A Franco-Prussian batrep - The Battle of Beaumont 1870

 

Some of the Rejects met up in Posties Shed O War last weekend for another Franco-Prussian battle, using They Died for Glory rules,  but this was no normal game, Richard as you may have seen in his two posts about the game here, Part 1 & Part 2, wanted to make the French play a fighting withdrawal and chose the Battle of Beaumont to see if the French could change history???

Lee's Quick Fire Action report can be found here.

Richard sent us all a sneak preview photo before the game, see below

Now when first seeing this I thought, "Jeez, this will be a quick game, I thought there was supposed to be some French figures on the table!"

But when I saw the battlefield in the flesh, I was even more worried!!!

Myself, Steve and Dan played the French

Lee, Surj and Postie played the Prussians and Bavarians

Dan took our troops on our right, at the top of the pic above, Steve took our centre and I had our left at the bottom.

French Briefing:

It is the 30th August 1870.  The Army of Chalons, under the command of Marshal MacMahon, is on a mission to relieve the besieged French army of Marshal Bazaine at Metz.  To do so requires your army to march north, cross the river Meuse then east to Metz.

However, the progress to the Meuse has been slow, disorganised and hampered by bad weather.  To make matters worse the Prussian III and IV armies are chasing you and increasingly snapping at your heels.

Yesterday your command (5th Corps), led by the less than competent General Failly, bumped into the German XII Corps.  Having beat them off, Failly force marched to the area around the town of Beaumont.  With a negligent lack of urgency, Failly paused to rest his troops.  However, the Germans rudely interrupted your lunch with an artillery bombardment.

Since then you have been pushed away from Beaumont.

It is critical that 5th Corps crosses the Meuse at Mouzon (F1) with more than half of your troops and artillery.

You must now conduct a fighting withdrawal in good order.

The morale of your troops has been dented by the march and poor leadership.  So, your commanders will be needed to strengthen the soldiers' resilience and resolve.

If you try to withdraw (voluntary fallbacks) too many units at any one time the retreat may become disorderly and perhaps turn into a rout.

We pick up the battle as it stands at 2.30pm.

A pic from behind the Prussian lines.

Our plan was governed by Richard's fighting withdrawal scenario, but what to do?

We decided that my command would have to be the sacrificial lambs and try to stifle any Prussian advancement. I'm on the right in this pic, Dan on the left of the pic, facing Posties Bavarian's, would move back as fast as possible and make his escape at the top left corner of the table. Steve's job was to hold with 1 or 2 units in the towns and escape with the rest at the top right of the table. We had a disagreement about our cavalry though. Steve wanted to march them straight off the table as fast as possible, to the top right. I was a bit more wary. I was worried about their mass of cavalry getting through one of the gaps by Steve and Dan's troops. If they got through one of those gaps, they'd make life very difficult for us retreating. Yes they'd lose a lot of troops, but they'd stop us from moving back quickly and make it easier for their infantry to catch up.

We took a chance and decided to move them off as soon as we could.

The town of Beaumont, firmly in German hands

Scenario Specific Rules

They Died For Glory rules allow for units to do a voluntary fallback at the end of a turn.  It is usually a mechanism to permit a withdrawal of a unit from a precarious situation back to safety.  The units falling back, if successful in their test, can fall back 12 inches, still face the enemy and have one action for the next turn.  This would therefore be an easy device for the French players to use to win the game.  That would not be much fun.

So, to encourage the French players to think about their fighting withdrawal they are limited in the number of units that they can safely do a voluntary fallback with each turn.  They can do voluntary fallbacks with a maximum of 25% of the army (including artillery).  Any more and there is a risk that a further proportion of the army will fallback facing away from the enemy and with no actions for the next turn.  This will represent a breakdown of order and the first signs of a rout.

The French soldiery of 5th Corps were in a poor state of morale.  To represent this all units will suffer a minus one to morale checks unless within 6 inches of a command stand.

Steve's command in the centre right and Dan at the top.

The massed Prussian artillery start the game off, with some counter battery fire.

The puffs of smoke (or Smuffs of Poke, that Lee said during the last game) show where artillery fire back. We shot at infantry coming forward.

The Prussian's shot and destroyed all but two of our artillery and our Mitrailleuse machine guns before they could fire back! Not a good start!

But we gave them a bloody nose as they came forward.

From all along our lines.

Some were forced to go prone, which obviously delays them a little.

The Prussian columns gave fire back, but did little damge.

During movement, I slightly moved one the 18th line back, just incase.

The heroic French Cavalry, beat a very hasty retreat.

I moved both flanks of my command back, they'd need to be in line to take on the Prussian columns, but really don't want to be out in the open formed, the Prussian artillery would make mincemeat of them.

So its left to the 12th, 43rd and 18th to hold the line at all costs!!!

Postie out on our right flank tried to charge Dan in the village with two units and Dan in the woods behind.

All but 1 failed the charge.

Charge!!!!

Lee being the sneaky boy that he is, brings his units around the back.of my lines and Surj surprisingly brings up his cavalry in column up the hill, thank gawd he did and not take it more central.

Its not looking good for the French in the woods!

White puffs of smoke can be seen along the French lines

We knew it was coming, when the French 12th line lost the melee badly and what troops that were left were either captured or dispersed. But the 43rd in the middle amazingly win their melee and push the Prussains back.

Right back t the town of Beaumont. Lee and Surj bring their artillery off the hill to hopefully get a closer shot on the French.

Dan leaves the town (top right) and moves back. In the centre both sides pepper each other with infantry fire.

Now that's handy!!

Just in the nick of time, the French send up the 12th Corps artillery on the other side of the River Meuse.

There was a huge sigh of frustration from the Prussains, when I shot at the Prussian Cavalry in column. I destroyed half the unit, only needing 2's and up with 6 dice.

Back go the cavalry.

Surj gets ready to assault the French in the town on the heights, while Lee stops to get into position to shoot at my French guns.

I can't believe that the Prussains are pushing nearly 60% of their force up the hill towards my troops in the town, when they should have sent troop through the gap between the two towns.

Lee move his troops so they'll hit the French in the woods in the flank, next turn. There was nothing I could do about that fact, as I couldn't perform a voluntary fallback. but that was their job from the start, tie up as many Prussian units as possible.

In a desperate move the 43rd charge out of the woods into the Prussian half strength coloum.

And quickly beat them back, but are still left in a very bad position. Meanwhile at the other end of the woods the 12th line turn and face the threat behind them.

All commanders join the French units in the woods for morale purposes.

At the back of the table, many French units can be seen heading back to the bridge over the Meuse.

In desperation the Prussians move their artillery back up the hill, so they can shoot up the two French guns of the 12th Corps.

What is known at a French wood sandwich!

Surj tries to charge two columns at the town but expert infantry fire stops one unit.

Richard called me over playing the two blue dice at the back of the table edge. These are more artillery off board that can fire next turn, but at a minus 12 inches as they're so far back.

Look at all that open space on our right. oh what damage the Prussian cavalry could have done???

Surg pushes all the cavalry up and over the hill.

The hole where the 43rd used to be. as the 12th shoot out of the woods, with the enemy closing in behind.

I did have to take a morale check, if they failed they would surrender.

I passed!! Phew!

in a hard fought contest......

The Prussians finally push the French out of the town and off the hill, but their route move actually does them a favour, moving them back another 12 inches, towards their goal.

Seven French units close in on the bridge over the Meuse and escape.

But time has run out for both sides?

The French can be seen in the distance close to achieving their goal of escape. Just look at all those Prussian all trying to get over the hill and all the troops who haven't even made it to the hill.

Conclusion

So who won? Richard had to do some quick math to work out who had won the game. At the beginning of the game we worked out we had to get 13 units of the table, which was half our army, which would be extremely difficult. At this time we only had 4 units off, but Ricard concluded that all off Dan's troops would easily make it off table as there were no German troops anywhere near them. He also concluded that my 3 would make it, and was uncertain that Steve's troops would. BUT, for the French to change history and win we would have to lose less men than the French did on the day. We had to lose less than 178 casualties.

We lost 173, so therefore won a tactical victory.

What a game that was, as a team we did exactly what we needed to do, stifle the Prussian advance at every turn, and use the fall back move when it best suited us. To be honest I don't think we could have done much more. We shouldn't have won the game, but the Prussians helped us do it, in moving 60% of their force into a gap of 14 inches, attacking me on the hill. why they didn't send the cavalry in between the two towns I'll never now. At one point both Surj and Lee, were fighting to  move their troops first into the small gap and blocking any move for their own side.....sheer madness???

A big fat well done to Richard, this was a brilliant game, probably my hardest ever won victory. It was well thought out and handled extremely well all the way through.

Thanks Ricardo!!