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.

 

State of Play: Commands & Colors: Napoleonics - Wagram, 4-5 July, 1809 (Part 1)

 

 

French advance repelled (Yay, Team!).

The Austrian Army expansion (GMT Games, 2013) for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (GMT Games, 2010) offers twenty scenarios, split across two time periods. The first five present battles fought during the War of the Third Coalition (1805-06, although all of the battles presented occurred in ’05), and fifteen scenarios covering the War of the Fifth Coalition. Of these, Half of theme are shared across two battles; five battles make up some of the constituent parts of the Battle of Eggmühl (which I’ve written about recently), and the final three scenarios cover the Battle of Wagram. I this post we’ll look at the first two scenarios in the Wagram triptych.

 

Wagram – 5 July 1809 (Gross-Enzersdorf)

Gross-Enzersdorf is a classic holding/delaying action; Napoleon had pulled a ruse on Archduke Charles, convincing the Austrian leader he intended to cross the Danube at the same point he had on his first incursion into the region, resulting in the Battle of Aspern-Essling (a month after Eggmuhl and about six weeks prior to Wagram, in which the French forces were repulsed and had to withdraw). In fact, Napoleon brought his troops across the river further downstream, transferring 150,000 men under the veil of night, meticulously executed logistical feat for the books.

From the scenario description: 

“When Charles realized he had been outflanked, he rapidly retreated to the Wagram position, leaving the VI Corps and the Advanced Guard to fight a delaying action. Taking up a defensive position around Gross-Enzersdorf, Nordmann’s Advance Guard began fortifying the village.”

While deploying the bulk of his army, Napoleon gave the task of clearing the march ahead to Massena’s IV Corps. It’s here we pick up the action, as the IV Corps light regiments begin there push toward Gross-Enzersdorf.

Set up at start.

I say this every time, but Gross-Enzersdorf is a tough scenario for the Austrians. It’s not a cakewalk for the French either, if they can push the enemy out of the town hexes and infiltrate their own troops, they can potentially nab two-thirds of the Victory Banners necessary for a win. In an earlier go at the scenario, T, again playing the French, lucked out with a Grand Maneuvre, and managed to place two French Light infantry units in the two vacant Gross-Enzersdorf hexes in the very first card play of the game, but that was one of those fluky card-things you get in Commands & Colors games. The town is lightly defended, with the bulk of the defending Austrian forces further back from the board latitude of the town, but the geography works against a coup de force, limiting the avenues for rushing advances.

To be honest, progress was slow and tedious. I tried to recreate a blow by blow of the play, but I nearly dozed off twice. So, dear reader, I will summarise the progress in a few board snaps and captions.

After two full turns of push and pull, the first banner fell to the Austrians. The whole
game would be like Max Weber’s description of the work of politics,
“The slow boring of hard boards.”

By round six the Austrians had taken a convincing lead (4-1; due to a quirk in the scenario
rules, I earned one of those Banners by playing a Scout card – this was the first time either
of us had won a banner by playing a Scut card in probably half-a-dozen plays-through of
Gross-Enzersdorf). Apart from not seriously attempting to take the town-hexes, T’s
overall operational strategy was solid, but whatever he had done to piss off the
dice-gods, they weren’t over it yet.

By round nine, T had nearly evened up the count, partly through grabbing a piece of
Gross-Enzersdorf and its accompanying temporary Banner.

At the end of round eleven it was still anyone’s game; the French had lost their foothold
 in Gross-Enzersdorf, but earned back that banner in the Austrian left, where there were
now dome low-hanging fruit ripe for the picking. One good attack could easily clean up
two banners for a French victory.

In all, the game took twelve full rounds to reach a conclusion. What could have been a swift French victory (assuming better die-roll results) turned into a slow, exhausting grind, coming own to the very last Banner. T should have been able to pull it off with his Assault Right Flank, with two chances at an elimination with his Light Cavalry attacking Mayer’s crippled Line infantry set on the baseline (roll of three dice, one retreat (ignored) and Mayer survived), and his other (leaderless) Cavalry attacking the remnants of an Austrian Foot battery holding the high ground on the Austrian Left (Combined Arms with a Foot Artillery unit for four dice, but no hits, then pushed back a space with a retreat result in the defending roll).

End state.

With my last play, I used an Attack Right Flank to finally put to rout (eliminate) the half-strength and unsupported Line hanging forward on the French Left, ending the battle (until the following day, at least). French progress delayed, the action was won, but the battle only prolonged until a couple of nights later, when we moved on to the McDonald’s Square scenario.

French orders played.

Austrian orders played.

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Wagram – 6 July 1809 (McDonald’s Square)

Some action on the Austrian Left (round three).

On the 6^th, Charles knew French superiority of numbers would win the day if something wasn’t done to equate the imbalance. Having repelled small probing attacks in the late afternoon of the 5^th, he took the bold step of attempting an envelopment attack on the fielded French army before Napoleon could bring his force up to full strength. Charles was a competent, even gifted military leader, but was let down by the Austrian army’s internal inertia and lack of good staff-work and reliable communications that undid his manoeuvre. The French, recognising the French (with their superior communications), responded with a radical manoeuvre, the mobile mega-square of numerous formations that could move practically as one.

McDonald’s Square gives the French player a potentially insurmountable advantage on the field. So long as the “square” (more of an ellipsis on the board) maintains cohesion, any movement order given to a single unit will activate all eight units.

This session brought out one of the things I really love about C&C Napoleonics; each scenario has a seemingly infinite capacity to surprise. McDonald’s Square has seven-banner victory threshold, not a high bar but a banner higher than Gross-Enzersdorf. Generally, playing the Austrians, there can be a tendency to turtle a little bit, to wait out the French until they come into range and try to thin their ranks with ranged fire before engaging in close combat. This is especially true in the 1809 scenarios, where the French almost always enjoy superiority of Leaders, overall unit numbers, and a larger hand-size. But the Austrians can’t afford to do that in this scenario. While in their (roughly) square formation, McDonald’s infantry command of eight Line units move as one. Any manoeuvre order that is given to move one of them can move all of them until the formation is broken. This manoeuvrability combined with, say, a Give Them Cold Steel order could be devastating for the Austrians, so there is an impetus to try to break up McDonald’s Square if possible, before it gets too close.

 

Set-up at start. McDonald's Square is clearly positioned straddling
the French Center and Left.

T began with an Assault Center order. Normally he would be able to order up to his hand-size in units (in this case, six) to deploy and engage if able. This brought Macdonald’s Square up a space, which put them in musket range of the Center defending line. Some desultory fire reduced two of my line units and ended his turn. I responded with a Recon in Force. This allowed me to bring to bear volleys on two of the frontmost units of McDonald’s Square, thinning their ranks but not breaking their discipline, and to bring my Cuirassiers up off the back-line on the Austrian Left into a position where they may be able to do some good.

No plan survives contact with the enemy, but T stuck to his, ordering a bayonet charge (which, in truth, if he had committed in the first round, would have probably been devastating to the defenders and may have shortened the game even further). The dice didn’t go so well for the French, with hits, but never enough to finish a unit. The Austrian return fire was withering, but just as inconclusive. I played a Bombard, firing into one of the depleted French Line (under the command of Lamarque), but too only a single block (in the confusion of battle, I forgot to manoeuvre my other battery up from the Austrian baseline to the hex between Süssenbrunn and the little copse on the Austrian Right). At the end of the second round, McDonald’s Square was in complete disarray and all four of the Austrian Grenadier units had been reduced – two to a single block – but still no banners had been exchanged. That would be rectified in the next round.

End round two. The Austrian lines are scattered, but so is McDonald's Square.
Still, no banners exchanged.

Round three opened with the French playing a Leadership card. This allows any units attached to a Leader to be activated and to fight with an additional die, either in Ranged Fire or Melee. In the resulting exchanges, the French finished off two of the depleted Grenadier units (though Prochaska escaped capture, retreating to the back-line Artillery battery) and reduced a third to a single block.

My impoverished hand offered only poor options for ordering units. Another Recon in Force served better than I had any right to expect, allowing me to take out two of T’s reduced Line units, and to capture Lamarque for a total of three banners, as well as seeing off an incursion on my left by an advancing French infantry unit, halving its strength and routing it (pushing it back a row with a Retreat result). My next card draw proved fateful, and would decide the game.

T's next – and as it happens, final -command was Forward. This allows two units in each section to advance and engage the enemy. T brought up four of his Cavalry squadrons from the back; none could engage in this turn, but I suspected he had a Cavalry charge in his hand which would have wreaked havoc across all three sectors and probably earned him the game. Two Infantry advanced on the French Right and Center, one of them taking out a third Grenadier unit for a third Austrian Banner.

Austrian Bayonet Charge, Ordered units circled in yellow, target units in red.

I replied with the card I’d picked up at the end of the third Round. Bayonet Charge doesn’t offer additional dice for attacks, but it does allow up to four units – regardless of their sector of origin – to move up to two spaces and still engage in melee combat. I had already made a provisional plan during T’s turn of which units I would bring to play. It may have gone badly, and I certainly didn’t think this one card would be the decider, but I thought O might gain a banner or two so I didn’t feel so embarrassed when the French overran the Austrian remnants in the next two rounds.

Reader, the dice gods smiled down upon the field of battle, and many French were routed that day. I worked across the field, right to left. The intact Austrian Line formation closest to Süssenbrunn attacked Broussier’s reduced Line infantry, clearing them from the field, though Broussier himself evaded capture.

End state.

The most brazen attack was committed by the remnants of the Grenadier regiment that had been forced to retreat sell back from the fighting. Keen to earn back their honour, they attacked Lamarque’s reduced regiment, vanquishing their rivals and capturing Lamarque and his staff (for two more banners). The third banner came with another fresh Austrian Line unit pushing up into the mouth of the of the IV Corps combined battery, taking out a half-strength French Line unit that had already been bested once that day. The final move was a bloodied Grenadier regiment under D’Asper, mounting the short rise to face their opponents further along the crest. Blows were exchanged, and the result in that quarter remained undecided, but that was of no consequence.  With the annihilation of three formations and the capture of General Lamarque (who, in this alternate timeline, would not proceed to lead ten thousand troops to put down the Royalist uprising in Vendée), the Austrians carried the day, the French retreating to regroup and contemplate trying their luck elsewhere.

Orders played (French left).

The Commands & Colors system often rewards good tactics and keeping an eye on the prize. T’s tactics were generally solid in this game, but he was too enchanted with McDonald’s oversized formation to realise his other options. He could have used his Cavalry to take all three villages, which would have scored him three easy Victory Banners. He may have had trouble keeping those, but that would have given me more to think about and taken my focus off the Center. But sometimes it just comes down to. Literally, the turn of a card. Even at one Banner ahead, I felt like it would be a clear French victory in sixth or seventh round, until I picked up that Bayonet Charge and saw the possibilities. This is why I’m so fond of this system, and the Napoleonics flavour in particular.