1809 15/18mm Project: The Battle of Abensberg - Part Two, 1030am - 1pm

 

Thanks for all the great comments on Abensberg Part One and for your patience waiting for me to start the After Action Report proper.  Please have a look at Part One for historical campaign background, the strategic area map, game design ethos and making the terrain. This post will cover the immediate background to commencement, and the Day One action from our weekend which took us over the first two and a half hours of historical battle time.

A setback before we started

As I usually do,  the invitations went out months before the game and I eventually ended up with three Austrian players and two Allies on the Saturday (2 were just for the one day) and then a "fullhouse" of 3 players aside for Sunday when more troops and players would be available. But a week before the game Phil had to let me know of sad family circumstances which precluded him from taking part. I had no reserves and a couple who I tried again were not available, so I asked James if he would mind swapping sides and he very quickly agreed. He had a few days to absorb the French/Allied brief but Richard was still going ahead as Napoleon, doing all the map work and deployment plan - phew!

View of opening dispositions from behind the Austrian lines. The hilly and wooded terrain meant both sides retained their "blinds" for a few moves, not all were real units.

I received the Austrian deployment map from Paul B and Martin Gane in good time and made a few small Game Masterly alterations due to misunderstanding.  Richard had worked hard since returning from his holidays and I received the Allied deployment map and a detailed unit run-down by map square too by Thursday.

Paul and Martin start with a very positive attitude!

But then, the day before the game, Richard had to cancel as he had got COVID (Curses - it's still around!).  That left me and James to try to figure out not just the Allied on-table deployment but all the off-field strategic stuff too that was going to have a big bearing on the action.

So some of the command "atmosphere" I put in the briefs had to be simplified, with James commanding the Bavarians (in practise just 1st and 2nd Divs on this day) and me as a rather passive Napoleon (so as not to sway the course of the game too much) trying to mastermind all the rest. To reflect the different Corps structure I commanded Hugel's Wurttemburg Light troops.

And in Move One, at least, James is still smiling

Deployments and Objectives

Here is the Austrian deployment map (slightly modified by me to reflect the cosmetic misunderstandings referred to above). A more detailed understanding can be gleaned from both sides' briefs, orbats and deployment instructions in the Abensberg Download files here.

Austrian deployment: Thierry's brigade is isolated between Offenstetten and Bachl. 
Archduke Louis' Corps defends the width of the table in rows 4 to 8, majoring the defence on Perka, The Horlbachs and surrounding woods and high ground. Hiller has two Divisions available off table around Mandelkirchen but I've restricted their appearance until battle is joined with Thierry. Also available well off table  (near Pfaffenhausen) is the small Reserve Corps.

As mentioned in Part One Hiller's perception of Allied intentions was flawed due to ignorance and poor communication. Pragmatically the Austrians had to retreat in the face of an Allied onslaught.  But for our game I set Austrian objectives to hold firm and use Hiller and the Reserve Corps to reinforce as the action developed. A Significant Victory would be gained if they could hold the original line from Bachl down to Siegenburg. A Minor Victory could be claimed for holding the rear areas from the Rohr road near the source of the Sallingbach through Kirchdorf and down to Tollbach.

Now the Allied (Mainly Bavarian) deployment

First the overall map as sent to me by Richard. It's only the Bavarian 1st Div (Prince Ludwig) (Rows 10-13) and 2nd Div (Wrede) (Rows 6-9). See below for detail.

The rest of the army was  to be controlled by mainly a preset timeline. A player-Napoleon could have influenced this, but as the reluctant passive-Napoleon I settled for just tweaking it to keep up an interesting and challenging game.

As shown by the Austrian map above, Rows 15 and 16 were unoccupied and represented the distance back (into the morning  mists and forests) of Lannes' Infantry and Cavalry awaiting the "off" to commence what they hoped would be a "rideover" down to Rohr through Bachl! The brief allowed them to go once two moves of artillery fire had been heard from the Offenstetten area, but I also despatched Lannes in person from Napoleon's position on the low hill West of Biburg. It would take him an hour to reach his Corps.

Prince Ludwig's Division  in the North. 

General Wrede's Division in the South.

General Hugel's Wurttemburg light have been split with one infantry regiment near Bruckhof ready to sprint up the Sellingbach valley, and the other, with cavalry and horse artillery, on the extreme South of the line ready to move towards Siegenburg as the opportunity arose.

Over the whole weekend the Allies were in greater numbers and with significantly better leaders (that matters  a lot in my A2W rules).  They also had a lot of artillery and cavalry and the element of a surprise force of quality troops waiting on their left flank. Set against that the Austrians did have the benefit of a big variety of good defensive positions (though too many to defend with the troops available!).  When I set the objectives it was with full teams of players and I expected to get through 14 Moves -  from 1030 in the morning of 20th April 1809 to about 5pm. Historically by then the Austrians had departed so it seemed reasonable to set my French and Allies the Objective of sweeping their enemies off the entire playing area!

As we shall see, what resulted was not quite what I expected, but we ended up after two days with everyone seeming to get some satisfaction from their roles, and a slightly surprising result!

Opening moves by the Bavarians

I will try to let the photos tell the story as much as possible.

Richard had placed all the components of each Division close enough together that they could all be commanded by the Divisional commanders. This sped up the early moves but those blinds of Bavarian 1st Div in the foreground woods were destined not to move straight away as poor James rolled a 1 on Move 1! 

Mesko's Kienmeyer Hussar regiment stands guard outside Perka, and Grenze Regt Nr 7 holds the dense woods

Behind them Archduke Louis' two heavy batteries command the hilltop while down the slope is a battery of light Grenze artillery (this photo taken before Paul arrived with the gun models)

The view opposite behind Wrede's main line - a large battery of medium artillery, a heavy battery, two regiments of infantry, a horse battery and Preysing's Chevauleger brigade. In the foreground Minucci's brigade, by Bruckhof, prepares to advance up the Sellingbach valley.

A wider view of 2nd Div's position, and the 6th Light battalion can be seen way ahead on a double move now speeding up the river valley. To their right Beckers' infantry are attacking parts of the Horlbach village.  See village has been left unoccupied by Thierry and the large Austrian 1st Infantry regiment in Offenstetten has yet to be revealed

A close view of von Beckers attack. At left infantry enter Unter Horlbach unopposed. All the guns are playing on Ober Horlbach as the Grenze Light battery is masked by a Bavarian infantry attack. On the far right the Wurttemburg horse battery engages the Kienmeyer Hussars 

An unhappy outcome for the attack of von Beckers' 7th Infantry Regiment (IR) who were badly weakened by heavy gunfire from the hill as well as musketry from Ober Horlbach in the flank on their approach, and then shattered by Grenze artillery canister fire in the close attack - 6 Hits!

Here's a view along Wrede's line with Wurttemburg HA and Bavarian Chevauleger in the foreground. Bavarian 6th IR about to enter Horlbach

Ludwig's 1st Division is now moving on Offenstetten where Austrian 1st IR has been revealed and is under artillery fire from just off the table to the right

Von Zandt's Dragoons and Chevaulegers emerge from the Seeholz and bear down on the Austrian skirmisher company vedette. Paul had omitted to withdraw them - will they get away in time?

More action on the Bavarian right, (above and below): A bold stand by Martin - he had not withdrawn the Kienmeyer Hussars from their vulnerable position. Instead he engaged in a  mutual charge against Preysing's 2nd and 3rd Chevauleger, but the Austrians were hit in flank by the Wurttemburg Herzog Heinrich Chevauleger who had been patiently extending the Allied line just off table (and were visible to Martin).

The Bavarian cavalry brigade had been weakened this move by those heavy artillery on the hill and was broken in the subsequent combat.........

......However, the Wurttemburg flank attack prevailed and sent the Austrian Hussars packing - back through the gap between the dense woods and Perka village, where they would cause disruption to the Archduke Karl Uhlans who were standing in a reserve position. See also the wider view below 

Dark smoke can be seen emerging from Mittel Horlbach. Bavarian 6th IR had not gone in with the bayonet but engaged in musketry with the Austrian 5th Infantry garrisoning the upslope buildings of the Horlbachs. Meanwhile the Austrian sapper company with them decided to set fire to Mittel Horlbach as part of Louis' (Martin's) master plan to delay the Bavarian advance here.

In the Allied centre the advance is properly underway.  Infantry are at the edge of the Bruckhof woods and the Wurttemburg Jager regiment in skirmish order is making good progress  up the line of the Sellingbach to support the Bavarian Light battalion.

The photo below gives a good idea of the activity up to this point.

Nothing is happening yet on the left South of Aicha village.

Martin's Austrians still firmly hold the Horlbach highground and forest down to Perka. But Mittel Horlbach is burning and neutralises control of those hamlets .

Near Martin's corner by Kirchdorf a lot of unrevealed blinds in the woods suggest another Division awaits activation.

Then there is a yawning gap across to Thierry's still intact mixed brigade near Offenstetten and the Keller high ground. It has yet to face the full fury of the Allied onslaught. Paul B is looking after them and, as Hiller, still has lots of troops off-table waiting for their time.

James has a lot to think about, and might miss a few opportunities - such is the stress of a wide command. I'm trying to help out by controlling the few available Wurttemburg units.

The "extra bit" of terrain board is not shown and not yet much in use. 

Bavarian progress against Thierry 

Offenstetten is now under heavy fire from Bavarian batteries. Casualties are being caused and black smoke emits from the Western barn as a fire takes hold. Thierry has no artillery in range with which to respond.

Eventually even the experienced Kaiser Regiment cracks under the strain.

Marshal Lefebvre has come to the front to urge on the attack up the Sellingbach valley. I decided to bring the Wurttemburg Jagers across to the centre where they could do more good as the Bavarian 6th Light Bn was heading unopposed to Sellingberg.

In this wider view at top right it's evident that Martin has felt it is time to show his hand and he has brought Reuss-Plauen's Division out of the woods to occupy the Kirchdorf high ground. All of sudden James is no longer presented with hole to push his Bavarians through

First of Lannes' troops appear

I've said before that I wanted to pep up the command system in Honours of War with my "A2W" Napoleonic version. The dynamism, particularly of French commanders, needs to be reflected strongly, in my opinion, in on-table activity. I've got four levels of command rating.  A look at the  Allied Order of Battle will show that theoretically available the Allies have Napoleon and Lannes as "Exceptional", and several others including Jacquinot and Morand as "Effective". Of course it's about getting them in the right place to have a good effect. I've also freed up the structure to allow more upgrading for Initiative rolls and now I had a chance to show it in action. Exceptional commanders have an influence radius of 25 cm and can upgrade two subordinates in the same move. As previously noted I'd got Lannes into position to lead his flank attack so by Moves 3 and 4 he could position himself at the edge of the "extra bit" and influence Division or Brigade commanders as they brought their troops up in succession.

First was Jacquinot's Chasseur brigade of three regiments. 

The brigade got a triple move and the front two regiments have traversed the "extra bit" in one go and are just now on the main table. Of course cavalry can overreach themselves!

Behind them the 4-gun Horse Artillery battery unlimbered to play
canister on Thierry's 29th Infantry Regiment which was occupying 
Bachl. Unlike the cavalry they had to use the bridge 
to cross the Bachl stream and that meant going through the village.

A wider view shows what remains of Thierrys brigade on the main table - the 4th Dragoons have withdrawn to the rear slope out of artillery range. A battery remains on the crest, and those skirmishers escaped to give a little support.

Behind them, and "marching to the sound of the guns", we can see Paul has brought on Hoffmeister's Brigade of Vincent's Division, presumably the vanguard of more of Hiller's reserves.

They will be needed as Ludwig's Bavarian Division is now making good progress past Offenstetten

(NB, in the excitement the attractive round tower has not been put back in its place in the village square)

Hugel attempts to outflank on the right: action at Horlbach and Perka

While James is busy trying to organise the wide sweep of the Bavarians across a 6 Km front, I'm trying to manoeuvre Hugel's light troops on the southern flank of the Allied line to do something dynamic and useful. Historically Hugel's brigade seem to have been awarded "man of the match" at both Abensberg and Eckmühl, so I needed to emulate their performance....here seemed to be a chance.........

As the photo above shows, I took the Wurttemburg Light Infantry regiment through the dense woods in skirmish order and got close enough to the southern end of Perka to engage the defenders in a firefight prior to an anticipated assault. I found Perka had been fortified (I had allowed the Austrians to do that to one village in advance) giving a minus 2 advantage on the combat chart. The Wurttemburg HA were having no luck inflicting hits on the Grenze in fortified Perka. The defenders at this end turned out to be Grenze "marksmen", and I could see it would be a long slog to dislodge them, sustaining casualties in the process....there must be a better use for Hugel's men. The picture also shows Austrian scouts could see this developing flank move and my Herzog Heinrich Chevauleger had come round the woods too.

Martin had withdrawn the battered Grenze artillery to recover, sheltered by the heavy batteries. Together with a cavalry battery and that strong regiment of Archduke Karl Uhlans, the Horlbach hill looked a tough nut to crack

So I legged it quickly with Hugel's  LI and Chevauleger into the nearby hilltop woods. Louis' Corps was not really big enough to defend the whole front so they'd gambled wrongly that this part of the table would be a stretch too far for the Allies. Maybe the Wurttemburgers could get up to some mischief here.

This photo reveals all was not lost for the Bavarians on the Horlbach - Perka front. The trifling sized sappers offer meagre cover for the fleeing remnants of 50th IR (yellow marker) who have succumbed to, by now, nearly two hours artillery fire. Behind them a heavy battery has a red marker for 4 Hits, and will have to retreat. 

Here is part of the cause. Bavarian heavy guns in the foreground, but, significantly, the large battery glimpsed at left has manhandled forward sufficiently to, at last, get sights on the Horlbach Hill guns.

Bavarian 6th IR is still occupying Unter Horlbach.
The wind direction proved stable for some moves so James must
have felt just staying put was safer than trying to come
 out and round the burning houses

Austrian resilience on the road to Rohr

Prine Ludwig's troops advance on now undefended Keller farm... (the "blind" marker had been only a dummy unit)

....But far ahead Hoffmeister's brigade is advancing towards Sellingberg
(AB figures painted by Paul B)........

.....and Reuss-Plauen consults his brigade commanders about how to defend the Kirchdorf high ground and extensive woods; and are watched closely by a scouting vedette from Lefebvre's HQ

Bavarian 6th LI have gained a lonely, but as yet unthreatened, outpost in Sellingberg

At this point I have to own up to my first "failure" due to being a stressed GM and trying to be Napoleon and Lannes at the same time (curse COVID again!). An important cavalry combat took place on the extreme Austrian right flank and I failed to take a single photo - I was having to make the decisions and roll the dice for Jacquinot's cavalry instead! I made a mistake tactically too - underestimating my enemy, the wily Paul B. I'd got the small size (only 450 men present on this day) 1st Chasseurs, closest to Thierry's ridge, just prior to ascending the slope. In his move Paul attacked with the 4th Dragoons and despite attempting the counter charge the 1st were caught down slope and soundly beaten.

The yellow marker shows the 1st Chasseurs on 6 Hits and broken. To add to the chaos, in the foreground you can see the Austrian 29th IR beating a hasty forced retreat from the artillery fire on Bachl

But the foolish Chasseurs had not died in vain as the Austrian Dragoons suffered enough hits to retreat and find somewhere safe in the woods to recover. These woods along the road to Rohr would prove to become a bloody battleground in the coming hours

More Bavarian success at Horlbach Hill

You'll recall the nearest of Archduke Louis' heavy batteries had to retreat, but the fleeing 50th IR caused another Hit and they were broken. Here you see guns being abandoned and the gunners and teams getting out fast. The Archduke is too far away to stop the rot, apparently concentrating on the Wurttemburg distraction near Perka.

The Bavarian guns are now better placed to inflict steady damage on the hilltop

First day's progress

That is where we had to leave it at the end of the first day's play. I've marked the aerial shot above with a rough indication of front lines, so you can see the Allied progress. The central woods are now occupied by a whole regiment of Wurttemburg Jagers. In the far corner of the table Hugel's troops are now advancing fast and unopposed across the valley towards Tollbach village. Austrian hold on the woods and hills above Horlbach/Perka is still strong as the Allies have nothing much there to match them - good units had been lost very early on in the day against such strong positions. As expected, Thierry's troops were too far spread out, and isolated, to offer much resistance so the Bavarians have got as far as Sellingberg with little loss.  The temporary check to Lannes cavalry sweep was a shock, but a mere blip in what was to come from the Allies on the morrow.

Look out for Part Three in a week or so - don't miss the next thrilling instalment!!!

1809 Campaign: Test game two - Landshut/Altdorf, 16th April 1809

 Those who are following my progress with this project  ( see Reviving my 1809 campaign)  might think I am being slack by not posting often, but if anything, the opposite is true. It's just that I tend be striving towards the next goals such as rules updates, research into battles and orbats, designing maps and making terrain features, not to mention more troops to paint and base, rather than blogging my every step. In the previous post we saw how I'd got a workable set of rules (my expansion of Honours of War) that still needed some significant adaptations, particularly to skirmishers and artillery to make them more worthwhile. Also I had been too ambitious and the big game for only two players in a day had not tested the extended rhythm of play.

For the next one I was confident enough to start our "refighting" of some of the important engagements. Happily the first was the Austrian toehold into Bavaria proper across the Isar river at Landshut on 16th April 1809. I say happily because this was only a Division plus-sized action and would be manageable for my 1:50 "Corps sized" rules in a day. It would enable us to see how the eb and flow worked over 8-10 moves - around 3 hours historical time.

Steve Johnson and Richard Newcombe fully concentrate on the action

John Gill's excellent map of the whole action from Vol 1 of "Thunder on the Danube"

The actual battle
Briefly, the Archduke Charles led the central column of the Austrian main army thrusting South of the Danube, trying to press the French and Bavarians while they were split up and ill-formed to fight a campaign. The experienced Bavarian General, Deroy, was tasked with holding up the advance and he deployed one brigade and some artillery in Landshut to contest the Austrians trying to rebuild the two bridges to cross the Isar. His second brigade was deployed back on the heights above a 3 km wide floodplain near the village of Altdorf. 1st Brigade held for a couple of hours in the morning and Deroy organised a skilful withdrawal back to Altdorf (there was only one road across a marshy floodplain not fit for artillery). Eventually the Austrian Advance Guard, under the later famous Radetzky, caught up, and a battle ensued along the escarpment and into Altdorf. The Bavarians gave a good account of themselves and retreated by late afternoon up the Pfettrach Bach valley. They continued to retreat throughout the night back onto the main Bavarian Corps positions and the Austrians did not pursue, being content to occupy the heights and consolidate the bridgehead.

 I used Photoshop to colour Gill's map and remove the historical units. Then planned out how my 8 x 6 table might work to give maximum gaming to a rough scale of 2 feet (60cm) = 1 Km. This was inspired by, but not a copy of, Michael Hopper's Altdorf scenario in his book "Eagles over Bavaria"

Preparing the battlefield

I had to dismantle the previous 12 x 6 terrain (and salvage most of it to store) but the following sequence will show that I was to make Altdorf as a reasonably sophisticated landscape built on my flat table top, not fully sculpted this time. The following sequence shows the main steps.

Ridges and hills cut from previous sculpted tabletop terrains were
cut and persuaded to go together in an aproximation of Gill's map
as shown by the 8x 6 grid 

I then used tape, paper and PVA to blend them together to hide the joins

This part is always fun - blending a mixture of plaster, sand/sawdust, PVA and paint to build up the texture and match the existing table surface

It's just a matter of working at it with dry brushing and adding discrete scatter and sawdust till I'm happy that it is good enough

I'd got my kids to treat me to some more 3D printed German buildings (12mm) for my birthday and enjoyed painting these and making some little walled enclosures compatible with my figure bases, as well as cutting away the insides of the bigger ones with lift-up roofs to accommodate troops

Everything else was just "add-on" features (roads, rivers and trees) temporarily lightly glued in place. It was important to show the marsh, impassable to artillery, which I did with green scatter and sawdust. This is the initial set-up for our game played in mid-May 2023.

The map I gave the Austrian Commander (Steve) to plan his deployment.....

.....and the Bavarian equivalent for Richard

Altdorf- the wargame

Those who are interested can access the full Briefs and Orbats as PDFs here or via the Napoleonic link in the right hand side Downloads bar. Bear with me that there are a lot of photos. I got a bit carried away reviewing them as this game had a lot of incident and surprises and it was difficult to decide what to  exclude. I'm giving you about half the ones I took and will let them tell the story.

View above the Bavarian positions. Plastic bases with numbers on are Blinds waiting to be revealed. The two in the foreground were actually dummies just to fool the Austrians for a while

7th Light Infantry in the dense woods on the Bavarian right high ground

Richard originally placed two Line regiments in Altdorf village

5th Light Infantry occupied the church and churchyard. The blank base next to the church is a Bavarian Foot battery I decided need not be revealed till it fired.

The 1st Division of V Corps provided the serious backup to Radetsky's Advance Guard. This is their left flank

General view of the Austrian advance from the St Nikolas suburb of Landshut

A really big disadvantage for the Austrians was that the artillery was restricted to the causeway across the lowland. It was only wide enough for one gun model of the two forming a battery, and at the start Richard was careful to place his own batteries for converging fire on the road if needed.

View from 5th LI in the church and yard

Poor Steve rolled a 1 for his "Ineffective" right flank General who promptly decided retreating for one move distance was a good idea! Also in Move One the Bavarians decided to step back a bit and gain the higher ground up the slope

Seeing there was no opposition on the West side of the Pfettrach Bach Richard decided to bring his line infantry onto the East bank, soon followed by 7th LI from the right flank. By the church the Bavarian battery now opened up causing a bit of initial pain to Steve

Richard consults the Hit Table and Steve checks his Order of Battle information

Austrian infantry suffer Hits approaching Altdorf Church

This photo looks dangerous for the Bavarian infantry retreating to a new holding line, so they turned to a facing position along the contour. Meanwhile an Austrian attack goes in to the Church area but they suffer from Light Infantry volley fire frontally and canister in the Flank quarter

The Austrian right flank has recovered with a double move and Steve hopes to threaten with both brigades of light cavalry

Above and below: The accumulated casualties on all three Austrian left flank units proves too much. One is shattered and flees and the other two withdraw to recover. Archduke Charles iwill soon arrive on-table from Landshut and begin to try to bolster these units.

Steve is not easily put off as it gets worse. Radetsky's Light cavalry have been forced to retreat from artillery Hits (below) but he presses on with infantry, and the large Lancer regiment meets the Bavarian Light horse who have the uphill advantage

The Lancers are repelled on 4 Hits.....

.....but the Bavarians suffered 5 Hits and, in my system, being large, just had to withdraw two moves to reform. So this is the view from their new, hilltop position. Down in the valley you can see one Bavarian battery has had to retreat from Hits from Radetsky's Horse Artillery who have established a full battery frontage. Also the "trivial" size Grenz group of marksmen has scored Hits too.

 A large Austrian infantry regiment forms a firing line to maximise its effect on the other Bavarian battery, even so they have suffered 3 Hits from artillery fire so far (orange marker).

More Hits on both sides in this exchange and it resulted in a withdrawing infantry regiment but the battery held firm for now

The central Bavarian battery was limbered up withdrawing to try to reform (red marker)....but those Marksmen, on three Hits, are still viable

Not counting the artillery, Richard's plan for an orderly but slow withdrawal was working North of Altdorf village and up the hillside across the mouth of the valley.

5th LI came out of the churchyard to skirmish......

......but were not quick enough to stop those pesky Grenzers rushing the retreating Bavarian artillery and destroying them

All of a sudden the Bavarian Horse Artillery battery was looking very isolated

A bit more good news for the Austrians was that Charles had called forward the two Heavy Artillery batteries of V Corps which had been in action at Landshut that morning, but had taken till mid afternoon to get down into the plain.

Bavarian 7th LI has now reached Altdorf church to complete the new defence line

Before Richard could rescue his artillery an exciting incident occurred. The battery had limbered and was retreating but was rushed by that pesky "battalion" of  Grenzer schutzen, who in turn were attacked by the recovered Bavarian cavalry thundering down hill

At that point on the northern hilltop nearly behind the Bavarian line (Square A7 on the maps) appeared the remainder of the Grenzer regiment. These had been on a pre-ordered flank attack through the village of Ergolding which was an option I had given Steve for their use. Interestingly Richard had pulled his line back by then so they were decorative value only at the moment.

By now, although far back, a lot of Steve's Austrians had recovered and were ready for the fray again. Archduke Charles was in a good position to organise a renewed advance. You can tell Steve means business - sleeves rolled up and his glasses have come off! (...see no evil?.....)

Extra tension had been created by the Bavarian 5th LI getting a double move and menacing the Austrian Horse Artillery with musketry, while behind them their own HA had been destroyed in the melee and the Grenzers were running helplessly before the Bavarian Dragoons

The latter, with their brigaded Chevaux-Leger regiment, rode on downhill to be met by Austrian Chevaux-Leger and Lancers. The 5th LI formed up and charged  the Austrian "cavalry battery" with the bayonet

The outcome was two broken cavalry brigades and a dispersed Austrian cavalry battery

Behind all this, and now rather exposed, Austrian heavy artillery had unlimbered along the causeway and opened fire on the Bavarian defenders of Altdorf and the church

The church was set on fire and 7th LI forced to retreat

The wider angle view shows that 5th LI's forward position was totally untenable and Richard quickly pulled them back as a collection of large Austrian units closed in.

The intact Bavarian Line regiments, 7th LI and the remaining artillery battery  withdrew together to a third line due North of Altdorf

There are still a lot of capable Austrian units in the bottom half of this photo but too far away to disrupt the planned Bavarian retreat up the Pfettrach Bach.

My rough time chart showed that we had had 8 out of the 10 Moves I wanted by "going-home-time" and attrition losses of "Done-for" units were nearly equal, but what about terrain and the strategic advantages?

Wrap-up

I had stretched History a bit by allowing the Bavarian cavalry brigade of Preysing to arrive on our battlefield from late afternoon. By the following randomness:

<<Preysing’s cavalry brigade arrives North of the Pfettrach bach in Squares 1B/C dependant on a

D6 roll:

Move 6 - requires 6; Move 7 - 5 or 6; Move 8 - 3,4 5 or 6; Move 9 - automatic>>

In the event Richard did not get a score to bring it on early but his orders allowed him to retreat once they did. So we notionally thought through what might happen in Moves 9 and 10 and concluded that the Bavarians would be able to start their getaway unopposed, especially with the help of Preysing's cavalry to cover them.The full Victory Conditions did not depend much on Attrition losses as I did not want to stultify either side by too much caution - and boy did they both go for it! You can check the VCs out by the Briefing downloads linked near the start of this post.

What mattered in the end was their "Expected" or "Hoped for" Victory. Neither side knew the other's Victory Conditions but this one was the same for both sides in essence

<<No enemy units on your side of a line through squares E1,D2,C3,B4,A5>>

By Move 10 both sides would have achieved this so I sent home two happy bunnies by telling them they could both report to their Masters that they had won a Victory!

Conclusion

This had been a really good game and I'd like to thank Richard and Steve for the effort they put in and the determination of both players not just to try to achieve victory but to test the rules as much as possible. They tried their hardest to do so. In a normal pick up game the Austrians probably would have felt defeated by Move 4 or 5, but later Steve remarked how successfully the recovery rules worked to enable the eb and flow of the way battles read in the books. I've introduced a concept into the simple HoW system that when units reach the break point (usually 5 Hits) they can roll a D6 score of 5 or 6 (aided by close leadership and unit quality) not to Flee but to remain in the game and retire to recover most of the Hits. Hence my Army Point casualties for Done-For units (a 6 point scale depending on size and quality of unit) are lower than my 18th Century games and I need to take that into account when setting Victory Conditions.

Both players said the rules worked well now and they could not pinpoint anything especially to change. So, bringing me back to the first paragraph, I spent much of the time from this game until late July preparing a big weekend game (as trailed by the map in the previous post). That employed about 1500 figures, which was a big step up from the approximately 500 of this one.

Next time I will present the first part  (Intro, background and making the terrain) of the dual battles of Hausen-Teugn and Dunzling, fought on a 12 foot by 6 foot sculpted terrain at my little eyrie in The Cotswold Hills of Gloucestershire - Don't miss it!

FOOTNOTE

I mentioned in passing the Scenario book by Michael Hopper of Canada, "Eagles over Bavaria". I need to elaborate because I will be using this book as inspiration and a very strong guiding hand for all my 1809 refights, at least in the Bavarian part of the campaign. Michael has produced four books on 1809 , the three I have breaking down into Bavaria; the advance along the Danube to Aspern-Essling; and the fighting at Wagram and vicinity. The maps and orbats in the books are exceptionally well researched from multiple sources (but using John Gill's "Thunder on the Danube" extensively). The scale and detail is such that one could take each scenario and use the info to refight with any set of rules from the battalion level of General de Brigade up to the grand scale "Age of Eagles", and indeed my own "Abensberg to Wagram" which uses brigades and battalions where necessary. I recommend you get a second hand copy if you can as in a recent email Michael told me: 

<<I am sold out of all four (4) books covering the 1809 campaign and likely have ten (10) or less copies of Rise of Eagles 1805. All I can suggest is providing my email address = log1cal.mh@gmail.com on your blog. It would allow me to hear from inquirers, send them sample scenarios and (hopefully) they might then buy whatever I have in stock (the first two Albion books)(These are about Britain's part in the Napoleonic Wars - CG).  I am considering a very limited reprint of the first two books on the 1809 campaign - Eagles Over Bavaria 1809 and Duel Of The Princes 1809. There have been a few inquirers. I have not made any effort to talk with a printing company though.>>

So get in touch with him if you want to correspond with an expert on this campaign, or enquire about his other works. He told me he is working on 6 more books , but did not say what they are!