La Bataille d' Heilsberg 1807, Bloody Prelude to Friedland (2022)

La Bataille d’Heilsberg 1807 recreates the almost forgotten, but extremely bloody battle for the East Prussian Teutonic castle town just four days before (June 10, 1807) the decisive battle of Friedland. While the French were under the oversight of the Emperor Napoleon, their forces at Heilsberg were under the command of Marshal Joachim Murat and Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult. Both Marshals frontally assaulted the well-prepared defenses of the Fourth Coalition around the old Teutonic Knights town of Heilsberg in East Prussia. The commander of the Coalition forces was Graf von Bennigsen, a Hanoverian general in service to the Russians. Bennigsen had spent months fortifying the area around Heilsberg with redoubts; fleeches; and assorted abattises surrounding the old Teutonic Knights castle in Heilsberg itself. It was probably the best-fortified position of any Napoleonic battlefield. Napoleon had 85,000 troops in the immediate area on June 10 facing Bennigsen’s 90,000 Russians and Prussians. The battle lasted nearly 12 hours and consisted of a series of cavalry charges and French frontal assaults on the well-defended Coalition positions. There were 20,000 casualties in the battle. The game will has two large maps; over 700 counters and assorted player aides, including a virtual 160-page rules and historical commentary book.