BH04 Lützen P1 (2 May 1813)
57 %
43 %
Lützen (Initial Attack) - 2 May 1813
Historical Background
The battle of Lützen was fought between the Army of Silesia, composed mostly of Russians and Prussians, and the Grande Armée of Napoleon I. The French were moving eastwards from Lützen towards Leipzig but were unaware of a concentration of the Allies on their right flank, to the south. Two of Ney's divisions had taken up in the town of Starsiedel and a group of four villages forming a rectangle (Klein Görschen, Gross Görschen, Rahna and Kaja). Poor allied scouting of the situation destroyed the element of surprise as the size of the waiting French were much more than than Blücher had expected. Instead of attacking the unprepared French immediately, he ordered an artillery bombardment for forty minutes, with many of his guns damaged for their efforts. When the assault finally began, Klüx's brigade slammed into Gross Görschen, taking it by momentum and the assault continued through towards Rahna, but left the Prussians in great disorder. Pirch and Ziethen then stormed Klein Görschen, driving Souham's men to Kaja. The initial delay however was enough to allow Ney to call up reinforcements to intensify the battle for the four villages, to lure the Allies into full commitment while Napoleon setup the workings for a double envelopment. This scenario will focus on events just after the initial bombardment.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?
|
|
Set-Up Order
|
Battle Notes
Allies Army:
• Commander: Lebrecht von Blücher
• 5 Command Cards
• Optional 5 Tactician Cards
• 2 Iron Will
• Move First
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
French Army
• Commander: Ney
• 5 Command Cards
• 4 Tactician Cards
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Victory
6 Banners
Special Rules
The four marked building hexes represent a temporary allied group objective worth 1 victor banner for the allies if they occupy two at turn start.
The Flossgraben is fordable except artillery may not enter.
Blücher’s Slow Start : The French player is shown the Prussian’s initial command cards and may choose as many as he wishes to be discarded and redrawn (without revealing).
The fieldworks provides no ignore retreat bonus.
(Optional for advanced French player : French player chooses four of his LN units to be conscripts.).
Tags: Banners: 6, Army: French, Army: Prussian, Special Rule: Temporary Majority Group VB
Also, I accidently left out the French Infantry rookie rule to be consistent:
French Line Infantry only receive the melee bonus if stacked with or adjacent to a French Leader.
Allies: General Lebrecht von Blücher - 5 cards - 3 iron will - move first
French: General de Division, le comte Souham - 6 cards
6 victory banners
Special Rules:
The marked locations represent a group majority victory banner objective worth
1 VP to the French and 2 VP for the Prussians if they occupy an absolute majority.
The Flossgraben is fordable.
"- French player receives 1 permanent victory banner for each scout card he plays."
That was worth 3 banners to the French, whereas the other Special Rule we screwed up totally, and hence it had no effect;
"- At the start of each French turn, roll 1 die. Keep track of infantry symbols rolled. When
the 7th infantry symbol has been rolled, the game ends with French sudden death
victory if the Prussians do not win by the end of their next turn or end of their 16th
turn, whichever is longer. (play note: this represents the arrival of additional of
Ney's forces)"
FWIW, I prefer the first rule over the second because it is easy to remember and track.
We wouldn´t play it voluntary (on prussian side)
1. I don´t like to much scnenario notes, which i must remember during games,
so we often forgot the "INF" roll and also the complete 16 turns counting notes.
I prefer scenario notes, which i can see direct on map (exit markers, objective markers). And if a scenario have one special note to remember, please only one.
2. The french get a double advantage.
- VP for each scout card
- the sudden death / 16 turn rule
Summary: Scenario designers should not try to simulate/represent all historical actions/facts in a C&C scenario (one basic main fact is enough, if necessary), because then you get more a historical simulation like other boardgames, which represent not the spirit of the simple abstract game mechanism of C&C system.
only my mind, maybe other players have other priorities and love it
I finished this one before the other Lützen scenario, so players can substitute orchard for the forest on the map and use the orchard rules from the other Lützen scenario to be more historically accurate:
ORCHARD CHART
MOVE BATTLE INF:CAV:ART LOS SQUARE MORALE
cav/art stop battle into 0/-1* : -2 : -1 blocks YES no effect
cav/art stop battle out 0 : -2 : 0 blocks YES no effect
*only ranged fire effected for infantry
**cavalry treats orchards as if it is a forest (important for cossacks
