Napoleonic Battle Campaign Game (Part 6)

The battle continues with Blue's (French) Corps III attacking Red's (Austrian) Corps I. Blue will be able to  bring on additional units from Corps I on their flank and from their reserves. Although, few units will be available from reserves as most of the reserve units were drawn into their previous defensive action (Napoleonic Battle Campaign Game Part 5).

A quick reminder on bringing on units to the table top:

1. There must never be more than 8 units on the tabletop
2. There must be the unit types available (for example, I can only field up to 3 cavalry units per side as that is all I have)
3. Units can only arrive when a "No Event" chance card is drawn (each side has a deck of 15 cards, one for each game turn, and 5 are "No Event" cards)
4. Units must be available in Reserve or an unopposed Corps.

The campaign battle map showing the area of action and strengths of armies.

Red (Austrian) starts the game with a depleted Corps I and a good supply of reserves to feed into the action. Should they lose the action, their Corps I will have to retire one step off the map which will result in a victory for Blue and the end of the battle campaign.

Initial deployments and order of battle...

Red (Austrian) Defenders

• 2 x infantry units
• 1 x artillery unit
• 2 x cavalry units

Blue (French) Attackers

• 4 x infantry units (one of which is deployed as skirmishers)
• 1 x artillery unit
• 2 x cavalry units

Tabletop setup with deployed forces. My new backboard is being used in this game.

Blue (French) deploy their skirmishers in the woods.

Red (Austrian) start with their infantry behind the hill and out of view.

On to the tabletop action...

Blue (French) forces quickly move forward and are able to bring on another cavalry unit on the frank from the unopposed Corps I.

Red (Austrian) bring on a reserve infantry unit, and there is a large cavalry engagement on the flank.

Blue (French) gain the upper hand in the cavalry engagement and Red's (Austrian) position is looking vulnerable.

More Blue (French) units arrive on the flank. The challenge is getting them into the action which is a few moves away.

Blue (French) bring on an additional artillery unit and Red units defending the hill quickly take heavy casualties from Blue's two artillery units. Red (Austrian) has been able to stabilise the far flank and with no infantry units in reserve have thrown in a cavalry unit to help their defence.

Red (Austrian) forces are barely hanging on.

Red (Austrian) forces were in a whisker of losing, but were just hang in there as another reserve cavalry unit arrives at game's end.

I was not expecting Blue (French) to get so close to achieving a victory. Eliminating Red's (Austrian) artillery early on and bringing on a second artillery unit made things very deadly for any unit defending the hill. Also, the chance cards limited Red's ability to get many reserves arriving early in the game when Blue was applying as much pressure as possible with their attacks.

The campaign map of the battle.

The next action will have Red Corps II attacking and hoping to win the tabletop action and battle.