The Battle of the Nations, aka "die Völkerschlacht" aka the battle of Leipzig - the largest clash of arms prior to the world wars. More than half a million men took part in this battle, where Napoleon with his Polish and German allies lost the decisive battle against the coalition armies.

Lots of troops and details, so if you're going to play multi (which is the intention), a 56.6 modem will not be enough.
 

Author: styrbiorn

Readme.txt

The Battle of the Nations

Thomas Rowlandson’s ”Death and Bonaparte,

depicting Napoleon’s loss at Leipzig

The battle of Leipzig, or the Battle of the Nations as it also is called, was the largest clash of arms prior to first world war. More than half a million men from 16 different nations, separated into five armies, took part in this grandious battle, where the coalition of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden forced Napoleon to give up central Europe and finally even France herself. The catastrophic outcome of the invasion of Russia in 1812 led to risings against Napoleon and the French. The armies of the coalition were engaging the French in different smaller clashes. Napoleon was forced to give up Dresden and he failed to defeat the different coalition armies one by one. His Grande Armee was pulling back towards France, and the road of retreat went through the city of Leipzig, Saxony.

Installation:

Extract the Leipzig.m3d file to the main Cossacks folder (same folder as dmcr.exe). To play choose Death Match (alt. Single Player/Random Map). Click on ”Designed Map” and mark ”Leipzig”.

WARNING!

Whatever you do – during game, do not press ctrl-a! You command so many formations that the game will crash if you try to mark them all!

Scenario notes:

The troops are positioned as of the evening of October 18th 1813/morning Oct 19th. The French has a large numerical and tactical disadvantage, but is compensated with the possibility to upgrade their troops. Depending on skills, I suggest a peacetime so the French player may upgrade his troops fully.

A Gentlemen’s agreement should be done: no using buildings as booby traps and, maybe, no healing of troops in the academy.

Because of balancing and gameplay, there are some historical inaccuracies, mainly about troop positioning

The Battle

On the 16th of October, 1813, Napoleon’s army, totally consisting of some 190,000 men, had formed a semi-circle around Leipzig from the village Lindenau, through Schönefelt and Wachau to Dölitz. The armies of the coalition was closing from the South, from the East and from the North. The intention was to put every single available soldier into battle against the French and their German and Polish allies. Napoleon on the other hand, intented to defeat each army of the Coalition before they had time to mount a combined attack, but before he could attack, the Army of Bohemia under Scwarzenberg attacked, and in the North York’s Prussian Corps assaulted the village Möckern, thus forcing Napoleon to shorten his semi-circle and forget the ideas of attacking. To the South, the Austrian attack was repulsed wiht large casaulties.

On the next day, reinforcement arrived and the numerical superiority of the coalition got even bigger. Napoleon shortened the circle around Leipzig even further, preparing to retreat.

On October 18th the delayed Army of the North, commanded by the Swedish Crown Prince Jean Bernadotte finally had arrived and the Coalition armies now consited of 295,000 men. An offensive was initiated all along the line. All attacks from the South were pushed back, but in the North Blücher’s Army of Silesia gained ground, and by the night the French were retreating.

On the morning of the 19th a Prussian unit stormed the city of Leipzig itself and opened the Outer Grimma city gate, allowing the coalition to enter the town. The Elster Bridge was to be blown after all French units had crossed it, but he corporal who was ordered to destroy it misunderstood the situation and blew the bridge too soon. This misunderstanding trapped the corps which was defending the city to allow the rest of the French army to retreat. One of the men trapped was Napoleon’s Marshal Josef Poniatowski who drowned when trying to cross the river by swimming.

After the decisive battle of Leipzig, the coalition armies* pushed into France and Paris, marking the end of Napoleon. The German denomination of the battle, ”die Völkerschlacht” (The Man Slaugther) comes from the fact that more than a 100,000 men lost their lives in this battle (of which 46,000 were French, 22,600 Russians, 16,200 Prussians and 14,600 Austrians).

*the Swedish army under Bernadotte marched to the French ally Denmark, defeated the Danish and and forced them to surrender.

Suggestions, thoughts or complaints may be sent to styrbiorns@hotmail.com. Enjoy!

By styrbiorn