RSW-026. The Battle of Oravais - WDS Campaign Bautzen
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| Rating: | 0 (0) |
| Games Played: | 0 |
| SM: | 8 |
| Turns: | 164 |
| Type: | Custom |
| First Side: | Russians (Nap) |
| Second Side: | Swedish-Finnish (Nap) |
14 September 1808 - Historical - Intended to be played Head to Head or Solo as the Allied player vs. the AI (see RSW-Solo.pdf for Solo play victory levels) - IMPORTANT: This scenario uses special scenario rules which are located in the file RSW_23-Oravais_Rules.pdf. This file is located in the main program folder. COMMENTS: This is the full battle scenario for the Battle of Oravais. It is very long and the outcome will probably never come close to looking like the historical battle. Nonetheless, it is included in the game for those that wish to play out the entire battle. NARRATIVE: The Finnish War was going badly for the Army of Finland. Formations had been dispersed thus robbing them of any chance of victory on any given front. The Russian forces were advancing along all fronts and were converging on Gamla Karleby. The Swedish-Finnish forces had been outflanked in the north and were in danger of being cutoff and destroyed. Kamensky, the Russian commander, was marching his main force along the coast while three other columns to the north were approaching the coast in a pincer movement. He had already fought several small actions and the chance now came for him to fight the main force of the Northern Finnish Army reinforced by the Swedish Division. His plan called for his army to made a deliberate attack on the enemy by Kulnev, the commander of the Vanguard, was impetuous and much like Heth at Gettysburg, brought upon the Russian forces a premature battle. Rather than carefully managing his resources, Kamensky would have to respond to the flow of events rather than dicatate the pace of the battle. The Russian army was deployed in three sections. The Vanguard under Kulnev was up near the battlefield, having fought the Swedish 2nd Brigade of the Swedish Division the previous day. The forces of Demidov followed and finally the main force of the army was further back. Kamensky had not concentrated his army and probably should have given command of the Vanguard to Demidov. As a result of the deployment the rash Kulnev advanced forward against the enemy rearguard two hours earlier than planned and was in danger of being routed when Demidov arrived. Together they pressed back the Swedish rearguard. Upon arriving at the main Swedish defense line he should have pulled up and awaited Kamensky's arrival but again, his impetuous nature could not be checked and he attacked the main Swedish line. The result was that the Swedes counterattacked his disorganized forces and drove them back to the original start line of the morning! At that point both Kulnev and Demidov were all for yielding the field of battle to the Swedes when Kamensky arrived and restored the situation. Calling up the forces of Ushakov, Kamensky delivered a stunning attack against the disorganized Swedish forces fully routing them back and beyond their original defense line. His final attack in full darkness delivered the coup de grace to the Swedish army. The battle, in many ways, can be compared to Marengo, which had been fought eight years previously. The outcome doomed the prospects of Sweden retaining Finland. Oravais was to be the largest and most conclusive battle of the Finnish War. DESIGN NOTE: Most of the Swedish Rearguard and the Jägers of the Russian Vanguard start the battle broken down entirely into skirmish units. This reflects the way in which they fought the entire battle. The naval forces are not used in any of the Historical scenarios but are used in the Variant situations.
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