Dresden, October 17.

I was unsure about the next battle. Before the holidays break, there were two possibilities: a re-fight of Kosen and the combats around Dresden in mid-october, as suggested by my Argentinian friend Armand d'Arc. The main problem from this last one was the lack of adequate figures to depict the Russiam Opolchenie forces. However, a second lecture of the Nafziger's book 'Napoleon at Leipizg. The battle of the Nations 1813' and the information about Opolchenie uniforms and flags found in the Viskovatov's works (see here and here) has convinced to me to try the Dresden affaire.
The actual OOB's are accesible in the Nafziger book and site. They have been taylored to make two forces adequate for Lasalle.
Russian (Army Moral 50. Break point 17)
16 Battalions/5 Regiments/3 batteries
C-i-C Osterman-Tosltoy (+1/*)

Advance Guard Markov III (-1/¶)
1st Brigade Bulatov (+1/-)
1/Neutchlot IR R/E/SK1
2/Neutchlot IR R/E/SK1
2nd Brigade Sucharev (+1/-)
1/27 Jager R/E/SK2
2/27 Jager R/E/SK2
1/43 Jager R/E/SK2
2/43 Jager R/E/SK2

1st Opolchenie Corps Muromoc (+1/¶)
1/1st Nishegorod OR U/A/SK0
2/1st Nishegorod OR U/A/SK0
3/1st Nishegorod OR U/A/SK0

2nd Opolchenie Corps Titov (-1/-)
1/1st Pensa OR U/A/SK0
2/1st Pensa OR U/A/SK0
1/1st Riazan OR U/A/SK0
2/1st Riazan OR U/A/SK0

Position Battery #15 Foot/4 cannons/ Heavy/1How
Light Battery #64 Foot/4 cannons/Medium/1How
Horse Battery #22 Horse/3 cannons/Medium/2How

Cavalry von Bagration (+1/*)
Vlassov #2 S/I/Pu
Platov #5 S/I/Pu
Andreinov #3 S/I/Pu
Shamschev S/I/Pu
4th Ukrainian S/I/Pu

Austrian Reinforcements
Chasteler (-/-)
3/Kaiser IR R/E/SK1 +
3/Vogelsang IR R/E/SK1 +
1/Czartorisky IR R/E/SK1 +
French (Army Moral 39 ; Break point 13)
15 Battalions/3 Regiments/3 Batteries
C-i-C Saint-Cyr (+1/*)

1e Division Cassagne (+1/-)
1e Brigade Parioletti (+1/*)
1/7e Légère R/E/SK2
2/7e Légère R/E/SK2
2e Brigade Fezensac (+1/*)
1/12e Ligne R/A/SK1
1/17e Ligne R/A/SK1
3/36e Ligne R/A/SK1
8/2e Artillerie Foot 3Guns/M/1Hw

43e Division Claparède (-/-)
1e Brigade Godard (-/*)
2/27e Légère R/E/SK2
3/27e Légère R/A/SK1
2e Brigade Butrand (-/*)
1/29e Légère R/A/SK1
2/103e Ligne R/A/SK1
3/103e Ligne R/A/SK1
4/103e Ligne R/A/SK1
3e Brigade Couture (+1/-)
2/100e Ligne R/E/SK2
3/100e Ligne R/A/SK1
4/100e Ligne R/A/SK1
3/94e Ligne R/A/SK1
2/7e Artillerie Foot 3Guns/M/1Hw

Reinforcementes
10e Light Cavalry Division Gérard (+1/-)
2e Italian Chasseurs à Cheval R/A/Pu
7e Chevaulégers-lanciers V/E/Pu/La
14e Hussar Regiment R/E/Pu
Artillery
5/2e Horse Artillery Horse 2Guns/M/1Hw

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Opolchenie flags modified!

Dr. Stephen Summerfield, author of 'Brazen Cross of Courage' and many other books on Napoleonic uniformology (and incidentally professor of chemistry like me!) has suggested me in the Hat Forum a modification of the green hue of the flags. See the new aspect of the Penza and Ryazan flags.

I hope this time the green was less brilliant. Many thanks to Stephen!

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Opolchenie flags

During the rainy evenings in the Pirineos Mountains (we are back again at Valladolid) I spent my time drawing flags for the Russian Opolchenie (Opolcheniye?) by using both the Mark Conrad's translation of the Viskovatov work and the flag drawings found in internet (See previous post).
The flags are (top to down) the corresponding to the Nizhnii-Novgorod (Nishegorod), Penza (Pensa) and Ryazan (Riazan) Opolchenie Regiments.

The tools I used were Powerpoint and Photoshop. The flags must be reduced in size to your convenience and then printed in a laser color printer.
Enjoy!

Edited September 3, 2011
The information has been added to the main web site. See Opolchenie Flags

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A Russian discovery: Viskovatov pictures

I am searching for Opolchenie flags in order to build the Ostermann-Tostoy corps and to fight the battles around Dresden in October 1813. Some examples can be found in the Summerfield book, but my resident Jomini, my Argentinian friend Armand d'Arc, who kindly made an internet search, has provided me with a powerful solution for the Russian Army.
Amongst the links found by me for Armand, it was a Russian site containing the pictures of the Viskovatov work about the Opolchenie: Historical description of the clothing and weapons to Russian troops. [Viskovatov] (Историческое описание одежды и вооружения российских войск. [Висковатов]). I can't read Cyrillic characters, but luckily the Russian numeration system uses the same digits than the ours! and I was able to match the Mark Conrad's Opolchenie Viskovatov traduction with the corresponding pictures found in the Russian page using the numbers given in the traduction with the depicted in the pictures. The flag shown above is the corresponding to the Pensa Opolochenie regiment as taken from the Russian site.
The method can be applied to all the Viskovatov work, because the Russian site contains all the Viskovatov pictures
A big discovery... at least for me!

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To the mountains ... and Blondie

Going to the mountains at last!

To celebrate it, enjoy this song from the last Blondie's album: 'What I heard'

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Lone Warrior web site

I have been an intermittent subscriber to LONE WARRIOR, the journal of the Solo Wargarmers Association (SWA) from the 80's onwards, when the SWA was based in Great Britain. I still own many old issues of those years in paperback (including the Gussie issues!). When the SWA moved to the USA, I got an internet subscription via the now defunct WARWEB, and after I subscribed again for a couple of years and then I ceased subscription, mainly by the expensive mail charges.
Today I have discovered that SWA maintains a web site and a blog, conveniently named LONE WARRIOR, so SWA is alive and well, and also that the paper magazine is still around.
However, I think that soloists usually want new ideas and not glossy pictures, so LONE WARRIOR is a good candidate to be converted to electronic format. I hope that SWA will make soon the change to an electronic downloadable journal!

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Russian Opolcheniye 1813

At last it seems like I don't will need to paint new figures to depict the Russian Militia (Opolcheniye or Opolchenie) units in October 1813. I did made some research, finding in the Nafziger's Napoleon at Lepizig book (Emperor Press, 1996) that, until the arrival of Chasteler's Austrians at October 20, the Allied units fighting against Saint-Cyr near Dresden, were:

Austrian
Brigade: Generalmajor Seethal
3/Kaiser Infantry Regiment
3/Vogelsang Infantry Regiment
1/Czartorisky Infantry Regiment
4/Kollowrath (Landwehr Bn) Infantry Regiment

Russian Regular Units
Generallieutenant Markov III
l6th Division: Generalmajor Bulatov
Brigade: Generalmajor Sucharev
1/,2/,3/Neutchlot Infantry Regiment
1/,2/,3/27th Jager Regiment
1/,2/,3/43rd Jager Regiment

Russian Militia (Opolcheniye/Opolchenie) Units
Left Wing: Generallieutenant Ostermann-Tolstoy
Opolochenie Corps: Generalmajor Muromoc
1/,2/,3/1st Nishegorod Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/2nd Nishegorod Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/3rd Nishegorod Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/4th Nishegorod Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/Kasan Opolochenie Regiment
Position Battery #52
Pioneer Company, Capt. Shevitch
Opolochenie Corps: Generalmajor Titov
Brigade: Generalmajor Kashansky
1/,2/,3/1st Pensa Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/2nd Pensa Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/3rd Pensa Opolochenie Regiment
Brigade: Generalmajor Tshishkin
1/,2/,3/1st Riazan Opolochenie Regiment
1/,2/,3/3rd Riazan Opolochenie Regiment
Artillery:
Light Battery #64
1/2 Pensa Opolochenie 6pdr Foot Battery (4 guns)

Cavalry: Generallieutenant Tschlapitz
Nishegorod Opolochenie Cossack Regiment (5)
Kostroma Opolochenie Cossack Regiment (5)
Riazan Opolochenie Cossack Regiment (5)
Kasan Opolochenie Cossack Regiment (2)
5th Ural Cossack Regiment (5)
3rd Ukrainian Cossack Regiment (5)
Horse Battery #22

From the above units, the Austrian and Russian Regular units wore their typical white or green uniforms. The problem lies on the uniforms of the Russian Opolchniye. However, I found in the wonderful 'Mark Conrad’s Home Page - Russian Military History' site the following pieces of information:

-Nizhnii-Novgorod (Nishegorod): "In 1813, when the Nizhnii-Novgorod mass levy as over the border, soldiers in foot regiments received caftan coats and trousers of the previous pattern but in green, and similar cloth girdles, all with piping or trim of red cloth as for mounted soldiers in 1812. Along with this new uniform they were given infantry shakos of the current pattern, with cords and pompons, muskets, short swords, pouches, and accouterments,"
-Ryazan (Riazan): "In June and July of 1813, when the Ryazan mass levy was outside Russia, near Dresden, it received new uniforms similar to those for Army regiments, but no details are known"
-Penza (Pensa): "In the summer of 1813, when the Penza mass levy was outside Russia, it received uniforms of a new pattern, but no information has been preserved as to what it was exactly"

The de-facto standard book on Russian Militia Units, 'Brazen Cross of Courage' by Dr. Stephen Summerfield (Partizan press, 2007) gives similar information.

Therefore, it is very likely that Opolcheniye infantry units fighting near Dresden were virtually indistinguishable from Russian regular units.
So maybe, I could fight these combats with no remorse!

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Kosen re-visited. The next battle?

The natural choice for the next wargame to 'Le Bois de Paris. A Prelude to Plancenoit' would be Plancenoit itself. However, the OOB is large for Lasalle... and small for Napoleon's Battles, so I am in trouble, and further research will be necessary to choose a stage of the battle adequate to the Lasalle scales in both men and terrain. I hope to make that research during the summer holidays (two weeks in the mountains from 15th August onwards) so the battle of Plancenoit could be ready for mid-fall.
Before of that, I want to come back to the Leipzig campaign. My personal Jomini, my Argentinian friend Armand d'Arc, has proposed the combats around Dresden in mid-October when the isolated French I and XIV Corps, commanded by Saint-Cyr, were besieged by the Russian Reserve (Polish) Army. However, there is a small problem: the lack of adequate figures to depict adequately the Russian forces, that were a colourful mix of Russian Militia, Baskhirs and Cossacks around a small core of regular Russians, and in addition the information I know is very scarce. So this battles would be also researched in the mountains (maybe I am too optimist)
However, I have recovered an old project, Kösen, based upon a Scenario from C.S. Grant’s ‘Crossing Point’ scenario of his book ‘Programmed Wargames Scenarios'. I played the Scenario in December 2007 using my Divisional Napoleon's Battles modification, and I enjoyed both the preparatives and the actual play, so it seems a good choice for Lasalle and will provide a comparison of the performances of both rule-sets.
Watch this space!

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The issue No. 12 of ALKAID

The issue No. 12 of ALKAID REVISTA MULTITEMÁTICA is out from July 30.

The magazine is one of the activities of ALKAID EDICIONES, an editorial effort devoted to the interaction amongst science, literature, poetry, history, environment, voyages, nature.... .You can always find in ALKAID an article focused on one of your interests!

The Issue No. 12 contains one article related with our hobby:
'The battle of Albuera: a glorious nonsense" written by this humble wargamer in his role of amateur historian. The article address the making-of and the development of the battle, using 'state of art' bibliography and not only the old, and now discredited, British-biased accounts.
(The battle of Albuera as been also covered, in several ways, in many old posts in this blog.)

In addition to the above one, there are articles about the Interantional Year of Chemsitry, the archeo-astronomical findings in Nemrug Dag, the new Malaspina's scientific periple around the world in commemoration of the bicentenial of this scientific voyage, the arts and the sciences in the muslim western lands, tourist proposals, mountain, poetry, short histories, etc.

The magazine is in Spanish and it is available by subscription (24€/year). Go to ALKAID EDICIONES web site, http://www.alkaidediciones.com/, and download the Subscription Form or contact me in this e-mail address: rpardoalmudi@gmail.com

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Le Bois de Paris (and V)

Domon's cavalry has arrived to the field and saves the foot divisional artillery with a timely countercharge.

The French frontline is stabilized by the arrival of new units, whereas the French cavalry tries to stop the Prussian advance in the right flank.

At last, the Prussians become clustered in their left flank while showing only a thin front line in the centre and right... a very dangerous situation...

The Prussian 16th Brigade is arriving in force but they are still far away from the line of fire.

And the end of the game arrives (after five additional turns!) As no Prussian units has attacked Plancenoit, and no side has reached its Moral Level break, followint the Lasalle ruleset, the battle is a DRAW BATTLE.
However, as the combat was fought in the context of the battle of Waterllo, the result can be considered a French tactical victory, because they have successfully delayed the Prussian attack to Plancenoit.

The Emperor will be pleased!

Edited (August 1, 17:50 h) : The A.A.R. and the battle album are available at the main web site. Go to Le Bois de Paris (1815)

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