Hammfest 2024 GdC - Battle of Friedland 1807 (part 1)

 The main event on Saturday for Hammfest 2024 was a General du Corp (fast play corp scale convention rulseset) game of Friedland. Historically Friedland sees a Russian force under Bennigsen spotting an isolated French force (under Lannes) and deciding to beat it up. Sluggish command sees a slow/poorly developed attack which is well held off by the french while the Corsican Ogre marches to relieve Lannes. Then a great smackdown of the Russians ensues as they have (the opposite of) cleverly placed their forces with their backs to a river. 

 

James, Peter and I played the Russians and decided to attempt the historical attack...but better. With 20/20 hindsight (and warning at the start of the game) we knew that a kickass level of French were going to show up. We were hopeful we could break the French corp quickly. The Russians had a number of static artillery batteries stuck on the East sides of the Alle river....perfect to offer us good covering fire when we decided to conduct a fighting withdraw. As we would. Seth, Ron and Kevin (and eventually Doug himself with the Imperial Guard were our perfidious opponents.

 Russian Right flank. The French even have some blinds on the table. The Russians are aware of some fords that the french don't know about. Peter commanded this flank and is a patient spider in his games. He will happily wait and wait before striking at the right time. 

We see the Russians are 3/4 of the way across the table on the jaws of the french defensive line anchored on a hill. Doug believes in starting the excitement immediately...never mind wasting a couple hours manoeuvring. Notable is Friedland town which is the ford across the river Alle. It can handle 2 units a turn....this is the serious chokepoint which will make for some interesting tension on the fighting withdrawal.

 Early turns the Russians on the Left go hard at Lannes corp. There is a (fordable) river splitting the two flanks, so my Russian cavalry try to hangout in a position to deter the French from shifting reinforcements over.

 Peter on the right chooses a defensive postures to also try and prevent the french from shifting forces to bail out Lannes. We are hoping to crush the corp without compromising our entire force. His opponent was put in a tough position.....he could sit around neutralized, or be forces to go on the offensive with (potentially) getting flanked by whatever force he doesn't attack. 

 

 A couple of turns later (a turn being roughly 30min) Lannes is on the ropes. He has been degraded, fallen back at least once, and has numerous formations on the cusp of being swept off the table. The Russians are in full court press having crested the hill. Seth (French) has managed a very credible defense against 2 players aggressively trying to break him in the early game.

Peter has slowly disengage from his flank, choosing to believe it's insane to stay on the wrong side of the river. He's right of course, but James and I are playing to our initial reports of 'absolutely no sign of the corsican ogre' & 'destroy that isolated corp'. I think he also had some serious issues on ford capacity across the river that I didn't catch the nuance of. 

This is known as the high water mark. Suddenly....

Where did these A-holes come from!?! The corsican ogre has stolen a march on us. Would be best to make ourselves scarce. James faces a long march back to the ford.

My own (central) forces which were cannoning Lannes so effectively now face some credible threats. It's going to be a pain to pull everything back and with Peter (on the right) now so far back I'm now in the position of getting flanked if the French left chooses to approach the river. 

The game is afoot.....