Battle of Wildberg

MurdockS MarauderS have played out the pursuit battle of Wildberg, you can read the AAR here.

Count Pahlen III leads two brigades of Hussars to cut off the French retreat

Barclay de Tolly's forces conducted a forced march and caught up with the 36th Division south of Meissen.

Another Cavalry Clash northwest of Lubben

Desperate for information about French troop movements GdK Blucher ordered a massive cavalry sweep into the roads north west of Lubben south of the river Spree.

Russian Chasseur a Cheval

The summary of the battle from Jim:

In a nutshell, a French ambush worked well but they were spotted in hilly and wooded terrain in time to avoid utter surprise.  The french jumped the two Russian CàC units but only sawed off the skirmish, no killed units on either side.  Neither the french nor the Russian units rallied promptly, allowing the Cossacks time to worry their way around the French flank.  The french backed off while trying to recover units (1 of 3 in effective command and in order).  With units finally recovered, a second melee was initiated with the Russians coming off the worst but not losing anyone.  They were then able to move to the edge of the board while the French, heavily outnumbered, did not get an opportunity to land another strong blow without overpowering counter attack. The kicker however was the French never really got their first attack in as hoped, and it could/ought to have gained 3 or more kills.

view of Jim's table just as the trap was sprung!

10th September 1813 has been a busy day for both sides with fights on both the north and south of a line of troops from Lubben to Dresden.  Map details go out soon now for the orders of the 11th ...

Battle of Meisen Bridge

Austrians forming a rear-guard

The Austrian 4th Army Abtielung 1st Division was facing the French II Corps 4th Division at a crossing of the Elbe east of Meisen.  The French had been building up defenses since the 28th of August, now here on the 10th of September the Austrians were ordered to attack.  2nd Division was forced marching up with the
Abtielung (Corps) artillery to support the assault.

1st Division was mostly Hussars with some Cheveauxleger and Grenzer battalions along with a 6lb Horse battery.  Facing them behind their two weeks worth of fortifications at the bridge were 3 battalions of Leger and 9 of Line foot along with 2 12lb Foot batteries under Dubreton's command.

Due to the need for the forced marching 2nd Division to come up the battle could not start until 15h00.  The Cheveauxleger set up a screen while the Grenzers and horse batteries got into position to rush the bridge and fire on the French on the far bank, while the 2nd Division arrived and moved up the three heavy batteries that were the 4th Army Abtielung reserve.  This took some three hours to accomplish under French artillery fire, the 1st Division suffered some 35% casualties during this phase, scoring negligible hits on the French.

By 18h00 the main assault was under way, with the Austrian Foot batteries pounding into the French defenses and all-out assaults began with the Grenzers.  The first hour saw 10% casualties on the Fernch and 30% on the Austrians, with the Grenzers all but wiped out.

Undaunted the second wave went in at 19h00, over the next three hours successive battalions of Austrian foot stormed the bridge, again only 10% casualties were suffered by the French; while a whopping 50% were suffered by the Austrian attackers.  Faced with withering losses Austrian Wing Commander
Generalmajor Baron Trapp called off any further assaults and by 22h00 on 10th September 1813 the attacks on the eastern bridge of Meisen was over, the Austrians were in full retreat to Furstenwalde.

Battle was 'simulated' using GURPS Mass Combat system and the troop strength sheets combat system.