1806 Campaign: Storming Leipzig on day 6

The campaign has moved on to day 6 since last week.  After Gera the Prussians retreated to the NW followed by the French. The 8th Saxons retreated from Gera to Jena. On the Western side of the Saale, the Prussians moved north followed by the French who had come down the Saalfeld road

The valiant 8th Saxon division was caught at Jena & surrendered. after a brief fight we didn't bother putting on the table.

One of the restrictions the Prussians had was that the King would not let them retreat north of the Jena-Gera line without a fight.   The battle of Gera convinced the King of the folly of that and the Prussian command was released from the restriction.  The Prussian command was felling pretty good about a small win to get the King off their back then getting over the Saal.  That is, until they found out that Napoleon was following them with only part of his force and 2 whole Corps had been sent to Leipzig.

The map shows about as much as both sides know & doesn't give the full story.  The red is the French advance before Gera-Polnitz.  The green is the French after Gera-Polnitz.  The blue is the Prussians after Gera-Polnitz.

Leipzig is not a fortress.  The old medieval walls are in total disrepair and suburbs have grown outside the walls.  The garrison comprises only 5,000 Prussians & 5,000 Saxon militia.  We fought this battle in 15mm, though as the French have about 50,000 men we didn't have enough figs.  We put all their cavalry & artillery on the table, but only half their infantry, intending to replace broken divisions with fresh ones if that happened.  Only the garrison troops on the walls are deployed, the rest are out of sight of the French initially and not put down at the start.

Mike threw Bernadotte's first division at the wall beside the river to find it defended by Steve's Prussians.  Meanwhile, Chris with Soult's army moved around to attack from the north.

Bernadotte's attack was beaten off with his lead division broken.  But Soult's men found their section of wall defended by Saxon militia.  Here the French broke through.  Prussian reserves held a second line in the houses ad the first line of French columns were beaten back, but they had weakened the defence enough for the second wave to break through.

When the Prussian division broke under Soult's attack, the Saxons surrendered and the city was taken before Bernadotte's second division came up.

Taking Leipzig is a significant step towards victory for the French, but the main Prussian army is still intact, the war isn't over yet.