Another Blucher game against Gordon, this time with me using Russians and Gordon his Ottoman Turks. The Turks are an interesting and different army in Blucher with vast numbers of cheap but brittle units available but also some decent ones as well to choose from.
Their numbers together with an advantage they get for scouting means that it is very likely they will win the Scharnhorst map stage of the game and get to defend in the battle, which with a high break point, is ideal for them.
Last time I played them I went in for a strategy which basically conceded all victory points in Scharnhorst to them but would hopefully allow me to decide where the battle would be fought allowing me to maximise my units on table and minimise the Turks forcing some of them to come on as reinforcements ideally. The idea was to then win the battle by breaking the Ottoman army. It worked so I thought well why not try it again?!
I did change the army composition though, reducing the amount of infantry and increasing the cavalry resulting in four Corps, two each of four infantry brigades (one was composed of conscripts to save points) with a heavy artillery battery and a Cossack brigade in support. I then had two cavalry Corps, the first with a brigade of cuirassiers, two dragoon brigades, a Cossack brigade and a horse artillery battery and the second of two Hussar brigades, a Cossack brigade and a horse artillery battery. The idea behind this was basically to use the powerful Russian artillery to blast the less enthusiastic Turkish units then roll over them with the cavalry and/or infantry
The plan immediately collapsed when we started the Scharnhorst as Gordon obviously remembered what I did last time and carefully avoided taking more than the minimum victory points on the map when moving his columns! As a result we had the rather bizarre situation of both armies carefully keeping away from anything worth having! In the end Gordon managed to declare a battle with all of his forces on table against my 1st Infantry Corps, 1st Cavalry Corps and half the 2nd Cavalry Corps with the 2nd Infantry Corps and the remainder of the 2nd Cavalry Corps coming on as reinforcements. This did mean the Turks would have to win the battle to win the game though as we had equal VP after Scharnhorst (1 each!):
The Ottomans opened the battle by moving three brigades over the bridge and into the unoccupied sector on the Russian left:
They followed up with a strong force of Nizam e Cedid, the ottoman version of European infantry, and a heavy artillery battery moving forward in the centre:
In response the Russians moved their cavalry back behind the hill leaving a horse artillery battery on top of the hill. The infantry Corps redeployed to meet the threat on the Russian left:
Sensing an opportunity to deal with the rather isolated and outnumbered Ottomans which had just crossed the river the Russians decide to attack and advance to cross themselves. A heavy artillery battery on the hill can hopefully provide further fire support:
The Ottoman cavalry charge into an unprepared Russian infantry brigade. The infantry in this Corps are the more experienced ones so don't have the disadvantages their conscript colleagues would have in combat with cavalry:
The Russian infantry hold firm and repel the cavalry:
The Ottomans make a major decision and decide to commit their as yet unused third corps to support the attack over the river. They move rapidly with a march move but will find it difficult to deploy elsewhere now if they are needed:
Undeterred and hoping to overwhelm the Ottomans before help can arrive the Russians continue to advance with their artillery weakening the Turks significantly:
The Ottoman cavalry charge again, this time against a different Russian brigade:
Again the Russian infantry repulse them:
One Turkish infantry brigade has been destroyed by Russian artillery fire. The Ottoman cavalry charge yet again:
This time things don't go so well and the Ottoman cavalry are also dispersed. However, the numerous Ottoman artillery is now getting into the action and destroys two of the Russian infantry brigades one of which went from 6 élan to dispersed in one round of shooting!:
The Ottomans continue to move up the Corps they committed to supporting the attack over the river but are having problems with both the difficult terrain and the sheer numbers they have brought along. The Russian force in this area is weakened but still combat capable and has the last of the initial Turkish units in it's sights:
Meanwhile nothing much had been happening elsewhere on the battlefield. Both sides appeared to be waiting for the Russian reinforcements to arrive for a while and finally they turned up:
The Ottomans pour across the river but an especially effective round of fire from the russian artillery on the hill demolishes the leading Ottoman cavalry unit:
With the Ottoman reserves committed the Russians start to move onto the attack in the centre and on the right and decide to support the advance with the 1st Cavalry Corps that had been awaiting developments behind the hill:
The Ottoman's continue their attack over the river with some conscript Janissaries driving back the Russian infantry:
Initially in a battle units like the Russian Cossacks with only 4 élan are very weak. However, after a while when better units have been worn down they become more useful. Here they charge into the victorious Janissaries:
The Cossacks almost destroy the Janissaries then fall back. Russian forces in this area are almost spent now but have inflicted a lot of damage and held up well against the Ottoman horde:
With the Russian attack in the centre starting to make progress the Ottomans decide to try to send some of their right flank units to help. They will need to cross the river again but it is defended by a Russian infantry brigade:
The final viable unit on the left for the Russians, the Hussar brigade, is almost spent and falls back:
On the Russian right a combination of Ottoman artillery fire and me forgetting to do anything to help them allows the Ottomans to launch a cavalry charge on a damaged Russian conscript infantry brigade:
The Russian infantry are dispersed and the neighbouring heavy artillery in grave danger. Something needs to be done about this:
With the pressure on the Russians devote more attention (and momentum) to the centre/right. The threatened artillery retire allowing the cuirassier brigade to charge into the front of the Ottoman cavalry while the Hussars charge them in the flank:
Outnumbered and outflanked the Ottoman cavalry are destroyed:
A close up of one of Gordon's fantastic Ottoman units, these are veteran Janissaries:
The Russian left has done it's job well and begins to retire off table before they are destroyed covered by the last infantry brigade:
The Ottomans are now starting to look in trouble facing the Russian centre/right. Several units have been weakened, the Ottoman artillery has shot off almost all it's ammunition and the Russian cavalry are poised to strike:
Russian Dragoons pick off a depleted Ottoman infantry brigade:
The fight is short and brutal with the Ottoman's being dispersed. They day is coming to an end and the Ottoman army is on the brink of defeat:
On the Russian left the Ottomans have crossed the river but don't have much of an advantage to exploit as there are still a few Russian units holding the flank:
Almost all of the Ottoman units here are now badly damaged and start to attempt to withdraw, they won't find it easy though with plenty of Russian cavalry available to attack:
The Russian infantry continue to defend the bridge:
The Russians press home their advantage:
Meanwhile the Ottomans launch a final attack on the Russian left. The Russian infantry are finally dispersed but the Cossacks manage to destroy their Turkish counterparts leaving the Ottomans on the brink of defeat:
Victory is achieved when a Russian infantry brigade charges into a final Ottoman brigade and breaks them:
With only one turn left each before nightfall the game went right to the wire. The Russians were not that close to breaking having lost three brigades out of the six they needed to lose to break but they did have an awful lot of retired units.
As ever Blucher really gives you the feeling that you are commanding an army with decisions such as when and where to commit your reserves, which areas of the battle you need to concentrate on and which you can give less emphasis to and how far to push your troops are vital and usually determine the outcome.
In this battle I think the big turning point was when Gordon committed his unactivated corps to support his attack over the river to counter my initial assault on his rather isolated and outnumbered units there. Given the difficulty of getting across the river and the sheer number of units Gordon committed I felt it was unlikely they would be able to help their comrades before I'd finished them off and that, with luck, once I'd done that the survivors of my force would be able to hold on for a while then retire which did work.
The other effect of Gordon sending all his reserves off in that direction was that when my reinforcements arrived the remainder of Gordon's forces in the centre were heavily outnumbered and fairly quickly overwhelmed as, once you commit troops in Blucher, it is hard to redeploy them again.
In the post game chat Gordon felt that in the last game we played he had split his corps up too much and therefore this time tried to keep them together and that he hadn't realised quite how hard it would be to get them into action.
I suspect that just as I suffer form not playing enough ADLG and Gordon being a very experienced and devious ADLG player when we play ADLG Gordon suffers in a similar way when we play Blucher as I've played a lot of Blucher against various people whereas Gordon only plays me!
Our next game will be a return to ADLG so I'll be trying to come up with a winning strategy and see if I can improve on my almost but not quite good enough effort last time with the Byzantines.
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