Blücher scenario and battle report: Lubino 1812

“If you come back again I’ll shoot you myself”.

I recently finished reading the memoirs of Henryk Brandt of the Vistula Legion, which have a detailed account of his experiences during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812., I was interested by his account of the battle of Valutina Gora or Lubino. This was fought on 19 August 1812 between a Russian rearguard and a combined French and Württemberger force under marshals Ney and Murat. It was described as another wasted opportunity to destroy Barclay de Tolly’s Russian field army, which was strung out along the Moscow road after abandoning Smolensk. The battle was closely fought as the small Russian rearguard was constantly reinforced during the afternoon, just managing to keep the French from disrupting the retreat. It also had some interesting ‘what ifs’. For example, Junot’s corps was in a position to outflank the Russian position but despite Murat’s pleading, Junot refused point blank to bring up his troops. Also, Napoleon himself seemed not to realise the opportunity that Ney and Murat faced, so did not attend the scene himself or inject more urgency into their efforts.

The battle had two quotes attributed to it. When Tuchkov, the Rearguard commander, sought out Barclay de Tolly to demand reinforcements, the C in C allegedly said to him: “Return to your post and get yourself killed. If you come back again I will shoot you myself.” On the French side, when Napoleon realised he had missed an opportunity and was told of Junot’s inactivity in the face of the enemy, he declared that Junot would never receive his marshal’s baton.​

Scenario and first playthrough

I found a scenario for Lubino on the excellent Free Napoleonic Scenarios website run by the Grognards group https://napoleonicscenarios.weebly.com/. There doesn’t seem to have been any action on the site since 2015 but it is a great resource and I hope the Grognards are still playing. The scenarios are written for Age of Eagles which I don’t know or play. They are however adaptable to Sam Mustafa’s Blücher, as both rules are at the same operational level. So thanks to the Grognards and with a bit of help from George Nafziger’s history of 1812, my scenario for Lubino is on the Scenarios for Blücher page. The map is closely based on the one in the Grognards scenario but the OOBs and special rules are mine.

Four of us played the scenario on 22 January. It was a tough game in which the initial Russian hilltop defence held up well against Ney’s corps, but was eventually overwhelmed. It had however bought enough time for Russian reinforcements to form a solid second line that the French could not break before nightfall. As happened on the day, Junot’s corps did not arrive on the field.

Scenario tweaks and second game

I adjusted the victory conditions after the first game. Originally they required the French to take the town of Lubino. The amended conditions allowed the French also to win by exiting at least two infantry units off the Russian table edge, thereby obliging the Russians to cover their whole front and not just cluster all their troops around the town.
I ran the game again with two other players on 30 January. Dan and I took the French side, while Harry led the Russian rearguard. This game ran differently from the first one: the hilltop was contested right until the end of the day, but the French and Württembergers went around the hill position and obliged Harry to extend his left. Also, in this game Junot’s Westphalian corps arrived,  on the high ground almost behind the Russian position. Things initially looked promising for the French and their allies as Junot had a clear run to the Russian base line. However, Harry threw his badly depleted cavalry in Junot’s path and scrabbled to shift more infantry to his left. The cavalry was destroyed but had done enough: night fell and the game ended with the Russian position crucially intact.
Both games were close fought with lots of memorable moments. Russians on the defensive are so hard to shift! I am happy with the scenario as it now stands. It is always a balancing act to allow for events that didn’t happen but could have done (in this case, Junot’s arrival).

“If I can’t form square it’s not really Napoleonics”

I’ve read some interesting discussion on the Sam Mustafa forum recently about the merits of Blücher.  Some players miss the column/line/square options and tactical choices offered by Lasalle and similar rules. Now, I really enjoy Lasalle too, but I am perfectly happy with the operational scale that Blücher targets. While the players don’t make decisions about formations or other matters that would not trouble a commanding general, the rules  nevertheless present them with plenty of options and tricky decisions from turn to turn. So Blücher suits me very well for the bigger battles, though when the urge to go tactical strikes, my figures are based for Lasalle too. Why choose between rules when you don’t have to?