Hammfest 2024 GdC - Battle of Friedland 1807 pt 2

In our first instalment we saw the Russians aggressively move on the 'isolated' French corp and attempt to destroy them in detail (on the Russian Left). The Russian Right demonstrated in front of the French Left while slowly moving back behind the river (because general Peter is wise). Our cliff hanger moment sees the arrival of some French on the Russian Left.....the cavalry (also infantry) riding to the rescue of the beleaguered french corp under General Seth. 

 

 Indeed there are so many french it's going to take some turns for them to march on . We dickered a bit about the teleporting french and just how close to the Russians they could arrive. The Russians felt it was unsporting to have them be within one move (i.e. move into contact on arrival). This was acceded to. 

The main challenge we see is the Russians are grossly outnumbered now, and have a long CIRCUITOUS route to return (the ford is the town in the bottom left, and the river to the left is otherwise unfordable. Thankfully the Russians have some covering artillery from the safe side. My scant command of grenadiers and some cavalry moved up the middle to support General James. We have a classic Napoleonics traffic management problem, under enemy pressure, and needing to choose who to sacrifice. Don't run men, there's plenty of bridge space for you all (cough cough).

Conveniently there is a lot of Russian cavalry at the fore in the middle. Infantry in this system (and historically) are abysmal at attacking cavalry, so as long as the (superior numbers and possibly quality) of French cavalry doesn't wear us down, so should have a decent screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 James on the left has dropped back straight towards his guns support. Columns have turned around. Cavalry is trying to stay as the screen.

 My own less battered troops will be taking making space for his corp, so don't drop back much.

 

 

My challenge is the middle hasn't quite developed yet, but the outline is already revealing itself. General Peter (Russian right) is wise and has evacuated mostly already. The French commander (whose name I'm forgetting......possibly Ian) now is relatively unencumbered by opposition, and has a fordable river dividing his troops from mine. I'm outnumbered in the centre. That ignores that French force across from Peter. I'm now at risk of being a delicious salient to bite off on one if not two flanks.

The withdrawal is looking......okay. The cavalry screen is in place, but there is a big column of french heavy cav bearing down on the thin equine line.

The corp morale is getting brittle as well. Each loss of stand results in a decrease in the commanders morale bonus. Each loss also triggers a check to see if the force (functions/holds/falls back/routs *poof*). There starts being hard questions about which units to let stand and which to pull as fast as possible. The enemy looks to pick off weakened formations to try and trigger a rout.

 

 

 On the Russian right, as anticipated, the French start pushing. General Peter (RU) isn't oblivious to our risk so he pushes back with his cavalry. 

A melee develops over the hill (I believe partly to screen both forces from cannon fire). Eventually after a couple of units have been exchanged and destroyed the forces disengage.

The Russian right has delayed the French enough that they probably don't represent a meaningful threat to the retreat down the middle. I can say with all honesty that the proposition of the French crossing that river gave me a lot of grief and hard thinking in my unit positioning during the fallback. The action on this side, though less intense, certainly had a bearing on the game results.

Stay tuned for the final installment.