Two weeks ago saw myself and 5 friends fight Aspern-Essling (1809) again, I think this is the 4th time. The difference this time was a modification to the terrain as well as adding in some further units, a Grenadier division for the Austrians and some Guard for the French, including my freshly painted Young Guard battalion.
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| 2nd Battalion, 1st Voltigeurs |
We also managed to field 3 commanders aside making the Le Grand Battle system work well on the day, although it did require rigorous control of the command cards as people chucked in completed hands.
An initial rule query was resolved amongst ourselves. Subsequent clarification with Richard Borg provided the definitive answer, which was not what we agreed but in reality we do not see it being an issue (see the link re the rule query here: https://www.commandsandcolors.net/napoleonics/forum-main/5-rules-and-faqs/1749-la-grand-battle-corps-commander-cards.html)
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| Battle about to commence |
The above is a general view of the game. More detailed shots as follows:
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| French centre and left |
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| Austrian centre and right |
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| Baden artillery |
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| Austrian Grenadiers |
The game kicked off with a slow creep of the Austrians around the French right to try and mass their forces. Under C&C rules the Austrian line infantry is slow so it takes time which means for the first few hours the game can be quite quiet.
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| Austrian attack on the left |
On the Austrian right, facing Aspern, the fighting got underway from the off. The Austrians were immediately under fire from the church and village of Aspern and suffered significant casualties. Some early Austrian attacks were beaten back with high losses and after about an hour the Austrian right wing suspended attacks for a re-think. This included shifting cavalry and some infantry to the centre which was matched by the French CinC ordering the left wing commander to shift the Baden division to the centre, where they would be very important late on.
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| Austrian right wing |
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| Church at Aspern with Baden division in the rear |
By lunchtime, the Austrian left had pushed in the French right, the Austrian right had stalled and was re-deploying whilst in the centre, it was mostly quiet with some French troops, including the Young Guard being pushed to the right to support that flank.
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| Austrians pushing in the French right |
The attack on the French right would go on all day with the French feeding in more fresh units (Guard and cavalry) to try and stem the attack After lunch the French, to relieve the pressure on their right, started to feed more infantry from the left (mostly Badeners) and launched a series of cavalry attacks against the Austrian centre.
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| French reserves of Guard and heavy cavalry |
The centre battle raged for the rest of the day destroying almost all the French cavalry (including a Cuirassier division) and leaving only the Grenadiers a Cheval as the only full strength unit which launched a final attack, along with the Baden division to finally break the Austrian centre and win the day for the French, 22 banners versus 18.
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| The winning Baden division! |
Overall, a great day. Tiring but helped by some beers and a curry in the evening in the local village. Followed next day by Colours at Newbury.
The next game planned is Vimiero 1808 and the entry of the British for the first time.
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| The imposing Granary - never attacked all day by the Austrians! |
