2 August 1870: Near Saarbruecken. Elements of the French II Corps and the German First Army met in the hills near Saarbreucken today. The Prussians advanced dramatically all along their front line, demonstrating to keep the French attention while Prussian cavalry executed a bold, hidden advance around the French left flank. Before the forces even exchanged fire, two French brigades made a confused withdrawal, momentarily throwing the French line into chaos. Retaining the initiative almost throughout the entire skirmish, the Prussians executed a daring cavalry attack on the French left, catching the French cavalry in the flank as it advanced and massacring it. The leftmost French infantry brigade, which had made an earlier confused withdrawal, turned around just in time to prevent it from being overwhelmed by the charging Prussian cavalry. The French repulsed the Prussian flank attack, driving the Prussian cavalry off with heavy losses. Unfortunately, no French cavalry remained on the field to exploit a momentary advantage. Piecemeal advances by various French infantry units against the Prussian front line throughout the rest of the day suffered moderate to heavy losses without accomplishing anything. After darkness fell, the combatants broke contact to lick their wounds. Rules. Piqiet. Scale: 15mm Franco-Prussian Forces: French infantry: 2 militia, 15 line, 5 chausseurs; artillery: 3 medium batteries, 1 milletruse battery; cavalry: 1 dragoon, 1 lancers Prussian: There sure seemed to be a lot more of them (after all, I played on the French side), especially those pesky cavalry. Analysis: The French drew two confused withdrawal cards early in the game which left their left flank open and caused them to temporarily abandon a strong position on the heights in the center. The Prussians drew a strategy card that allowed them to place a hidden unit on the French flank, then exploit that placement at the right moment, wiping out the French cavalry in the process. The Prussians retained the initiative almost the entire game with the French succeeding in temporarily regaining initiative just in time to prevent the Prussian cavalry from overrunning the left flank of the French force and caving in the entire French position. Subsequent piecemeal advances by French infantry against advancing Prussian infantry only resulted in more French casualties. We have to give this skirmish to the Prussians! Consistently poor initiative dice rolling by the French severely restricted their ability to influence the battle in any way other than to lose it (The dice gods strike again!). Back to Dispatch September 2003 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com