Squared Away - The Russian Division

Tactics for the Battleground game: Napoleon in Russia

Last in my series on infantry tactics, implimented in Battleground games, is the Russian division. In many ways the essentials of running these are easier than the more intricate formations of the other powers. The primary ideas of the Russian division are a certain clean simplicity, and two-fold redunancy on the other. Otherwise known as 'it is easier to walk with two legs than one'.

Start by taking inventory of your division. It contains 6 regiments, 2 of jagers and 4 of line (grenadiers, which could make up two more, are collected into other, larger reserve formations) - plus 1 to 3 batteries (1 positional, which may or may not be present, and 1 or 2 light batteries). Each regiment has 2 battalions, and 2 regiments make up one of the three brigades.

A. Skirmish line of Jagers B. Light infantry support for the skirmish line C. 4th Jager battalion in reserve D. Line infantry in 4 stacks E. Divisional light battery and wagon F. Brigade of Dragoons in support

Start with the Jagers. Their role is to screen the front of the division and mark its actual 'line'. Deploy the 4 battalions side by side in line formation with 1 hex spacing between the lines - 1 regiment left of the division center-line, the other right of it (B). When working as part of a Corps in position, normally the position batteries would be placed next to each other between the two divisions, marking the boundary between them and anchoring the Corps' center. If deployed alone, put the position battery (if present) on the center-line of the division, between the two Jager regiments. Next, deploy 2 skirmish companies (roughly half the men) from each of the Jager battalions, and place those 1 hex ahead in an 8-hex screen (A).

The line formations are meant to support the skirmish line. In BG terms, they provide a line of ZOCs that cavalry can't just 'overrun' right through. They also allow skirmishers to re-form and re-deploy to reduce fatigue and recover ammo. As you use up skirmishers, these may dwindle to remnant units for only that role, and eventually disappear altogether (all units in skirmish formation). In line or skirmish order, the firepower put out is the same. The difference is the lines are easier to hit (so screen them from enemy skirmishers, when their fire is not really needed) but have the ZOCs. When attacking, you can use them ahead and drop the skirmish companies back into the gaps between them, doubled up, to form a thickened skirmish line of 150-200 men per hex all along the front, to melee-push enemy skirmishers and fire on enemy formed infantry.

This screen of Jagers is meant primarily to keep French skirmishers off your columns. It is also, however, so thin that it is a sort of standing invitation to French columns to push in to your division area via melee. S'ok, the rest of the division is about dealing with that, practically.

Next the main position of the division. Leave all the men in column formation and stack them 2 to a hex in their regiments. You want the 4 regiments laid out in a square (D), one hex between each side to side and front to back left empty (columns 2 hexes apart). It is more historical to put the brigades across (meaning, front 2 columns are regiment one and regiment two of the 1^st brigade, back 2 columns are from 2nd brigade) - but in BG game terms (with limited command radius for brigade leaders) it can work better to put them side by side. Meaning, 1st brigade on the left, one regiment forward the other back, 2^nd on the right, again one forward and the other back. I recommend the latter.

Thus most of your men are in a tight group in those 4 columns - which you should set 3 hexes behind the Jagers (for the front two, obviously - 5 hexes back for the second 'line'). Thhat is far enough to let a Jager battalion get meleed, pushed, and rout - without disordering a regiment by being next to a routing unit.

Next, 'inside' that 'box', put your light battery or batteries (E). This is how you walk around the field.

When you want to hurt something that attacks your Jager line, detail the forward regiment on its side to attack, and if possible put in on a flank of the intruder to try to rout them by fire - staying in column. If they are weak - a battalion - then you can go in with the bayonet if you miss - or if you have no flank shot. If you have no flank shot and the intruder stack is too big to easily melee with just a regiment, then it is time to use the main Russian tactic.

That being, you 'fix' him with one or two of your regimental columns, which being full regiments tend to be big enough that he can't just brawl with them in melee easily - then you park a light battery 3 hexes away, covered by the ZOCs of those columns and 'sighted' to fire between them. He can leave or he can die to that battery's fire - up to him.

When a column on one of those missions gets disordered (by fire or a bigger melee, or its own melee attack not immediately recovered from), then rotate it to the rear-ward position on that side and send the ordered one, behind, up to take its place.

Sometimes you will face a crisis or see an opportunity to get a surround melee on a large intruding stack. In that case, you can use an entire brigade in one big column and charge. Orient the remaining two side by side in that case, as though both are now 'front' regiments of the 'square', while that charge goes in. Naturally, tired or disordered after their rush you will want to later rotate the charging brigade to the rear, when you can.

Use the interior of the 'square' of regimental columns for reordering light forces, to protect batteries, etc.

When charged by cavalry, of course you can change all the columns (or occasionally just the forward ones) into actual square formation, making a fortress-like 'box' of men with a 5x5 hex pattern of overlapping ZOCs, with batteries within it to fire out at nearby cavalry, etc. If cavalry is dumb enough to melee an interior hex (one of the two, which can be approached on the flanks only anyway) to get a battery or what-not, they are quite welcome - nothing with a +2 target signature is going to live long (unrouted especially) inside that box.

Resist the temptation to put any of the full regiments into line formation or to divide them up. The only occasion when you should do so is if you are facing fire attack from infantry in front of you and your Jagers are already gone. You can't just let French skirmishers waltz up to your regimental columns and disorder them. So then you have to replace the missing Jagers with a brigade in line formation across your front, and reduce the 'rear box' to just 2 side-by-side regimental columns, for melee and 'fixing' work. The rest of the time, stay in column for the extra melee defense and mobility (especially when disordered). It is more important that you be able to cycle ordered men forward than that you be in line - the firepower of one of your regimental columns, if in good order, is as good as 2 disordered lines. Also lets you have a leader in most hexes you have men in, for an added morale boost.

A key thing to remember is the crucial role of those light batteries. They give the firepower that just columns don't have. The columns provide the melee defense - and depth for stoicism about losses (when combined with regular reliefs for disorder) to hold the ground and protect the guns while they do their work. At close range, a Russian light battery will drop 150 men in 30 minutes - more than doubling the firepower of a couple of columns. Essentially every offensive fire phase, whoever is ahead of it will get to check morale, at progressively worse modifiers for fatigue and disorder. Trust that they won't stand it for too long, and in the meantime just don't let them move you.

(Article copyright Jason Cawley.)

[Written by Jason Cawley. Courtesy of The Napoleonic Wargame Pages.]