Eylau:
Missing Orders, Missing Corps

The winter campaign of 1806-1807 should have, by all rights, ended in disaster for Napoleon I of France and his Grande Armée. After destroying the Prussian army and state at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt in the fall of 1806, the French overran most of Prussia and settled down to wait out the winter in Poland.

The Russians, moving forward to challenge Napoleon despite the weather, did not intend to sit and wait for spring. Napoleon reacted quickly to the Russian offensive, bringing his inactive troops quickly into the field and alerting those formations already engaged either in siege operations against stubborn Prussian fortresses or covering these. On 28 January 1807 the Emperor put his plan into motion.

Noted for his nice legs,
Jean Bernadotte missed the Battle of Eylau.

Marshal Jean Bernadotte’s French I Corps, covering the Prussian sieges of Danzig and Elbing, was to feign a retreat westward and draw General Lev Bennigsen’s Russians forward. The army’s other corps were to concentrate and move with maximum caution behind thick cavalry screens, ready to fall on the Russian center when the opportunity arose.

A French courier bearing these orders to Bernadotte became disoriented in the Polish countryside and blundered into a Cossack patrol. The Russian generals quickly realized their peril and pulled back to await the French attack. A French attempt to force a decisive battle at Ionkovo on 3 February failed when stout Russian defense held off the attackers until nightfall, allowing the Russian army to slip away. Knowing the French plans, Bennigsen gathered his army at Eylau on the 7th and turned to offer battle. With 460 cannon against 200 French pieces, and rough equality in troop strength, the Russian general felt confident of victory.

Bennigsen had the plan.

This is the situation depicted in our Eylau game. Eylau, or “Preussisch-Eylau” as the box unfortunately tags it, has long been an overlooked stepchild of the Avalanche Press stable. It is a transitional game, with the quick-playing and exciting combat and activation systems of later games like Gettysburg or Rome at War: Fading Legions, but with smaller playing pieces and less evocative artwork.

Both sides claimed victory at Eylau, and neither disputed that it had been an incredibly bloody affair. While the Russians maximized their available forces, the French order of battle was missing Bernadotte’s I Corps. Several more couriers headed for Bernadotte’s headquarters fell into Cossack hands, and the marshal did not receive new orders from Napoleon until 3 Febraury, by which time the main army was already attempting to engage the Russians at Ionkovo. Bernadotte and his men did not arrive until two days after the battle had ended; had they received word at the same time as the other French formations, this corps would have been present.

The free download includes new counters for Bernadotte and his corps. In “The Battle” scenario, the French player rolls one die at the start of each turn beginning with 11 a.m. On a result of 6, Bernadotte, the 1st Division, I/1 artillery and I/3 horse artillery units enter in area 115. The 2nd Division and I/2 artillery enter in area 115 one turn later. Note that I/3 is a horse artillery unit, the others are foot.

To use this variant, increase the number of Russian “long infantry” step losses required to reach each level of victory by three, and increase the number of French “long infantry” step losses which must be avoided to reach each level of victory by two. This change remains in effect even if Bernadotte never reaches the battlefield.