Snappy Nappy

1806 French vs. Prussians

By Russ Lockwood

Snappy Nappy: "Message for you, sir!"

As the umpire, one of the most enjoyable aspects of watching commanders test their generalship is seeing what happens when orders are *not* instantaneous, and an individual point of view is *not* shared by all. Snappy Nappy separates players across multiple tables. Although at times players will be on the same table, quite often they are not, and the only guidance they have is the pre-game outline of strategy, the C-in-C's last order, and their own grasp of the situation.

Now, players will eventually figure out which table adjoins which other table, and a semblance of time about how long it takes to get from one table to another. Of course, if the enemy is in the way...or, if your own commanders are in the way...

It's always fun to go back and see what messages went where and when--quite often these short dispatches reveal what a player was thinking as the game progressed--from confidence to panic and all shades in between. Remember, Snappy Nappy is in real time where the sequence of play on one table is NOT co-ordinated with any other table. The map will help with references.

What you read is incredibly revealing about how the C-in-C and commanders went about the battle.

I have put them in chronological order. The time noted is the hour and minute when the message was SENT. Figure about a 15 minute wait on average before delivery (though at least one message mentioned a 24-minute delivery time). Sometimes the time is less because commanders were close together, sometimes longer because they were farther apart or "attached" and in the thick of the fight. Orders are in all caps. Sometimes, handwriting was hard to read or misspellings occurred, so corrections are in brackets [...]. If really unreadable, I include a "?".

Note that several times message "crossed" during delivery. (Evil chuckle from umpire--you just can't plan these things, you have to give the players enough rope to hang themselves!) Some messages are probably gone (stuck in pockets, tossed, etc--spies you know-- or in the case of the French, obviously burned at Napoleon's HQ to avoid being captured as the Doughnut collapsed). The Prussian messages are particularly entertaining...

12 Noon

12:00 Frederick to Platov: Move along ??? [road to P?]
12:00 Frederick to Stoichwich: SCREEN to Freistadt with 1 unit. Rest MANEUVER to Kamburg.
12:00 Frederick to Davidovitch: PROBE to Eisenburg and then Hemsdorf and then Neustadt and then Possnack and then Schleitz. Adopt DEFEND if acccupying latest objective and opposed by two French corps. PROBE to attack French in support of any Allied corps being attack by the French that you see or encounter. WITHDRAW if opposed by 3 or more French corps and unsupported.
12:00 Frederick to Frimont: PROBE to Kamburg and Nedburg. DEFEND if more than 1 French corp within 2 feet. PROBE to Stadlim and Ampferstadt if less than 1 French corp within 2 feet. WITHDRAW if 3 or more French corps opposing you and no Allied corps supporting. PROBE to attack any French corp engaged with any other Allied force that you can see.
12:00 Frederick to Muffling: PROBE to Zelitz, Koswitz, Eisenburg, Hemsdorf, Neustadt, and Schleitz. PROBE to attack French engaging any Allied corps that you see. WITHDRAW if opposed by 3 or more French corps and are unsupported. DEFEND last objective if encountered by French and unsupported.
12:03 Gyulai to Frederick: Our advanced cavalry has reached Weida. The Prussians are entering to our right. Two large French corps are moving north fast. I will be in Plauten very soon. The other has taken Possnack.
12:21 Frederick to Muffling: Send reports.
12:24 Grouchy to Napoleon: Grouchy toward Ampferstadt. To Nedburg or Ecksdorf?
12:24 Pully to Napoleon: Pully approaching Weimr, Continue toward Ampferstadt or Brittstadt toward Ecksdorf?
12:30 Frederick to Gyulai: DEFEND until such time as Muffling is able to join you, then ATTACK the French in concert. Communicate directly with Muffling to make this happen. Muffling is lead commander.
12:32 Frederick to Muffling: I hear you and Gyulai have seen/contacted the enemy. Coordinate your forces and ATTACK when you have the advantage. Von Muffling is lead commander.
12:39 Muffling to Frederick: Frimont has taken Drondorf and Nedburg. French exiting off to Weimr. Muffling and Davidovitch engaging French at Neustadt.
12:40 Gyulai to Frederick: Are you not in receipt of my previous report? Seras' corp is trying to slide past my left towards Greizen. He is isolated and I will attack him. The Prussians are securing my right.
12:41 Frederick to Bulow: ATTACK Weimr
12:42 Frederick to Von Losthin: SCREEN Bulow's right flank (He is attacking Weimr).
12:42 Napoleon to Fontanelli: SCREEN to Weimr and on to Freistadt.
12:42 Napoleon to Durette: SCREEN Turichrf [Furdorf] to Querfurt.
12:42 Napoleon to Grouchy: To Nedburg.
12:42 Napoleon to Pully: To Ampferstadt.
12:48 Pully to Napoleon: Pully and Grouchy to concentrate north of Ampferstadt. Large enemy forces are near Ecksdorf, Kosoven, and Querfurt. Ignore previous message.
12:48 Gyulai to Frederick: Seras' corps exiting fast towards Greizen. I will not be able to attack him before he escapes (and just remembered my orders don't allow it anyway). I need new instructions. Our position is sound, but it will take forever to come to grips with the enemy.
12:50 Seras to Napoleon: Have reached Greizen with no enemy sighted north of river towards Kowzic or Altenburg.

1:00
1:04 Gyulai to Frederick: Half Seras' corps have moved away north. There's no point in trying to catch them. Muffling is not giving me instructions. Unless otherwise instructed, I will take Pollnitz.
1:12: Frederick to Von Muffling: Combine your forces and attack! Your official order is PROBE--interpret as necessary.
1:17 Gyulai to Frederick: Not sure what Von Muffling is doing. He ordered me to ATTACK Pollnitz but now seems poised to charge it with his cavalry, blocking me. More French arriving from South. I will try to come to Muffling's left, but I can't tell where that is. Seras' French are now in our rear.
1:32 Durette to Napoleon: Town of Furdorf captured. Left 1 unit of conscripts in town. Have prisoners. Boo Yaah!
1:33 Frederick to Gyulai: Recieved your 1:04 message at 1:28. ATTACK together if possible. Send 1 corps to cover half of Seras' corps--we must maintain lines of communication.
1:53 Frederick to Bulow: Use your advantageous position to attack Durette's Force with your 3 Corps. Keep Desan on your left and beware enemy on the far side of the fords on your left.
1:55 Napoleon to Pully: ATTACK towards Ecksdorf.
1:57 Napoleon to Durette: Great! You do not need to occupy towns in this game.

2:00
2:07 Gyulai to Frederick: It is impossible to obey your order to send a corp to chase after Seras. It would take four turns just to march back to the bridge. I will take Tanna and Pollnitz this coming turn, by which time Muffling's wildly dispersed forces will be overrun by two French corps. Order to me to coordinate and ATTACK with Von Muffling are not possible--he won't tell me about the objective.
2:29 Napoleon to Pully: SCREEN towards Ecksdorf. Advance towards Nedburg and await orders.
2:31 Desan to Frederick: Heading to Ecksdorf to protect fords.
2:38 Gyulai to Frederick: I have taken Tanna and Pollnitz with light losses. La Marque's Corp is broken. I will wheel right to support Muffling.
2:44 Frederick to Gyulai: Support Von Muffling's ATTACK as possible. Protect line of communication as possible. Quitcher Bitchen!
2:45 Muffling to Frederick: French Corps has taken Geralt. Frimont, Muffling, Davidovitch engaged with Napoleon. Gyulai has routed a corps and should be able to assist me.
2:47 Frederick to Desan: Keep an eye on the fords. Assist Bulow with his attack. Enemy forces close to crossing at/near Ecksdorf.
2:56: Frederick to Gyulai: If you can detach a corp to go north to re-establish line of communication, that would be dandy.

3:00
3:05 Bulow to Frederick: Being overwhelmed. Request WITHDRAW orders.
3:10 Frederick to Muffling: All forces committed. ATTACK the French and win the day!
3:23: Frederick to Von Losthin: WITHDRAW to defendable position. Save Bulow as possible. Once at good defensive position, DEFEND.
3:29 Mannburg Garrison to Frederick: French cavalry is approached the fortress.
3:31 Napoleon to Seras: 2 corp SCREEN toward Neustadt. Center under heavy attack.
3:37 Frederick to Desan: You now see all the enemy of which I am aware. Withdraw to support Bulow and Von Losthin. Pick a good defensive spot in co-ordination with Bulow and Von Losthin and HOLD.

4:00
4:40 Durette to Napoleon: Von Louffer [Losthin] and Bulow on the run.
4:48 Desan to Frederick: Pully's French corp pulled out and headed east.

As you can see, some real fireworks on the Prussian side concerning the big central battle. Let me piece together a little bit of messages, a little observation, and a little commander de-briefing. See if any of this has ever happened in actual history and compare with the tabletop events. Please remember that each player had 2 or 3 corps to administer, more a wing commander than a corp commander. As I noted before, if more folks had come, it would have been easier to shift corps around. On the other hand, both sides labored under the same constraint.

Take particular note of these messages:

    12:03: Gyulai notes the French (Seras) is moving north fast.
    12:30: Frederick tells him to DEFEND.

Gyulai has not seen the 12:30 message, but has sent...

    12:40: Gyulai questions whether Frederick has received his 12:03 message. He reiterates that Seras is sliding by. He's just about to re-orient and attack, when Frederick's 12:30 message arrives. This pretty much stops Gyulai in his tracks, because Muffling is not with him.

Meanwhile, Muffling is flabbergasted that Gyulai is not doing anything--obviously unaware of Frederick's orders!

    12:48: Gyulai's message again noting the French are sliding by, and asking for new orders. This again is repeated at 1:04. Somewhere in there, Muffling orders Gyulai to ATTACK Pollnitz, as noted in 1:17 message. This however, gives Gyulai the new orders he needs.

    1:33: Frederick acknowledges that the 1:04 message arrived at 1:28 (24 minutes) and orders Gyulai to send 1 corp north after Seras and the other two of his south to ATTACK with Muffling.

    2:07: Gyulai replies that it is "impossible" to send a corps north and argues it would take too long. It's clearly not "impossible" to do so, so you have to regard this as disobedience. However, a second missive at 2:44 from Frederick reiterates the sending of troops to protect the line of communication, with the regal addition of "Quitcher Bitchen" (obviously a Prussian idiom)--and Gyulai reluctantly sends troops north after a third message at 2:56 notes that doing so would be just "dandy"--in the nick of time as it was to prevent the French from recrossing the river unopposed. Of course, by this time, Gyulai has routed most of the corps in front of him and taken the triangle of Tanna, Pollnitz, and Schleitz.

The grand sweep around Napoleon begins around 3:00. By 3:10 Frederick is saying to Muffling there's no reserves left--you have to "win the day." But he has also led the last corp, Stoichwich, into battle via Nedburg, which had no French to block them. Napoleon may have had such a plan in mind when, at 2:29, he ordered Pully to SCREEN Ecksdorf and Advance [intent is MANEUVER?] to Nedburg. Pully is the newbie--a new commander--and took everything he had and crossed over to Ecksdorf, rolling up the Desan-Bulow-Von Losthin flank in the process, before being pulled out to come to Napoleon's aid somewhere around 4:45 or so. But when he moved to Ecksdorf, he took Pully and Grouchy's corps. By 3:31 Napoleon is admitting that the center is under "heavy attack." By 5:00, Napoleon's Doughnut has formed and is being dunked, softened, and bitten into. It must be a jelly doughnut because all that red is French blood--even French Imperial Guard red.

Analysis

How about that? Muffling and Gyulai spend most of the game on the same table, but Gyulai is being forced to take orders from Muffling and Frederick! Hmmm. What was Napoleon's maxim about one bad leader is better than two good co-leaders?

Of more interest, is that Gyulai had to stop and adopt DEFEND orders (from C-in-C Frederick), mystifying Muffling in the process and allowing Seras to complete his "escape" to the north. By this time, I'm getting the feeling that Gyulai is fed up with this micromanaging nonsense to the extent of using the time-honored tradition of turning a blind eye and deaf ear towards Frederick's repeated order to send troops north. Frederick, meanwhile, is getting fed up with a subordinate who won't do exactly what he tells him to!

Note: In game terms, Frederick never uses an "order" to tell Gyulai to "send" troops north. Gyulai probably figures that that means MANEUVER, and elects to interpret it one level down to DEFEND along with the other troops--so that he *doesn't* have to send troops north. Perfectly legal. Later, with Muffling there to invoke the second order, ATTACK, he goes after the French. Later, and reluctantly, Gyulai detaches a corp north, but only after he has demolished a French corp in front of him, grabbed objectives, and started the inexorable wheel and squeeze play on Napoleon.

Sounds like 1806 Prussian staff work, eh?

Elsewhere, Frederick can't believe the Desan/Bulow/Von Losthin attack hasn't swept the French away. It is only later that he learns that Desan has been detached to guard the fords. The key here is the 1:53 message from Frederick to Bulow: "Use your advantageous position to attack Durette's Force with your 3 Corps. Keep Desan on your left and beware enemy on the far side of the fords on your left." Desan was kept disnegaged "on the left" and was heading towards the Ecksdorf bridge (not ford) when Pully and Grouchy came barreling over the bridge and crushed Desan and the Prussian left flank. Bulow and Von Losthin were not strong enough to force a minor river line held by Durette and Fontanelli.

Note that by 3:05, Bulow is requesting WITHDRAW orders. It takes a while to get there at 3:23, and then come back somewhere around 3:40 or so. What's left of Bulow, Desan, and Von Losthin manage to keep the French at bay for an hour as they withdraw towards the rough terrain in front of Querfurt and Freistadt. It is a fateful hour because Napoleon lets them be as the Doughnut forms. By 4:45 or so, Pully and Grouchy begin to withdraw to head back to Napoleon...

On the French side, Napoleon sticks to his plan--Seras' 2 corps head north, bypassing Gyulai, Napoleon in the center, and Pully/Grouchy and Durette/Fontanelli on the left--although there is some doubt about where Pully and Grouchy were supposed to be. Napoleon may have figured at least 1 corp was at Nedburg where he directed them, not knowing that Pully took *both* corps to Ecksdorf. The French troops of 1806, fresh from the 1805 victories, were quite superior, so a smaller French force could deal with a larger Prussian one. However well Napoleon did against one Prussian player, he was having a rough time with two, and by the the time the 3rd "half force" player came in, well Napoleon's Doughnut was the result.

The French still won--five solid hours of gaming with who knows how many turns resulted in a French victory. Not intercepting Seras was the key. But oh, had there been yet another hour of daylight left, so to speak, would Napoleon have been captured? Would the French have been able to attack to the rescue? You have to remember that some troops maneuvered quite a long distance. Seras' corps marched 12 feet (Snappy Nappy can be very maneuverable). One cavalry brigade marched 22 feet that afternoon! Most others marched only about 3-4 feet, although Pully the newbie marched about 15 feet in total.

When the day is done, this was another typical Snappy Nappy contest--mucho marching, misunderstood orders, squabbling commanders, crushing flank attacks, and some grinding attacks. How close is that to what you read in the history books?

Snappy Nappy 1806 French vs. Prussians

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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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