Gorze, 'What if?' - Franco-Prussian War 1870

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Ascoli in 'A Day of Battle' stated that if a single division of the French Army had been deployed at Gorze, it would have stopped the flanking maneuover that resulted in the French defeats at Mars-La-Tours and Gravelotte/Saint Private.

So, as my part of the 20th Celebrations, my mate 'Dracostandard' (superb painter I'm winning over to 10mm) and his 10 year-old son popped round and had a quick trail of 'Black Powder' rules, and we tried a historical 'what-if'. We toned down the rules a little to make them playable for Draco-Junior, and ignored terrain for movement apart from single file on roads. Draco-Junior got the French (Lapasete's Brigade from V Corps, attached to II Corps), Draco got the Prussians (6th Division, III Corps), and I ran the game.

The battlefield (my terrain is on loan to Draco at the mo, so I went for plan 'B' - thank you Googlemaps, it's a 70 x 70cm print out)

Gorze is set in steep gorge, where several roads meet. The Northern road leads to Flavigny and Razonville, the Western Road to Mars-La-Tours, the Eastern and Southern Roads to the Moselle crossings (and the delightfully named town of Ars). The Prussians entered along these two roads, their mission was to break out along the Westen road to try and catch the French rearguard (or so their orders led them to believe, history was different).

The French were played by Draco Junior, who was a dashed site more competent than the real French Generals on the day.
He deployed his Chasseurs in the town, and kept his infantry, cavalry and artillery on the ridge behind the town.

Draco rolled well, and his first unit charged straight into the Chasseurs, eventually, after several turns fighting, to push them out of the town.
At this point Draco-Junior unleashed his Lancers!  This broke two Prussian units!




The lancers withdrew, and a blunder from the Prussian dragoons sent them up the wrong road, the lancers charged again, and lost!

This left the French artillery on the ridge open, it was ridden down, then the Prussian dragoons charged a steady French line unit! The result was inevitable as the valient Prussians evaporated!



Eventually Draco's Prussian Infantry broke through the French line and secured his victory objective of the road! But did the valient brigade of Lapasete hold on long enough allow the French army leaving Mars-La-Tours and reaching Verdun, only time will tell...

[Fenton]

Looks good...AND custard cream the choice of all generals

[nikharwood]

That's a nice little tabletop scrap ML 

[jchaos79]

Wow so great, an genious idea for the map and also chocolate biscuits!

Fantastic!

[Steve J]

Love the idea of Goggle maps gaming, but shocked that the biscuits did not disappear in the first round .

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Bren was very restrained and asked his dad if he could have each one!
10 year olds and choccy biccies, there were even some left! 

[mollinary]

Great idea, looks like a great game.  Drove along that central road a couple of years ago, and it abounds with points where you could stop an army (if you knew one was coming!).   A good battalion of French artillery overlooking the point where the "road"  (more like a wide-ish track in 1870) comes out of the woods and there would have been no need for Ascoli's book (which is excellent, by the way).  Whoever said "time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted" never had better proofs of his maxim than in the Franco-Prussian War.lGood report!

Mollinary

[Dave Fielder]

Who got the biscuits?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Draco Junior!