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Showing posts from April, 2014

Leipzig Campaign : Battle of Olbernhau Pt. 2

It goes without saying that this blog has been stalled for some time while I have had my hands full with work and kids.  I have had the AAR for the Battle of Olbernhau (see previous post) mostly completed for some time, but it has been languishing forgotten in the limbo of the "drafts" file.  In the effort to re-start things in motion around here, the first order of business is to publish it!    Battle of Olberhau After Action Report  Prelude The town of Olberhnahu with forested hills to the east (rear).  The Allies enter the table from more or less this position moving from right to left, then turning sharply west (left) As outlined in the previous post ( here ), our scenario revolved a hypothetical encounter of the French IX Corps and the Allied Army of Bohemia just west of the town of Olbernhau, southern Saxony, in August 1813.  The battle game is preceded by the approach of the town by Count Pahlen III’s Russian hussar division, moving in from the

Leipzig Campaign : Battle of Olbernhau Pt. 1

During the first turn (Aug. 18) of the Leipzig campaign hosted by MurdocK, and while French forces menaced far-off Berlin, an engagement was precipitated by the movement of both French and Allied forces into the Erzgebirg mountains bordering southern Saxony and northern Bohemia. MacDonald had sent a strong cavalry division ahead of XI corps south into the Marienberg area of southern Saxony, while FmL Prohaska and Gen. Barclay de Tolly lead elements of the Army of Bohemia into the same area north from the Bohemian town of Chomutov, across the centre of the Erzgebirg mountains and through the Saxon town of Olbernhau. The French cavalry advance guard was probing east of Marienberg and encountered leading elements of de Tolly’s command in the vicinity of Olbernhau. My campaign colleagues kindly allowed me to play the out the game resulting from the encounter. Now that marking course work etc is done, I'm finally getting round to posting the report. I interpreted the scenario as a