Officer casualties in our games

We’ve been playing a series of games based on young Bonaparte in Italy. The games have seen a lot of officer casualties, due in part to luck and in part to some risky play on my part. This inspired me to read up on those same campaigns in the “West Point Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars”, Chandler’s “Campaigns of Napoleon”, Rothenberg’s “Napoleon’s Great Adversaries” and Lachouque’s “Napoleon’s Battles”.  I was looking for examples of high-ranking officers getting hit or having close calls.

All internet images removed from this post, sorry.

Not quite high-ranking enough for representation in our games, the French cavalry commander Stengel was killed at Mondovi (scenario 2). Massena was the highest ranking officer who led the charge over the bridge at Lodi (scenario 3) though he wasn’t hit. Bonaparte was surprised by Austrian Hussars at Borghetto (scenario 4) and had to climb over several garden walls, losing a boot in the process. This experience led him to form the Guides, some 200 cavalry under Captain Bessieres, as a bodyguard. This unit would become the core of the Imperial Guard Chasseurs a Cheval, who provided security for Napoleon. This is an example of an isolated general escaping from enemy troops on his own hook, albeit at a loss of dignity and footwear.

According to the Atlas and Wikipedia’s article on the battle of Lonato during the Castiglione campaign (scenario 5), a column of Austrian troops was cut off from Quosdanovitch’s column. A desperate attempt to reach the main Austrian army through the French positions brought them to Lonato at night. The Austrians were 2,000 – 2,500 strong. Bonaparte’s HQ in the town had 1,200 – 1,000 troops. The Austrians demanded his surrender. He went into a rage, said they were surrounded by his troops and bluffed them into surrender. I cannot think of any rules that would duplicate this.

Serurier fell sick during this last campaign and had to be replaced by Fiorella, his senior brigadier. Fiorella wasn’t up to it; he was replaced by Sahuget in short order. Serurier returned to duty after several months on the sick list, in time to face Alvintzy’s second attempt to raise the siege of Mantua.

Again, below the level of representation in our games, Brigade CO Victor received serious saber wounds to his head during the Bassano campaign (scenario 6).

Division CO Laharpe was killed during the Lodi phase of the campaign (scenario 3). He rode out after a victory and scouted the enemy. Returning after dark, he was accidentally shot and killed by his troops a la Stonewall Jackson. Again, no rules I'm aware of simulate that.

I’m not aware of any Austrian army CO’s being at risk during these campaigns, though later on Melas was badly bruised at Marengo leading a cavalry charge when his mount was killed. Being hurled to the paving stones is tough on a young man. It must have been very hard on 71 year old Melas.

Bloody Big Battles, our rules of choice, has officer casualties removed from the game for a single turn. Our house rules (up through the ACW) are more draconian. A table determines how badly they were hit and how long they are out of action, anywhere from a few days to the rest of eternity. After noting the high rate of losses in the last few games, I’ve decided to give about a 50% chance of the horse being hit and the officer returning to duty after a turn, like the original rules. That still leaves a 50% chance of something worse happening. We’ll see how this plays out.