. The Turks are an interesting and different army in Blucher with vast numbers of cheap but brittle units available but also some decent ones as well to choose from.

Their numbers together with an advantage they get for scouting means that it is very likely they will win the Scharnhorst map stage of the game and get to defend in the battle, which with a high break point, is ideal for them. 

Last time I played them I went in for a strategy which basically conceded all victory points in Scharnhorst to them but would hopefully allow me to decide where the battle would be fought allowing me to maximise my units on table and minimise the Turks forcing some of them to come on as reinforcements ideally. The idea was to then win the battle by breaking the Ottoman army. It worked so I thought well why not try it again?!

I did change the army composition though, reducing the amount of infantry and increasing the cavalry resulting in four Corps, two each of four infantry brigades (one was composed of conscripts to save points) with a heavy artillery battery and a Cossack brigade in support. I then had two cavalry Corps, the first with a brigade of cuirassiers, two dragoon brigades, a Cossack brigade and a horse artillery battery and the second of two Hussar brigades, a Cossack brigade and a horse artillery battery. The idea behind this was basically to use the powerful Russian artillery to blast the less enthusiastic Turkish units then roll over them with the cavalry and/or infantry

The plan immediately collapsed when we started the Scharnhorst as Gordon obviously remembered what I did last time and carefully avoided taking more than the minimum victory points on the map when moving his columns! As a result we had the rather bizarre situation of both armies carefully keeping away from anything worth having! In the end Gordon managed to declare a battle with all of his forces on table against my 1st Infantry Corps, 1st Cavalry Corps and half the 2nd Cavalry Corps with the 2nd Infantry Corps and the remainder of the 2nd Cavalry Corps coming on as reinforcements. This did mean the Turks would have to win the battle to win the game though as we had equal VP after Scharnhorst (1 each!):

The Ottomans opened the battle by moving three brigades over the bridge and into the unoccupied sector on the Russian left:

They followed up with a strong force of Nizam e Cedid, the ottoman version of European infantry, and a heavy artillery battery moving forward in the centre:

In response the Russians moved their cavalry back behind the hill leaving a horse artillery battery on top of the hill. The infantry Corps redeployed to meet the threat on the Russian left:

Sensing an opportunity to deal with the rather isolated and outnumbered Ottomans which had just crossed the river the Russians decide to attack and advance to cross themselves. A heavy artillery battery on the hill can hopefully provide further fire support:

The Ottoman cavalry charge into an unprepared Russian infantry brigade. The infantry in this Corps are the more experienced ones so don't have the disadvantages their conscript colleagues would have in combat with cavalry:

The Russian infantry hold firm and repel the cavalry:

The Ottomans make a major decision and decide to commit their as yet unused third corps to support the attack over the river. They move rapidly with a march move but will find it difficult to deploy elsewhere now if they are needed:  

Undeterred and hoping to overwhelm the Ottomans before help can arrive the Russians continue to advance with their artillery weakening the Turks significantly: 

The Ottoman cavalry charge again, this time against a different Russian brigade:

Again the Russian infantry repulse them:

One Turkish infantry brigade has been destroyed by Russian artillery fire. The Ottoman cavalry charge yet again:

This time things don't go so well and the Ottoman cavalry are also dispersed. However, the numerous Ottoman artillery is now getting into the action and destroys two of the Russian infantry brigades one of which went from 6 élan to dispersed in one round of shooting!:

The Ottomans continue to move up the Corps they committed to supporting the attack over the river but are having problems with both the difficult terrain and the sheer numbers they have brought along. The Russian force in this area is weakened but still combat capable and has the last of the initial Turkish units in it's sights:

Meanwhile nothing much had been happening elsewhere on the battlefield. Both sides appeared to be waiting for the Russian reinforcements to arrive for a while and finally they turned up:

The Ottomans pour across the river but an especially effective round of fire from the russian artillery on the hill demolishes the leading Ottoman cavalry unit:

With the Ottoman reserves committed the Russians start to move onto the attack in the centre and on the right and decide to support the advance with the 1st Cavalry Corps that had been awaiting developments behind the hill:

The Ottoman's continue their attack over the river with some conscript Janissaries driving back the Russian infantry:

Initially in a battle units like the Russian Cossacks with only 4 élan are very weak. However, after a while when better units have been worn down they become more useful. Here they charge into the victorious Janissaries:

The Cossacks almost destroy the Janissaries then fall back. Russian forces in this area are almost spent now but have inflicted a lot of damage and held up well against the Ottoman horde:

With the Russian attack in the centre starting to make progress the Ottomans decide to try to send some of their right flank units to help. They will need to cross the river again but it is defended by a Russian infantry brigade:

The final viable unit on the left for the Russians, the Hussar brigade, is almost spent and falls back:

On the Russian right a combination of Ottoman artillery fire and me forgetting to do anything to help them allows the Ottomans to launch a cavalry charge on a damaged Russian conscript infantry brigade:

The Russian infantry are dispersed and the neighbouring heavy artillery in grave danger. Something needs to be done about this:

With the pressure on the Russians devote more attention (and momentum) to the centre/right. The threatened artillery retire allowing the cuirassier brigade to charge into the front of the Ottoman cavalry while the Hussars charge them in the flank:

Outnumbered and outflanked the Ottoman cavalry are destroyed:

A close up of one of Gordon's fantastic Ottoman units, these are veteran Janissaries:

The Russian left has done it's job well and begins to retire off table before they are destroyed covered by the last infantry brigade:

The Ottomans are now starting to look in trouble facing the Russian centre/right. Several units have been weakened, the Ottoman artillery has shot off almost all it's ammunition and the Russian cavalry are poised to strike:

Russian Dragoons pick off a depleted Ottoman infantry brigade:

The fight is short and brutal with the Ottoman's being dispersed. They day is coming to an end and the Ottoman army is on the brink of defeat:

On the Russian left the Ottomans have crossed the river but don't have much of an advantage to exploit as there are still a few Russian units holding the flank:

Almost all of the Ottoman units here are now badly damaged and start to attempt to withdraw, they won't find it easy though with plenty of Russian cavalry available to attack:

The Russian infantry continue to defend the bridge:

The Russians press home their advantage:

Meanwhile the Ottomans launch a final attack on the Russian left. The Russian infantry are finally dispersed but the Cossacks manage to destroy their Turkish counterparts leaving the Ottomans on the brink of defeat:

Victory is achieved when a Russian infantry brigade charges into a final Ottoman brigade and breaks them:

With only one turn left each before nightfall the game went right to the wire. The Russians were not that close to breaking having lost three brigades out of the six they needed to lose to break but they did have an awful lot of retired units.

As ever Blucher really gives you the feeling that you are commanding an army with decisions such as when and where to commit your reserves, which areas of the battle you need to concentrate on and which you can give less emphasis to and how far to push your troops are vital and usually determine the outcome.

In this battle I think the big turning point was when Gordon committed his unactivated corps to support his attack over the river to counter my initial assault on his rather isolated and outnumbered units there. Given the difficulty of getting across the river and the sheer number of units Gordon committed I felt it was unlikely they would be able to help their comrades before I'd finished them off and that, with luck, once I'd done that the survivors of my force would be able to hold on for a while then retire which did work.

The other effect of Gordon sending all his reserves off in that direction was that when my reinforcements arrived the remainder of Gordon's forces in the centre were heavily outnumbered and fairly quickly overwhelmed as, once you commit troops in Blucher, it is hard to redeploy them again.

In the post game chat Gordon felt that in the last game we played he had split his corps up too much and therefore this time tried to keep them together and that he hadn't realised quite how hard it would be to get them into action. 

I suspect that just as I suffer form not playing enough ADLG and Gordon being a very experienced and devious ADLG player when we play ADLG Gordon suffers in a similar way when we play Blucher as I've played a lot of Blucher against various people whereas Gordon only plays me! 

Our next game will be a return to ADLG so I'll be trying to come up with a winning strategy and see if I can improve on my almost but not quite good enough effort last time with the Byzantines.

Blucher Battle of Borodino, 7th September 1812

Sean had produced a scenario for a scaled-down Borodino game a while ago so we decided to give it a run out on a club afternoon. Sean had the French while I took the Russian's. Even though the battle was scaled down the armies were still quite large, with around equal numbers but the French having a quality advantage and the Russians an excellent defensive position.

The Russians deployed with some Militia holding the woods on their left, the 1st Army holding the central hill, the 2nd Army the hill with the Raevsky Redoubt (which we forgot to bring with us!) and the Guard and Cavalry Corps in reserve. A screen of Cossacks was thrown forward to delay the French. The French placed their Polish on the right, the main body of French in the centre supported by the Guard, their Cavalry Corps in reserve and the Italians on the left:

The Poles advance quickly on the Russian left while a mass of French infantry move forward in the centre. The Cossack screen has withdrawn on the flanks but stands firm in the centre to buy time:

The Italians start to cross the river:

The French infantry attempt to drive off the Cossacks by musketry but don't do them much damage. Holding the river bank they will be hard to dislodge by infantry:

The Cossack's resistance has forced the French to commit their Cavalry Corps to drive them off:

Remarkably the Cossacks survive being attacked by a Cuirassier brigade and a Dragoon brigade though they are forced back:

Meanwhile the Poles close in on the Russian militia defending the Russian left fank:

Having committed the Cavalry Corps the French throw them forward again to try to finally drive off the Cossacks and Russian artillery holding the hill. As a precaution much of the Russian infantry on the hill adopts a 'prepared' formation in case the cavalry break through:

On the Russian right the Italians are now faced with another river to cross before they can engage the 2nd Army. The Russians prepare to face off the attack and send some extra troops to face it:

The valiant Cossacks are finally dispersed but the artillery holds on. The French cavalry has taken quite a lot of damage and been repulsed for now while the Russian infantry on the hill is largely undamaged:

The French cavalry withdraw as their infantry start to cross the river. The Poles begin their attack on the Militia in the woods:

The French Imperial Guard has also moved up, half supporting the attack in the centre while the other half moves towards the Italians who are faced with crossing the river against superior numbers of Russians at the moment:

The Poles drive some of the Militia back but the heavy terrain means the attack is slow in developing:

The entire battlefield! The Russian left flank has been driven back and some of the Russian Guard are sent to bolster the Militia against the Poles. In the centre the Russian infantry and artillery (now very low on ammunition) closely supported by the Russian cavalry corps await the attack of the French infantry and Guard. On the Russian right there has been little action so far.

 
The Poles assisted by some German infantry push the Militia back further outflanking the end Russian brigade on the hill:

French attacks drive off the remaining Russian artillery in the centre:

The French launch a massive attack on the hill. The Russians are hoping night will fall soon:

The attack is beaten off other than on the left of the line where the end Russian brigade was driven back by the attack of the French infantry to the front and the German infantry in the flank. It is a breakthrough of sorts but the Russians have reserves available to counter it:

On the left the Poles have run out of steam and are largely a spent force:

A second wave of French attack in the centre but are thrown back again. On the right the Italians prepare to cross the river but it is almost nightfall:

Most of the French army has taken heavy losses and is unable to mount further attacks with any prospect of success. The remaining Russians stand firm and the French decide to withdraw leaving the field to the heroic defenders of the Motherland:

It was an impressive looking game with two substantial armies battling it out to the end.

From the Russian perspective the Cossacks in the centre did a fantastic job holding back the French for four or five of their turns (when they only get fifteen turns in the day). Normally I'd have withdrawn them after they stopped the French using march moves but in this case facing infantry and with the stream to protect them I decided to leave them to fight it out. They were undoubtedly fortunate to survive both the French infantry firing at them and the attack by two French cavalry brigades.

The pressure of losing so much time then told on Sean as he sent in the cavalry first without infantry support then, once the cavalry had been repulsed, was forced to send his infantry in without taking time to weaken the Russian line with skirmish fire.

I think it was a tough scenario for the French, the left flank of the Russians was secured by the woods which I could fill with the Militia confident that their problems facing cavalry and firing poorly wouldn't be such a disadvantage as they would be in the open. The centre and right flank had all the rivers covering them making it hard for the French to co-ordinate their attacks and slowing them down considerably.

With the hindsight from playing this game as the French I think I'd deploy as much artillery in the centre as possible and use that and a single cavalry brigade to drive off any delaying Cossacks then bombard the Russian line. Meanwhile I'd send the Poles and Italians down both flanks and hope to draw off some of the Russian reserves to counter them. Once I'd shot away all the artillery ammunition in the centre I'd then use a march move to throw in the French infantry followed up by the Guard and Cavalry Corps to try to break the Russian centre. I'm not at all convinced this would change the result though.......