Background

This game was played in my basement on March 1, 2002, between myself, Rick Ferens, and Dave Richmond as the Russians, and Pat Butzerin and Joe Schab as the French.

Historically, the Russian right commanded by Tutchkov made an attack against the French left flank under Soult, trying to capture Windmill Hill. Had they done so, they might have turned Napoleon's flank and forced him to either retreat or at least commit the Guard to stabilize the situation. In 1807, the Russian attack was driven off without too much trouble, as it was not a serious attack. This scenario takes the historical forces involved and assumes that the Russians will make an all-out attack, hoping to gain control of the Windmill Hill ridge in time for Lestoq's 9,000 Prussians to reinforce them.

The rules were Column of Attack. The game was to last 4 actual hours, from 12 noon to 4PM. The Russians win if they control the three of the four points defining the red "victory line" ridge running slantwise across the table (see the maps below).

The Murphy Cards

Murphy cards are event cards that can be turned up and/or played to affect the play of the game. They are called Murphy cards because they are designed to turn up at the worst possible moment - for someone. Some Murphy cards are good, others are bad. They cover such events as firing on friends instead of enemies, loss of command control, inspired leadership, etc. In this game there were 13 Murphy cards:

Friendly Fire (1): Play on any enemy unit at the start of the fire phase. The unit must fire on the nearest friendly unit; if this is unclear, the player playing the card selects the target. The most effective possible fire must be used.

Inspired Leadership (1): Play on any friendly unit that is about to test morale. The unit automatically passes the test.

Snow Squall (4): Special for this scenario. Play this card at the start of the turn. The squall covers a 2' X 1' area, and may be placed wherever desired. Units covered by the squall cannot move voluntarily, or shoot. They may not be shot at or seen from outside. The squall is impassable and opaque. Units in combat continue to fight, but with a -2 modifier to each side's chance to hit. The squall lasts one turn.

Seize the Day! (2): Play on a friendly unit at the start of movement or fire. The unit may move at double speed, or fire twice.

Rally, Rally! (1): Play on any friendly unit at the start of the turn. The unit regains 1D6 losses.

Confused Command (1): Play on any enemy general at the end of the movement phase. The general's command radius drops to 0" that turn.

Ammo Shortage (2): Play on any enemy unit at the start of the fire phase. The unit may not shoot that turn.

Sudden Panic (1): Play on any enemy unit that just passed a morale test. The unit instead automatically fails its test.

The cards would be used as follows: Each side was dealt six cards; some were Murphy cards, others were dummies. A side could play a Murphy card on any turn when it had the initiative.

Special Rules for this Game:

All Russian artillery has a -1 to hit with ballshot, and 4 rounds of canister available.

Cossacks have several special rules. Since the French have never fought Cossacks before, these rules are known only to the Russians:

Cossacks are irregular light cavalry who operate in a dense cloud. They move 8" per turn due to disorganization (regular light cavalry moves 12" per turn). They maneuver like skirmishers and are a skirmish target vs. shooting.
They are always disordered, and are never "fresh".
They are grade E.
Cossacks may charge straight ahead or evade up to 16".

Russian Jaegers cannot skirmish, but each battalion can send out 4 figures per unit as a skirmish screen. Musketeer units cannot use skirmish screens.

All French units can use skirmish screens. Legere and Tirailleurs are fully skirmish-capable.

Setup Conditions and The Armies

The orders of battle were taken from one developed and published on the web by Martin Soilleux-Cardwell. The unit sizes are my own. I assumed that each Russian battery would have had two sections stripped off to help form the huge grand batteries forming the Russian center. Thus, Russian batteries were only 8 guns strong, not 12.

The Russians

5th Division: General Tutchkov (+1)

Cavalry Brigade (Markov)

2 Dragoon regt. @18 ea. grade D
2 Uhlan regt. @18 ea. grade D
2 Hussar regt. @18 ea. grade C
2 Cossack regt. @18 ea. grade E
1 6-lb Horse btry. @4, grade D
TOTAL 144 cavalry, 4 guns

1st Musketeer Brigade

6 bn. Musketeers @16 ea. grade D
1 6-lb Foot btry. @4, grade D
TOTAL 96 infantry, 4 guns

2nd Musketeer Brigade

6 bn. Musketeers @16 ea. grade D
1 6-lb Foot btry. @4, grade D
TOTAL 96 infantry, 4 guns

Jaeger Brigade (Lieven)

6 bn. Jaegers @16 ea. grade D
TOTAL 96 infantry

Reserve artillery:

2 12-lb Foot btry. @4 ea. grade D

The French

IV Corps: Marechal Soult (+1)

Light cavalry (Guyot)

1 Hussar regt. @24 grade B
2 Chausseur regt. @24 ea. grade C
1 4-lb Horse battery @4 grade B
TOTAL 72 cavalry, 4 guns

2nd Division (Leval, +1) Brigadiers Raymond-Vives, Schiner

1 regt. Legere @24 grade C
4 regt. Ligne @24 ea. grade D
1 8-lb Foot btry. @4 grade C
TOTAL 120 infantry, 4 guns

3rd Division (Legrand, +1) Brigadiers Ledru, Levasseur

1 regt. Legere @24 grade C
2 regt. Ligne @24 ea. grade D
2 regt. Tirailleurs @24 ea. grade B
1 8-lb Foot btry. @4 grade C
TOTAL 120 infantry, 4 guns

GRAND TOTALS	Infantry	Cavalry	Guns
Russian	288	144	20
French	240	72	12

The Course of the Battle