At Any Cost: Metz 1870 - The Deciding Battle Of The Franco-prussian War

On the morning of August 16th, 1870, at the Gravelotte crossroads outside the fortress of Metz, Napoleon III, Emperor of the French Second Empire, turned over command of the Army of the Rhine to a reluctant Marshal Francois Achille Bazaine. The Army of the Rhine, the last intact field army and already the last hope for France during the two-week old Franco-Prussian War, was gathered around the protection of the Metz fortress complex. The Prussian I and II Armies were sweeping forward, hot on the heels of the retiring French. Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the Prussian General Staff, instructed his armies to wheel south of the fortress, cross the Moselle River, and attempt to catch the French in flank. The only problem with this plan was - where were the French? The resulting two-day campaign produced some of the more remarkable battles in military history the Battles of Mars-La-Tour and Gravelotte-St. Privat. At Any Cost: Metz 1870 simulates the situation west of the Metz fortress during those few days of August 1870.