State of Play: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics - Wagram, 5-6 July, 1809 (Part 2)

 

 

A rare instance of the Austrians forming Battalion Square.

 

Over the last few weeks, my brother-in-law, T, and I have been revisiting The Austrian Army expansion (GMT Games, 2013) for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010), exploring the multi-scenario battles of Eggmühl (which I wrote about over five posts, collected in their proper sequence here), and Wagram. Aspects if Battle of Wagram is presented over three scenarios. I wrote about our experience playing the first two scenarios – each very different to anything else that had come before among the scenarios presented – in Part 1 of this exploration. In Part 2, we’ll look at the final part of the Wagram triptych, and the last scenario of the set.

 

Wagram – 6 July 1809 (Davout in Markgrafneusiedl)

The third battle of Wagram scenario, dealing with the action around Markgrafneusiedl, is one of the longest scenarios in the whole collection; with a twelve-banner victory threshold, a target it shares with the first Aspern-Essling scenario Day 1 Aspern), but fields 47 martial units across the two sides, as opposed to 38 in Aspern. It’s almost uncomfortably busy, limiting the capacity for manoeuvre, especially for the French.

T saw that neither side experienced supply shortages during the campaign.

Napoleon’s intent was for Davout’s III Corps to strike the Austrian Left and roll up the line. Charles recognised the danger in that quarter and ordered his IV Corps and Advance Guard (who we met in Gross-Enzersdorf) to strike before the attack could be readied. The French were surprised and pushed back, but soon their lines firmed up and the Austrians and lost their momentum. Davout ordered a fierce barrage, then at 10:00am he ordered his infantry forward to engage with the enemy. The French sustained considerable losses but managed to keep up the pressure on the line, and soon were fighting inside the town of Markgrafneusidl. By noon, the Austrian and French cavalry were engaging in massed formations, but this was a sideshow to the weight of French infantry slowly, then more speedily forcing the defenders to give up ground. Davout’s plan proved successful.

End round one.

The scenario starts roughly at the 10:00am mark, with the French lines formed and ready to advance. The French advantage of numbers is conspicuous; twenty-seven units on the board to the Austrians’ twenty-one, and six leaders to five. The French player also begins with a six-card hand, an advantage of two cards over the Austrian player. Generally, hand size isn’t a game-killer. It can cramp your style if you want to order something on the Left flank and you have three Right flank orders and a Leadership – Center. Two extra cards might give you more options, or it might just give you two more Right Sector orders. I’m also much more willing to order a unit to form Square if I’m not going to be reducing my options by 25%.

This is unfortunate, because one of the French player’s greatest strengths is the massed Cavalry far on his Right flank (six squadrons and a battery of Horse Artillery), to a thin horse defence on that flank. As it turned out, I could have been more careful on this flank, but all will be revealed indue course. In spite of the difference in numbers, the Austrians have a good defensive line; nearly all the front-facing units have some cover or the benefit of hilltops (all offering a to hit dice reduction). Overall, it’s a fairly even match.

Early advance on the French Right. T can be little cavalier with the tiles
and the opponent's blocks during set up.

The Austrians begin the match one temporary Banner up for holding the majority of the three Markgrafneusiedl hexes (the two town hexes in the Austrian Right, and the church in the Center) attack on the town. This made the town a target for the French.

T began with an attack Left Flank (my Right). I told him this was s bold move. In our table banter, “bold” falls somewhere between “brash” and ‘For the love of Mike, what were you thinking?!”. French Line are tenacious fighters in close combat (one was firing at range to try to soften the target before the main attack, but not the way T has been rolling lately, and they experienced a two-dice reduction on their attacks into town hexes. The French were pushed back at the cost of a block each from two of the three attacking brigades. I followed up my stout defence with a counterattack on the same flank using a Take Command Any Section. I chose to make good on my early gains, ordering four contiguous units on my right flank – three Infantry and an Artillery battery – for ranged fire. By the end of round one I’d thinned the ranks of three of the French Line units, but no decisive hits. This was going to be a slow churn.

End round four - still nothing to show for it.

In round two, the French ordered another unsuccessful attack on the town, but only succeeded in seizing the bridge running onto the town. I foolishly brought my Cavalry down off the high ground with an Assault Left Flank order. This handed T an opportunity; with a Counterattack order, he was able to use that order against me (and due to the card differential, with 50% higher effectiveness). Over the next two rounds, T’s Cavalry swept up and attacked the ranging Austrian horse with a ferocious charge that cost me three squadrons and reduced a forth, as well as leading to the (ahistorical) capture of the Cavalry division’s commander Nostitz-Rieneck, netting T four Victory Banners in total. Suddenly I was left feeling quite exposed on my Left flank.

End round five - the French eradicate the Austrian Cavalry.

Chipping at the flanks will only gain you so much, so the time had come for the French to make push in the Center. This they did with an Attack Center order, bringing up two Line and one Light unit. Firing for effect, the first Line halved the strength of the Austrian light at the base of the hills. The Light regiment attacked the church, reducing its defenders’ strength and amazingly taking no casualties of their own, but the Austrians would not be shifted.  In another show of martial bravado, the second Line came off their bridge to attack Markgrafneusiedl, causing some casualties, but losing all cohesion under the return fire and was wiped from the board (my first legitimate score). I replied with an Attack Right Flank order, and brought my reserve Cavalry to bear, and attacked the reduced French unit on the Markgrafneusiedl bridge, earning two more Banners and evening up the score.

End round five, Some lucky rolls even the scores.

By the seventh round we were again even, at six banners each. T’s sixth round Force March in the Center had been blunted by a combination of unfortunate dice rolls and steadfast resistance that cost the French as many blocks as they took from the defenders T managed to clear the Tower (Centre section, at the foot of the hills), but couldn’t take it. The Austrians replied with an order to Attack Right Flank that further reduced his frontline infantry threatening that sector, destroying the Line that had tried to punch through the Markgrafneusiedl defences from the Centre earlier in the round.

Things can escalate quickly.

At the top of the seventh round, T followed up with a Probe Right Flank, activating two of his Cavalry squadrons, the Light horse to try to see off my remaining Cavalry in my Left, and Heavy sent to harass the Line under the leadership of Mayer (whose troops had suffered under a two-pronged attack of Line and Light Infantry in the previous round. The Light horse unit was bested by my surviving Light Cavalry, and the Infantry saw off the attack against their high-ground position easily.

A Forced March order of my own allowed me to pull a collapsing Militia unit back to deny the French an easy Victory Banner, and to get some fresh troops back onto the defensive line on the hill. Some fights were engaged along the front, but nothing conclusive. The grind continued.

End round eight. Six-all.

With the French taking possession of the Church in turn eight, and the Austrians only holding one of the two Markgrafneusiedl town hexes, the Austrians lost their possession Banner, returning it to the diminished French banner pool. Technically, the French didn’t earn that right until the beginning of round nine, when their Line began their turn in the church, but I wasn’t going to be able to dislodge them with the cards I held. An Assault Center order allowed the French to move into the church, but being a Line unit, it couldn’t go on to attack the reduced Austrian Light adjacent – which slowed his roll. His attack up the hill on Mayer’s reduced line cost both sides but came to nothing. I managed to vanquish his Light Cavalry through a Probe Left Flank, using the (slightly) superior numbers of my own surviving Light in combined arms with the Foot Artillery battery I hadn’t yet been able to wheel up onto the hill-range.

By round ten, we were again neck-and-neck at nine Banners each. Meyer’s longsuffering brigade had finally succumbed to the onslaught of repeated attacks by French infantry, but Meyer’s command escaped capture and retreated to an adjacent Line unit. Here things got interesting. Twice the French attacked with their Heavy Cavalry, an twice they were thrown back after Meyer ordered the brigade into Battalion Square (not an ideal move when there are infantry within striking range, but needs must).

In round eleven, managed to eliminate another infantry unit on my extreme right with my reserve Cavalry, but at the cost of setting up an easy point for the French. By this point the scores were eleven for the Austrians, ten for the French. If I had instead moved an infantry unit into the vacant, I could have regained the Temporary Majority Banner for holding Markgrafneusiedl and ended the game, but that felt a bit gamey, so I declined.

End round eleven.

Round twelve saw no change on either side, although I didn’t realise at the time T was taking a chance setting up his end-dame gambit. In the end run, T just had a particularly good selection of cards to execute his intentions in detail.

With his thirteenth order, T delivered the final blow. Playing another Leadership card – the last of an exceptional run – he ordered all his units with an attached leader, attacking my remaining Cavalry, and decisively ending the game but picking up the last two Banners. He saved me the indignity of taking the tower, which would have been his right. Overall, a hard-fought game on both sides, but the French were victorious, and T finally seemed to have made his peace with the dice gods and broken the drought.

End state. A hard-won victory for the French.

In all, the game took thirteen full rounds to reach a conclusion (with the usual table banter and a couple of interruptions, this took the best part of two hours). A loss can still mean a satisfying game. I’m happy to have accomplished what I did with what I had to work with. Looking back on it, I don’t think there was anything I would have done significantly differently, except perhaps to roll better results.

 

French orders played.

Austrian orders played.