Le Bataillon Carré: Another Map Game

The 'Hundred Minutes' map campaign project having received such a positive response, it seemed appropriate that we look for something of a similar scale that might be tried, with some of the refinements that have been suggested by several commentators (including myself). The campaign that suggests itself is that of 1806 - a supreme example of Napoleon's Batallion Carré march system against an enemy whose location and distribution is unclear.  

So far, a provisional hex-map has been drawn up.  I did consider the Paddy Griffith map as produced in his 'Generalship Game' (Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun), but in the end decided to create one using as a basis the campaign map in David Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon. This is the result.

I am a little concerned that there may be rather too many towns, but I'm not sure I can really omit any of them, especially as some have been omitted already.  I can't find room for Naumberg, for example.  That line of mountains and forests is the Thuringerwald, passible only by the roads, which count as defiles for the purposes of combat resolution. This was a consideration for Napoleon: the concern that his army might get bottled up in the wild country by Prussian forces stopping up the exits.

At this point, I have yet to determine quite where the respective formations begin. That will await another posting. However, here are the formations I propose for this campaign. 

I have included the leaders of these corps, though I'm still not 100% whether all corps commanders should be represented, or just some.  Apart from the King on the Prussian side, the Duke of Brunswick and Prinz Hohenlohe should certainly be represented, but who to add on the French?  I'm inclined to think Marshals Murat and Lannes should have a representative figure, and, on the right of the whole array, I'd prefer Marshal Davout over Bernadotte, mainly on account of the latter's poor showing during the critical stages of the campaign. An alternative is to include a command figure and decide upon his identity as events suggest.

Although I have listed both Marshals commanding the Imperial Guard, it will be treated as a single formation under command of one or other of them. I daresay if one becomes a casualty, the other could take command...

The Advance Guard Divisions commanded by Blucher and Prince Louis Ferdinand were actually part of the army commands of Brunswick and Hohenlohe respectively. It seems right, though, that they have a separate existence in this campaign owing to the roles they were assigned, especially that of Prince Louis. 

The numbers are arrived at by the rather arbitrary system I have used to represent each arm:
1 foot figure represents 5000 infantry;
1 mounted figure (except commanders) represents 2000 cavalry;
1 artilleryman figure represents 500 gunners, and 20 cannon.
This last indicates that the French have 7,500 gunners serving 300 cannon; the Prussians 6,500 serving 260. The Prussian ordnance seems a bit under-represented, but perhaps conflates the regimental cannon in some way.