Thursday 24 April 2014

Game 22 : Markgrafneusiedl

This is a small report on the Wagram continuation theme. This part of the battle is the fight on the extreme left of the Austrian Line with 2 Corps and the Avant Garde, against Davout on the extreme French right with Oudinot to his left. The Austrian right hand end of the battlefield was Baumersdorf and the left of the Austrian line was Markgrafneusiedl.
This picky is looking at the French right in the foreground. I'll mention now that the player, on the right in the middle, is Alan Tuckey. He nipped off home before the usual rogues gallery picky was taken. Alan has been integral to this project and has painted all of the French cavalry and some of the French infantry. You can see me advancing with Austrian light troops against Davout


This shows the Austrian right at Baumersdorf being attacked by Oudinot. The French would eventually seize the parts of Baumersdorf on their side of the river, but nightfall would see no time left to launch an attack over the river.


The thing of note here is the Austrian cavalry at he bottom and right of the picky. You can see from the left, an Uhlan regiment, 228 figures deployed as 2 Btns and acting independently of each other. Austrian Uhlans and Hussars are 8 squadron regiments. They can be used in one of 2 ways. Use as is, the full regiment or split into 2 Btns of the regiment. This choice is made at the beginning of the battle and lasts for the game. In addition, the Btn with the Liebfahne has its morale reduced by 1 factor and the Btn with the Ordinafahne has its morale reduced by 2 factors.
The Hussars are deployed as a complete regiment of 228 figures.
Using the above, the Hussars maintain their base morale of Elite. The Uhlans have a base morale of Veteran, so their Btns drop to a morale of Seasoned and 1st Line accordingly.


Another picky of the action at Baumersdorf. French skirmishers are slowly whittling down the formed Austrian troops to their front.


Closer up shot of Meerveldt's Uhlans (I think its them!).


French troops are now manoeuvring around Baumersdorf to begin the river assault. Time would run out before this gathered pace.


This is more of a shot in the centre. Here, Austrian gunnery was, lets say, lucky all game. They threw for more hits than the rest of us put together and never rolled low when trying to inflict losses. Counter battery was deadly when used and to put things in a nutshell, Davout's division in this sector limped away roughly handled. Even when Alan left and Brian, his opponent, played both sides, when Brian fired with Austrian guns, the lethality continued!


So, apart from Alan, the mug shot shows us regulars from the past.


Next up is a WWII interlude, then back to this campaign with the separate battles of Abensberg and Eckmuhl. A final postscript for guys interested in the rules. The rules have gone to the publisher for printing, Caliver. There is also a Yahoo Group for the rules. Try the link here. The rules are called "In the Grandest Manner".  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Inthegrandestmanner/info
I'll keep people updated. I've also started on a scenario book for the 1809 campaign. Funnily enough a lot of the work is already complete.
Enjoy.