The La Bataille Forum

La Bataille de Lutzen

by Ed Wimble

The "La Bataille" series got a long awaited shot in the arm with the release of Lutzen several months ago. This was the first new boxed game in the series since the release of Corunna- Espagnol in 1995, and the first series item since the publication of The Regulations of the Year MI, in 1997. What follows are some of the comments I've received from some well known and not so well known scholars of the era:

David Chandler writes:

"...very smart box ... and excellent historical commentary. You have gone into details more than I had the space for in "The Campaigns of Napoleon." I am in general agreement with what you say-- especially your comment on pg. 52: "Had Napoleon possessed any substantial body of cavalry he would have exploited his success at Lutzen. " Exactly the point. "

Col. John Elting applied his usual scrutiny and sent me the following notes: (My replies are in italics)

From page 43 in Historical Commentary: "[You] might note that N. had sent cadres back from Russia well before [the] retreat began, [as well as having] ordered cadres sent back from Spain. More were called in from Italy.

"Guard mustered approx. 2,000/9 guns at the end of retreat [from Russia] - after cripples and surplus officers & NCOs [were] cleared away. Losses since then [were] probably balanced by returning stragglers. Also there were men in depots and some marche units en route to [the] front. By the time the [Lutzen] campaign opened , its strength was around 15,000. (Read Anatomy of Glory, 268-289.)

"Cohorts" - think you're off here. This call was for men to fill up the First Battalions of the National Guard some 88 cohorts called to active duty in 1812 for interior garrison and security duty. These were the cohorts converted to line infantry the next year.

"The 37th Legere was formed from men taken from "Departmental Reserve Companies"- mature men, already trained, a cadre of veterans [which was] widely praised. There was no "militia" as such in France.

Page 1: "Soult did not command the Armee du Main. He was understudying Berthier, who was quite ill- and acting commander of the Old Guard infantry, vice Lefebvre.

(The Colonel seems to be in disagreement here with Bowden. Soult certainly was understudying Berthier two weeks later at the time of the battle of Bautzen, but the record appears uncertain as to what he was up to at the opening of the campaign in mid-April.)

Page 43: "Naval Artillery were not "fortress" artillery--they also served aboard ship or any odd job dumped on them. [They were] already organized into companies, battalions and regiments. [They were essentially] amphibious troops.

Page 45: Bernadotte & Guadaloupe??!? He didn't have right or possession... wrong island?

(He was promised it according to Sherwig in Guineas and Gunpowder. That he never took possession of it is another matter. It was probably pulled off the table when the Bourbon restoration was secure.)

"... so called "Krumpersystem" [was] much exaggerated. N. kept a pretty cold eye on Prussian military activity.

(It takes a cold eye to spot one. I've long suspected the Krumper system's greatest achievements occurred long after the war when similar measures were justified / undertaken to circumvent the troop limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles on the Wehrmacht. The achievements of the reformers were most likely exaggerated when they were mythologized under the Reich, as well as having all those cruisers named after them.)

"[The] Russian Army had suffered almost as horribly as [the] French during 1812. [It was] pretty well used up. [Its] supply system, such as it was, shot. Some of the regular units had not performed well and everything was in high confusion.

Page 48: "Cossacks generally lousy on reconnaissance. [They] looked for loot rather than for information.

(A number of cossack units included in the game is misleading. To really get an idea of their presence I had pondered including around 50 one and two increment units. They would have roamed the battlefield free of command restrictions, but would have also been unable to stack or combine any charges or melees they may have launched. As is the case with most "predators, " however; it is almost unknown in the animal kingdom for one to attack a potential victim that is not significantly smaller than itself, or already mortally wounded; in this regard these Cossack units were no exception. I realized that they would have been essentially useless to the Allied player had I included them in the game except where they were actually formed as regiments (tactical units). The only men who would have been effected by them were the wounded, and men separated from their units in the con'fusion. But since these are basically unseen, and only recorded by their casualty increment markers, I resolved to relegate these "swarms" of Cossacks to the unseen as well.)

Page 5 1: Ney's Chief of Staff- not ADC [was] killed. Really [too] bad for [the] French, Jomini being unable to get hungry recruits into the mess hall.

(This is an example where game terminology compromises historicity. In the game Goure is an ADC since this function covers Chief of Staff at the corps level as well. But do I detect a little West Point bias here; Clausewitz vs. Jomini?)

"Your battle description seems OK- only minor comment is that Macdonald apparently rolled up the Russian guard's rear guard stand at the close of the battle. That final Allied cavalry charge, made into the dark, was necessarily sound and fury and horses falling over ditches and battle wreckage.

"Actually, once the Allies realized they had to haul out, they did it rather quickly.

"Do have a question on your cover- what stage of the battle does it represent? Rochling's art is usually superman Prussian, but this is an extreme example - ground littered with fearful French grenadiers - [with] not one of those enthusiastic Prussian warriors nicked. "

(Yes, this is odd, since the battle is characterized by the overall youth of its French participants. I doubt many of the battalions in Ney's corps ever had the time to form elite companies. The scene depicts the Fusilier battalion/Garde Regt. zu Fuss' assault on Kaja late in the afternoon, which I believe was led by Friederich- Wilhelm III in person. The French must then be from Ricard's 11th division. As you know, this was the high-water mark of the Allied assault that day. The artwork I should have used on the box was the one I had already used on the box of "La Bataille de Ligny. " That piece by Knotel entitled " Westpreussisches Infantrie Regiment Nr. 6 in der Schlact bei Gross Gorschen oder Lutzen am 2.5.1813 " depicts an assault over the raised road two or three hexes immediately north-west of Gross Gdrschen. But at the time I was designing "Ligny " I had no idea I'd be doing a game on Lutzen 8 years later, or I'd have "kept it in my pocket, " (to quote Wellington.)

Speaking of the Fusilier battalion/Garde Regt. zu Fuss, Anthony Chandler called me from Australia immediately after receiving his copy of the game to say that the Order of Battle confused this battalion with the Fusilier battalion/Leib Infantry Regt. zu Fuss. He is absolutely correct. I mixed up the Leib Regt. with the Garde Regt., thinking Nafziger had accidentally duplicated the same battalion. The good news is that there are enough battalions provided in Tippelskirch's brigade to account for this error. Simply add a range of "2" to the Leib Grenadier battalion and cross out the words "Leib Grenadier;" replacing them with "Garde Fusilier. " Also change the back of the 3 Leib Garde Battalion to read "Normal Infantrie Battalion." To quote Anthony, "The Normal battalion is an extra battalion listed with the foot guards. It is a de facto btn. of this regiment. It later became (during the armistice) the I/Zweites Garde Regt. zu Fuss. "

Anthony also points out that the Garde Jdger battalion is understrength in the game by roughly 400 men, and that these missing men were probably armed with rifles. His source, "Das Preussisches Heer der Befreiungskriege" lists on page 418 two hundred rifles and swords (hirschfdngen) being delivered to the depot of this battalion. "The missing men, then, can probably be accounted for by one "Schutzen" company and one "Freiwillige" company, that was not part of the "Garde Freiwillige Jager battalion von Webell's" which is included in the game OB, but formed instead from volunteers from the foot guard regiment and normal battalion. " There is an easy fix to this problem as well. If you own the game "La Bataille de Ligny" take two of the three Silesian Rifle companies provided in that game and just attach them to Tippelskirch's brigade in Lutzen. Though they are part of the Garde Jager battalion they can act independently of it, and are an exception to the stacking rule that prohibits stacking in a hex without a leader present.

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