Almost the Berezina, Part Une

JM Seman, Jim Naughton and I played a game of DBN very loosely based on the crossing of the Berezina River. The OOB's were taken from Nafziger's Napoleon's Invasion Of Russia' just because I think it would be a great situation to wargame. I didn't have time to try to work out balance or VC; I just tried to put together forces of a similar point value. JM, not fully indoctrinated into the DBx life (yet), eschewed the typical 'felt' terrain and set up a very nice playing area using a map from Nafziger's book. JM, pictured here, took the French, while Jim and I divvied up the Russkies.

Looking from the Russian left. JM split his meager cavalry forces on each flank, while the bulk of the Russian cavalry set up on the Russian right where there was more maneuver room. Note the Guard artillery battery on the far side of the river. A seemingly good idea, but the battle soon took the forces out of range.

From behind the Russian lines. Before you comment, yes, we used some proxies for the troops! You may notice Polish Horse artillery standing in for Russian in this pic.

Ouviller's Polish Brigade and Kleingel's Saxons.



The Russians attempt to take the fight to the French. Control of the heights in the center would be crucial. If the Russians could unlimber their artillery atop the hill, the bridges would be in jeopardy! (If we had bridges and situational VC.)