"Six Days in October" -- Game Time Is...

[JasonPratt]

^ I knew that would come.
And yet I still proceeded.
Damn the torpedoes!

[JasonPratt]

I won't post all our back and forth discussions, just the main resolutions passed along. However, for context in the videos, I'll add this slightly out-of-character post for providing a common initial position map.

*********************

Please refer to this attached map, if possible, for further discussion of pass-routes by color. [note: click to embiggen back and forth]



The area of the Haute Palatinat has been marked with red swipes as politically out of bounds along with its pass which I have x'd through. (I presume we would be allowed to fall back southeast a little of the road along that boundary, if necessary for some emergency reason, but not to primarily maneuver there particularly on the road system.)

On the opposite end of the ridge, I have assigned those passes red color, so as to avoid confusion with the red-out-of-bounds. The farthest west passage I have x'd out, simply because it does not lead to a road system we would be using -- in some bizarre emergency it can still be used, as such.

From right to left, then [edited to add: holy Christ how asleep should I have been when I wrote this?! -- should have been left to right], the passes are Red (to Eisenach); Orange and Yellow (to Gotha); Green (to Saalfield); Blue (to Lohenstein); and Purple (to Hol, or Hoi, can't read it clearly [Edited to add: Hof]). I have only mentioned the first town after the pass in each case, not the various connections beyond them.

You will notice I have made some marks as to the Corps locations so far as I know them from the briefing, although in some cases I have had to make an educated guess from the lack of specific description (for example "on the road between Bamberg and Cobourg" could mean three or four things, but I have supposed provisionally it means the crossroad junction.) This will give us some initial positioning to work and plan with until whenever Cyrano gives us a corp/division starting map, at which time we may have to make a few adjustments but I didn't want us to have to wait for that.

Finally, in order to avoid rank confusion I recommend all corps leaders be referred to informally as commanders for the operation. At this point you are all effectively equal in command of multiple divisions each anyway.

JRP (Nappy)

PS (sent soon afterward): I have added a bloody pink lung-spray, north of which we may expect the Prussian forces to be congregating nearby. They could easily be surging to hold the passes, BUT they lack divisional (much less corps) flexibility for their cavalry: they only have cav brigades, integral to each division. That said, they start a lot closer to the passes, too.
******************************************

Note to self, I thought I remembered Bernadotte starting farther off from his eventual pivot anchor placement.

[JasonPratt]

For anyone who, like me, has been watching the video AAR and thinking, omg those poor, poor Prussians, I didn't realize we outnumbered them so badly, I really feel sorry for them...

******************************************** [From James (Davout)]

Gentlemen!

Running the numbers:

We are outnumbered very slightly in cavalry(38000 to 39000); but our
cavalry is more concentrate-able and much of it already is in a corps.

We have a very slight advantage in infantry (128000 to 126000).

We have a morale advantage of 1.5:1 on average. (On the spreadsheet,
several units have a morale of zero - is this intended?)

We have more corps by 2:1 -- 8 to 4.

This helps in that we can probably be more flexible, but it also
means there are more opportunities for becoming disjointed.
****************************************

Discussion of planning commenced from there. The point is that despite how things look on the map, we (the French) have twice as many smaller divisions moving around, but our numbers on the ground are about equal to the Prussians.

[mirth]

Crush your enemies
See them driven before you
Their women lament

[JasonPratt]

^ Ha, well played! 

After further discussion and some weekend delay while I and Cyrano (the umpire) were out of pocket, Cy requested all further communications come through him as the umpire and marching orders be given.

So I consolidated and synthesized all suggestions and concerns from the marshals, along with my overall strategic goals, and sent out the following:

French Marshals and noble Allies!

Having digested all advice, and taking account of the eagerness for all commanders to participate in the battle, and keeping in mind that communications will quickly break down, I issue the following operational plans, with initial orders. Each commander should be generally familiar with the purposes of the three general thrusts.

Each thrust shall have two stages, and each stage shall have two steps (of somewhat varying variability depending on what's happening by then), in keeping with Malfoy's Bell and Corollary. Each stage and each thrust is intended to protect our LoC, to keep our morale as high as possible while in operation, and to discover and exploit opportunities. While we will not be concentrating force, we will be acting decentralized so with minimal communication problems; and in such a way that we should be able to either exploit a Prussian spread of force, or even exploit a Prussian concentration of force. The overall plan puts all corps commanders into action (and into the game) with highly important roles, and puts commanders experienced with the area (with the game) into a specially flexible role. The overall plan also makes use of our strategic mobility and flexibility. Hopefully the overall plan will be elegant while flexible.

Very briefly, an independent West Wing will take Gotha and press for ways to exploit the Prussian western front, in a fashion that puts our cavalry corps at its greatest advantage while also defending our LoC. Four corps will move up through a Central Thrust to find and, where possible, fix the Prussian defenses, allowing us to outmaneuver them whether they have advanced their defense, advanced a counter-thrust attempt along various lines, or pulled back to a concentrated defense around Weimar. Finally one corps will work its way semi-independently up the East Wing to protect against a similar probe and, more likely, to open up a thrust on their LoC, if less likely than for West Wing.

Everything after this is more specific, so can be skipped if you like.

WEST WING
---------

West Wing shall consist of Lannes, Murat, and Davout. Wing command shall begin with Murat, but shall shift to Lannes under certain conditions to be discussed soon.

Broadly speaking, the West Wing has two objectives:

Objective West One: take Gotha

Objective West Two: hold Gotha, fixing Prussian attention (if any) at Erfurt, while Murat's cavalry corps proceeds in a loop to probe for the enemy LoC.

OBJECTIVE WEST STAGE ONE -- TAKE GOTHA
--------------------------------
Note that if this somehow fails, there will be no need to move to Objective West Two.

Murat: shall move from his presumed position on the road south of Cobourg to Red Pass via Cobourg, past the Hildburghausen exit (not into the city of course), to Moringen, then north. Murat step one: secure the Red Pass(es) and take Eisenach. Step two: flank Gotha and assist while Lannes and Davout assault Gotha from the south. Do not let your morale erode by overmarching: have less than 20 fatigue points upon arrival at Red.

Since Murat should arrive in the area a little more quickly, and should have more scouting range, Murat shall be Wing Command during Objective West One. Murat at his discretion may leave a division each near Orange and Yellow Pass to attach to Lannes and Davout upon arrival.

Lannes: shall march northward from Schweinfurt to Moringen and thence to Orange Pass. Step one: secure Orange pass and wait for Davout. Step two: coordinate with Murat to advance on Gotha ahead of Davout. You have the shorter corps, but may be a bit more rested than Davout. Do not erode your morale by overmarching: have less than 20 fatigue upon arrival at Orange.

Davout: shall march northward from Bamberg through Cobourg, then to Hildburghausen, then north (through the unnamed town on the map) to Yellow Pass. Step one: secure Yellow pass. Step two: advance behind Lannes to relieve him or help enflank Gotha. Do not erode your morale by overmarching: have less than 20 fatigue upon arrival at Orange.

If Murat elects to leave a division for one or both of you at your passes, you will add them to your command as you see fit for the duration of the Gotha stage.

You may send your cavalry to harry retreating divisions as you see fit, but securing Gotha and the river approaches from Erfurt must be your second stages to West Objective One.

Should Murat or either other commander detect the Prussians advancing, Murat should judge whether the passes can be held in time. If so, then hold the passes and execute flanks through any open passes upon the advancers -- there couldn't possibly be very many. Continue with Objective West One (taking Gotha) if and only if any advance has been neutralized.

If somehow there is great pressure, or somehow divisions are already coming through when Murat arrives in the area, pull back and hold the line at the rivers around Moringen and Hildburghausen. Protect the LoC! Send me word and I shall orient to push westward accordingly.

OBJECTIVE WEST STAGE TWO -- FIX AND FLANK
-----------------------------------

Assuming Gotha is taken, once Murat judges his corps is ready to move, he shall turn West Wing Command over to Lannes. Murat will be operating as an independent detachment, but nominally may be called back by Lannes in the event of a general Prussian push west.

Murat step one: advance from Gotha to Nordhausen through Mubthausen (not sure if I've spelled that right, hard to see on the map). At your discretion, you may cut the corner northward once you reach the ridgeline east of Dun (? -- not sure that town is actually named), especially if you can ascertain from advance divisions that Dun is empty and will not threaten your advance. (Presumably any such advance divisions would cross back over the ridge on the Dun/Nordhausen road and fall in at the end of your column as you cut the corner.) Step two: probe eastward toward Halle through Eisleben at your discretion. You may also at your discretion attempt an opportunity counter-march southward to catch Prussian troops in the rear. You will be largely out of timely command, so must act independently. If necessary, and possible, retreat back toward Gotha. You may also be summoned by Lannes before you reach the corner-turn toward Nordhausen, in the event of a more general Prussian push westward.

Lannes step one: deploy your and Davout's corps to secure against a push westward from the Prussians. If Murat lent you one or two cavalry divisions, you may cede one or two divisions back to Murat from you and/or Davout at your discretion. They need not be the same ones he lent; send or keep whichever ones you think will help most on your or Murat's mission. Step two: probe toward Erfurt, but do not attempt to take the city unless you and Davout agree the attempt is feasible, and unless Davout can take Urnstadt first for a flanking attack northward.

So far as you sense SIGNIFICANT weakness, you may advance eastward carefully, but protect the LoC. Your primary duty after capturing Gotha is to force the Prussians to deploy defensively westward; or to protect against them pushing toward the ROY passes. You may call back Murat in the latter case, but be aware he may not return if he has already substantially marched on Nordhausen. Hold Gotha at all costs, unless (1) you can pull back Murat in time); and (2) you judge the only way to secure the LoC is to pass back through ROY. Keep that line open!

Murat for Stage One, and Lannes for Stage Two, should send me reports as you see fit, but I recommend not unless there are major achievements or problems. Davout should only send reports to the Wing Commander for each stage, except in catastrophe. Murat should send reports back to Lannes where possible in Stage Two, but both commanders should keep in mind this will become less feasible as the operation develops. I shall not be sending commands to West Wing except in catastrophic circumstances.

The two-stage West Wing Operation should minimize traffic problems, protect and secure the ROY passes, and flexibly open opportunities for exploitation. Keep your morale up, protect the LoC, and give the Prussians an ever haggard night-mare!

EAST WING
---------

This is Soult, who with his large corps shall operate as an independent detachment.

Soult step one: advance north out of Bayrouth to Hof via Purple Pass. You shouldn't need to rush, Central Thrust will be a little while developing. Step two: wait until I signal from Blue pass, then probe carefully but steadily along the northeast road. If you safely reach Zwicken, turn northward and continue carefully probing northward. Theoretically you may go so far as to take Leipzig! However, your primary purpose is to check against Prussian flanking attempts along this road, and so to secure the LoC (while threatening theirs should the opportunity present).

Should you meet resistance, you may block behind a river; or you may withdraw to fight at rivers, at your discretion. You should not try to advance against their defense, unless you outnumber them at least two divisions to one, and unless you can get your cavalry around behind them -- even then you should take your time and be cautious about expending your men. Of course keep couriers coming to me for updates either way, but I will not be sending you orders unless you seem to need a major retreat, or unless we need reserves unexpectedly. Naturally, should the Prussians break generally, I will inform you with orders of how to advance for exploitation, but I realize there may be significant delay.

This should minimize traffic and communication problems for you, and protect our LoC with minimum clear steps which should also keep your troops' morale high, while offering flexible opportunities. Guard our back door, and creep on theirs!

Here I've run into the forum character limit SHUT UP MIRTH, so I've split into two posts.

(...was the reference to Zorro the Gay Blade in this one or the next one...?)

[JasonPratt]

Continuing and concluding the specific initial orders and conceptual rationales:

CENTRAL THRUST
--------------

Obviously, the remaining corps shall be making a central thrust in two waves, although this will require a little careful footwork first.

OBJECTIVE CENTRAL THRUST STAGE ONE
----------------------------------

Bernadotte (hereafter Bern) step one: cut cross country northwest to Vernstadt (? can't quite get the name on my map) and then up to Green Pass. (i.e., step one is get to Green Pass.) Step lively and watch the fatigue, but I expect a drop of a morale point or two. Try not to accumulate 40 fatigue. Step two: rest a little at your discretion, and proceed to Saalfield. Deploy for a bit of a rest behind the river system there if you can; you may advance a little northward to where the road from Weimar t-forks north of the Saale, but do not cross the Salle (except at the Sallfield bridge as you wish). Your main goal for this First Stage is to protect against an opportunity thrust back down Green Pass (watch out for a deep sally from the west branch of the Salle, pardon the pun!), and to set up a potential pivot point.

Bessiere (hereafter Bess, although if Lefev is actually the character let me know) step one: much like Bern's orders, but worse! Starting from a presumed position at the t-fork in the Bamberg/Hof road (north of Bayrouth), we shall march northwest to Kronach overland, and then take the road north through Blue Pass to Lohenstein. (i.e., step one is to get to Lohenstein via Blue Pass.) As with Bern, I realize we'll be eating a little fatigue, but try not to accumulate 40 points. Step two: rest a little at your discretion, then advance carefully to Schleitz. Deploy for a bit of a rest behind the river system there if you can; you may advance a little northward to the next small river branches, to cover the approaches from the two north roads as you wish. I'll be with you to help coordinate the central push later. Our primary goal for this Stage is to secure Blue pass, set up a defensive center while our remaining two corps make the long march up.

If the Prussians try a counter-advance in the direction of Green and Blue, our job is to hold these positions (perhaps with me shifting my HQ westward somewhat to help with communications north of the ridgeline frontier) while our reinforcements come up through Green and Blue (and, if feasible, I may coordinate an opportunity strike westward from Soult). This will also give West Wing more opportunity to roll up from the west. I expect, however, that we will simply blunt any Prussian opportunity advance and they'll take defensive positions behind their own rivers, since after all to quote one of the "elcade"s of my brother the King of Spain, "WEEEE HAVE ONNNEEE ADVANTAAAAGGGE: WE HAVE THE NECKLACE!" They know one way or another we must come to them. That's fine, one way or another we want to fix them in place, whether here north of the ridgeline, or farther north eventually.

Ney step one: Dav will be blocking Ang from moving for a while (sending Dav to Schweinfurt and then north would have removed a lot of this problem, but I wanted Davout to arrive at Yellow around the same time Lannes arrives at Orange or not long afterward). So I am going to presume you are starting on the southeast road beyond the first bridge, meaning you should have a pretty clear march overland north, just left of the small ridgeline (where the rivers shed left and right) but right of the river-heads. Your first step is thus to reach the Bamberg/Hof road overland. Step two: follow that road up to Hof, and then take the left fork to pull up behind Bess on the road south of Schleitz. Easy enough, but arguably you have the toughest march. Try not to accumulate 60 fatigue points.

Augereau (hereafter Aug) step one: wait for Davout to clear the road in front of you. Step two, march up the Kronach road through Blue Pass to Saalbourg. Since you have a long march, I realize you may drop some morale, but you'll also have Davout ahead of you until the Cobourg fork and he has been ordered to keep his troops' fatigue under 20. I fully expect you to arrive with your fatigue under 60.

Should we need to pull back to the passes (or, by some miracle, we find the Prussians waiting at the passes, hardly past them) we can stop there and hold, looking for flanking opportunities through passes since we can spread out strategically better. But really, fine, the Prussians would have to spread themselves thin or ignore the West altogether and that gives West Wing plenty of opportunity to ruin their Oktober! We'll just cycle fresh divisions in and out at the passes as Ney and Aug arrive, and wait for West Wing to win.

Assuming we have to advance to win, however, let us go on to Stage Two.


OBJECTIVE CENTRAL THRUST STAGE TWO
------------------------

Should the prior two steps go to plan, we should have Ney and Aug within good communication distance from me north of blue, and by now we should have a good idea of whether the enemy will be taking up positions across the Saale at the t-fork on the road to Weimar (north of Bern). Ideally if we advance (as we probably will), we want to spread out the Prussian defense eastward (away from West Wing) since the Prussians have fewer corps and so less strategic flexibility. Or if the Prussians have advanced westward, we should take position to exploit a push to hammer them onto Lannes' anvil.

Thus:

Bern step one: if you're being pressed at Saalfield, just hold there and we'll come help. If you see that you can advance to take the t-fork leading to Weimar do that. If the Prussians have lined up on the road north of the Saale (very likely), you may try probing left a little with your cavalry to look for a flank, but otherwise just stay there and glare at them. You found and fixed them and you're protecting Green Pass with what should be high morale.

Your step two will be to just keep holding position (at Saalfield river system or across it at the t-fork); or to march north toward Weimar (but don't take it at the expense of leaving your LoC exposed). Unless there's a catastrophe, don't march west to help Lannes and/or Davout at Urnstadt or Gotha -- we don't want the Prussians to shorten their defensive line! We might send you westward to mess with their own attempt to move up that road, if things look stable on our end, but you may do best just snipping the LoC of anyone trying that, while keeping them from reversing course and doing the same. I'm not expecting to take Weimar without the Prussians just shattering and running for Berlin anyway. Keep up the pressure, but your very presence there is a pressure -- don't make chancy assaults. You're the defensive pivot.

Bess step one: we're the weakest of the three corps in the neighborhood, so for this stage we're going to let them pass through and meanwhile guard the road at Schleitz. Or we may strike off westward to help Bern at Saalfield, depending on the situation. Step two would be following after Ang and Ney depending on circumstances, to serve as reserve or to explot.

We'll have either blunted a Prussian advance and set up a demonstration for West Wing to exploit, or else the Prussians won't have advanced far (or at all). Either way, I doubt the Prussians will be trying to push on us when Ang and Ney arrive, so we'll probably be able to let them rest a few days.

Ney step one:  Ney will likely have gotten in position first, and/or be rested first, so I expect him to move out first. Ideally I'll send you probing up toward Gera, but if you meet resistance you should evaluate, take a defense behind a river, and send information. Step two will be to launch a weighted blow (since aside from attrition you have the largest corp on this side of the Central Thrust) on the eastern side of a Prussian front, or possibly to serve as a pivot while we bring up Bern and Aug.

Aug step one: wait for Ney (presumably, we'll work out the details if we get this far) to move through Schleitz, and then take the road northwest probing toward Neustadt. You probably won't be acting as a pivot in any case. Step two will be to take Neustadt if that's feasible.

By this time Central Thrust will have either:

(1) blunted a provisional Prussian counter-thrust;

(2) discovered they intend to make an advanced defense, in which case we should be in position to create some exploitations (whether here, on East Wing moving semi-independently, and/or West Wing);

(3) discovered they intend a western thrust in which case we should be able to exploit them (and come to the aid of West Wing);

(4) discovered they intend to make a concentrated defense around the Erfurt / Weimar / Jena region (possibly extending to Naumbourg), in which case we should be able to envelop them with Nurat (possibly also Soult) and then ruin their whole month;

(5) discovered they have fallen back along their LoC to shorten their defensive line further and protect their LoC, perhaps along the Nordhausen / Eisleben / Halle line, in which case we'll have to adjust;

or (6) discovered they intend to do something crazy like withdraw to the far east road north of Purple.

Anyway, at that time we should either be in position to win, or to pull back from a developing catastrophe (perhaps to set up a counterthrust), or to assess the situation and set up a new Center Thrust two-step action.

The conclusion below is a summary again like that the top. Casual readers can skip over the prior detail; this is what it means.

Henceforth, I expect to hear from couriers on the march! To reiterate the command lines, east to west:

East Wing: Soult, acting with a semi-independent mission to protect and, perhaps, exploit the road north of Purple. He will send couriers to me.

Central Thrust: first Bern and Bess (I'll be with Bess) eventually also Ney and Ang (probably arriving in that order). There is no need for Ney and Ang to burden the umpire with couriers to me until you get to significant waypoints on your route (or some kind of disaster), and not to Bern or Bess at all (not until Stage One of Central Thrust is complete anyway). Bern and Bess should send couriers to me. I won't bother Ney or Ang (nor the umpire) with couriers except when we achieve steps or run into trouble, until we reach Stage Two of Central Thrust.

West Wing: under Murat's command until Stage One is achieved, then Lannes for Stage Two. Davout should send couriers to them as appropriate, and each to each other and to Davout as appropriate. Whoever is currently in command, AND NO ONE ELSE IN WEST WING, should send me a courier to keep me updated but I expect you to operate on your own unless there is a complete disaster -- nor will I be sending orders unless we somehow need disastrous levels of help.

Now go forth!

[JasonPratt]

By the end of Day 1, we were somewhere around here as far as I could tell:



And that provides French intention context for Cyrano's video start.  O:-)

[mirth]

I'm beginning to understand why this took 18 months :P

[James Sterrett]

I'm beginning to understand why this took 18 months :P

18 months of awesome.   :D

[Hatricvs]

Brunswick here...I will try and do something similar to Napoleon's post and give a little contest to the early part of the campaign. I will not be able to document it quite as detailed as others but, I do have some of my initial maps and thoughts on what I wanted to try and do. More posts to come and it will be fascinating to see how the story unfolds via Jim's videos.....between us all I am sure we have material for several post campaign books on the subject of this October War.

Andy B (hatricvs) AKA Brunswick

[mirth]

I'm beginning to understand why this took 18 months :P

18 months of awesome.   :D

O0

[James Sterrett]

A link to the umpire's AAR of another Le Vol game I took part in - in this one I was General Mack, trying to avoid getting annihilated by the French as the Austrians in 1805.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_oCYL7qzxGB9r61NnF-7eN-yMsjiHPLTdpbSdXFaCcg/edit?usp=sharing

This links to a 57-page doc....  brace yourselves.  :)

[mirth]

Did you avoid annihilation?

[Hatricvs]

Hmmm just like in the campaign the French are able to mass their technological and logistical advantage and post images whereas I am struggling to get the pics to upload....maybe more later or if technology prevents it will be all quiet from Brunswick!

[James Sterrett]

Did you avoid annihilation?

We did, but it was very narrow, including a dramatic night-time breakout from encirclement.   :bd: