1809 Project: Hausen-Teugn-Dünzling Part 3 - Noon till the Thunderstorm

I will assume my dear readers are familiar with Parts One and Two of this refight - here is a link to the previous part.

This post describes the second day of our weekend. At close of play on Saturday I had managed to use the available French to hold back the Austrian surge long enough to present a reasonably coherent line, protecting the main objective of the Abensberg - Saalhaupt road. This meant Paul B and Steve J, when they arrived about 0930ish,  were able to have a brief chat, divide the French forces and work out what to do. Dillon and Guy had operated the Austrians the previous day, stayed overnight, had breakfast and therefore plenty of time to work on their own course of action.

All assembled, from left Guy, Dillon, Steve J, Paul B, CG

Guy operated Rosenberg's IV Corps on the Austrian right; Dillon had Hohenzollern's III Corps on the left and was also Archduke Charles, C-in-C and with control of the Reserve Grenadiers. Marshal Davout was played by Steve operating the French right with St Hilaire's Division and elements of Friant's and sundry reinforcements. Paul B used the rest of Friant's troops and the Division of General Montbrun to hold the left flank.

I apologise in advance that there are rather a lot of photos, but a lot happened and in particular in the closing stages it is worth showing individual unit successes and failures. I'll try to let the photos tell most of the story. We recommence at Move 5 starting at Noon.

The main revelation from scouting was Guiton's Cuirassier brigade securing the line of communication to Regensburg near Saalhaupt. (Super AB figures from Paul B's collection) (NB - Paul's command bases are all named but for the purposes of our game read the green printed commander labels)

At the Hausenerburg crest Dillon's Austrian infantry have retreated to safety West of the road, but he's pressing downhill on the right. Below is what it looks like to the French

Badly outnumbered Paul is making a fighting withdrawal while Guy resumes his great Initiative dice for the mediochre Austrian commanders to press on into Westerholz

For the moment the Experienced French Horse Artillery battery is covering a
 vital road gap and inflicting sufficient casualties to worry Neustadter's Brigade

Above and Below:
Two views along the French right where Davout
 is having to settle for protecting the road line

Gautier's Brigade manages to see off this Austrian downhill attack - for now, and his LI are attempting to outflank through the thick woods

In Part One I explained that Archduke Charles had to gain some certainty by exposure of at least 50% of the on-table French before he could release the Reserve Division. That was achieved by about 1115 game time and so by 1245 or so the Grenadiers had arrived from Grub to a reserve position just on table. They were split into two blocks - the larger one just West of Schneidhart village and the other, with artillery,  a "Huge" single unit by my designation, just to the East. 

Grenadiers arrive by Schneidhart

Archduke Charles personally directs the larger muti-brigade contingent. The huge brigade is a little to the East

About half an hour later they moved off in march column towards the
other shoulder of the Hausenerberg ridgeline

Close-up view of French Legere putting up some resistance near
 Moosholzen. The 3-model battery should really be 2 but Paul had
 some fixed larger battery models we had to use.

Pajol presently with the 7th and 5th Hussars in a holding position awaiting developments North of Westerholz. Montbrun keeps the Cuirassiers further back still.

Prior to another downhill advance the big Austrian battery
on Hausenerburg crest (see below) has at last forced Davout's
heavy battery to retreat from Buchburg through Teugn

Meanwhile Davout organises another attack on the extreme right shoulder of Hausenerburg

A large mass of Austrian Grenadiers proceeds between
 Schneidhart and Hausen

This aerial view shows a dangerous hole in the French line just South of Teugn. There are some Blinds unrevealed behind the village and the rear woods. I don't get the impression Dillon is put off, just lacking sufficient command initiative to exploit it.

Rosenberg's Corps has now got some serious numbers North
of Moosholzen but French line regiments are putting up resistance

Where the arm of Westerholz is nearest the road the Austrian 44th Inf Regiment has evidently found an easy way through and is closely engaging those Horse artillerymen....but Montbrun is in the opposite woods with the 11th Chasseurs a Cheval......

In the foreground an Austrian regiment is heading downhill to confound the French line, but help for Steve is at hand. The French have done well to keep the Abensberg road open this long for Petit's Brigade of Gudin's Division had been recalled and now made it along that road.

That gave the front line brigade courage to press on again up the slope and beat back the Austrian infantry

Back at Moosholzen all those Austrian cannon had broken
 a French regiment

At this point in the game, around 1  to 1.30pm game time, a remarkable set of moves was set in train on the French left flank from Westerholz across to Dünzling and the hill slope between them. It's difficult to present coherently but I will try by two picture sequences. It started by the Horse Artillery, against the odds even though they were a high quality unit, beating off IR44 and evading away but towards other enemies. You can see them below at top left being attacked yet again from the woods.  That made space for Montbrun and Pajol to organise all three light cavalry regiments to combine to charge the Austrian 10th Hussars and 4th Chevauleger. The 11th Chasseurs charged out of the woods to take the Austrian Hussars in flank. The French Hussars managed to resist fire from some of Neustadter's infantry and charge home.

The big cavalry melee just near Gattersberg village

Before being flanked those stalwart HA got some more salvos off
and have shattered a weakened Austrian infantry brigade down
by the Dünzling bridge along the road to Paring

Above and below: Out of the melee 11th Chasseurs emerged triumphant as the Austrian cavalry have retreated and must go back multiple moves, and the Austrian Cavalry battery was broken and has surrendered........

.........7th and 5th Hussars also suffered enough hits to have to withdraw
 to the woods to reform. I will pick this up later.....

Above and below: At Moosholzen French units have melted away
and had to retreat, giving Rosenberg's men the opportunity to turn
 left to attack up the Hausenerberg from this end.

By the Buchberg roundshot from the crest battery has
seriously wounded St Hilaire, casing a basic quality
subordinate to take command of the Division

Steve looks dismayed as it is proving incredibly difficult to hold the road open under the fire of those 16 guns on the crest.........

....but he has Petit's fresh brigade, and attack seems the only worthwhile option. I imagine by now Dillon has realised all the Blinds on the North side of the road are dummies or trifling sized Corps HQ units

On Dillon's side of the Hausenerberg it's getting congested as there are so many large infantry units, many are retreating or reforming and the Grenadiers are keen to try to get through.

Trying to make the most of this apparent respite Steve attacks
 uphill (yet again), this time with Petit's French line regiments

The sweeping French cavalry attack on their extreme left takes on yet another shape. Below we see Guiton's Cuirassiers move into Westerholz, backed by the 7th Legere. The Hussars are reforming  and the HA battery had finally taken on too much and is back in the open woods recovering. That just left 11th Chasseurs à Cheval remaining to carve a name for themselves.

Led personally by Pajol the 11th attack and shatter an Austrian battery just outside the Westerholz....

Then, in accordance with the dice rolling for victorious cavalry follow up, they took the weak 55th infantry in the rear, with predictable result

There was now no valid Austrian opposition East of the Westerholz
which now had French Cuirassiers trying to trot through.
Only a small light infantry force and a battery held Saalhaupt but
Montbrun had effectively stabilised this flank and inflicted grievous losses  

At the Hausenerberg crest Austrian supremacy was now obvious though it would take time to organise
an attack on their main objective - Teugn village

Never giving up, French regiments continued to attack the now-revealed Austrians West of the Hausener high ground. For the moment at least that road to Abensberg still remained secure.

Result

Historically the two sides fought each other to more or less a standstill by late afternoon. Then Charles made a half hearted effort to use some Grenadiers, to no effect. The much anticipated huge thunderstorm broke and everyone scuttled off to cover. By next morning it emerged that the Austrians had retreated back to Hausen and their start positions more or less, leaving Davout in control of the Hausenerberg crest. Montbrun was content to protect the flank and had caused a standoff with probably three times the amount of enemy, who remained around Dünzling and back to Paring. Davout managed to get his baggage and most of his corps to safety and join up with the Bavarians.  It is generally judged to be a French victory both positionally and psychologically, as retrospectively, it was seen as the turning point of part one in the campaign. Afterwards most Austrian commanders felt confused and demoralised and a big retreat began leading to some strange manoeuvres South of the Danube which we shall refight in future.

Thunder and Lightning over Westerholz

In our battle our finishing time caught us at end of Move 9 - 2.30pm game time. I decreed the thunderstorm stopped the action early.  I'd hoped for about 12 moves to give the objectives a proper chance to be tested. If it had I think the Austrians were beginning to do better everywhere but on the Dünzling flank. If we'd had two players per side each day we'd have achieved that. 

For those interested in the detail here is a link again to the briefs and orbats for this game. I'm beginning to realise that Victory Points(VPs) for Army Point losses with my system is not very decisive - it's got quite hard to get units "Done For", so my targets for Victory were off. That was however balanced by the Terrain VPs.

As you can see from the chart 

Victory Points gained for Enemy units "Lost" was French 17.5, Austrians 11

Victory Points gained for Terrain won/held was     French  13,   Austrians  7

TOTALS                                                                                30.5      to      18  in the French favour

Conclusion

For my part I loved it! The players were absolutely great - both commanders duly marked up their maps clearly and took time to explain things to me, and all played to their utmost skill and ability throughout. They understood the objectives and tried their best to keep at it until successful or circumstances prevented progress, I could not  have asked for more. This version of the rules worked very well for the most part, and I felt gave a good atmosphere of large Napoleonic forces striving over difficult terrain and with limited knowledge of the enemy. Yet it still had sufficient granuality to identify particular units and follow their progress.  I really enjoyed seeing some of the tactics in play - particularly with the extensive number of light troops.  Paul B's handling of Montbrun's cavalry, LI and HA was masterly. It was particularly gratifying seeing that a combination of command characteristics (Pajol and Montbrun at the high end of the scale) and troops types could occasionally produce decisive, yet realistic and exciting results against superior numbers.

Thanks to all the participants at this event and to Richard N for helping to develop the rules. We've had lots of email discussion post event to work on the few extra changes, and once the next version is sorted I will probably do a blog post giving a brief outline and some downloads.

Footnote

Couple of things I forgot:

Steve Johnson gave a nice report of the second day of this game on his blog Wargames with toy soldiers 1685-1985.blogspot.com

Also as Guy reminds in his Comment, it is worth putting in a plug for the ancient Bear Inn at Bisley where he and Dillon kindly treated The Duchess and me to a fine dinner. Bear Inn

1809 Project: Hausen-Teugn-Dünzling Part Two - The first day's wargaming - 1000-1200 19th April 1809

 

Introduction

Better late than never, hopefully. Most readers have probably forgotten I am still in the midst of writing this report - too much 2D art, photo-sessions with a model for art commissions, and general family "real life" has prevented me getting round to it.  If you need a reminder here is part one Hausen-Teugn-Dünzling in which I gave a very brief historical context, explained the scale of the game we were attempting to refight, and gave a detailed "tutorial" on making the customised, sculpted terrain on the 12 feet x 6 feet table.

In this post I will attempt to give sufficient details on the forces and plans of the protagonists, and use loads of photos to help explain the run of play over the first couple of hours of historical time.  That actually took all day as I found that, somewhat ironically, I was doing the classic "holding action" not just as a gamer but for real, as the French players weren't arriving till the next day! We had allowed a whole weekend to play this out, and we needed it - this was back at the end of July 2023. In round numbers I was allowing for around 35,000 French and Allied to fight up to 55,000 Austrians, we had just over 2000 figures available but not quite all of them made it to the tabletop.

A light hearted candid shot of me worn out as the single French commander on Day One

Game context on the day

First I will regale you with some maps to help understanding.

Those who wish to see the detail can get the full briefings and orders of battle from the Napoleonic Download section on the right hand sidebar, or follow this link Hausen-Teugn-Dunzling briefings and orbats

Map given to Austrians -red areas correspond to particular Divisions or Brigades on the orbat. Blue areas are the very few French they are aware of around 10 am

Dillon's intended Austrian deployment. Hohenzolern's III Corps is on the left flank, still deploying through Hausen. Most are in the safety of reverse slope on the Hausenerberg in relation to the French at Teugn. But Stutterheim's light troops North of Schneidhart are expecting opposition in the woods ahead. Rosenberg's two Divisions of IV Corps are deployed side by side on the right, approaching Moosholzen, Westerholz and Dünzling.

The French map, pink areas are spotted Austrian units. All except areas A15 and A16 represent marching formations along the road towards Abensberg, through Teugn and Saalhaupt. A15 is a strong Light Infantry (Legere) brigade on the Hausenerberg. A16 is Montbrun's Division consisting of 3 strong regiments of Light Cavalry and a regiment of Legere.

Paul's actual deployment and attack intentions which had to be interpreted by me 

As a reminder, we were using my adaptations of "Honours of War" rules for Napoleonic Imperial  period warfare at a scale of 1 x 15/18mm figure representing 50 men (Abensberg to Wagram, A2W). So most tactical units are full regiments or small brigades, some Light Infantry (LI) units were just battalion strength, the artillery batteries were two gun models each. The rules are still a work in progress but most aspects are finalised. Although I had provided most of the troops (which are an eclectic mix, many bought painted from sellers on Ebay) I'm indebted to Paul B from Cheltenham in lending his wonderful AB Miniatures armies before the day for me to pick from. Nearly all the beautiful staff groups are Paul's as well as a lot of the cavalry and some of the Austrian infantry.

On this first day Dillon Browne and Guy Barlow had come from Buckinghamshire and Windsor to command the Austrians. On Day Two the French commanders,  Paul B and Steve Johnson, would be here, but until then it was up to me, as Marshal Davout, to do my best to carry out their orders, but be sensible and not lose too many troops before they arrived!

The plans 

Simple really for both sides, and somewhat dictated by my limitations placed on them driven by historical deployments adapted by my reading of the situation at about 10 am. Full credit to Michael Hopper's Hausen-Teugn and Dünzling scenarios in "Eagles over Bavaria" for focusing my mind on what was needed, and then enlarged a bit into "what-if" territory by opportunities shown in John Gill's "Thunder on the Danube" Volume 1. I had given both sides a lot of dummy units to help with "fog of war", and added Blinds, concealment and scouting to the basic HoW system.

French

Paul had grasped the nettle, and ordered all his forward units to attack. He intended to establish a battery on the Buchberg to protect Teugn while sending infantry up the Hausenerberg to try to secure the critical crest line. A dummy Division was all he had to give the impression of protecting the line of communication to the distant Divisions of Gudin and Morand, now on their way West to Abensberg. Gilly's LI brigade was to take and hold the extreme eastern end of the Hausenerberg overlooking Schneidhart village. Morand had a difficult job on the French left. Paul maybe had not realised the potential strength of Rosenberg's corps and he'd initially ordered Montbrun to secure the covering approaches to Westerholz through Paring and other off table villages, since safeguarding this flank of Davout's march from Regensburg was critical. I managed to temper this to sending only scouts and LI forward aggressively at first and keeping Pajol's cavalry Division back to await events. A reserve was provided by Saalhaupt village in the form of Guiton's Cuirassier Brigade.

Austrian

Although I was given some mild criticism after the battle for making the Austrian objectives too difficult, all I was trying to do was provide strong incentives to advance as far as possible - even off the northern roads! That was in keeping with Archduke Charles' historic orders, and I did not want to give our Austrian players any excuse for the dithering shown by their historic counterparts. So Dillon ordered all Hohenzollern's units to advance over and down the northern slope of Hausenerberg and onto Teugn; Vukassovich on the left was tasked with trying to block off the Abensberg road. Guy ordered Rosenberg's infantry to advance straight ahead with the Westerholz, Moosholzen, Saalhaupt and Gattersberg in mind, while he hoped cavalry would be able to advance through Dünzling. Stutterheim was to take that vital shoulder of the Hausenerberg above Schneidhart. I had given Dillon, as Archduke Charles, the potential to command  personally the strong (10 battalions of Grenadiers) I Reserve Corps from it's off table position at Grub, but there were restrictions of course......

The situation at the start - all units, real and dummy were represented by a blind of some sort - different sizes helped balance out real versus bluff formations.

The Blinds help to demonstrate one of the key elements I waated to represent to get across the character of the April leg of the 1809 campaign - the diverse and close terrain of Bavaria. A lot of the mess, confusion and apparent ineptitude of both sides was due to lack of visibility and knowledge of the enemy and their own troops. Each side had "squadrons" of scouts attached to the key commanders (Corps level and above) and we had a scouting phase at the start of each move. We simplified things somewhat with a die roll to indicate if "spotted" enemy figures were revealed this turn or next. Scouts had no fighting role except in defence of their General and his staff, and to fight or push away/evade from enemy scouts.

Let Battle Commence - 10am 19th April 1809

Play commences - here Guy brings Rosenberg's Corps through
 the woods, while Dillon is thinking about which of
Hohenzollern's units are revealed

The majority of my French stay back as yet unrevealed

There were some "what-if" elements to this refight.  Dillon's first thought, as Archduke Charles deployed off table at Grub, was to despatch his squadrons of scouts forward across his front up and over Hausenerberg.

I had set a condition that at least 50% of French units/dummies had to be revealed before Charles could issue any orders to the Reserve Grenadiers. I hoped that would take about 3 or 4 moves. This was to build in the kind of reticence experienced by an Army C-in-C deep inside enemy territory up against an unknown enemy. Players don't usually show this kind of hesitancy unless you impose it as Games Master. After all, Dillon would be driven safely afterwards to a nice pub dinner, whereas Charles would have to face the wrath of Emperor and country if he lost the Grenadier Corps gratuitously!

Carrying out Paul's orders I am pushing regiments from St Hilaire's Division up the Hausenerberg even though Rosenberg's troops are deploying on the crest already

Dillon's second option was as Hohenzollern, to send an ADC to recall Thierry's Brigade. You'll recall from Part One Thierry was part of III Corps sent westwards to shadow the Bavarians. By Move Two Dillon felt he needed to call up those reinforcements so despatched the ADC but the mandatory dice rolls could hardly have been worse - they would not arrive not till Move 10! Neither side knew that, as a balancing factor, the arrival of the Bavarians on the French order-of-battle was dependent on the Austrians getting Thierry.

Although his commanders were generally poor quality Guy kept rolling 6s for his critical Command Initiative which gave him much faster movement than any of us had expected

Above and Below: Austrian scouts (foreground) reveal Pajol's
Light Cavalry Brigade just West of Dünzling. I had pushed forward
his Horse Artillery battery and began very long range harassing fire

This is the situation in the centre above Schneidhart village. An Austrian Grenzer Regiment has pushed up the Hausenerberg to take on similar numbers of Gilly's French Legère. The taller dark evergreen trees denote dense woods only passable by skirmish infantry

At the main crest I have pushed in a regimental column attack on the right and formed an elite regiment in line left of the road to take on the Austrian mass with fire. Note the Austrian Grenz marksmen in the woods on my right flank - Ouch!

I'm giving fire support though from St Hilaire's heavy battery on the Buchberg by Teugn village

Here is the view on the French extreme right. Skirmishers engage in the hilly area to the right but what is ahead of my columns is still to be revealed...except all those skirmishers in the dense woods on Hausenerberg

A good view of the Teugn-Hausen road through the pass with a desperate struggle taking place for the summit. Austrians have higher ground advantage and "large' unit status here.

The Westerholz is in the centre of this photo.
Two French Hussar regiments are chasing away Austrian LI before
 they can do much damage. French LI approach Moosholzen
 and the rest of Pajol's brigade has withdrawn to a safer position at the left

This overall view from the SE shows that Rosenberg's right hand Division has reached Dünzling, which is why I retreated Pajol. (see below for a closeup). The Austrian IV Corps left hand Division is getting a toehold on Westerholz 

It's causing me a lot of problems but it was all good-natured historical
 fun............

.........even though things had gone badly at the Hausenerberg crest. My elite infantry had been depleted to 5 hits and broke! (Yellow marker), however I've forced their opponents to retreat (red marker)

Stutterheim's Grenzers had been pushed back by superior fire from Gilly's LI brigade (who have retreated to concealment) and thus I had achieved one of Paul B's objectives by securing this end of Hausenerberg. Guy used Stutterheim to keep the French guessing here but never caused a serious threat again.

This is the Austrian regiment that the elite French infantry
pushed back from the crest - soon to be spending a couple of moves
 reforming in front of Saladorf village

Afternoon sunshine spoils the photo at the Austrian left  flank -
time to close the blinds!

This overhead shot shows Hohenlohe's Division consolidating a position from Dünzling up the slope towards Westerholz. Montbrun is continuing to play a waiting game by refusing the flank while using the 7th Legère and Hussars to keep the light elements of Somariva's Division at bay through the woods. The latter's infantry and artillery have reached Moosholzen

Dillon is boldly pressing his advantage at the main Hausenerberg
 slope. One French regiment has had to retreat back behind Teugn to reform,
the others are now desperate just to defend the road line.
 Marshal Davout can be seen to right of the Buchberg

Two views of fighting around Moosholzen hamlet. Above: I've had to pull Grandeau's Brigade  of Friant's Division across to plug this gap. They are gamely trying to take on Somariva's Division, with their left flank protected in Westerholz by Pajol. Below: Guy's big dice rolls for movement have now ceased (he's using high scores for firing instead!) but he's yet to uncover the strong, experienced 7th Legère still concealed under Blind Nr34

Here they are revealed, and can cause losses if I can keep them out of musketry volley range

Gilly has come near the edge of the forest on Hausenerberg and it's a stand-off with Stutterheim just extending his skirmish line (the "1 stand lost" marker just means 1 Hit in HoW terms)

Along the ridge Hohenzollern is bringing up more regiments,
and LI are now in the forest. From now on both sides will
 try to use skirmishers in the dense woods to outflank the lines
 fighting at the crest.
Way in the distance Dillon has taken the battle towards Teugn.......see below

.....and finding it is not easy. The heavy guns on Buchberg have turned to give enfilading fire. Together with volleys from the French infantry, that proves enough to see off this already weakened regiment.

We'd battled till about 6.30pm and I could breathe a  sigh of relief. Although we only had done 4 Moves, (Two hours tabletop time) on behalf of Paul and Steve I had held all along the line where it mattered. Though my attack on the Hausenerberg pass and crest had caused the French losses it had blunted the Austrian advance.....for now. Better yet I had only lost one unit - the "Experienced"  3rd Regiment de Ligne (unit 20), and a few others were in need of pull back and reforming. On the left flank Montbrun was directing his "Experienced" Horse Artillery battery to cause considerable discomfort to Guy's troops. The next hours of battle would bring a lot of excitement in that area in particular.....

So I will leave you for now with a new painting I did, loosely inspired by the action yet to come in our game. I've called it "Montbrun's Division retakes the Westerholz high ground" 

Original Acrylic painting on board, 20 inches x 8 inches. Late afternoon 19th April 1809 - Montbrun takes advantage of Hohenlohe's hesitation to let loose the 7th Hussars (painting for sale please email me if you'd like more info. Chris Gregg)

A Captain of the 7th Hussars Elite Company leads the charge
(inspired by the memoirs  of Jean-Nicolas Curély
"The Life of a General in Napoleon's Light Cavalry")

The 7th Legere in Westerholz are inflicting damage on the 8th Infantry Regiment, including its leadership. Smoke rises from a hasty volley but they are now unloaded...do enough senior officers remain standing to organise a battalion mass to resist the cavalry.......?

Part Three very soon!