Hi y'All,
Thanks to Lance and his awesome contribution to the Valhalla bring-and-buy, into which I dived in and grabbed his great 15mm 1792-1806 Prussian starter army.
So my dream of running through the entire French Revolutionary Wars period of coalitions 1 and 2, and putting on each main battle in chronological order on the monthly Sunday games day is, about to begin.
(1) We had the warm up with Marengo and Austerlitz.
(2) The Boney set-piece rules, together with the GTM (Grand Tactical Movement) rules - where appropriate, e.g. Marengo yes, Austerlitz no point - are about as good as it gets, imho.
(3) I have the 15mm figures now to do the lot. OK, maybe Hessian, Royalist Army of Conde (Emigres), Royalist Chouan, and British (Duke of York) need a bit of attention i.e. are non-existent, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. (Anyone got any of these, btw?).
So let's start at the beginning. A very good place to start ...
Valmy battle background
A bit of a cannonade and a damn good ol' sing-song! ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Valmy
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_valmy.html
http://www.warsofcoalition.com/wars-on-land/sneak-peek-1792-the-battle-of-valmy
Prussian Orbat
Doesn't include Austrian, Hessian, and Conde reserves: -
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CGSC/CARL/nafziger/792IAD.pdf
I cannot find an orbat for the Austrian, Hessian, and Conde armies at Valmy. I think it's because they were held in reserve and never committed, so no-one seems to have documented them. Even Nafziger's legendary "orders of battle for every battle since the dawn of time" doesn't have them: -
http://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getdownloaditem/collection/p4013coll11/id/1277/filename/1278.pdf/mapsto/pdf/type/singleitem
If anyone has a resource on this, please let me know.
If I can't find them, then we'll make do with nearest equivalent orbat from around that time, and scale it to the right strength.
French Orbat
Includes both Dumouriez's Armee du Nord and Kellerman's Army de Centre: -
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CGSC/CARL/nafziger/792IAC.pdf
Here's the background gem ...
Campaigns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_First_Coalition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Second_Coalition
Valmy French Revolutionary "Troops"
Aka "scum" per the Boney stats sheet! Yay, meet the class of '92! ...
https://en.wikipewiki/federe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-culottes
Valmy Prussians, Austrians, Hessians, and Conde
Prussians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Prussian_Army_of_the_Napoleonic_Wars
http://www.napolun.com/mirror/napoleonistyka.atspace.com/Prussian_army.htm
Austrians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_and_Royal_Army_during_the_Napoleonic_Wars
http://www.napolun.com/mirror/web2.airmail.net/napoleon/Austrian_infantry.htm#austrianinfantry
Hessians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_(soldier)
Royalist Conde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Conde
Overall situation of France
Surrounded and embattled on every front, inside and out! Oooh-la-la! ...
They no doubt enjoyed cheese in 1792, but there wasn't a surrender monkey among 'em! Coz twenty years later this "army of lawyers" had changed the map somewhat ...
Valmy scenario
The usual suspects for Valmy to follow later: -
(1) Scenario, special rules, and victory conditions
(2) Map with start locations
(3) Orders of battle
(4) Boney rules stats sheets
"Here and today, a new epoch in the history of the world has begun, and you can boast you were present at its birth" - Goethe on Valmy
- Kellerman at Valmy
Vive la Liberté !
Cheers,
Loz
The Valmy scenario details are now on this page in the FWGS site: -
Top Menu -> Military Epochs -> Napoleonic -> Left Menu -> Scenario #1: Valmy, 20th Sept, 1792.
www.fwgs.org.uk/valmy-20th-sept-1792
Includes: -
- Map with start locations
- Scenario rules and victory conditions
- "Boney" rules stats sheets for French, Prussian, and Austrian
- French and Allied orders of battle
A little "je ne sais quoi" to get you in the mood for rude: -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9VoRmjxvPs
And so it begins ...
SoD
@Joe – Great, Clerfayt’s Austrian corps on the Prussian side is all yours. They could be the tipping point in the battle’s balance. They stood as a third line behind the front two lines of Prussians and were in better shape than the Prussians (dysentery and privations had mullered the Prooskies). But they were hardly used in the actual battle due to Brunswick bottling it after the cannonade and Frenchie sing-song.
However, with Rammer in charge of the Prooskies, I doubt the phrase “bottling it” will have entered the high command’s vernacular, so you’ll see plenty of action – that is, if you’re able to climb over the heaped bodies of the front two lines of Prooskies after he’s finished with them! …
We've space for another on the French side if anyone fancies it ...
French
Kellerman (no prizes for who wants that one – Tom has it reserved) - Tom
Dumouriez (I feel Tim “The Lothario” Cull should follow up his grand Victoire at Austerlitz with a lead role in this blast from the past) - Tim
A N Other – still available
Prussian / Austrian
Duke of Brunswick (Prussian) - Ian
Price of Hohenlohe (Prussian) - Chris
Clerfayt (Austrian corps) - Joe
Vive la Republic / le Roi, whichever floats your boat,
Loz
Roll-up, roll-up!
Leaders required please! Place command requests in the comments below ...
French
1. Kellerman (no prizes for who wants that one – Tom has it reserved)
2. Dumouriez (I feel Tim “The Lothario” Cull should follow up his grand Victoire at Austerlitz with a lead role in this blast from the past)
3. A N Other
Prussian / Austrian
1. Duke of Brunswick (Prussian)
2. Prince of Hohenlohe (Prussian)
3. Clerfayt (Austrian corps)
Scenario with victory conditions, map with start locations, special rules, orbats, and stats sheets to follow mid-week-ish.
All figures provided regimented and boxed with leader labels, just bring your sweet selves!
Cheers,
Loz
Who's up for doing Valmy on the July Sunday, 30th?
I wonder if anyone has a 15mm miniature of that statue? If so, bit of a "must have" really?!
This may be the best idea since creating a glorious statue to remember Kellerman