BBB – Battle of La Rothiere, France 1814

The Battle of La Rothiere, fought on 1 February 1814, was the sequel to the Battle of Brienne, which was fought on 29 January (see our previous report).  After the inconclusive battle on the 29th, Blucher’s force withdrew a few miles to the south, while Napoleon’s army took up defensive positions along a line of villages, one of which was La Rothiere, which gave its name to the battle.  Both armies then remained in the area and received reinforcements.  On the morning of 1 February, Napoleon realized that the two days of inactivity had enabled the Coalition to assemble a combined force that was more than twice the size of the 45,000 men in his own force, and he ordered his army to begin to withdraw to the north, led by the Young Guard corps.  However, at midday, French cavalry patrols reported that the Coalition army was advancing in strength.  Napoleon recalled the Young Guard and prepared to fight a defensive battle against superior numbers.

This webpage has a detailed description of the historical battle:

Battle of La Rothi�re : Schlacht : Bataille : Batalla : Battaglia

We played the game using Bloody Big Battles (BBB), and we based the scenario on the Et Sans Resultat Campaign Guide “The most awful situation” which covers the 1814 campaign in France.

The scenario begins at 1:00 PM and ends at 8:30 PM.  The ground is muddy and heavy snow will fall throughout the day.  Rather than penalize movement and shooting to account for the poor condition of the ground and the bad weather, we simply made each turn represent a longer period of time (45 minutes vice 30 minutes), which gave us a 10 turn game.  Due to limited visibility from the snow and the onset of darkness, the maximum shooting range was three inches (which is skirmish and canister range in BBB).

Our 4.5 X 9 foot table covered an area 3 miles deep by 6 miles wide, with the long axis running east-west.  This enabled us to deploy almost the entire French army on the table, except the Young Guard corps, which would be arriving from the northwest, and the extreme northeastern end of the French position.  To account for the missing NE portion of the battlefield, we subtracted two divisions from the French order of battle and three Austrian and Bavarian divisions from the Coalition order of battle and assumed they were fighting each other to a standstill somewhere off-table.  This gave us an uncomplicated attacker-vs.-defender scenario with the French defensive line running east-west and the Coalition attack coming from the south and east.

Terrain:  The terrain is generally flat and open.  The unfordable Aube River flows north-south about 1.5 miles from the western end of the table, and is crossed by a bridge at Dienville.  Most of the eastern edge of the table is encumbered by an impassible marsh and a large woods, thus any forces arriving from the east will enter north of the marsh.  Most of the action will be focused on the 3.5 miles in the center of the table.  In the center, starting at the Aube and running in a line to the east, are the towns of Dienville, La Rothiere, Petit Mesnil, and Chaumesnil.  The small town of La Giberie is located about 3/4 of a mile forward of Chaumesnil, sheltered behind a low ridge and two small woods.  An east-west road runs the length of the table and connects the towns.  Another road enters from the south and runs to La Rothiere.  Two roads enter the table from the NW — one runs to La Rotheire in the center and the other runs to Chaumesnil in the east.  Given the very poor state of the roads, only these main roads were placed on the table.

Objectives:  Holding the towns was critical for maintaining the French defensive line, thus all five of the towns are the objectives for both sides.   The side controlling the majority of the objectives at the end of the game will be the winner.

Deployment:

The French, from west to east, deployed the five infantry brigades of Gerard’s corps in a line running from Dienville through La Rothiere and Petit Mesnil.  Victor’s small infantry corps extended the line and defended Chaumesnil, with a small brigade placed in a forward position at La Giberie.  Two brigades of veteran infantry from Marmot’s corps were deployed to the east of Chaumesnil.  This thin line of infantry with a few batteries was backed up by Nansouty’s large corps of Guard Cavalry behind La Rothiere, and Milhaud’s cavalry corps behind Chaumesnil.  Ney’s Young Guard corps would begin to enter the table from the NW on Turn 1.

The Coalition began with Gyulai’s Austrian corps split by the Aube River, with one division and Gyulai deployed on the western side of the river, and the second division and the corps’ artillery on the eastern side of the river facing Dienville.  Sacken’s command of four Russian divisions was deployed in the center facing La Rothiere and Petit Mesnil.  All other Coalition forces would arrive as reinforcements.  From the SE, Vassiltchkov’s Russian cavalry corps would enter on Turn 1, followed by a small Wurttemburg corps led by the Crown Prince.  On Turns 4, 6, and 8, the Russian Imperial Guard would enter from the south, with Raievski’s Grenadier corps in the lead, followed by Golitzin’s Guard Cavalry corps, with Yermolov’s Guard corps arriving last.  Finally, on Turn 5, two divisions of Wrede’s Bavarian corps would enter from the east, north of the marshes.  To simulate the lack of enthusiasm of some of the Coalition monarchs and senior commanders for making this attack, all of the Coalition forces except for Sacken’s and Vassiltchkov’s corps were rated as Passive.  Coalition movement rolls would also suffer from a dearth of able generals (the 18mm ones — not the 1800mm ones who were playing the game!).

Moves:  The game began with a Coalition advance in all sectors.  Two of Sacken’s divisions only rolled a half move, so Sacken’s force wound up advancing with its right flank refused.  The Russian cavalry corps began to enter in the SE, then headed north toward La Giberie and Chaumesnil, deploying as it advanced.

Seeing two Austrian infantry brigades advancing unopposed west of the river, the French dispatched Gerard’s very small cavalry brigade (two bases of the 10th Hussars) followed by the Old Guard Chasseurs-a-Cheval, Horse Grenadiers, and Empress Dragoons.  The first three of these proud regiments crossed the river at Dienville and engaged one of the Austrian brigades.  The French cavalry would outflank and charge this hapless Austrian brigade several times during the game, forcing it back each time but never doing any harm to it (assaults in BBB can often result in a “push” rather than a “kill” but this repeated result was unusual in terms of the game mechanics — the French cavalry had a significant advantage — thus these Austrians must have been very well drilled at forming square — or rolling dice!).  Meanwhile, the other Austrian brigade advanced to the bridge at Dienville, where it was met by the Empress Dragoons in the town, defending the far side of the bridge.  Although the Austrians enjoyed numerical superiority, that was not enough to overcome the Guard cavalry’s aggressive character and defensive position, and the Austrians never succeeded in crossing the bridge.  That is all there is to say about the fighting west of the river.

In the center, the leading Russian divisions and batteries advanced to within close range of the French defenders at La Rotherie and Petit Mesnil.  Shooting first, the French caused significant damage to the Russians, including silencing some batteries (at the cost of some French units running low on ammunition).  Taking advantage of the Russians’ disruption, the French in their turn launched a general counterattack, led by the Polish Lancers of the Guard and the Young Guard cavalry.  These attacks further damaged the Russians and drove them back.  The French cavalry rallied and continued to attack for a few more turns, causing additional damage to the Russian infantry but having less success against the Russian artillery, which had fallen back and recovered after being silenced.  Except for one Russian brigade which managed to stand its ground near Petit Mesnil, the first wave of Russians had been badly hurt and forced to retreat.  However, the French cavalry was left weakened and isolated far in advance of the French main line of resistance.

On the right, the Russian cavalry flowed around the isolated French brigade in La Giberie.  Later, a brigade of Wurtemburg infantry and a Russian horse artillery battery would force the French out of La Giberie and capture this objective for the Coalition.  The pressure on the French left flank increased when the first Bavarian division entered the table from the NE on Turn 5.

Meanwhile, the first two Young Guard divisions of Ney’s corps entered in the NW and proceeded at a leisurely pace (due to poor movement rolls) directly toward La Rothiere.  Finding only dead and wounded Russians there, the first Young Guard division was ordered to take the road to the east to reinforce the French left flank.  The second YG division deployed in front of Dienville, to reinforce the French right flank (this YG division would eventually attack and drive off the remaining Austrian brigades east of the river).  The third YG division was ordered to take the direct road toward Chaumesnil and act as the army’s reserve.

Thus, at the midway point of the game, things were not looking good for the Coalition.  In the west, the Austrian attacks on Dienville (on both sides of the Aube River) were clearly going nowhere.  In the center, the main Russian attack on La Rotherie and Petit Mesnil had been bloodily repulsed, with only a single Russian brigade still facing the latter town, supported by some Wurtemburger cavalry.  In the east, some progress had been made with the capture of La Giberie, but Chaumesnil was still strongly held by the French.  The Coalition clearly had more work to do.

Two divisions of Russian grenadiers arrived in the center to stiffen the remains of Sacken’s corps just as the final French cavalry attacks were petering out.  Not wanting to make a piecemeal attack (or maybe it was just poor movement rolls) the Russians took their time moving toward La Rotherie and Petit Mesnil, which enabled the newly arrived Russian Guard cavalry to support the coming attack.  Facing them were a few reduced units of French cavalry that were still recovering from their earlier efforts, and the remains of Gerard’s infantry that were still holding the two towns.

In the east, the arrival of Wrede’s two Bavarian divisions, along with the continued advance of the Wurtemburgers and the Russian cavalry, brought the two sides to parity in the vicinity of Chaumesnil, and attacks and counterattacks broke out all along the line.  In the swirling melee, both sides won some and lost some, but out of the chaos, the Coalition managed to concentrate the Wurtemburg corps for an assault on Chaumesnil on the final turn of the game.  Against the odds, this assault succeeded in taking part of the town, thus splitting this objective between the two sides.

Thus the game would be decided in the center.  Holding 1.5 objectives, the Coalition needed to take one more town to achieve a draw, and their forces were still not that close as the game was ending.  Then, “The Miracle of Petit Mesnil” (as it was named by Tsar Alexander after the game) occurred.  The Russian Guard Cuirassiers assaulted one of the beaten up Young Guard cavalry units, and defeated it by a difference of seven pips.  This result obliterated the YG cavalry unit, and enabled the Russian cuirassiers to make an exploitation attack into the French infantry brigade defending Petit Mesnil.  The Russians won this assault as well and occupied the town.  In their half of the turn, the French were unable to mount a counterassault, which left the town, and the objective, in Coalition hands, for a draw!

What a game!  This game reminded some of us of the games that we played when we first started playing Napoleonics — where both sides just lined up and charged each other!  Even though the French were on the strategic defensive, they played just as aggressively as the Coalition, which resulted in an action packed, free swinging game.  The drawn result was a fair one, and was not far from the historical result, which saw heavy fighting for the towns before the French army finally withdrew, leaving the Coalition in control of the ruins.

Postscript — All of our games end with dinner at a nearby pub, and the post-game conversation focused on how cavalry units are able to fight within towns in BBB.  Only defending infantry in a town receive a cover bonus from shooting and a combat bonus, but there is no restriction or penalty given to cavalry fighting in towns (or woods for that matter).  Hence in our game, the Empress Dragoons could occupy Dienville and hold the bridge against the attacks of the Austrian infantry with the cavalry receiving a combat bonus for defending the bridge but not the town.  Late in the game, the Russian Guard Cavalry made an exploitation attack into Petit Mesnil.  The French infantry defending the town received a combat bonus but were nevertheless defeated by the cavalry and driven out of the town.  Most of the other rules that cover the horse and musket period do not allow cavalry to enter towns (unless in march column) let alone fight in them, or if the cavalry is allowed to fight in towns, it suffers severe penalties.  We wonder why this isn’t the case in BBB, and what exactly is being represented in BBB when cavalry defends or attacks towns?

• TJ