FPW - The Battle of Beaumont, 30 August 1870, Part One: The Scenario

Having refought the Battle of Froeschwiller-Wörth with the Rejects, I quickly wanted to do another Franco-Prussian War game using They Died For Glory rules. After some thought I settled on the Battle of Beaumont, 30th August 1870.

Courtesy of the Musee Carnavalet.  Image in the Public Domain from commons.wikimedia.org

I'm providing the troops, rules and umpiring.  Postie is giving the kind use of his shed and terrain, along with his usual hearty hospitality.

The rules in use will be They Died For Glory.

The scenario is taken and adapted from Bruce Weigle's superb scenarios in his 1870 ruleset.

Background and Battlefield
The war has not gone well for the French.  They have been beaten at every turn since the start of the war.  The French Army of the Rhine under Marshal Bazaine is now trapped and besieged in the fortress city of Metz.  The French government has set the newly formed Army of Chalons under Marshal MacMahon the task of lifting the siege of Metz and freeing Bazaine.

However, Moltke and the German forces are on the hunt and are quickly harassing MacMahon's forces and finally catch the 5th Corps at Beaumont before it has had a chance to cross the river Meuse at Mouzon.

Taken from and courtesy of Sedan 1870, The Eclipse of France by Douglas Fermer

This is the sketch map, adapted from that in 1870, of the tabletop given to the players before the day of play.

The Armies
The French consists of 19 infantry regiments (304 figures), 5 cavalry regiments and 9 artillery and mitrailleuse batteries.

The Prussians have 26 infantry regiments (520 figures), 10 cavalry regiments and 10 artillery batteries.

French Briefing:
It is the 30th August 1870.  The Army of Chalons, under the command of Marshal MacMahon, is on a mission to relieve the besieged French army of Marshal Bazaine at Metz.  To do so requires your army to march north, cross the river Meuse then east to Metz.
However, the progress to the Meuse has been slow, disorganised and hampered by bad weather.  To make matters worse the Prussian III and IV armies are chasing you and increasingly snapping at your heels.
Yesterday your command (5th Corps), led by the less than competent General Failly, bumped into the German XII Corps.  Having beat them off, Failly force marched to the area around the town of Beaumont.  With a negligent lack of urgency, Failly paused to rest his troops.  However, the Germans rudely interrupted your lunch with an artillery bombardment.
Since then you have been pushed away from Beaumont.
It is critical that 5th Corps crosses the Meuse at Mouzon (F1) with more than half of your troops and artillery.
You must now conduct a fighting withdrawal in good order.
The morale of your troops has been dented by the march and poor leadership.  So, your commanders will be needed to strengthen the soldiers' resilience and resolve.
If you try to withdraw (voluntary fallbacks) too many units at any one time the retreat may become disorderly and perhaps turn into a rout.
We pick up the battle as it stands at 2.30pm.

German Briefing:

It is the 30th August 1870.

You are aware that the last Imperial French army is now marching north from Chalons in order to cross the river Meuse before seeking to head east to break your siege of the French army at Metz.

Your well organised marching has got your III and IV armies  snapping at the heels of the French.

Yesterday, your XII Corps bumped into French forces identified as 5th Corps.  You are determined to find and bring them to battle before they can reach the town of Mouzon (F1) and cross the Meuse.

To your astonishment you have, today, found 5th Corps preparing their lunch in and around the town of Beaumont.  Around 12.30pm your artillery gave the French some different food for thought!

We now pick up the situation at 2.30pm.

You have captured Beaumont and have pushed the French back.

Your task is to act aggressively to destroy/significantly reduce the French Corps before they can escape across the river at Mouzon.

This is somewhat complicated by rifle fire from your left flank at B6 and 7.

Scenario Specific Rules
They Died For Glory rules allow for units to do a voluntary fallback at the end of a turn.  It is usually a mechanism to permit a withdrawal of a unit from a precarious situation back to safety.  The units falling back, if successful in their test, can fall back 12 inches, still face the enemy and have one action for the next turn.  This would therefore be an easy device for the French players to use to win the game.  That would not be much fun.

So, to encourage the French players to think about their fighting withdrawal they are limited in the number of units that they can safely do a voluntary fallback with each turn.  They can do voluntary fallbacks with a maximum of 25% of the army (including artillery).  Any more and there is a risk that a further proportion of the army will fallback facing away from the enemy and with no actions for the next turn.  This will represent a breakdown of order and the first signs of a rout.

The French soldiery of 5th Corps were in a poor state of morale.  To represent this all units will suffer a minus one to morale checks unless within 6 inches of a command stand.

Deployment
The armies are deployed quite close together as the battle has already been raging for two hours at the point at which the game starts.

This is the view looking south from behind the French positions.  On the far right, you can just make out a division of French 7th Corps stumbling into the battle on the German left.  No design here... they took a wrong turn!

The view looking north from behind the German lines.  Mouzon, the crossing point across the Meuse for the French, is in the top right hand corner.

The view from the east looking west.  The German army to the left and the French to the right and arriving along the road from the west.

For a detailed deployment the following represents the units' positions on the map.

The French

E5 and F6:  5th Corps 1st Division - 1 chasseur, 4 line infantry, 1x4pdr and 1 mitrailleuse

E4 and D5: 5th Corps 2nd Division - 2 line infantry, 1x4pdr

D5, C5 and C6: 5th Corps 3rd Division - 1 chasseur, 4 line infantry, 1x4pdr and 1 mitrailleuse

C5: Cavalry Brigade - 1 hussar, 1 chasseur a cheval, 1 lancer

C5: Reserve artillery - 1x4pdr, 1x12pdr

7th Corps, 1st Division

At location 7, B6: 1 chasseur in farm

B6: 2 line infantry

A6: 2 line infantry, 2x4pdr, 1 mitrailleuse on the road in column

12th Corps

Turn 4 enter at F1: 2 line infantry, 1x4pdr, 1 mitrailleuse

Turn 4 deployed in F5: 2x4pdr

Turn 5 enter at F1: 2 cuirassier

From turn 4 offboard artillery from F1: 2x12pdr, and F2: 2x4pdr.  Both have minus 12 inches to range.

The Germans

IV Corps

E7 and E8: 7th Division - 1 dragoon, 4 line infantry, 2x4pdr

D& and D8: 8th Division - 1 hussar, 1 jager, 4 line infantry, 2x4pdr

XII Saxon Corps

E7 and E8 (just east of Beaumont): 23rd Division - 1 dragoon, 5 line inf., 2x4pdr

F7: 24th Division - 6 line inf., 2x4pdr

1st Bavarian Corps

C8: 2nd Division - 1 light cavalry, 1 jager, 5 line inf., 2x4pdr

B9 and C9: 3 cuirassier, 2x4pdr on the road in column

Victory Conditions
The Germans must simply destroy more than half of the French army (not including 12th Corps) before it can get within one foot of Mouzon.

The French need to get more than half their troops and artillery across the the river at Mouzon or within one foot of it.  This would represent a better result than the actual result for the French.

These conditions may shift slightly depending on the gaming circumstances.

So, all is set.  Let's hope for an enjoyable experience.  Battle report to follow.