The Battle of Dennewitz 1813 (A Scenario for 'Napoleon's Battles')

[Jemima Fawr]

My favourite Napoleonic battle to wargame is the Battle of Dennewitz, fought on 6th September 1813. Marshal Ney was trying to bully his way through to Berlin, where Marshal Oudinot had already failed a few weeks earlier using the exact-same troops. General Buelow, at the sharp-end of Bernadotte's Army of the North, was trying to stop him. This is a great encounter battle with a very cosmopolitan flavour - an Allied army of Prussians, Russians and Swedes, versus a 'French' army of Frenchmen, Bavarians, Saxons, Italians, Wuerttembergers and Poles. Even the British Rocket Troop makes an appearance, so what's not to love...?

I've played this scenario about five or six times since the 1990s, but not recently, so it would be good to dig it out again.

http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/2020/01/29/ ... s-battles/

[DaveC]

Thank you. Always interesting to see another take on a battle. Especially as I have a useful chunk of the forces involved.

I use GdA and Dennewitz is in one one the GdB scenario books (6 or 7) and reduces the Swedish contingent to a Horse Battery so the broader view is fascinating.

[Jemima Fawr]

Cheers Dave!

Was that GdB scenario one of mine? I'm struggling to remember which ones I did or at least had a hand in helping with.

Yes, in reality the only Swedish forces to actually get majorly stuck in were the horse artillery and hussars, which arrived a long time before the rest of the corps (as can be seen from the Allied reinforcement schedule). The French broke and ran just before the rest arrived.

[DaveC]

The Scenario is in Napoleonic Scenarios 6 Imperial Sunset.
The scenario is split in two, one is around Dennewitz itself and the action by Tauentzien's corps reinforced by lead elements if Buelow's corps against French IV corps plus additional cavalry.
The other is around Gohlsdorf and heavily features the Saxons against a good part of Buelow's corps plus allied artillery assets.

Played neither so far as insufficient forces but I've another player with troops on board (mostly based for LaSalle but anyone prepared to build MacDonald's corps in 1813 can't be all bad. His Italians can help with Fontanelli, the Westphalia's as more Saxons and the French as they are. I plan to do the Wurttemberg Division one day.

[NTM]

One of my favourite battles too. Actions of the Army of the North and the Prussians under Bulow so much more interesting than the glory boys of Silesia and Bohemia.

[SABOT]

Great stuff. Lovely map.

[Don McHugh]

Played that battle a couple of times using the Blucher Rules.

Very good game.

Don

[Jemima Fawr]

Cheers chaps!

I'm eventually going to expand the map a further 12 inches (1km) to the west, in order to give the Allies more breathing room. In the meantime if you want to play it, there's not much going on in that area terrain-wise, so you can just add a 'blank' strip of terrain to the western edge, with the main Allied arrival road extended out to the edge and the first Allied reinforcement formation already on table, along with Bulow. The rest of the reinforcements will then arrive 1 turn ahead of their listed time.