1809 Project in 15/18mm: Battle of Eckmuhl Part One - Historical and Wargame Background

 As outlined in a brief post about a month ago we staged a three day wargame refight of the Battle of Eckmuhl in mid September at my den in the UK Cotswolds and I'm now getting round to reporting on it properly. This post covers the historical and wargame background, and next time, how I went about making the terrain. 

CG with two of the 1809 core team - Paul B and Steve Johnson, seen near the start of our Eckmuhl refight

Wargame Background

Regular readers will know that my resurgence of interest in 1809 started about 3 years ago when I got a touch of collecting megalomania and bought a lot of ready painted miniatures from Ebay in earnest so that I could start testing rules and get cracking before I get too old. I took Keith Flint's excellent 18th Century Honours of War system and spiced it up a little, better to reflect the greater flexibility in Napoleonic organisation and tactics and leadership qualities. We did a big test game once per year - fictitious in 2022; Hausen-Teugen-Dünzling in 2023; Abensberg in 2024, and by the latter we'd arrived at a fairly settled set of rules - just as well really as I had already called them "Abensberg to Wagram" (A2W).  Having used them successfully for Eckmuhl I've got the confidence now to post them for readers to see, and use if they care to, in my Napoleonic Download section in the right hand sidebar or here.

(Please note they are not a completely self contained set of rules as I expect anyone seriously interested in trying them will be familiar with the basics of Honours of War, or be willing to buy the Osprey rule book. There are ideas in there though worthy of a look whatever rules you like.)

Serious thinking about Eckmuhl started in early Spring this year but I had not found time to blog about wrapping up Abensberg (October 24) so in brief here goes:

Finishing off Abensberg

Historically Abensberg was a sprawling battle which ended in something of a rout for the Austrians due to a major flank attack on Hiller's army by Lannes' makeshift, but excellent Corps. Fighting in the southern half of the battlefield did not get going till afternoon and then just became a running fight. In our refight Paul B, Martin Gane and Steve Johnson put up a good resistance and made enough time for Archduke Louis to rally much of his Corps and unite with the Reserve Grenadiers to defend a portion of the southern battlefield, while Lannes chased off Hiller's own troops towards Landshut. I was keen to see what could happen in the South and two old friends who had been unable to attend the main weekend, Graham Ward  and Richard Newcombe, were keen to help me in October 2024. We used just the 8 x 6 table  and Richard had Marshal Bessieres commanding a small corps made up of  the Wurttemburg contingent of VIII Corps and Deroy's 3rd Bavarian Division plus a brigade of French Cuirassiers later on. Under fairly sluggish commanders I gave Graham a good sized force of rallied and retreated Light and Line troops from Archduke Louis's Corps and the Grenadier contingent  from II Reserve Corps with artillery and cavalry too. Graham opted not to defend the whole area but kept some dummy markers cleverly concealed in his right flank woods and villages in an effort to gain time. Time proved not to be on Richard's side as he had a sequence of poor command Initiative rolls for the Wurttemburgers , causing them to fail to make ground and steadily suffer from Austrian artillery and skirmisher fire. By the time Deroy's Bavarians had pounded with artillery and closed in Graham still had a consolidated line defending a stream and an open means of retreat.

But for the imbalanced command rolls it would have been a very tight game and I'd recommend this kind of scenario to you to try out - all my briefing documents and orbats are here. 

If you can't get enough photos of Napoleonic miniatures then here is a link to the full set of my Abensberg late afternoon game 

For the casual reader here is a brief taste in pictures

Red lines mark the 8 x 6 area of the original table used for this game. Blue and red dotted lines for the deployment limitations of Allies and Austrians respectively

By about Move 3 Richard had cleared off Graham's dummies and advanced through Kirchdorf.....

........but poor command rolls meant his Wurttemburgers never progressed beyond this position on the right flank

Graham is consolidating in an L shape at the far corner of the table. In the centre Wurttemburg Light Infantry and Bavarians are trying to breach the Austrian line

But Graham has amassed a formidable array of cannon on the high ground and he has a regiment of Lancers just off table  to the left of what we see here.

In the foregound Bavarian cavalry retire having been seen off by the aforementioned Lancers. Bavarian infantry cross the Perkabach but to their right the hard fighting Wurttemburg Jagers retreat to reform.

Overall both sides had fought each other to a standstill but the Allied victory conditions required a more impressive "victory" and Graham had achieved the standoff he required for the Austrian left flank of Hiller's army to retreat in good order and not the historical rout. Thanks to both these stalwart wargaming veterans for giving me the chance to work out this part of our "what if" 1809.

My mind was now clear to think ahead to Eckmuhl.

Historical Background to Eckmuhl
As you will have gathered from the above my approach (and my mates seem to approve) to "refighting"a campaign is to minimise the admin by taking each battle on its own historical merits and then applying logical "what-if" elements to try to make a balanced game, while keeping true to the historical terrain, forces and commanders. So for Abensberg the Austrians put up a much sterner resistance than historically and ended up retreating through Allied pressure, rather than being routed wholesale. It was thus with a clear conscience I could proceed with Eckmuhl on the same historical basis.

The main sources of reference I found useful were not surprising:

Thunder on the Danube, Volume I   by John Gill. A thorough, detailed  historical account with good maps and orbats.

Eagles over Bavaria 1809 by Michael Hopper. Brilliant breakdown into manageable wargame scenarios, roughly at my 1:40-50 scale, so particularly helpful and I pulled on it enthusiastically for my version.

Eggmühl 1809 by Ian Castle, Osprey campaigns series Nr 56. A really nice book on the whole Bavarian campaign with useful maps and illustrations including some modern day photos of the terrain

Echmuhl 21-23 April 1809 - Great Battles of History Refought by P.P.H. Heath . I was only referred to this after I'd done the work but it's an interesting breakdown of the detail for wargame purposes 

and for nostalgia's sake:

Napoleon and the Archduke Charles, by F. Loraine Petre 1909 but mine is the 1976 reprint (Charles Grant's old copy in fact!). Not so detailed but back in the day when I first got into this (mid1970s to early 1980s) it was about all there was apart from Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon

I like to ask what it was that each commander was trying to achieve in  the big picture. In Napoleon's case, on 21-22nd April, to unite his army for a crushing blow which would push the northern Austrian army across the Danube, out of Bavaria, and into Bohemia, so he could once again destroy Austria's military power.  For Archduke Charles, ironically, it became the same in reverse. By 22nd April he had gained Regensburg and the Danube crossing so wanted to unite his army from the northern bank to the southern and create an offensive against the Allies to  curb any further Allied attempts to thwart his invasion of Bavaria. Neither commander actually knew the true position of his opponent, but Napoleon got his act together first with fast moving troops while Charles was having one of his many "off days" it seems, making over-complicated instructions not really rooted in reality.

Archduke Charles watches the
 Allied approach from above Rogging
 (AB Miniatures by Paul B)

Napoleon and Lannes supervise
the Wurttemburgers' assault on Eckmuhl
(AB Miniatures by CG)

Here is the map I worked up on one of Gill's to give to the players to explain the strategic situation.

Marshal Davout with about half his infantry and most of his cavalry from III Corps had been watching , and skirmishing with, the Austrians from Abbach to Schierling since the battle of Hausen-Teugn on 19 April.  By 21 April he was being backed up by Bavarians under Lefebvre  who had come from the Abensberg battle.   He was convinced that he faced the main Austrian army  to his East, around Eckmuhl, but Napoleon didn't believe it. On that 21 April  Napoleon, Lannes, Bessieres and Vandamme  had pursued the routing troops of Hiller's wing all the way from the Abensberg battlefield to Landshut. The Austrians lost huge amounts of ordnance and baggage en route until they were finally able to reform on the South bank of the Isar at Landshut and begin an organised retreat Southeast. Only then did it click with Napoleon that this was not the main Austrian Army and that Archduke Charles was in fact much further North. 

During the evening of 21 April - with order changes throughout the night into 22 April, a rather mixed up Charles created a plan to take back control. His northern force consisted of the rather disheartened and weakened Corps of Hohenzollern and Rosenberg (III and IV Corps) and the I Reserve Corps of Cuirassiers and Grenadiers. Since the bridge over the Danube at Regensburg was now gained his II Corps was ordered to cross and, with the others, form five "columns" to drive a wedge through some fantasy Allied force between Abbach and Alteglofsheim. To do this he totally wrecked the Corps structures of III, IV and I Reserve and effectively emasculated whatever leadership cohesion there had been hitherto (not much!). In practice the constant reorganisation, new instructions and confusion left  too large an area to defend south of Schierling and Eckmuhl and the defensible area contracted as the realisation gradually dawned that he'd been outwitted and outmanoeuvred. 

In the early hours of 22 April Napoleon had split his southern force, with Bessieres to watch Hiller's retreat, and all the rest, including Massena and the entire Heavy Cavalry Corps, marching at full speed due North from Landshut. This is one of those forced marches for which the early Napoleonic Imperial period is famous and so, while Davout and Lefebvre watched patiently from the hills above Schierling, thus pinning their opposition to the Eckmuhl high ground, Napoleon, by early afternoon, brought  the equivalent of a good sized infantry Corps and a Cavalry Corps into play, with more to back them up. Charles' immediate force was completely outnumbered and ironically, in ignorance he had withdrawn strong forces of Grenadiers and Cuirassiers which could have made a big difference.

Two French Cuirassier Brigades. Various manufacturers from collections of CG and James Fergusson. Artillery - AB Miniatures by Paul B. (Photo credit - Stuart C.)

Austrian infantry - AB Miniatures by Paul B. (Photo credit - Stuart C.)

Making Eckmuhl a "fair" wargame refight

Maybe I've been a bit tough on Archduke Charles in the above, but seriously, even the most hardened Austrophiles (and there are two in my group) need a bit of TLC and a helping hand to make this a balanced wargame. I started by metaphorically throwing all the cards up in the air to see how they landed. By that I mean Charles had destroyed his own Corps structure and command chains so I looked at all the various Brigade and Division sized units which could have been in striking distance of my battle area (the green rectangle on the map above)  - there proved to 15 of them. Then gave Charles his three Senior Commanders - Hohenzollern, Rosenberg and Liechstenstein and he could allocate 13 of the 15 among them as he wished. The Austrian deployment area was large and I divided it up into layered Zones 1 to 5, with theoretically a senior commander in each of 2 - 5. The units only had hold/defend the local area type orders, until messengers were received from Charles. In extreme cases that might take 6 Moves.  Here is the map I gave the Austrians to help Paul B decide on his deployment .

This is the overall map. Big rectangle is the usable "battle area", the inner rectangle 12 squares x 8, is the actual tabletop. Austrian zones in red and the indication of Allied deployment in blue dotted lines. Much more on this map in the next post

The remaining two units were Vecsey's flanking force in Zone 1B and Vukassovich's light troops in and around Eckmuhl (Zone 1A). Paul was also plentifully provided with dummy blinds too so could choose where to give a stronger impression than he had troops for.

This is the map I gave to Richard Newcombe and Tony Dillon as Napoleon and Davout for the Allies.

This was a lot nearer the historical dispositions per Corps/Division than for the Austrians since I felt it would work to develop the advance with the three days we had, and the amount of players. Zone A is an "imaginary" Montbrun as the French flank guard force of light cavalry and infantry - he was not on my official orbat as I did not really want a massed French cavalry outflanking move so far off the table area. Zone B is Davout's III Corps and also under Tony's command at the start Lefebvre's Bavarians and Demont's French in Zones C, D, and E. St Germain's Cuirassier brigade was also at the forefront of this force in Zone C.

South of the Grosse Laaber river Zone F was for Vandamme's Wurttemburg Light infantry and cavalry with horse artillery who will be expected to engage Eckmuhl schloss and village at the outset of our game. In Zone G are the main mass of the French Heavy Cavalry (14 regiments in total for our whole refight across the southern part of the battlefield). These are nominally under Lannes' command but Napoleon is also near at hand. The A2W rules make allowance for a combination of exceptional commanders acting in cohesion to get things going quickly. Zones H and K are for Lannes' two French Infantry Divisions. That Zone J off the map represents the approach route for more cavalry and infantry under Massena later on.

General Vukassovich defends Eckmuhl bridge and schloss with Grenzers, light cavalry and artillery, while the Wurttemburger Light infantry are poised to attack from Unter Deggenbach

To their left, along the Grosse Laber, Austrians prepare to defend Rogging and Pfakofen against the approaching columns of Lannes' infantry 

The game was to start at 1.40pm on 22nd April and if we could got through 18 Moves at 20 minutes per Move it could take us up to the start of dusk around 7.30-8pm. The whole available Austrian army amounted to 67,000 men represented by around 1500 figures . The Allied force which I would allow to arrive in time totalled 89,000 men represented by just short of 2000 figures.

I think that is enough for now and next time I will explain about the design of the battlefield and how I constructed it.

For those who want the full briefs and orbats the resources I made for this refight can be found here , or under Eckmuhl in the 1809 Campaign folder in the Napoleonic Downloads at right. 

The initial deployment of those troops which are visible. Green plastic "blinds" conceal those which are not revealed yet, or are dummies.

Cotswold Wargaming Day 2025 - lots of variety in scales and periods

 It was that time of year again and I'm lucky that Cotswold Wargames Day is now held only about 7 miles from me at  Big Battles in Cirencester. This year attendance was fewer - only around 25 or so but there were still 8 games - 3 on large tables, 4 on average size and one small. It's a relaxed event, with no commercial element, where making sure you have a look round and chat to acquaintances new and old is an essential part of the experience. Although it's "small town local" in atmosphere I'm constantly surprised from how far afield folks come - most of southern and central England was represented! We really do welcome anyone in a not-too-competitive and friendly spirit where the hobby is king and not so much the individuals who make it all happen. I love the opportunity to try something different and it never disappoints.

Others, of course, have got their blogging of the day well sorted early and you can gets lots more detail and pictures from the blogs of these illustrious gentlemen 

Keith Flint

Stuart C - Cirencester

Steve Johnson - Part One - mainly lots of detail and photos of Steve's own 6mm Napoleonic game 

Steve Johnson - Part Two - Steve's photo tour of the rest of the tables 

Some general photos first.

My art display table. Several of the paintings are new and not yet on my website but I will update soon, please take a look and/or contact me via the link on there    Chris Gregg Art - military page

British Invasion of Cuba - 1762
Willz Harley, with Steve Pearse, came all the way up from Plymouth to give us a variation of the invasion of Cuba big game which Willz had put on at RNAS Yeovilton in March. I had been unable to attend that event so was pleased to sample it today. The stimulation for this came from the late Stuart Insch's history-with-scenarios book "Against Spain".  Available here

We had just one of the four tables from his big event and it had two forts protecting the approach to Havana - the small one - Fort Comijar, and a large one  Fort Moro protecting the main river entry to Havana (not shown). I was the lucky chap who got to play in and around the big Fort Moro (hand made by Willz). I had two battalions of infantry and many guns but only enough crew to man about 6 at once - a clever part of the game balance. My co-Spaniard - Mark, from the Daventry area, had Fort Comijar manned by only two guns, and a couple of redoubts with guns and a battalion of infantry to its right, He had a very large area to defend with not much. In between us was an unmanned log stockade and at the baseline a lot of dodgy looking local militia which looked like they might try to man it. Unspecified reinforcements were available to us according to Willz........ Our main opponent was John from the Reading/Basingstoke area who operated about 4 battalions of British on the left, with light guns and heavier support from two ships patrolling the coastal strip. Willz stood in for the fourth player, taking four battalions, including Grenadiers with light guns, but no offshore fire support.

Overall view: John attacks from the sea as Mark and Willz watch patiently. Fort Moro in the foreground and an ominous mass of British about to land there . My Spanish still need to get organised

The rules used were a relatively simple set by Paul Robinson of Grimsby. I've great respect for everything Paul does, having enjoyed his friendly but efficient games mastering at The Wild Geese Wargamers gatherings in Kenilworth in years gone by, so I thought this would be fast and fun and I was not disappointed. (Here is a link to a PDF in the Downloads sidebar "You're a Card" 18th Century rules ). That was aided by the generous use of Chance Cards professionally produced by Willz specially for these Cuba games. They actually produced a kind of tacit "morale" effect on me as a player in that, given a couple of the right cards and an opportunity, the adrenalin went to work and turned my quiet defence into an in-period style sallying counter attack.

Grenadiers and line infantry disembark to attack Fort Comijar which is being shelled from the sea by howitzers/bomb vessels 

I think those gunners know that they have to repel the enemy by fire alone as the rules don't allow them to put up a hand-to-hand fight; they have no infantry support

Great hand made boats too by Willz gave a very practical platform for these British Grenadiers to approach Fort Moro

Willz' left brigade used very nice Hessian figures to make up the required numbers. Nearly all the troops were modern Spencer Smith 28/30mm from Willz' vast collection, and there were also some "classic" SSM too. At this height from the tabletop we could imagine that NWF game in the distance was Havana  on the other side of the harbour mouth!

British infantry bravely advance on Mark's guns

Above and below: John has the attack on Fort Comijar well under way now

At last I have my two battalions showing a solid front along the walls, but that forward bastion is vulnerable

I rolled a 6 for Reinforcements, thinking, "This will be good", but all we got was a single regiment of cavalry, and no more throughout the game 

The Comijar battery has failed to see off its opponents and British troops have scaled the walls 

It didn't feel like it on the day but this picture makes it look like the odds were in my favour in the fort

Above and below: I was delighted to find out that by combining two guns against a single target I could pretty much be sure of scoring enough hits to set the enemy back (one inch per excess hit plus base lost for very 5 hits). Battalions were 7 bases strong and had to retreat from the fight when they had lost 3.

An enthusiastic gunner mounts the parapet to do a gesture of derision to the Hessian/British as one of their battalions recoils back towards the sea.

Evidently a bit of time lapse in my photography  - partly over excitement and partly due to a quick tour of nearby games for photographs, so I've missed being able to show you the first push back of Willz's Grenadiers by my guns and musketry. But now he was back.......

Chance card heaven! I'd held my defensive Mine card till he got close enough to the walls and when Willz played his Forlorn Hope card they got blown up - sorry!

But my illusions were soon shattered as the Grenadiers followed up straight away. I lost some gunners but the infantry pitching in threw him back.

My overall situation now: At left those are my Spanish down on the beach - I'd used a Sally Forth card to give me enough distance to nip down the ladders and use musketry to ensure the Grenadiers went back a bit more. Our reserve cavalry (commanded by Mark) was coming up to threaten the battalion guns left by the barges. On the right my fort guns had taken such toll on the Hessians they were retreating too

Fast forward a bit and my musketry (aided by those "permanent" Chance card additions) has proved sufficient for Willz's Grenadier battalion to call it a day. My chaps retreated back up the ladders to "safety". Except they found their sister battalion skulking down behind the walls to escape devastating bomb blasts from the ship's howitzers 

The rest of the action had now shifted to the centre as Mark is gradually overwhelmed by enemy numbers on our right. These pictures actually go back a couple of Moves 

British infantry close in on the redoubts and militia battalion

The other Militia are able to occupy the stockade - for now....

....but blasts from the ships severely damaged the stockade, pushing the Militia out while John is forming a new wave of attack with Hessian Grenadiers, local sympathetic light troops, and more British Grenadiers ........

.......as John is keenly pointing out to me (picture credit: Keith Flint)

Determined to fight back, my Militia reoccupy what is left of the stockade - it offers no actual cover now!

Our cavalry advance has been thrust back by canister from the little guns by the barges 

Skilfully Mark is still keeping a presence on the right flank - those British won't get through towards Havana if he can help it.

A bit later and, not surprisingly, my Spanish infantry sally on this side of Fort Moro, plus the defence by the Militia, has been broken by a deadly combination of musketry and ship-borne bombardment. Hessians occupy the stockade ruins now.

Militia flee; Spanish infantry skulk in Fort Moro's cover; Spanish guns fire back where they can and do inflict some loss on a ship. British Grenadiers back in their barges head off for a cup of tea and scones 

My final picture shows that Mark's cavalry are undefeated but realise it is better to retreat inland and live to fight another day

So who thinks siege games are boring? This certainly wasn't but was full of incident all the way through. The final situation was that the Spanish had control of the big Fort Moro and so, with guns and gunners still intact, could contest attempts on Havana, but not venture out. The British controlled everything to the West  and were consolidating for an assault on the Fort from that side.  So all considered a draw a fair decision. We started off about 10.30am and finished just before 3pm with a relaxed pace and a few breaks, leaving time for Willz and Steve to pack up for the long journey home. Thank you to both for your great efforts, a super game, well balanced. Thanks to Paul R for the fast paced and clever rules, and to my easy going co-players for their good spirit and skilful conduct of the game.

This game won the Stuart Asquith trophy for Best Game, chosen for its old school spirit beloved of the late, great Stuart A, a Cotswold resident. Well done Willz!

And so on to my tour of the adjoining games 

A large 1920s NorthWest Frontier game using 28mm figures , mostly by Empress Miniatures. This was put on by Paul Eaglestone of Empress and Ian Bailey and used an adapted version of Paul's own Osprey-published set of rules for inter-war  wargames  - looks like a very versatile set covering historic and fictitious conflicts between about 1920 - 1940

A World Aflame

I did not really get much about the scenario but it looked terrific, as we have come to expect from these two.

Super figures - Indian and British cavalry at the charge. Note the armoured cars too.

Stuart C. and the Cirencester Club presented the Napoleonic Battle of Abbach in 28mm and using the Lasalle rules. This was fought on 22 April 1809, the same day and a few miles to the West of Eckmuhl, the scene of our big 15mm refight at Oakridge in mid- September (see my previous blog post and more in later ones). I wonder if Stuart was influenced by his role in that one? My understanding is that the fighting on that day here was mainly skirmishing and observation by two sides following other orders than to mix it. But I note Michael Hopper's scenario in  his "Eagles over Bavaria" has a great what-if for the same battle area as Stuart's. With French reinforcements to Montbrun and Austrian ones for Vecsey it looks like a nice arrangement for a good balanced game.

French on the left, Austrians on the right

The Eckmuhl battlefield is only a couple of miles to the right of Stuart's map.

Keith Flint and Roy Boss staged a game in the further development of Keith's Startline World War Two company level rules. This was in 15mm and featured Americans versus Germans in the Rhineland in 1945. Some readers may recall I was lucky enough to try out this thoughtful system a year ago at CWD. Keith said he is working on simplifications of some aspects. 

Sadly I didn't take many photos as I got into catching up with Roy, and our flow was interrupted by a candid photo by the Game Master catching two of his "locals" together on camera ! (Photo credit: Keith Flint)

A fictitious Napoleonic game in 6mm  by Steve Johnson of Bristol using Black Powder II rules. Steve's blog linked near the start gives a very full account of this and loads of super photos - mine don't do it justice.  Steve always puts on a small but beautiful looking game. His terrain is all hand made to a high standard and the figures here are commercially produced 6mm MDF figures painted by Steve. They deserve a proper look on his blog.

World War Two - Tobruk game in 10mm by Matt and Paul using Blitzkrieg Commander II rules . I find this a visually very appealing scale for WW2 - particularly for a Western Desert scenario where the wide landscape can be well represented. I loved the sand dunes which I was shown are commercial vac-formed style with sand type flocking - very effective and looks durable.  Makes me want to get out my 10mm Russians and Germans again.

I think these small dice make very good casualty markers for this scale without being over intrusive

World War Two - 6mm Russians v Germans by Julian and Shawn using Battlegroup Kursk rules. I love the terrain and the models and the smoke and flame markers for this  but I do find all those white dice off-putting and they hurt my eyes, sorry. Investigating BG Kursk I see that it uses markers for orders for every unit so something that is unavoidable ; but they are designed for 15-20mm models where it would be less obtrusive. It's a shame for such a nice looking game otherwise.

Apologies to Jon Billington for not taking any photos -  Jon spent time explaining to me about his 3 foot by 3 foot modular 15mm WW2 platoon level game - the idea being to produce a game that is easily set up and put away and gives a 2 hour solo wargame. He is a fan of Neil Thomas' "One Hour Wargames" scenario book. 

So another one over and thanks to everyone for all they did to put on a very entertaining and informative event, I greatly enjoyed being there and learned a lot.  Please give the other blogs a look to get a  more rounded view of the whole thing than I have given.