Napoleonic Battle Campaign Game (Part 3)

This more of an update on the battle campaign and not an action report as I forgot to take photographs as the action progressed. However, it did clarify a couple of the campaign and tabletop rules, more on that later.

A closer view of the French (Blue) advancing.

The opening battle moves had the Austrians (Red) forcing the French Corps III back. It is now the Blue army's campaign turn and they choose to assault with their Corps II supported by their unopposed Corps I. The action is now transferred to the tabletop.

Blue (French) move and they assault with Corps II.

The campaign map determines the tabletop terrain setup.

Setup tabletop and troops deployed.

My single photo of the action.

Not a successful action for the Austrians (Red) with the French (Blue) quickly gaining the advantage early in the game through some timely chance cards. They were able to maintain the pressure on the Austrians who struggled with a poor deployment and having their forces split by a wood in their line. As soon as the losses started to mount their commander opted to retire.

French (Blue) losses:

• 1 x infantry unit

Austrian (Red) losses:

• 2 x infantry units
• 1 x artillery

The loss of an artillery unit being particularly painful for Red. Neither army reserve has artillery. The elimination of units and any movement from the reserve or an unopposed flanking Corps is tracked in the table below the map. The battle campaign and tracking of the order of battle all fits on one sheet of paper.

Red (Austrian) Corps I retires on the battle campaign map

Out of this turn and tabletop game there are two rule updates/clarifications:

1. On the campaign map a Corps that has just retired cannot move. So in the above map Blue Corps III could not advance as it retired the previous turn.
2. In a tabletop action a Corps is forced to retire when they have less than 4 units and the opposing force has 5 or more units fielded on the tabletop. This approach allows a corps to hold out for 15 turns by feeding in reserve units. However the risk is in committing too many reserve units is they cannot support other areas of the battle in later actions.

Austrians all lined up ready for the game. Little did they know they would be retiring very soon.

Looking ahead to the next battle campaign move by the Austrians (Red) they have a choice of:

1. Continue their advance of Corps II with only support of Reserves which will most like be required by their recently retired Corps I. If they can force Blue Corps III back again by reducing them to just three units on the tabletop within 15 moves they win, but Blue can, and most likely will, slowly replace losses from reserves and deny them.
2. Move Corps III up one step so it can support Corps II and keep their reserves on hand.

Decisions, decisions....