An action at Jena 1806 played out with DBN

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a situation that had occurred in a boardgame, which I thought could be transferred to the tabletop for a figure game with the DBN rules. Here is the boardgame situation;

A link to that previous post, which is basically the scenario builder, is in the Resource section below.

Here is the Schematic diagram that fell from that;

And here todays table. I have gone for a 4’ x 3½ space for 28mm figures on 80mm bases. I am still building up my Warlord Games Epic forces specifically for this scenario, so for the contest today, my 28mm Austrians will be acting as proxy for the Prussian / Saxon side.

The following shots show the starting positions from the French Perspective. Firstly, the French middle (below). This is a line of 4 units (brigades), the one on the French left has been designated elite.

Below is the French left wing, there are four bases and they are in base to base contact with each other. That means the whole group can be activated for movement (if they stay together) for one Command Point - instead of separate command points for each unit.

Below is the French right. This wing is weaker with just 2 bases (2 brigades), but there is an elite artillery unit just behind them.

The Prussian Force is represented by Prussians forming the left wing and the Saxon allies forming the right. In the game the Saxon line infantry are counted as militia which gives them a -1 in fighting, but that is countered slightly by a +1 they get for close combat. The whole army has its musket range reduced because of their lack of skirmishers. Below is the Saxon right.

The Saxons do though have light infantry and attached jägers sitting at the rear of the woods, they just hope that they can support their comrades at the front in time

Importantly, when a side roll for their command, the French get a +1 and the Prussian / Saxons get a -1 ….. such is limitation of an 1806 Prussian force!

AT START

The attack opens with the French centre (below) assaulting the slopes. The left of their line attack in column of brigades with the elite unit leading. 

The Saxon cavalry and infantry (below) in the centre take casualties from the enemy advance and are compelled to charge down the slopes into the attacking French.

The cavalry do well, pushing the French back, but the infantry charge is badly mauled as it contacts the elite French and they retire back up the hill …. Shaken!

ABOVE - The Saxon light infantry emerge from the woods, led by the jägers. The Saxons position now feels a little less exposed.

On the French left, their light cavalry charges uphill at the Saxon infantry, but they recoil. That Saxon wing is holding.

The Saxons struggle in the centre ….. The previously successful Saxon light cavalry are chased off, now shaken (shaken on 2 hits, 3 destroys) and the French elite unit has pressed home the attack and what was the shaken Saxon infantry unit, flee the field. The Saxon light Infantry that had just emerged from the woods, move to counter the French advances in the centre.

Overall view as Turn 4 starts - The Saxon right is under pressure, but holding firm. Their centre has broadly collapsed. On their left the Prussians have hardly been engaged. The French below have had to drift to avoid the Prussian artillery and so the French assault here has been delayed. As a consequence, the village of Lutzeroda, defended by a lone Prussian unit has not seen any action.

Suddenly, everything changes - The elite French unit on the left routs the Saxon light infantry, then over on the French right, their light infantry destroys a unit of Prussian guns that were in the process or re-orientating their cannon to follow the French movement (drift). And then finally, the French assault on the right takes out another unit (line infantry), with four Prussian / Saxon units now routed from the field, the French automatically win the game.

That was a dreadful turn for the allies, as they watch three units collapse. The reason was that in the game, combat work on opposed die rolls. If (with modifiers) one side scores better than the other, then they inflict a hit. If they win the combat by at least twice as much, the defender is destroyed.

Such was the extremes of these three sets of die rolls, that in each case the allies were removed from play. You could repeat this game several times and that might never happen again, the allies have been very unlucky and straight away, I want to play this again.

In some respects, the Allies are on the back foot from the start, but they do have some things going for them. Other than in the centre, the French units do not start in the best positions and they generally need a few turns to unravel that. The Allies are uphill, so benefit in close combats and the French are up against the clock (10 turns ….. which I might reduce a little for the next game).

Had those three devastating losses not happened, the battle would have rumbled on. I think in the time frame available Lutzeroda would have been safe, it may have come under pressure, but would have likely held. In the next game, I think the French might be better to prioritise that village as the main objective, forcing the allies to respond with manoeuvres that would be difficult because of their comparatively restrained number of Command Points.

The star of the show was the French elite infantry unit, but then they were up against militia! It should be noted in despatches that the Saxon jägers game a good account of themselves (below photo).

RERSOURCES

An early post that played out the building of the scenario, from boardgame to tabletop. LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/10/converting-boardgame-to-figures-jena.html