Imaginary Napoleonic Scenario for a large battle (part 1)

The planned game this weekend will feature a largish Napoleonic battle set in a imaginary scenario between a defending French army (25,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 30 guns) and the attacking Austrian army (31,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 60 guns). I'll be using my home-brew tabletop Napoleonic rules, which are inspired by SPI's "Napoleon at Waterloo" board game. These rules are aimed at wargaming battles with one or more corps, where each base typically represents a Brigade. 

The rules can be found here or on a tab at the top of the blog, and a thank you to those who flagged my typos, provided clarifications and asked questions.

Pretty much all the units are made up of the old plastic Spencer-Smith miniatures. The eagled-eyed of you may even spot some converted ACW miniatures.

The tabletop all set up ready for the game.

To come up with an imaginary scenario, I browsed through the battles outlined in Neil Thomas' "Wargaming: 19th Century Europe 1815-1878" and chose the "Battle of Nachod" as the basis for this wargame. While I made several adjustments to the troops and town names, the tabletop layout remains quite similar, with the exception of the river which does not appear in this scenario.

An overhead view of the tabletop showing the entry points for the Austrians reserves (Blue) and French reserves (Red). The hills are difficult to make out in the photo, but have rocks positioned on them.

The Austrian forces are hastily advancing to initiate an attack with the French. They are aiming to seize control of the three towns: Durbach, Gottertal, and Weller. At the beginning of the game, both armies have units deployed on the tabletop, while additional reserve forces will arrive along the roads during the game. Due to the hurried Austrian assault, their reserves will arrive on one of three roads, while all French reserves will arrive along the single road leading to Weller.

Austrian Order of Battle

8 units of Line Infantry

2 units of veteran infantry (Grenadiers)

1 unit of light infantry (Grenzers)

4 units of cavalry

2 units of guns

3 line infantry, 1 cavalry, and 1 light infantry start on the tabletop. The remaining units arrive 1 each turn randomly at one of their 3 entry points determined by the dice.

French Order of Battle

6 units of Line Infantry

2 units of veteran infantry (Guard)

1 unit of light infantry (Voltigeurs)

2 units of cavalry

1 unit of guns

4 line infantry and 1 light infantry start on the tabletop positioned between the towns of Durbach and Gottertal. Their remaining units arrive 1 each turn on the road to Weller.

The generals for both armies will arrive on turn 2 with the reserves.

The starting positions of the units.

Victory Conditions

For victory the Austrians must capture all 3 towns, if only two are captured the game is drawn.

Apart from the uncertainty surrounding the arrival locations of their reserves, the Austrians also confront the challenge of army resolve. In the game, once an army has suffered the loss of over half its units, only veteran units or those with fewer than 3 hits are allowed to initiate engagements with enemy units.

The next post will have the game report.