404 Auerstadt - 7am - Noon (14 October 1806)

404 Auerstadt - 7am - Noon (14 October 1806)

Haha, I would love to say, "typical prussian scenario". Lost 10-0 with Mark. Had no luck, no cards nothing as Prussian.
Next game, I had no cards, no good dice as well, but lost as French. Luck is bit*h

Played this one solo. French won 10-1. Blucher was killed in a desperate cavalry melee north of Hassenhausen. I am seeing that many of the Prussian scenarios are heavily weighted towards the French. That probably makes sense given how things went in 1806. Auerstadt though seems like one that should have more play balance. Davout and III Corps took on the bulk of the Prussian army, yet the French have 13 infantry units while the Prussians have 11. It seems like the French should only have 7 or infantry. I am going to try it again with removing 3-4 French infantry. It might be interesting to play this scenario by bidding to be the French based on how many of the Line infantry you would go without.

And of course, I played Auerstadt again without modification, and the French squeaked out a 10-9 win. So maybe it is more balanced than I initially thought. That said it still seems weird to me that the French have more units than the Prussians in this one.

Whilst I tend to agree that this scenario is pro-French, the scenario title of 7am to noon may throw some light on the relative numbers.

Looking over some of the online articles like
www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_auerstadt.html
www.napoleon-series.org/military/battles.../c_auerstadtoob.html
it seems likely that not all the Prussian forces listed were present, or if present, were deployed. The Prussians were trying to retreat of course.

As a scenario, it seems to have some blow out scores towards the French, whilst I suspect the Prussian victories are tight. Be good to see an EPIC version of this action.

Something that is oft mentioned is that Gudin put his entire Division into square as a precaution prior to the mist lifting. So a potential balance to this scenario would be to have the 4 French LN in the centre section start in square. This would entail have 4 French cards start on he square track, so I'd suggest the French player choose the 4 cards to be placed, and then the Prussian player place them on the square track.

I like that idea. You could also let the Prussians go first then as well.
Check out this link as well about the battle: johnsmilitaryhistory.com/Auerstadt.html . It includes some cool photos of the battlefield as it looks today and it includes some phase by phase historical maps.

We are playing this scenario right now. French are leading 7-4 after just killing a Prussian leader. There is a special rule that says: "The French player gains 2 Permanent Victory Banners for each Prussian leader eliminated from the battlefield." We are playing this to mean that the French player gets 2 banners when he eliminates a Prussian leader, rather than just 1. If the French get 3 banners for eliminating just 1 Prussian leader that just seems excessive to us. The Prussians have to put their leaders at some risk in order to use many of the Tactician cards, so if they lose 3 banners when a leader is eliminated they stand almost no chance of winning. We are also playing that the French gets no banners if a Prussian leader voluntarily retreats off the board. What do you all think?
Edit: French won 10-5 after eliminating another Prussian unit and leader.

that seems correct to me. 2 banners per leader (instead of 1)

I can´t understand the initial deployment. The Prussian grenadiers are an esay pease prey for the French in the first turn. That provides 3 VP for the French. The horse artillery and the cavalry will also suffer heavy loses. Too much advantage for a scenario where French is not outnumbered by Prussians. Just played twice and Prussians didn´t manage to score more than 6 VP.