BH02 Dürenstein (11 November 1805)

BH02 Dürenstein (11 November 1805)

There are a couple errors i noticed in the conversion

Here are the correct special rules and the correct map.

Dürenstein
Nov 11, 1805

At Dürenstein, a combined force of Russian and Austrian troops trapped a French division
commanded by Théodore Maxime Gazan. The French division was part of the newly
created VIII Corps, the so-called Corps Mortier, under command of Édouard Mortier.
In pursuing the Austrian retreat from Bavaria, Mortier had over-extended his three divisions
along the north bank of the Danube. Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, commander of the
Coalition force, enticed Mortier to send Gazan's division into a trap and French troops
were caught in a valley between two Russian columns. They were rescued by the timely
arrival of a second division, under command of Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. The battle
extended well into the night. Both sides claimed victory. The French lost more than
a third of their participants, and Gazan's division experienced over 40 percent losses.

This scenario focuses on that period of the battle before the timely arrival of second
division.

You are in command!

French: 5 cards
Allied: 4 cards (move first)

Victory objectives:

7 banners

The towns of Unterloiben, Rothenhof, Oberloiben represent a Majority
Temporary Group Victory Banner objective and will give 1 victory banner.

Dürenstein is a Temporary Victory Banner objective for the Russians and is worth 1
victory banner.

Stein is a Temporary Victory Banner objective for the French and is worth 1 victory
banner.

Schloss Dürenstein is a Temporary Victory Banner objective for the French and is
worth 1 victory banner.

The French player will gain 1 Permenant Victory Banner by moving the FA unit off the
bottom of the map in the center or left section. The FA is then removed from the game.
It may not be used in this way if forced to retreat, it must be ordered and then move
off map. (Gazan historically placed his field guns on flotilla in order to save them
from what he felt was a doomed situation).

Special Rules:

The allied player chooses 4 LN and 1 LT unit to make paper strength after drawing
cards.

The creek dividing the map has no effect on battle. Units must however stop
and may move no further that turn upon entering it. The Danube hex is impassable to all.

At the start of each French turn, roll two dice. Keep track of Flags rolled. When a total
of 6 flags have been rolled, this will signal that the scenario will end after that French
turn with the arrival of L'Estang's forces. The army with the most VP banners is the
winner of the battle at sudden death, and in the event of a tie, a historic outcome
with a moral french victory.

Please note there are several errors on the map as well with forces and terrain. I suspect i may have accidently sent to you an earlier version of the .vsav file. Here is a summary of inconsistencies i spotted

Specific changes

The specific items that are wrong on the Durenstein are

1. There should be a Russian line unit between the two generals on the stream and there should not be a line unit on the hill behind kutuzov

2. There should be a light infantry in front of the cannons on the Russian left flank. The line infantry should be moved up to where the Grenadier's are therefore leaving an open space for the light cavalry to advance

3. On the Russian right the light cavalry should be in front of the castle and not on the hills in the corner. The artillery should be on the second row in front of the Hills next to the line unit. There should be a line unit behind the castle. The light infantry should be in the forest on the edge of the map.

3. The scenario rules should be changed because the commanders are not listed correctly. For the allies get rid of von Schmidt and replace with Strik

4. For the French there should be a different group of leaders. Campana is located with the line unit in the city on the left flank. Graindorge should be located on the right flank with the line unit.

5. The Russian Grenadier should be in the castle with Dokhturov instead of that line unit which was displaced back to baseline

6. The Russians are able to place four paper strength to line units of choice and one paper strength to a light unit of choice.

7. The map is also incorrect. There is is no hill located north of unterloiben.
There is no hill on third space of Russian right flank near castle

I think that is all the mistakes I see for now please reference the map I attached to the last email and I think we should hopefully have things straight at that point

This was the Scenario with to much changes.
But you can prevent it next time,
if you Play it 2-3 times with another Player, instead of 20 solo games
As i told you already, Solo games are not suitable in my mind, to test a Scenario

And if i look to the Wikipedia reference,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_D%C3%BCrenstein
we used these named Leaders

If you want other, you should also add the main LDR´s to the scenario notes

Your advice is good.

I would note that I had several face to face playtests of this locally which helped with balancing out, and had several revisions from you and Mark's feedback.

I probably posted too many intermediate versions here at the site though.

When I submitted the final versions, I am pretty sure I sent the correct info of the final draft, but could have made an error I suppose.

In any event, when this is updated here with the corrections above, the final draft has had face to face playtests, with fun for both sides.

The last update I had done was to correct leadership.

I found this reference which helped me update leaders:

obscurebattles.blogspot.com/2013/04/durnstein-1805.html

The blog owner had done excellent research and it was very helpful supplement to my own books.

The VASSAL module posted in the new release has an error.

1. There is no mother Russia roll

2. The Russian player adds 1 block to each of four infantry line units AND 1 LIGHT UNIT.

I have noted that the pdf perpetuates this error

after creating many scenarios after this one, and with replays, I think this scenario works just fine without the added complication of the 'sudden death' condition.

I think this scenario works just fine without the added complication of the 'sudden death' condition.

So you want to remove this notes from your posted Scenario?

And as i always says, best scenarios are those without (or less) any special scenario notes.
Balancing a scenario only with the pure terrain/units setup and the basic battle notes (number of command cards / starting player)

I think it can be removed or at least listed as (optional)