The Action at Klein-Niederau
The affair for the bridge — September 1813
Distances are in inches. The same numbers read as centimetres — change it with Distances at the top.
The Situation
The southern road runs through Bruchreuth and past the foot of Birkberg, and for a mile either side there is no other road a gun can travel. A poplar avenue ran dead straight from the village to the wood.
Ney had ten line battalions, a Guard battalion, four batteries and four regiments of chasseurs, and had been on the ground since ten.
Wittgenstein's leading brigades were reported at Oberreuth a little after noon.
The Balance
who holds the edge, and whyOn paper the Allies outnumber the French by about 2.2 to 1; once the French ground is reckoned in, it comes out close to even — a fair, stand-up fight.
French — defending
- holds the ground — the villages, the high ground and the water count for more than numbers here
- fights under a single commander, where the enemy does not
Allies — attacking
- the greater weight of numbers, about 2.2 to 1
but must contend with —
- two separate commands that cannot lend each other staff — the attack tends to arrive in uncoordinated pushes
- part of the force arriving late, and from a distant edge
- open ground to cross before it can come to grips
One side had ground, cover and a single will; the other had mass and artillery, and the burden of the attack, divided between two commanders who could not help one another. Which of those told first would decide the day.
Orders of Battle
Muster rollThe Ground
measured from the left and bottom edges of the mapCommand
who gives the orders, and how manyEach commander is rated on five levels, best to worst — Decisive · Capable · Workmanlike · Laboured · Adrift — and the scale on his card shows where he sits. The rating says how much of his command he can get fresh orders to in an hour's fighting. Whatever he does not reach carries on with its last orders, and the more formations he has under him, the less of it he reaches. If your rules grade generals, Workmanlike is the middle of that scale.
French — defending
Prince of the Moskova, and the rearguard of the whole retreat from Russia the winter before. In May he had III Corps and then the left wing: at Bautzen he was sent round the Allied flank and was drawn into the fight for Preititz instead, and the Allied army got away. In September Napoleon gave him the Berlin army that Oudinot had failed with. Wherever the firing was heaviest he went, and his army stayed where he had left it.
A Laboured general; in this action he plays as Workmanlike.
About half his command can be turned to a new purpose within the hour.
- In his favour
- a small command — only 3 divisions, few enough that his orders reach all of them.
- Général de Division Philippon — 1 brigade
- Général de Division Friederichs — 2 brigades
- Général de Division Bordesoulle — 1 brigade
Allies — attacking
Of the German house of Sayn-Wittgenstein, in Russian service; in 1812 he had held the road to St Petersburg alone in 1812 and beaten Oudinot at Klyastitsy. When Kutuzov died in April he was given the Russian and Prussian armies over the heads of generals senior to him, and Miloradovich said so. After Lützen he laid the empty caissons on Yermolov. In the autumn he commanded the Russian wing of the Army of Bohemia at Dresden and Leipzig.
A Laboured general — what helps him and what hinders him cancel out.
One formation at a time, and the far flank is an hour behind the near one.
- In his favour
- a small command — only 3 divisions, few enough that his orders reach all of them.
- Against him
- his side is in two commands that cannot help one another.
- General-Leytenant Helfreich — 2 brigades
- General-Leytenant Vorontsov — 2 brigades
- General-Leytenant Neverovsky — 1 brigade
Brother of Queen Louise, and her constant companion until 1806. On the Katzbach he held off superior forces into the night; when they came on again he put himself at the head of his brigade and beat them off. Goldberg-Niederau won him the Iron Cross.
A Workmanlike general; in this action he plays as Adrift.
He cannot change anything faster than the enemy can act on it.
- Against him
- his side is in two commands that cannot help one another; he comes on at turn 5 into a battle already running, and this holds for his first two turns.
No divisional echelon: he handles all 4 brigades himself.
Wittgenstein and Karl zu Mecklenburg are separate commands, not one army. Neither commander's effort reaches the other's formations, whatever the crisis.
The rating is the app's own and is not taken from any rule set: it says how much of his command a man can turn to a new purpose within the hour, and what the rest do meanwhile. Set your own dials from that.
Objectives
7 points · weightedThe result turns on der Rothbach and the bridge. The other objective points lift an attacker's marginal win to a decisive one.
Victory
who wins, and how wellRead from the top: the first line that is true at nightfall is the result.
- Attacker Decisive6+ formed battalions across der Rothbach at nightfall, holding every one of the 7 objective points, the bridge among them.
- Defender DecisiveNo formed enemy battalion across der Rothbach at nightfall.
- Attacker Marginal4+ formed battalions across der Rothbach at nightfall, holding the bridge.
- Defender MarginalFewer than 4 enemy battalions across der Rothbach at nightfall, and the bridge not in enemy hands.
- DrawAnything else — a foothold: 4+ battalions across without the bridge, or the bridge taken by fewer than 4.
Reinforcements
scheduled & uncertain- Scheduled The Russian corps enters across ZONE B from turn 1.
- Scheduled The Prussian corps enters across ZONE C — the right-hand edge of the map as printed, the 36in of it nearest the top edge at the start of turn 5.
- Uncertain From turn 4, roll a die at the start of each even-numbered turn: on a 5 or 6 a detached French cavalry regiment enters that turn across the bottom edge of the map as printed, behind ZONE A, anywhere along it.
Deployment & Opening Moves
The French deploy first, anywhere within ZONE A — the shaded bottom band, the full 144in width of the table and 34in deep — holding their own bank of der Rothbach. The Allies begin with nothing on the table. They come on across ZONE B — the top edge of the map as printed, a strip the full 144in width of the table and 7in deep. No road crosses that edge: every unit arrives across country, in whatever formation it chooses. The passage must be forced. The Prussian contingent comes on later and elsewhere: across ZONE C, the right-hand edge as printed — see Arrivals.
Special Rules
- How the result is read. Nightfall is the end of turn 14. Go down the victory table from the top: the first line that is true at nightfall is the result, and nothing below it is looked at. A place is HELD by the side with the last formed unit on it or within 6 inches of it, and CONTESTED — held by nobody — if both sides have one there. A unit is FORMED if your own rules would let it charge. A FORMATION is a brigade, and it is BROKEN when half or more of its units have been destroyed or have routed off the table. OFF THE TABLE means marched off the named edge in good order: a unit that routs off is lost, not saved. Battalions are infantry battalions, and a gun means a battery: a battery is taken by the side holding the ground it stands on at nightfall.
- Divided command. The Russian and Prussian contingents draw command and staff resources separately. Orders and staff officers may not be transferred between them.
- Skirmishers — who can screen, and what your rules do with them. Light battalions are marked in the muster. The French field none, and must screen with line battalions or go without; the allies field 1 light battalion. That is the scenario's part of the answer: these are the troops armed and trained to fight in open order, and a screen comes out of them. How large a screen a brigade may put out, how it is formed, whether it is a separate playing piece or a state the battalion adopts, and what it does to shooting and morale are your own rules' business — consult them for the allocation. Where a brigade has no light battalion it may still screen if your rules allow line troops to.
- Uncertain arrivals. An arrival marked uncertain is diced for as its line says, and neither side may plan the opening moves on its timing.
- Rain. Every musketry volley counts as fired at long range, whatever the distance; artillery fire is not affected. Movement off a road is reduced by a quarter. A battery that unlimbers may not limber up again — it fights where it stands.
Umpire's Notes
the designer's intent- Everything hangs on the crossing points and nothing else does. The attacker’s combat power arrives in the width of a bridge; the defender’s problem is that he must guess which bridge before he can concentrate against it.
- The attacking command is divided in fact and not merely on paper: staff effort cannot be lent across the seam, so the attack tends to arrive as two pushes that do not quite meet. Neither commander may spend any part of his command on the other’s formations, by any means his rules allow. Whatever you play, do not let the two halves coordinate for free.
Sources
what the figures rest on- France. French structure and battalion sizes from Nafziger 813JIA (Leipzig, corps returns of 1 and 5 October 1813) and 813EAA (Lützen, returns of 25 April and 1 May); battalion, squadron and battery counts per corps and the cavalry-corps strengths from Millar’s napoleon-series Leipzig order of battle; army totals from Chandler; the intake from the sénatus-consulte of 3 April 1813 (10,000 Guards of Honour, 80,000 first-ban National Guard of the classes 1807-12, 90,000 conscripts of the class of 1814). The Marie-Louises proper, the decrees of 9 October, post-date Leipzig.
- Small battalions — where the sources are silent: by October most French battalions were under 425 men; the Old Guard alone kept its strength.
- Troop quality — where the sources are silent: Old Guard Elite, every line battalion Line. Most of the army were conscripts of 1813 and the year before, and no return says which battalions.
- Allied contingents — where the sources are silent: the Saxon, Polish, Italian, Württemberg, Baden, Hessian and Neapolitan battalions - about a fifth of the line - are not generated here.
- Commanders — where the sources are silent: a named general carries his own grade; any other is rated Workmanlike.
- Russia. Russian structure, battalion counts and strengths from Nafziger 813JIB (Leipzig; Army of Bohemia divisional totals and Langeron’s regimental figures) and 813ECE (Bautzen regimental figures).
- Small battalions — where the sources are silent: by Leipzig most Russian battalions were under 425 men.
- Troop quality — where the sources are silent: Guard Elite, grenadiers Veteran, every line and Jäger battalion Line.
- Commanders — where the sources are silent: a named general carries his own grade; any other is rated Workmanlike.
- Prussia. Prussian brigade composition and strengths from Nafziger 813HEC (the army of 10 August 1813) and 813JIB (Leipzig: regimental strengths for Yorck, brigade totals for Kleist and Bülow); Bautzen structure from 813ECE.
- Troop quality — where the sources are silent: Landwehr Reservist, grenadiers Veteran, every line battalion Line. The reserve regiments raised in 1813, a fifth of the infantry, are rated Line.
- Commanders — where the sources are silent: a named general carries his own grade; any other is rated Workmanlike.
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