RAGUHN (OCTOBER 9, 1813)
A close pursuit

INTRODUCTION
The Blucher’s Army of Silesia has crossed the Elbe River at Wartenburg and is advancing towards the Mulde River to unite with the Bernadotte’s Army of North. Seeing an opportunity to catch the isolated Prussians, Napoleon has moved northwards at the head of a groups of several Army Corps. The rapid French advance, caused the hasty retreat of the Blucher’s forces that were almost taken at Duben. In the confusion, the Osteman-Sacken's Russian contingent, became isolated and outnumbered it was forced to make a westwards flank march, passing along the Bertrand's IV Corps and the Sebastiani's II Cavalry Corps before reaching the safety with the Army of Silesia’s main force.
The Scenario is based on the published by Rick Babuto in Lone Warrior #156. The background and the forces are taken from George Nafziger and Stephen Millar (Napoleon-Series). This is a "What if" Scenario not only because the actual history was slightly different and neither Bertrand nor Sebastiani catched Osten-Sacken and, but also because of the solo mechanisms used, only part of the Russian forces will appear on the tablegame (although the French forces do appear in full).

Bibliography
- Lone Warrior Rick Barbuto’s Scenario
- G.F. Nafziger. “Napoleon at Leipzig: The Battle of Nations 1813”. The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996
- Nafziger Orders of Battle Collection. Combined Arms Research Library.
- Stephen Millar.  French OOB and
Allied OOB (Napoleon-Series)


TABLE-TOP ADAPTATION

GO TO THE BATTLE IN PICTURES
        
Actual movements  of the Russian and French forces Fabian Wilhelm von Osten-Sacken Game map
     
 The actual battlefield 
 
Scenario pdf file for 'Raguhn'
GO TO THE BATTLE IN PICTURES
 


Summary of the oob
French Army
(Army Moral 43;  Break point 14)
French IV Corps Bertrand 
- Infantry
: 14  battalions
- Artillery: 2 Foot batteries
2nd Light Cavalry Division Roussel
- Cavalry
: 6 Regiments
- Artillery:
1 Horse battery

Russian Army
(Army Moral 59; Break point 20) Not applicable
C-i-C Osten-Sacken
10th Division Lieven
- Infantry
: 8 battalions

27th Division Neverovsky

- Infantry
: 7 battalions

16th Division Repninsky

- Infantry
: 4 battalions
Artillery: 2 Position, 2 Light and 1 Horse batteries
Cavalry Vassilshikov
- Cavalry: 6 regiments
- Cossacks
: 8 pulks

Notes
The Russian forces are a pool from which the actual units will be extracted. The basic duration of the game is 24 Turns (3 hours). Bonus Turns are allowed rolling 2D6 ( p. 66 of the e-Lasalle book). The French are the first side.


OPTIONAL RULES
Solo mechanics (for the Russian units)

The gaming table is divided in three zones (A, B, C) and each had 10 numbered locations (1 - 10). As the French enter the southern (bottom) edge of the table and move north, they would first see the enemy in zone A, moving westwards, and a die will be rolled to generate and locate Russians forces. When the French enter zone B, another set of Russian forces will be generated and the same when the French arrive to zone C.
See the pdf file for a full description of the solo rules

French dispositions
French forces belong to Morand’s 12th Division (Bertrand’s IV Corps) and Roussel’s 2nd Lt Cavalry Division (Sebastiani’s II Corps) and make up for a total of 14 infantry battalions, 6 cavalry regiments and 2 foot and 1 horse batteries. All these units will be used, and must be divided into Advance Guard (3 battalions and 1 cavalry regiment), Main Body (10 battalions, 1 cavalry regiment an 2 foot batteries), Right Flank Guard (1 battalion and 2 cavalry regiments) and Left Flank Guard (1 battalion, 2 cavalry regiments and 1 battery) and will enter following the blue arrows of the game map.
See the pdf file for a full description of the solo rules

Reinforcements
There are not any units in the table map at the start of the game (see map). The French Advance Guard enters in turn 1. The rest of the French units may enter as reinforcements. Use 2D6 for the Arrival Turn (p. 91 of e-Lasalle). The units arrive in march or attack column as desired.
The Russians units enter according to the Solo mechanisms described above. Try to maintain the integrity of the organic brigades and divisions.

Optional rule: Assaults of defiles (bridges and fords)
1) A march column can assault a defile like a bridge, a fortified gate, a ford, etc. It represents not only true march columns, but also all those formations with a very reduced front.
2) It fights at 1/2 dice and with no previous shooting, adding a -2 for "bad terrain" as they will be fighting in cramped quarters.
3) The enemy can use the "cover" or "higher elevation" modifiers when applicable.
4) However the small front, the enemy never halves their dice.

Optional rule: Irregular cavalry (Cossacks)
1) Irregular cavalry units may charge enemy units standing in 'limbered' or 'march column' formation in open terrain.
2) Irregular cavalry units must to pass a 'Discipline' test to initiate the charge in open terrain.
3) If routed in 'decisive combat' the irregular cavalry unit is immediately broken.

Victory conditions
The French goal is to block the Russian retreat, while these last must to accomplish the contrary. The victory assignment must be made on the basis of the total number of Russian units exiting by the west side of the table, but taking in account that the Russian units not appearing actually on the table are assumed to have escaped French detection. The following table could be one possibility:
Russian units exiting the west (left) side of the table including the ones not appearing on the table / Final result
75% - 100% / Russian Victory
50% - 75% / Drawn battle
Under the 50 % / French minor Victory
Under 25% / French major Victory

See a story version at the Project Leipzig (1813) blog


THE BATTLE IN PICTURES

Scenarios for Lasalle