The terrain got a bit upgraded as the fight moved in to a small farming village, and this was to be the centre of attention for the start of the battle.
We tried another new thing this time, and that was to reduce the movement speed of all units to half of the standard. So an infantry battalion would move 6" and a cavalry regiment 9". This was made to see if it was more fun when a unit could not get a great order and move of into the sunset, leaving the other far behind.
French Forces
· Commander-in-Chief – SR 8
o Marshal Maréchal Davout
· Géneral de Brigade Lorencez - 4ème Division – SR 7
o 3 Battalions of Line Infantry (1 large)
o 1 Battalion of Light Infantry
o 1 Foot artillery
· Géneral de Brigade Gilly - 2ème Division – SR 7
o 3 Battalions of Line Infantry
o 1 Battalion of Light Infantry
· Géneral de Brigade Petit - Cavalry Division – SR 7
o 2 Regiments of Dragoons
o 1 Regiment of Chasseurs á Cheval
Austrian Forces
· Commander-in-Chief – SR 8
o Feldmarschalleutnant Hobenzollern-Hechingen
· Advance Guard: Feldmarschalleutnant Vukassovish – SR 8
o 1 Regiments of Kürassiere
o 2 Regiments of Hussars
· Brigade Generalmajor Kayser – SR 7
o 3 Battalions of Line Infantry (1 large)
o 1 Battalion of Landwehr Volunteers
o 1 Battalion of Jägers
o 1 Foot artillery
· Brigade Generalmajor Bieber – SR 7
o 2 Battalions of Veteran Grenadiers (1 large)
o 1 Battalion of Line Infantry
o 1 Battalion of Jägers
French right and centre deployment, a heavy column supported on the flank with both cavalry and artillery.
French left deployment, mixed brigade with some flanking light cavalry.
Austrian cavalry facing their French counterparts
Center of the austrian line, lots of infantry deployed in a french mixed brigade
Austrian right was held by the elite Grenadiers
And the whole table, village in the centre and some scattered woods around
The French unfolded their flags and started to march onto the table, on the French left the flanking units moved forward, but the centre had some trouble deciding where to go, so they kind of stayed put.
The centre moved forward while the cavalry formed up in columns to move of in a flanking maneuver.
The Austrian cavalry moved forward slowly, keeping in line with most of the centre infantry, except the Landwehr who had no intention on getting into harms way, and refused to do anything. But the jägers saw an opportunity and dashed forward into the field, taking cover and started to fire into the advancing French.
The Austrian Grenadiers moved forward in at a steady pace, leaving the jägers to do a flanking maneuver to catch the Chassaurs that had started a flanking move, threatening the entire Austrian line.
The next turn started with some hard riding from the French Dragoons, they quickly abandoned the flanking move and went for a head on charge, stopping just short of the Austrian line.
And one of the battalions occupied the village, taking up cover all over and started to shoot at anyone dumb enough to get into their sights.
Other than that most of the French line took a breather and didn't do anything.
Then the Austrians got their turn, and the Kürassiers quickly took the opportunity to rid the field of some dragoons, and charged straight into them. The first fight ended in a badly mauled dragoon unit that retreated, and the austrians didn't stop for that and flew straight into the next unit, smashing them up quite good as well before they had to retreat. Those heavy cavalry types are rock hard!
In the centre the Jägers got of a great volley and shook the french lights quite hard.
The right hand Jägers also got a great turn in, as they quickly occupied the woods right next to the Chasseurs and also got an excellent round of shooting in, making them think twice about the position they put themselves in.
Meanwhile the grenadiers moved up to centerfield, and the infantry in the centre did absolutely nothing.
Then I think I lost a turn of photos, but the gist of it was that the cavalry on both sides took a moment, the centre was rather still, other than that the Jägers and French lights shot each other up quite a bit.
In the village some of the Austrian infantry lined up to shoot the French away, and the Austrian artillery rolled up as well to deliver some close range canister fire.
On the Austrian right the grenadiers charged into a French column, beating them back and moving up into the french lines.
In the turn after the French counterchanged so that the Austrians had a unit both in the front, and in the side. But after an amazing roll of the dice, the French lost, with one unit retreating to the edge of the board and the other standing its ground, now facing the angry Austrians all by themselves.
The French in the village shot pretty good, and got some damage spread around
In the centre the French advanced, starting to get into fire lines
But then came the round that broke the French back, first one of the hussars got the large French battalion into square, then the infantry moved up and delivered a devastating volley, and when the smoke cleared, the unit cohesion had completely broken down and they flead.
On the right the Jägers moved up after the chasseurs that had retreated, and shot them up so bad that they broke, taking the whole cavalry division over the edge, also the grenadiers beat down the french in close combat.
In the village the unit occupying it got so shot up that they also left the field, taking also that division over the edge, breaking it and the whole French army.
Overall it was a resounding beating of the French, but they will have their revenge, and I think I need to adjust the forces a bit, the French needs some more help, or they need to ambush a few straggling Austrian units so that they don't show up next time.
Overall it was a good game, I'm not certain that the reduced movement is a great idea, but I'm willing to try it a few more times before I discard the idea. If anyone else have any thoughts on the matter, please share!
Until next time, happy gaming!
