1807 in Poland...

It's 1807 and Napoleon's Grande Armee is chasing Benningsen and the Russian Army across Poland. The war has been dragging for too long and while Napoleon is enjoying his time with his Polish mistress Countess Maria Walewska, his troops want to end the war and go home. The battle of Eylau has shown there won't be an easy victory like those against the Austrians or the Prussians: the Russian soldiers are stubborn and resilient and never seem to rout, their army able to slip away every time and denying the French Emperor a clear victory. Still, Napoleon needs that victory, to bring Tzar Alexander to the peace table. That means continuing the chase.

Finally, a report from Marshal Lannes is received: he has reached the Russian army, which is resting on top of hilly terrain in a defensive position that covers its likely retreat route. Lannes asks for reinforcements before the elusive Russians can escape once more.

Orders are sent to the scattered French Corps but it will take time to reassemble the main force. Meanwhile only Ney's VI Corps, part of the cavalry reserve and the Imperial Guard are close enough. By early afternoon, only those formations have reached Lannes in front of the Russian positions.

The Emperor knows that tomorrow at least two more Corps (Victor's and Mortier's) will be in position too, but it could be too late. What if Benningsen slips away once again during the night? Lannes' reconnaissance parties have indicated that the enemy left flank looks weakened, with a gap between them and the strong enemy center. Have some units already left the area? Are they still in the process of redeploying? That may be a vulnerability... at least for a short time.

It's a risk, but also an opportunity, one that great generals take when they see it. Napoleon can't let Benningsen escape again and that slight opening may be the only chance. Without further ado, he orders Ney to attack.

The game

I'm going to play the first scenario (Hill Line Defence) from the Programmed Wargame Scenarios book. It's excellent for solitaire wargaming because it provides both some sort of fog of war and a responsive enemy. The process of setting up a scenario may look confusing at first (I think the revised version could have used a better layout and explanation of some paragraphs...) but it's actually fairly easy once you've got the overall flow in mind. I'll show here step by step what I did, showing how the mechanics nicely build up the narrative above.

1807 in Poland, when Napoleon's Grande Armee was chasing Benningsen's elusive Russian army...

I wanted to play Napoleonics, with French vs Russians in 1807 (I had planned to play a battle of Friedland scenario, but then changed idea when I received the Programmed Scenarios book). The Hill Line Defense scenario fits the 1807 campaign well, with the Russians in a strong defensive position and the French trying to pin and defeat them, a common situation (think Heilsberg) during that campaign until Friedland. Therefore, the scenario looks very realistic. I decided to play the French attackers (Red side in the book) against the programmed Russian defenders (Blue side in the book). 

Napoleon has 2 Corps, the Imperial Guard, and some reserve cavalry...

I then determined the French Order of Battle, by choosing army composition 17. I generally consider the "Light infantry" category as "Light/Elites", therefore including also Grenadiers, Guards etc... and Medium Cavalry (Dragoons) as Light Cavalry. This created the structure for my 2 Corps + Imperial Guard army, with the cavalry reserve divided to support the two Corps:

V Corps: 2 Infantry, 1 Light Cavalry, 1 artilley

VI Corps: 3 Infantry, 1 Light Cavalry, 1 artillery

Imperial Guard: 1 Guard Infantry, 1 Heavy Cavalry

The Russians occupy some hills.

I then rolled for the three map sections: Left 2, Center 2, Right 2. Quite a coincidence, but it's still a random roll, so it's ok. However, at this stage you can't look at the map yet. That will come later.

Lannes's reconnaissance parties have scouted the terrain and identified the enemy positions. One Russian flank looks weak...

First, I had to roll to see if the Attackers have proper reconnaissance of the enemy. If not, they will have to deploy first and plan using a possibly incomplete map of the terrain (that's why I shouldn't look at the full map before this step!). In this case, the roll tells me they have done their job: Lannes has made a good job in identifying the terrain and locating the overall enemy deployment. I can now seen the real (Blue) map.

According to this, I choose army composition 7 for the defenders, and deployed the Russians using the full map and using the Blue deployment options from the book:

Left Flank (includes center): 3 Infantry, 1 Light Cavalry, 1 Artillery (1 Infantry and LC deployed on the right, rest in the center).

Right Flank: 1 Jagers, 1 Light Cavalry

Russian Imperial Guard (behind the center): 1 Guard Infantry, 1 Heavy Cavalry

The French army could therefore deploy in order to exploit the enemy weaknesses

Then I deployed the French forces as I preferred inside the correct deployment area, with Ney's VI Corps on the right, Lannes' V Corps on the center-left and the Imperial Guard in reserve. Having prior reconnaissance means I can exploit the defender's weaknesses.

Napoleon orders Ney to attack

Now it's time to write my orders for my commands: my attack will be on the weak enemy right flank! Ok, Grande Armee (my wargame rules of choice) doesn't have a written orders system, actually almost no ruleset uses those anymore...  but writing initial orders in a solo wargame can help you "stay honest" with your plan especially if the adversary has a programmed response like in this case. So all my Corps Commander receive their orders from the Emperor...

VI Corps (Marshal Ney): "Attack the enemy left flank on the hill, destroying or driving it away, then turn left and hit the enemy center on the flank. Marshal Lannes' V Corps will engage the enemy center frontally to keep its attention away from you"

V Corps (Marshal Lannes): "Demonstrate against the enemy center between the two hills and keep the enemy focused on you while Marshal Ney turns the enemy flank. Press the attack only if the enemy leaves positions, in order to keep it from escaping or turning against the VI Corps"

Imperial Guard (Marshal Bessieres): "The Imperial Guard will remain in reserve, ready to support the attack if needed."

The plan looks good, but with so few reserves, the French army might have to rely on the Old Guard as the masse de décision.

Grande Armee's usual command rules will take care of everything from now on, but until/unless something happens, I plan to stick... to the plan.

Writing orders is a good exercise on clarity and sharpness. Vague orders can be badly interpreted (wargames-wise a player should be penalized for writing too vague orders just so he can do "whatever is needed"), while trying to describe all contingencies is not really historical and should be prohibited (a maximum of 1-2 contingencies should be allowed).

The enemy has plans too... the Russians may try to escape, or turn to face Ney

Of course the enemy has plans too, represented by the programmed orders (in this case, the Blue - defender - Programmed Orders): a roll is made to determine what their orders are AFTER own orders are written down. In this way, players' orders aren't influenced by reading the enemy ones. It has to be noted that they may have some strict criteria, but are usually for the most part generic and their exact execution is left to the player. I won't spoil now what the Russians got, but I feel it fits their real objectives well. Keep in mind that the enemy orders also help understand how victory could be assessed.

Let's get down to the scenario orders of battle, using the Grande Armee ruleset:

Weather: Normal (no variation)

Ground: Hard

Turn Length: 4 Turns (starts early afternoon)

French Army (Fair - Break Point = 4)

Napoleon (Great)

Napoleonic Army of 3 Forces

V Corps (V) - Marshal Lannes (V) 1/6"

1/V    Oudinot    6SP    Sk2        Veterans

2/V    Verdier    6SP    Sk2        Veterans

C/V    Dragoons    5SP    LC        Veterans

A/V    12-pdr Foot Artillery

VI Corps (VI) - Marshal Ney (V) 3/8" Aggressive

1/VI     Line Infantry    6SP    Sk2    Veterans

2/VI     Line Infantry    6SP    Sk2    Veterans

3/VI     Line Infantry    6SP    Sk2    Veterans

C/VI    Hussars    6SP    LC        Elite

A/VI    12-pdr Foot Artillery

Imperial Guard (IG) - Marshal Bessieres (V) 3/6"

OGD/IG    Old Guard    8SP Sk2    Guard

GC/IG    Guard Cavalry + Cuirassiers    8SP    HC    Guard

Russian Army (Fair - Break Point = 3)

Benningsen (Average)

Traditional Army of 3 Forces

Right Flank (R) - Bagration (V) 2/3"

J/R    Jagers        5SP    Sk1    Veterans

C/R    Hussars    6SP    LC    Elite

Left Flank (L) - Gortchakov 4/5"

1/L    Line + Grenadiers    6SP    Sk0    Veterans

2/L    Line Infantry   5SP    Sk0    Trained

3/L    Line Infantry   5SP    Sk0    Trained

C/L    Dragoons    5SP    LC    Veterans

A/L    12-pdr Foot Artillery

Russian Guards (G) - Doctorov 4/3"

IG/G    Guard Infantry    7SP    Sk1    Elite

GC/G    Guard Cavalry    6SP    HC    Elite

Programmed Wargame Scenarios

This is a book that I tought I could never have: impossible to find (at reasonable prices), and no indication of a reprint... and then covid came.

Probably one of the very few good things to come from the pandemic (wargames-wise) is that a new, revised version of this book was published. I ordered it from Caliver Books as soon as it was available and just received it. It looks really good.

You can see it comes from a distant "wargaming age" (it refers to written orders, WRG rules etc...) but the scenarios are top-notch and the programmed scenario instructions can be easily adapted for any ruleset.

I was preparing to do a Friedland scenario for my simplified Grande Armee rules but now I'm turning to the Hill Line Defence (scenario 1 in the book). Stay tuned...