Let's do the same battle and post screenshots/results

[Marquês de Alorna]

Dear all,

Sorry for the delay! I have finally got the time to play La Rothiere. I have used the options that were previously agreed on this thread. I have kept the initial assignments intact, but I've changed the deployment. Here is my initial deployment and plan:


- Ney to take position and defend in line between the villages of Dienville and La Rothiere, resting the flanks on the latter.

- Oudinot: To link up with Ney and support his effort (for some reason, Oudinot did not move and I had to order it to move later on to help defending from the allied assault)

- Grouchy: To take position behind Ney ready to charge into any gap resultant from the enemy assault.

- Nansouty: To take position to the east of La Rothiere, prolonging the line from Ney's corps. Since this is a cavalry corps it is expected to deploy in time to help sustain Ney's deployment.

- Gerard: To defend in line between the position occupied by Nansouty and the woods located to north of Chaumesnil, thus defending that point of penetration, supported by the woods on his left flank.

- Victor: To take position behind Nansouty, ready to help either the latter or Gerard, depending on the enemy's actions and outcome.

- Marmont to form the army reserve, deploying intially near Brienne.

To summarize what happenned, the Grand Armée was able to deploy just in time to receive the assault:
- Ney's defending line was able to resist until the end of the battle despite some hard dispute for La Rothiere.
- Nansouty was also able to sustain the enemy's assault. Later on Victor was able to join the effort, allowing Nansouty's corps to reorganize before rejoining the fray.
- Gerard's line was not directly attacked. An enemy corps (Scherbatov?) went around to the marches and east of the wood and I had to deploy Marmont ready for any eventuality. However, the enemy did not lauch any assault, and limited himself to bombard Gerard's troops with a horse artillery unit, which had some effect on a few units that were routed. As a self-remark, I should have assigned some cavalry and artillery to support Gerard from the beginning. It was quite late when I have assigned to him 3 cavalry units from Nansouty's corps, as well as a horse artillery battery from Oudinot. In the last phase of the battle I have ordered Gerard to deploy in line in the NS direction SW of the wood, where he remained until the end of the day unchallenged.
- Grouchy was able to remain in position behind Ney until the end, and saw virtually no action. He, together with Marmont were the reserve of the army.
- Marmont was redeployed to the west of the woods once Gerard was endangered, since Victor had to move south to support Nansouty. He remained there, with Grouchy on his right until the end of the day.

I am posting the most relevant screenshots.

Regards,
A. Grilo

[Marquês de Alorna]

Here are the final screens.

[Alfiere]

(I always must use Google translator)
Well Marques to participate.
You made a brave attack after Ajle results.
Ajle remains the winner , but you have beaten to me easily.
We hope to see for other battles.
Hello

[Marquês de Alorna]

A few comments/remarks/doubts on the mechanics of the game as observed in my La Rothiere fight...

1) Unlike the corps to which the "Deploy in line" order was given, after I gave the order to "Defend in line", Ney did not immediately adapt his initial deployment to suit the length and relative positions on the final defensive line position. This caused useless delays due to extra maneuvering. Namely there were cavalry regiments placed among the infantry regiments in the middle of the defensive line!

2) Sometimes the march to the final position is made in a very anarchic (and dangerous) way, and the artillery dangerously marches quite ahead of the rest of the corps, or maneuvers too far away from the bulk of the corps.

3) The "Link-up" order given to Oudinot had no effect. His artillery kept the initial position and did not accompany Ney's march to the target defensive line. I have to change his orders and provide and explicit deployment position.

Do you have the same impressions? Do you consider that these are still AI handicaps? Or do you find logical reasons for this to happen?

António

[AJ]

Well done Marques, I'm glad you joined in the fun.  It does help to understand the battle if you add notes on the screenshots.
Alfy is arranging the next one, we are now posting  this Topic:

http://www.histwar.org/forum/index.php/topic,4904.0.html

[Marquês de Alorna]

Well done Marques, I'm glad you joined in the fun.  It does help to understand the battle if you add notes on the screenshots.

Right, I'll do it next time.
Anyway, I've taken the screenshots in "Tactical Plan" mode. I think that if you read the description and look at the shots, you will easily understand the maneuvers.

António

[AJ]

Marques, I would like to be able to offer an opinion but I need to view your save file. Please copy it from Histwar/HistwarGames/Save/Battle, and e mail it to:

ajlewisbrookes4@comcast.net