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The latest in our bicentenial refights was the most challenging yet- Eylau. Snowstorms, flank attacks, massive cavalry charges and more artillery than you can shake a stick at!
We decided to fight the whole battle, from 8am up to 6.30pm (Ney's arrival). This meant, to get a managable number of units on the table, that we would use a 1:100 scale for the armies.
The orders of battle are not easy to come by, with the French sources being less forthcoming than normal, and the Russians being almost impossible to find. However, some servicable army lists were compiled from Petre, Wilson, Smith, Davidov and some old Wargames magazines, leading to the forces published here.

The French plan was to hold tight until Davout came up, then to attack the southern end of the Russian line with Davout and Augereau, with St Hilaire and Murat available to exploit the anticipated successes. Legrand and Lasalle were to hold on to Windmill hill and Wylau itself, with the Guard in reserve.

The Russians for their part deployed in depth, trusting in their massive superiority in artillery to damage any French attacks before dealing with them using the reserve forces. Sacken, Tolstoi, Gallitzin and Kamenski were deployed across the front. Tuchkov was deployed behind Sacken, in anticipation of Davout's flank attack. The cavalry of Markov and Tscaplitz completed the second line.

The early moves were quiet, with the French waiting for Davout, whilst the Russians could not bring themselves to take the initiative, apparently fearing the speed of French deployment. Once Davout appeared, however, everything changed. Davout, whilst only having his light troops immediately available, assaulted Sacken troops around Serpallen, using his combined arms to great advantage. Several battalions of Russians were routed before Sacken was able to bring his superior forces to bear, forcing the 10th Legere to retire after taking heavy casualties. However, help was coming, in the form of the rest of III Corps plus Augereau with the VII Corps.

The VII Corps stormed up the hill, luckily avoiding the snow storms swirling across the battlefield. Augereau himself lead the 14th Ligne and 16th Legere into the attack. The Russian Grenadiers in the village were not impressed by the double 1 thrown by the French, and threw them back. Lady luck continued to play her part, with the French throwing another 1 meaning poor Augereau had perished in the attack.

Everywhere else, things were going better for the French. The Poor/Cautious card meant Bennigsen was stopped from changing orders for three turns in a row, which ment that Tuchkov did not intervene as Davout began to roll up Sacken's line, the 1st Chasseurs a Cheval delivering one particularly destructive charge to rout several battalions of Russians as they tried to fend off Augereau's infantry.

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