Battle of Altenrode

With any luck we'll be having another game of Muskets & Marshals in the Hinton Hut this week. This time the Duke will be sitting things out on the bench while his continental allies have a crack at the Ogre.

I asked ChatGPT to come up with a ficticious scenario and table layout for the game and this is what it produced:

The Battle of Altenrode, October 1813

In the weeks before the great struggle around Leipzig, Napoleon's armies were falling back through Saxony while the Austrian, Russian and Prussian armies advanced from several directions.

In this sector, the French had been ordered to hold the road running through Altenrode, Falkendorf and Grünwalde, delaying the Allied advance towards Leipzig. An Austrian force under Archduke Charles approached from the north-west, while Russian and Prussian troops under Barclay de Tolly advanced from the north-east.

Napoleon recognised the danger of allowing these two Allied forces to unite. He therefore ordered the French to attack aggressively before the Coalition armies could combine their strength. Napoleon himself took command of the French left wing, facing the Austrians, while Murat commanded the French right against the Russians and Prussians.

The coming battle would decide whether the Allies could unite their armies and continue their advance, or whether Napoleon could defeat them separately.

So with the hard work done by the AI I then decided on an order of battle and adapted the map for my 6' x 4' table as below:

Looking east along the French lines. Altenrode is left foreground with Falkendorf in the centre middle ground.

Looking in the same direction along the allied line. The Austrians in the foreground and the Russo-Prussians to their left in the distance.

I have deliberately kept the size of the armies quite small as we will have either 3 or 4 players so I don't want to overload any one player with too many units. A battle report will follow in due course.

Order of Battle

(the letters after each unit name show the troop classifications for Muskets & Marshals)

French Army – Left wing: Napoleon
1^st Old Guard Grenadiers A+

4^th Swiss B

8^th Poles B

85^th Ligne B

105^th Ligne B

10^th Legere A

Horse Grenadiers A+

1^st Cuirassiers A

6^th Chasseurs B

1 x Battery Guard FA

2 x Batteries Line FA

French Army – Right wing: Murat

Young Guard Voltigeurs A

25^th Ligne B

33^rd Ligne B

45^th Ligne B

57^th Ligne B

1^st Legere A

Empress Dragoons A+

8^th Cuirassiers A

5^th Lancers B

1 x Battery Guard HA

2 x Batteries Line FA

Allied Army – Left wing: Barclay de Tolly
Odesa Regiment B

Moscow Regiment B

Smolensk Regiment B

6^th Jagers B

Prussian Guard Grenadiers A

Pomeranian Musketeers B

West Prussian Fusiliers B

1^st Silesian Landwehr C

Astrakhan Cuirassiers A

Pavlograd Hussars B

Silesian Hussars B

2 x Batteries Russian FA

1 x British RHA Rocket Battery

Allied Army – Right wing: Archduke Charles
4th Hoch-Und Deutschmeister B

15th Szeckler Grenzers A

23rd Archduke Ferdinand B

32nd Esterhazy B

36th Kinsky B

51st Gabriel Spleny B

Vienna Volunteers C

Austrian Grenadiers A

Ferdinana Cuirassiers A

Toskana Dragoons A

1^st Uhlans B

1 x Battery HA

3 x Batteries FA

***Hut Update***

The Hinton Hut roof repair is finished...