Prussian Guards' Assault of St Privat, 18 August 1870

With a couple of minor amendments from our situation testing (see Event Testing of FPW Rules), Jonathan, of Palouse Wargaming Journal, and I reconvened for a test game.

For the action, I chose the section of the Battle of Gravelotte-St Privat (18 August 1870) that turned the battle decisively for the Prussians.

This should be a very different test of my rules as the Prussians are of a better grade to the French.

French defenders await the Prussian advance up the slope.

Briefing

After being driven back towards Metz after the Battle of Mars-La-Tour two days earlier, The French commander, Bazaine, dug in on a line from just south and east of Gravelotte to St Privat in the north.

The battle commenced at c.11:45am with the Germans frontally attacking the left and centre of the French line.  These were well dug in and very well defended.  The Germans suffered heavy losses and the attacks stalled.

As the day wore on the Prussians extended their line northwards with the Saxon 12^th Corps and Prussian Guard Corps.  The Saxons took Ste Marie aux Chenes but were forced to withdraw from before St Privat after heavy losses.  It was looking good for the French defenders.  However, their right flank hung in the air at the village of Roncourt.  As evening began to draw in, the Germans had found the end of the French line and the Prussian Guard advanced up the long slope towards St Privat.  By 7pm Roncourt was overrun and the French flank turned.  By nightfall St Privat was on fire and captured.

With the escape to Verdun now closed, Bazaine was forced to retreat into Metz.

The Guard Corps lost 2440 killed and 5511 wounded.

Scenario
This scenario is set at the commencement of the Guards’ advance up the slope.

French infantry and artillery are all Grade 1. They may start formed or in open order, standing or prone.

Prussian infantry and artillery are all Grade 2.  They must start formed.

As was often the case in the early frontier battles, the German artillery was not immediately deployed as it ought to have been.  So, the Prussians start with only their infantry.  When the artillery arrives, their shooting results are counted before the French can shoot their artillery.

Victory Conditions
The Prussians (me) must capture both Roncourt and St Privat for a decisive victory.  Capturing just one will be considered a minor victory.

The French (Jonathan) must hold both.  Nothing else will do!

Alternatively, the first side to lose 50% breaks.

The Armies and Deployment

The deployment map that I sent to Jonathan.

The French are deployed on the upper slope. The Prussian Guard start from Ste Marie without artillery in support.  They will arrive on turn 2 on a successful die roll, or automatically on turn 3.  Each unit represents approximately one regiment.  This is halving of the number of battalions in this part of the overall battle.

The Battle
It might be helpful to know the sequence of play:

1.         Check command
2.         Pivot and shoot artillery
3.          Player A declares charges
4.          Player A moves/rallies
5.          Player B small arms fire
6.         Melee
7.          Repeat 3-6, reversing players
8.          Voluntary Fallbacks

The Prussians being the attackers move first as Player A.

The French artillery opened up at long range, damaging a unit and compelling it to retire.  The rest of the Prussian line advanced.  Meanwhile the French front line withdrew slightly. 

As the Guards continued their advance, both sides opened up with rifle fire.  Another Prussian unit took considerable punishment and was withdrawn from the line before it disintegrated.

At last, the Prussian Guard artillery caught up with the front line.  The impact was immediate and devastating.  A French battery was forced to limber up and retire, while another saw a significant reduction in its combat efectiveness.

The Prussian guns were laying down a punishing fire.  Another battery was destroyed and the defenders of Roncourt on the French right (Prussian left) were left barely able to muster a defence.
In a bid to stall an assault on St Privat, a regiment charged the Prussian right.

With the advantages and disadvantages to the combattants being about even, the intervention of good fortune was critical.

Alas, lady luck was not smiling on the Emperor's men.  They were thrown back and forced to retire behind St Privat. 

Having suffered from artillery bombardment and heavy rifle fire, half of St Privat was ablaze and her defenders dead.  A Guard unit was quick to occupy.  Meanwhile, the other half of the town was being assaulted.  However, the plucky defenders poured sufficient lead into the advancing Germans to force them to go prone.  The charge was stalled.

At the other end of the line, the weight of fire was too much and Roncourt was captured.

With Roncourt and half of St Privat in Prussian hands, the quantitive and qualitative difference was deemed too great for the French who chose to withdraw from the field.

As night fell, the Germans controlled the field as Marshal Bazaine ordered his army into Metz.

After thoughts
Whilst the result of the battle mirrored the events, the nature of the outcome was less in keeping with the battle and rather less plausible... in my opinion.  The Prussians took relatively little damage from the defenders in this game.  Whilst I anticipated a Prussian win, I would have expected the attackers to suffer rather more than they did.  Other than that the game went well, with the mechanics of my rules faring reasonably well - more detail on that in a moment.

A scenario based issue was that the Prussians had too many guns.  Prussian guns are better, but the number of them made it rather too lop-sided a game.  My experience is that, regardless of the rules, the superiority of the German artillery makes the scenario design of a FPW battle a delicate balancing act.  As I said, this is a scenario design issue, not a rule design issue.

Jonathan made for a great opponent playing the French.  Our post-game discussion was really useful with the following arising from our analysis of the game for me to now ponder:

• There is some stacking allowed in a hex.  Either two artillery or one artillery and one infantry unit.  Each can be targeted separately.  One change is that all units stacked in a hex will now be affected as per the result on the ladder.
• Should prone units be able to fire with the same effect as standing units?
• Should there be a difference between formed units shooting and open order units shooting?
• Which has led me to consider whether to abstract the unit and formations further.  I'm wondering whether all infantry units should be in either a "combat ready formation" or march column.  This leaves the player without worrying about formations.  The assumption is that the commander of the regiment or battalion will just do that job as the player is higher up the command structure.  The only obviously open order troops would be the chasseurs and jagers.
• I need to refine the ladder of results for rallying off disruption points (DP) and doing voluntary fallbacks.  The latter is an option to quickly withdraw damaged or endangered units from the front line, and is extra to the normal movement.
• I currently, and deliberately, don't have leader casualties in the rules.  So, that is now something to mull over.

So, a number of things to reflect on. 

My thanks to Jonathan for his time, reflections and openness in discussion. We will refight this game with amended rules at some future date.  Between now and then, I and other Rejects will be helping Lee and Ray put on their Retreat from Moscow game at the Broadside Show at Gillingham on the 13th June.