Use of Napoleonic Russian Reserve Artillery

[Last Hussar]

Bonjour ma petits... 

The Russians had about 1/3 of their artillery in a 'Reserve Corps' (at Borodino, at least). How was this intended to be used (I know there were C&C problems, so not after the actual problems/usage)?

Was it meant to be parcelled out to Corps, or kept as one 'Grand Battery' for each army?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Think they were hoping the French were going to stand very very still in front of it, and wait...

[Last Hussar]

Good answer, but did they hope they were going to stand in one place so they could be hid by the reserve en masse, or were they standing still in front of various corps?

[Ithoriel]

I think the truth is we don't know for sure.

My own assumption is that they would have been used to refresh the artillery in the fleches and redoubts and to shore up portions of the line that were under particular pressure.

I base this on nothing more than that Kutuzov seems to have planned that his army would be the rock upon which the French army would break. Attacks would simply be to recover lost ground not to disrupt the French attacks.

I'm sure other, equally valid, assumptions are available.

[steve_holmes_11]

My understanding, based on several books and websites - few of which I can remember.
It was at least a decade ago.
I've posted some of this in a different thread.

The Russian army was distinctive in having a higher artillery command.
In theory this should have granted flexibility to deploy the reserve as the battle developed.
* It would certainly be possible to create a grand battery if the conditions (including the enemy) allowed. Three such were assembled at Eylau.
* Brigades (36 guns) of horse artillery could be used like a fire brigade to rapidly reinforce defensive lines. There are fewer accounts of their being used to support attacks - certainly less than we hear of the French doing.
* The Russians had fewer crew and rounds per gun. I speculated that there may have been plans for reserve guns to relieve exhausted batteries across the line - or for reserve batteries to accompany an advance, while the Corps batteries remained behind to regroup and resupply.

All my calculations of gun numbers and frontages suggest it unlikely that all the guns were deployed up front at the start of any engagement.

Unfortunately, I've not seen much detail on actual drills of Russian artillery Brigades or Companies that details how they moved or were commanded during battle.

[Last Hussar]

How does this sound as a compromise for the table?

The Artillery Reserve can be used as a unit on its own.

Individual units can be given an order to join a Corps. Upon being ordered it changes its ID to the Corps not the reserve and may make one move. From that point on it is part of the Corps, and acts as a unit in the Corps. It may not change back to reserve.

Would that seem reasonable?

[Ithoriel]

From nothing more than my own reading of various secondary sources, so treat with appropriate scepticism, the reserve is a solid block of limbered artillery, ready for deployment elsewhere. It is not deployed as the grandest of grand batteries so cannot fire without being deployed.

It cannot deploy without direct orders from Kutaisov ... see below for contacting Kutaisov!

The reserve is under the command of Kutaisov and so any Army Commander wishing to access the reserve artillery would need to contact him. Given he spends most of the battle dead said Army Commander would need the Attribute Ouija Board at level 4 or above. To check a commanders skill rating with Ouija Board roll a D4-1, that's his ability. 

Alternatively he can contact Kutusov, the C-in-C, who seems to have lost all interest in the battle from the moment it started. If the Army Commander is lucky, some enterprising member of staff will sanction the request and if he is even luckier will do so in writing.

To find an enterprising member of staff roll D6. On a 6 they will sanction the release of a battery from reserve. Roll a second D6. On a 5 or 6 they will do so in writing. Each Army Commander can make one attempt per turn

If written orders are given a battery is immediately released to any corp under that Army Commander.

Verbal orders require a roll of 4+ on a D6 for the battery to be released. This may be re-rolled every subsequent turn. One attempt may be made for every verbal permission gained ... you may need tokens or similar to keep track.

[fsn]

What was in the Fleches?

[Ithoriel]

My notes say -

The Bagration earthworks consisted of two lunettes and a redan. They were occupied by guns from the 11th and 32nd Russian Battery Companies. The earthworks had 12, 7 and 5 guns, working left to right. Each had a battalion from the 2nd Combined Grenadiers. There were a further 28 guns were stationed near the flèches.

I don't have a citation as the notes were intended as an aide memoire solely for myself.

Edit: I've now checked Wikipedia and it concurs. That may be the source.

[Last Hussar]

This will be for 'Blucher'. The OPPONENT rolls command points, and as the active player activates units the opponent tells him when an activation takes him equal or over the points. He gets to activate an entire corps before being stopped.

For instance - Enemy rolls 9 and keeps it hidden.
Active player activates 4 units (They must be in same corps and in contact with each other). The Enemy then says 'Carry on'.
He activates a further 3 units. The total is now 4+3=7 so Enemy says 'Carry on'.
Ha activates 4 more units. Total is now 4+3+4 = 11. Enemy says 'Stop there.'

The decision is what order to activate the various Corps. Activating an individual base is 2 points, and happens AFTER all the Corps activation.

The problem for the CO with what I outlined is 'Do I move 2 units of artillery from reserve NOW, maybe stopping what I wanted to do, or do I move the Corps, and find I run out of points before I can move 1 of the reserve?"

[fred.]

I think what Ithoriel is saying is that getting agreement to release reserve artillery would be difficult. 

From a Blucher mechanics perspective what you are suggesting sounds fine. 

You may want to consider adding a dice roll to the attempt to request artillery to join a corps - quite where you pitch that dice roll probably depends on what you perceive the chance is. The question I'd ask is how much of the reserve artillery was deployed into the battle?

[Last Hussar]

That is a good question! I could use the reinforcement rule; roll equal or less than turn number on d6 x 4.

Add to that the god like perspective a player has, he always knows when he needs the guns.

[Ithoriel]

From a historical perspective the problem is the it's not down to Bagration and Barclay de Tolly to request artillery, it's down to Kutaisov to allocate it as needed and he's gone off to play infantry colonel and gotten himself killed.

Which is why the artillery reserve stays where it is and plays no part in the battle. 300 guns sat unused because, with Kutaisov dead, there was no mechanism to bring them into action.

However, for a "what if" battle, the option of rolling is not a bad idea. Though I'd say it should take a turn or two (or three or four ) to notice Kutaisov is not around and allow Bagration and Barclay de Tolly to try.

In the actual battle Bagration is wounded, at which point he wouldn't be in a position to requisition guns. Just a thought.

[Last Hussar]

I had a self imposed rule-"don't do British, you are not Wellington, you can't get it to work properly". I maintain this is the root of "+2 for being British".

With central/east Europe I have hit a new problem.  Nobody knows about the Russians!

Kutaisov dying only happened (I assume) once. I need something for the non-historic battles. Given the comments here, I am going with the method I proposed, as it keeps the "powerful but useless" vibe going!