Background
Following the French victory at Dresden, Vandamme pursued the retreating allies. Napoleon sent Marshals Gouvion Saint Cyr and Auguste Marmont to support Vandamme’s corps. With Vandamme in advance, Saint Cyr’s and Marmont’s corps brought up the rear. Vandamme caught up with Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy’s forces near the town of Kulm, eight kilometres northwest of Aussig (Ústí nad Labem, now in the Czech Republic).
On 29 August, Vandamme, with 34,000 soldiers and 84 guns at his disposal, attacked Russian formations forming a rearguard for the retreating Coalition army, at 16,000 strong, under the command of Russian general Ostermann-Tolstoy. The situation was very dangerous for the allies; if Vandamme won the battle, the French would take the passes in the mountain, and the retreating Coalition army could be trapped by Napoleon. However, Ostermann-Tolstoy rallied all of his troops for a stiff defense, and soon Vandamme’s troops were repulsed. Vandamme’s situation changed the next day. A Prussian army corp commanded by Friedrich von Kleist attacked Vandamme’s rear guard. Kleist then received help from a combined Russian and Austrian attack on his front, under the command of Generals Ostermann-Tolstoy and von Colloredo-Mansfeld. In an attempt to repulse simultaneous attacks on his front and rear, Vandamme ordered his forces to form squadrons. The inexperienced French troops were unable to fend off the allies, and soon withdrew from the battlefield, with heavy losses, including Vandamme himself as a captured prisoner of war.
While Marshal MacDonald’s defeat at Katzbach coincided with Napoleon’s victory at Dresden, the Coalition success at Kulm eventually negated his triumph, given that his troops never completely crushed the enemy. Thus, by winning this battle, Ostermann-Tolstoy and his troops succeeded in buying much needed time for the Coalition armies to regroup after the Battle of Dresden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kulm
The Game
Scenario: The forces and battle field were based on the historic order of battles and maps. Each unit represented a brigade (with a few being small and others large to represent the size differences). Artillery batteries represented batteries. In order to add some fog of war, players were not told we were doing the battle of Kulm, just a generic game to test out the rules. The game was divided into two days. Day one was played out until nightfall. Both armies were able to recover some losses to on table units (destroyed units could not be recovered) and these units (along with reinforcements), would be available to each side. Game two deployments would be based on the line held by the French at the end of day one.
Rules: In our never ending search for the “right” army level Napoleonic rules, we decided to try a modified version of Black Powder. We followed the standard rules with a few modifications:
- Each unit represented a Brigade (not a battalion).
- Artillery fire ranges were reduced to represent the new ground scale (18 for medium guns and 24 for heavy guns).
- Musketry only represented skirmish fire out to front and had a range of 3″.
- Minimum moves received would always be one.
- Unit traits were just added into the unit stats to ease play (and kept quite generic, as it was 1813).
- Everything else was as in the base rules.
Day 1: The Russians began the game deployed along the river line, holding all towns. All Russian units deployed behind the heights to the rear were left off the board has hidden units (they would be uncovered if they moved into view). There mission was to hold the river line and await reinforcements. The French mission was to secure at least two downs along the river and try to break into the Russian rear.
The French attacked along the front, with their initial attacks concentrated on the their left flank. They started slow, but ended with the French securing their first crossing. As the French forces moved forward from road march, they began launching attacks on all the tows, while attempting to pin the Russians in the gaps. The attack against the center started out rough for the French, but they were able marshal their forces and take the center town. Repeated attempts by the Russian failed to retake it. On the French right, the fight was a grind, with the French sending in multiple assault columns. However, the tenacity of the Russian defends was too much and they finally had to call off those attacks as night fell. The end of day one resulted in a French victory, as they were able to take and hold two of the river towns and have positions across the river.
Day 2: The Russians dressed their wounds (they managed to roll off all their day one losses) and repositioned their forces. They were joined by new Austrian forces and positioned to retake the lost towns. The French were a little more tired from their losses (they manged to roll off the minimum!), but were bolstered by a few more reinforcements from the Corps. Once all forces had been deployed (this was done double blind by the Game Master), the French saw that things had taken a turn for the worse and it would be time to go to defend to try to hold onto their gains. The allies decided to concentrate their main focus on crushing the French left flank and destroying the French center with superior firepower.
The Russian attacks on the French left went in aggressively and were able to slowing but surely grind up the French flank and push across the river. In the center, the allies attempt to recover the town was not as successful. The French were able to rotate their troops and counter all allied moves, while inflicting uneven losses on the attackers. On the French right flank, the French would not be denied the town and finally swept the Russians out. They then went on to stubbornly hold it against the Russian attacks. While seeming somewhat desperate, the French felt they would be able to hold the line through continued maneuver and counter thrusts. The word cam that a Prussian Corps was sighted to the rear and it was time to pull out to try to save the Corps. The French immediately began their withdrawal (leaving a rear guard to slow the Austrians and Russians. However, the collapse of the French flank now really showed itself. With the Prussians arriving in strength so quickly, it was clear that the French would not be able to push them out of the way before the door closed on them. The result was a crushing allied victory!
– Manteuffel