Sunday Napoleonic Game

Today we played our regular Sunday game. This time it was a Napoleonic extravaganza with a force of  Bavarian and Wurtemberg force against and Austrian force.

The scenario was designed around a large, steep hill - Abbey Hill after a large abbey at its foot - that separated two roads. The objective of each side was to secure the opposing road, while not losing control of their's.

The Initial Austrian Deployment, the Right Flank 

And the Left Flank

I played on the Austrian side. We had two divisions: one (mine) contained 12 battalions, three batteries  and two regiments of cavalry; the other had six batteries, 12 battalions and a single cavalry regiment. In truth I didn't pay too much attention to the strength of our opponents, but they were relatively equal.

The Germans got the jump and  started up the hill. The Bavarian artillery, all six batteries, engaged three Austrian batteries in a counter battery battle that would last all day, while their infantry negotiated the difficult passage between two large woods.

The Bavarians start their manoeuvre around the woods, their artillery mass on the right.

Then the Austrians stole the initiative  and gained the crest of the hill first. Then they stormed forward and drove three of the Wurtemberg battalions from the hill, but could not drive off the critical fourth unit. Their attack had cost them some heavy losses. 

Above and below, the battle for the hill 

The Wurtemberg infantry regrouped and held the Austrians in check, while they brought up reinforcements. They then pressed forward and drove off one of the Austrian brigades. Things began to look very shaky for the Austrians on the hill.

The Wurtembergers reclaim the crest

On the left of the Austrian line the Bavarians slowly managed to get their lines formed and came forward. They made three separate attacks and where repulsed in all of them. The Austrians then counterattacked and drove the Bavarians back.

The Bavarians attack, but (below) are driven back

Suddenly the Bavarians rolled two bad activation rolls and six of their disrupted and shaken units quit the field. The Austrians then pushed further forward and secured the road, the objective of the game.

The Wurtemberg troops had secured part of the hill, but with out the Bavarian support had little chance driving off the two remaining Austrian brigades that secured the other road.

The Austrians claimed the day.