La Bataille de Hanau

La Bataille de Hanau Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Battle of October 30

The game lasts 12 turns. The Allied player is set up first. The French player plays first.

Initial Set Up of the Austro-Bavarian Army

On the road, south of the Kintzig river, at the level of the Lamboi bridge, units 14a, 14b, the Austrian hussars and Fresnel (units 34, 35 and 40).
South of the Kintzig river, within 2 hexes of the same bridge, the 4 Austrian foot artillery units (units 36, 39, 41 and 42), and the Bavarian units 26, 27 and 28.
On or adjacent to the letter A: units 37 and 38, plus Klenau.
On or adjacent to the letter B: units 30 to 33.
On or adjacent to Neuhof: artillery 29, units 23 to 25, plus Beckers.
On or adjacent to the letter C: the entire Bavarian 3rd Division, i.e. units 14 to 21, plus Lamotte.
On the letter D: the Cossacks 22.
On or adjacent to the letter E: Austrian cavalries 07, 09, 10 and Bavarian artilleries 12, 13, plus Spleny.
On or adjacent to F: the three Bavarian cavalries (units 04 to 06), and the Austrian horse artillery (unit 11).
On hexagon G: the partisans of Mensdorf (unit 03).
On the road which goes vertically north of Hanau, at the level of the letter G: the uhlans (unit 08).
Anywhere on the battlefield, stacked with an Austro-Bavarian unit, De Wrede.

Formations and orientations are free.

Initial Set Up of the French Army

On or adjacent to H or / and between H and J: all the Guard artillery, i.e. units number 07, 08, 15, 16 to 18, plus Drouot.
On or adjacent to J: Victor and the II° and IX° corps (units 30 and 31).
On or adjacent to K: Macdonald and the V° and XI° corps (units 28 and 29).
On or adjacent to I: the Cavalry of the Guard and Nansouty, i.e. units 09 to 14.
On or adjacent to L: Sébastiani and the 8 French cavalry units (19 to 26), plus the 27 horse artillery unit.
The Garde à pied: the chasseurs (01, 02, 05) in or adjacent to N, the grenadiers (03, 04, 06) in or adjacent to M, plus Friant.
Napoleon is set up on any French unit.

Formations and orientations are free.

Austro-Bavarian Reinforcements

Turn 8: Kaisarov's Cossacks and Denissov's partisans (units 01 and 02) enter by the road north of Hanau. If this hex is occupied by the French, the units enter via the closest free hex.

French Reinforcements

Turn 8: Unit 34 and Marmont via the Leipzig route.

Turn 9: unit 32, same route.

Turn 10: unit 33, same route.

Turn 11: unit 35, same route.

Note: units not used on the French side are present the next day, October 31st only (see page 4).

Special Rules for October 30

1 - Lines of Communication

For the French, the road to Leipzig, north-east of the battlefield.
For the allies, the other three routes. The route to Frankfurt ceases to be a line of communication when the French player exits their first unit by this route.

2 - The Main River

This river located in the southwest quarter of the battlefield is impassable by any unit whatsoever, the land south of this river is therefore purely decorative!

3 - The Kintzig River

Very swollen by recent rains, this river is very difficult to cross, the reports indicating the number of drowned after the battle testify to it. The following rules apply:

a) Infantry and Cavalry: Spend all MP of a movement phase to cross. For example a unit comes into contact with the river on turn 3, on turn 4 it is moved just to the other side. On turn 5 it will be able to move normally. The hex or hexes on the other side must be free of enemy units.
b) Artillery: impassable, except at the bridges.
c) Possible fire (offensive, defensive or opportunity), without penalty.
d) Melee and charge movement not allowed except at a bridge.
e) Retreat after combat is not allowed except at a bridge, a unit that cannot retreat elsewhere is eliminated.
f) A bridge on the Kinzig River has a same penalties as a stream without a bridge.

4 - Hanau

This city located on an elevation is treated like the others with the following exception: Any unit attacking a hex of Hanau (coming from outside or from another hex of this city) has its melee value reduced by 1, if necessary in addition to the reduction of 1 linked to the elevation.

Hanau Wall: part of the city is surrounded by an old wall, poorly maintained but real. Its crossing (outside a gate) costs 2 additional MP (in addition to the elevation), and the melee value is reduced by 1 (in addition to the elevation and the city, for a total of -3), except at the three doors.

Passing through these doors does not cost any additional MP, and negates the melee penalty for the wall. This penalty remains at -2 (elevation and city) when attacking through the gate. A gate does not cancel or decrease the penalty by fire.

5 - Restriction of the First Turn

Units that are initially positioned south of the Kintzig river may not move voluntarily before the start of turn 2. The movement is then normal. This also applies to leaders.

6 - The Leaders

All the basic rules apply here. If Napoleon is killed, the game ends immediately with the victory of the Allied player.

7 - Army Morale

Starting with a certain level of losses, each army can become demoralized, this rate of losses being 70 for the French and 60 steps for the Allies (the French although less numerous are composed mainly of the Guard and commanded by the Emperor).

The morale of Guard units does not decrease with losses.

8 - The Artillery of the Old Guard

Two French artillery units, units 17 and 18, have three steps, 7 as fire rating, and 2 as melee. These units represent the elite of the artillery of the time and the heaviest pieces. Relative to other artillery units, casualty records occurs as follows:

a) Loss of the first step: the unit's new values become: 6 for fire, 1 for melee, 2 for steps (like a normal foot unit).
b) Loss of the second step: normally, i.e. 3 for fire, 1 for melee, 1 for steps. All other characteristics of these units are identical to the rest of the artillery.

9 - Bavarian Morale and the Guard (Optional)

Due to the reputation of the Old Guard, with the Bavarians as allies for a long time, any moral test after a fire or a melee involving units 01 to 04 (infantry of the Old Guard) carried out by a Bavarian unit (only) is made at -2 on the dice. This modifier is cumulative.

10 - Victory Conditions

At the end of the 12 game turns, victory points are awarded to each player, the side with the most wins the game, with varying degrees:

0 to 30 more points: marginal victory.
30 to 60 points more: operational victory.
More than 60 points more: big victory.

For the French:

If there are no Allied units north of Kintzig: 30 points.
1/2 point for each step of allied losses eliminated.
1 point for each step of French losses exited in good order by the road from Frankfurt.
10 points per enemy leader eliminated.

For the Allies:

Each French step eliminated, 1 point, except Guard unit (2 points per step of losses for every unit with a gold stripe).
Road exit: an allied unit exiting the Frankfurt road at the end of turn 12: 20 points.
A unit anywhere on a hex on the road from Leipzig to Frankfurt: 20 points.
Hanau held: i.e. an allied unit in any Hanau hex at the end of turn 12: 20 points.
Each French chef eliminated: 10 points.

Notes

The morale of Guard units does not decrease with losses.

My apologies to the Spleny and Lamotte families, the portraits of these generals are exact but their coat of arms approximate.

We realized after the final publishing of that game that the general Klenau at Hanau was not the known corps commander in 1813, but another general from the same family. Players are free to use him or not, to give a slight advantage to the Austro-Bavarian player for example.

The Battle of October 31

Although roughed up on the 30th, de Wrede realized on the morning of the 31st that the French had continued their retreat towards Frankfurt, and decided to try again. After a little fighting overnight and in the morning, de Wrede launched another assault around 1 pm.

The game lasts 12 turns. The Allied player is set up first. The French player plays first.

Initial Set Up of the Austro-Bavarian Army

All the troops are placed south of the Kinzig river, excluding the town of Hanau.

Units 01 to 03 are absent, as well as artilleries 11, 21, 39, and 42. All other infantry and cavalry units, with a step loss per unit, are placed at the option of the Austro-Bavarian player who sets up first. The other artilleries are intact.

Initial Set Up and Reinforcements of the French Army

The corps of Marmont (units 32 to 39) and Bertrand (units 40 to 46) as well as the artilleries of the Guard 15 and 16, are placed north and west of Kinzig, at the player's choice, as well as in the town of Hanau.

Oudinot's young guard corps enters from turn 1, one unit per turn, by the road coming from Leipzig.

Victory Conditions

As for the day of October 30, de Wrede must cut the road to Frankfurt. The player who controls the exit road hex at the end of turn 12 wins the game.

If the French player controls that hex AND all Marmont's units left voluntarily by this road, then he can claim a great victory. This is a risk to take or not, as he will lose the game if he loses control of that hex at the end of the last turn.

Special Rules for October 31

Only rules 1 to 4 apply for the battle of the 31st. The only modification to the special rule 1 is that the French line of communication is now the road to Frankfurt.