The Battle of Liebertwolkwitz, fought on October 14, 1813, took place south of Leipzig, involving Napoleon’s Grande Armée against the Allied forces of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden, led by Prince Schwarzenberg. The battle saw intense cavalry clashes, with around 12,000 French troops, primarily under Marshal Joachim Murat, facing off against approximately 20,000 Allied cavalry and infantry. Murat's job was to "speed-bump" the Coalition, allowing more time for Napoleon to gather his forces.

Our new rules, currently called Napoleon's Bad Day, are a variant of another rule set we have played at the club several times called Tilly's Bad Day. It is mainly a pike and shot set. We took out the pike, and put in more shot!

We played the scenario at Prime Time Games in Gilbert AZ on a 6 x 4 foot table with simple terrain brought from home.

French set up

Here is the initial setup of French forces. The Poles are in the foreground in 2 Corps. The French heavy cavalry Reserve is behind the hill, and a very small French infantry corps defends the village of Liebertwolkwitz.

The scenario map

Coalition set up

From the other side of the table is the Coalition. In the foreground is the very large Austrian 4th Korps. The Russian 1st and 2nd Corps take up the middle, and the Russian Cavalry reserve is near the center in front of a village. Prussians are in the background preparing to storm Markleberg.

Our goal with the rules was to make them as simple as possible in order to allow a new player to understand the mechanics quickly, use realistic tactics, and play a large historical battle to the finish in a couple hours.

What was unusual about this battle was the large amount of cavalry present. Also, the cavalry on both sides was concentrated in the center and in the front line.

The battle broke up into left, center, and right portions. On the left, the Austrian 4th Korps blasted the French 5th to pieces, drove them from the villages. 

 

In the center, the French 5th and 1st cavalry made some dashing charges to stem the Austrian tide, with the 5th cavalry having some good luck against the Russian Reserve Cavalry, destroying some and driving off others.

The French cavalry venture out

Prussian Assault on the Poles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Prussians moved slowly and in mass toward Markleburg, held by the Poles and Poniatowski. Their first assault was driven off with losses, and a clever flank attack by the Polish 4th Cavalry attempted to delay the advance. The Prussians formed square and drove the Poles off. But the assault was delayed. Prussian Dragoons attempted to cut off the village from the rear. They met a Polish division in square supported by artillery and did some damage to it, but disorganized themselves in the process.

We managed to get 9 turns in before we called it. The French were pretty battered, the 5th Corps had left the field and the French cavalry had taken a beating. With the 2 large and fresh Russian infantry Corps moving up in the center, Murat gave the order to withdraw. The Poles were still undefeated and full of vigor, but the masses of green-clad infantry approaching were enough to persuade them to fall back.

It was a fun game. Prime Time games is a nice place. They had a good crowd there, it is very clean and has lots of tables (6x4). Thanks to all who attended.