Friday 24 November 2017

Auerstadt 1806

 Battle of Auerstadt, Marshall Davout holds with his meagre force in the village of Hasenhausen against the masses of prussians
 As the main army of Brunswick closes on the defenders
 Orange's corps moves at the sound of the guns
 The french reform into an attack column
 And are beset by cavalry and infantry
 The Hassenhausen garrison too is assaulted by the double of enemies

 However the french élan  begins to tell and the germans are pushed back

 Even the cavalry is repelled, an unseemly outcome against infantry not formed in square
 A fresh division of imperials comes to shore up the right flank
 With a stroke of luck, the prussians manage to conquer Hassenhausen
 Even killing Davout himself!
 General Blücher is killed heroically at the head of this decisive attack
 The prussian mass replaces battered divisions with intact ones efortlessly, while the french, despite their supperior quality, haven't got such resources

 A fresh charge slams into the mauled french left, pushing back the stubborn infantrymen there
 The garrison of Hasenhausen sallies forth and charges the enemy right, while Orange's men refill the momentarily empty village
 In this sucession of assaults is killed general Friant, trying to rally the men

 The more cohesive french right pushes back their would be vanquishers
 Despite their best efforts, the imperial left is shot to pieces, and the ADCs order the retreat, covering it with their last division while the generals are buriend in a hurry

So another prussian victory, the french had it hard in this scenario, with the double of prussians coming their way, Davout managed to win the battle but then the prussians performed much more suicidally than I did, sending waves of cavalry  against squares unsupported by the infantry. 
Some things that the french could have done better was to concentrate their forces on one flank, and perhaps edge away from the incoming masses, deploying in the corner and let the prussians bash their collective heads against  Hassenhausen. But then Hassenhausen fell quite fast so a "corner gunline" could have worked better. Both tactics could be combined using the village as and advanced guard. 

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