Campaign Battle of Ottenhoven

 This battle was played on 19 December, with Michael kindly offering to host it at his office at Marrickville.  The Russians were led by John as Kutusov, faced by Dave and Michael as Napoleon and Soult respectively (the presence of Napoleon on the field giving John some qualms about the imminent arrival of the Guard).

The Situation (spoiler and intelligence-free, I trust).

The Grande Armée crossed the Rhine in late September, advancing inexorably to the east with no enemy contact.  This changed as they approached the eastern frontier of Bavaria - Austrian scouts, then major formations, were met along the valley of the river Inn.  Even as the lead elements of the army, under the immediate direction of Marshal Bernadotte, started to probe across the Inn, new intelligence was received from the Bavarians, with whom an alliance was concluded on the 1th of October.

They had been aware, through their local agents, of Kutusov's 1st West Army since it had crossed their frontier some days earlier.  On concluding the alliance they advised the French of the Russian presence, now well south of the Danube and apparently heading for Munich.  Marshal Soult was ordered to take his IV corps off to intercept them.  Soult's scouts located a strong column of Russians marching south from the Iser river crossing at Freising via Erding and Markt Schwaben.  Without waiting for reinforcements from other corps, Soult made haste to surround the head of the column.  It had reached the village of Ottenhoven, a couple of miles north of Markt Schwaben, and Soult launched his assault just after 10:00am on the 23rd.

The Battlefield

Ottenhoven lies in Alpine foothill country, actually within the Isar valley, on the main road running up the east edge of the valley toward the Danube.  It is on the left bank of the little river Sempt, just above its confluence with the Schwillach, which runs in from the east.  In Autumn, these are almost inconsequential obstacles - in the spring spate it might be a very different matter.  All the same, they provide sufficent obstacle to make the field quite crowded and narrow.  The country around and between the rivers is mildly hilly, and broken up with woods, and the only decent road is the one down which the Russian army has been advancing.

The Battle

Each army started the day with two divisions on the field.  The Russians, with several divisions absent, had some 22,000 men, but 64 guns.  This would swell by early afternoon to almost 30,000 men and 100 guns. The French IV Corps was stronger in manpower overall, at over 37,000 men, but in artillery was outnumbered 2:1, and only 17,000 men and a couple of dozen guns were present at the start of the day.

The Russian avant-garde, under Miladoravitch, occupied the village itself, with Docturov's strong column coming up from behind.  On the French side, Legrand's division approached from the south, up the Markt Schwaben road, while that of Suchet came from the east, across a steep ridge between the valleys of the two rivers.

The Emperor himself, knowing that battle was imminent, left his Guard behind and hastened forward to the field of Ottenhoven to give his Marshal the benefit of his imperial advice.  Perhaps this was as well, for Soult was not having his best day.  Rattled by the Russians' sudden appearance, he was by turns hesitant and over-bold in handling his men, never quite getting his act together to take advantage of his overall advantage in numbers of men.

 

The Sempt valley from the north, and the initial French attack going in.  Docturov's division has crossed the stream to to guard the Russian left flank.

Ottenhoven from the North-West, occupied by Russians and pressed by French infantry, with the French Guns on the ridge across the river offering long-distance support.

The Marshal was uncomfortably aware, from his scouts, that other Russian forces were in the offing, and he was determined to drive the Russians from Ottenhoven and crush them before they received reinforcements.  His two available divisions were therefore hurled immediately into the attack on the narrow front of the village perimeter, and over a couple of hours did indeed drive the enemy almost entirely from the village, at the cost of substantial casualties.  Vandamme's division, arriving at midday, was sent up the road behind Legrand to reinforce the assault.

French casualties (red dice) mounting, but the Russians largely driven from the village. 
The 32 guns of Miladoravitch's division are poised by the wood at left to drive back Vandamme, advancing up the flank in divisional column.

The last Russian toehold on the villages, Löwis' division of musketeers, 

is driven out by furious French assaults.

An hour later the battlefield became much more crowded, as yet another French division was thrown into the grinder from the south and Margaron's cavalry appeared suddenly on the Russian right, sweeping away the Russian guns there and threating the flank of the infantry that had been driven from the shelter of the buildings.  They, in turn, were mauled and diven back into the cover of the woods by Vandamme's advancing columns, while the cavalry plunged on deep into the Russian rear.

France triumphant, with three Russian batteries overrun and the infantry of the right flank driven back in disarray.

At the same time, though, the remainder of the Russian force belatedly appeared, and not before time.

Help is at hand!  Here come the cavalry, in the form of the Cavalry Reserve division, already
in battle order, swiftly overtaking the infantry of Strik's column marching up the road from Erding.

Margaron's charge marked the high-tide mark of the French advance.   The effort of pushing through the town had taken it out of them, and there was not really room to bring the fresh divisions of Vandamme and St-Hilaire to bear to complete the destruction of the 1st West Army.  From the middle of the afternoon the tide turned.  The Russian reserves fanned out to the north of the village, allowing Miladoravitch's tired men space to retire and catch their breath behind Strik's fresh brigades.  The French attacks became ragged, and counter-attacks by Strik's and Docturov's men in the late afternoon began to drive them back.  A French battery was captured and first one then another infantry brigade showed their backs to the Russians.  As darkness fell the French had to admit defeat, and the Emperor left Soult to organise the retreat while he rode south to seek help.  With bearskins.

 

The Rules

The game went smoothly and was enjoyed by all, completing nine game hours in little over four hours of play.  We did mess up the initial dispositions a tad.  Suchet ought to have started a little further east and further north - more in the valley of the Schwillach - which might have made the French more inclined to attempt an envelopment rather than a frontal assault.  So it goes.

The modifiers we forgot to apply would have had little to no effect, I think.  They were:

Russian infantry at this date ought to have a -1 modifier on shooting, but the French came on so strongly that the Russians only got to attempt musketry a couple of times.

All fatigued troops should suffer a 1" penalty per fatigue point when attempting to move toward an enemy in line of sight.  When the French were taking casualties/fatigue in the initial attack on the village, though, they were never more than two or three inches from their intended targets, so this was hardly an issue.  When the Russian right took a hammering at the hands of Margaron and Vandamme they immediately commenced retreating, which fatigued troops are always quite willing to do!

It does occur to me that we have rarely or never seen a battle ended by an army reaching its break point.  I wondered during the battle whether we ought to reduce resilience levels across the board in later editions.  The level for the great majority of troops is the same is in Altar of Freedom, though, so I am probably being over-cautious.  I just need more aggressive players, perhaps, although that is hard to imagine in some cases...  Afterward I remembered another rule that we had forgotten to apply, and this one would have made a difference.  No fewer than three divisions (Miladoravitch's on the Russian side and Suchet's and Margaron's on the French) exceeded their divisional reslience.  This has the effect of giving additional fatigue to surviving brigades, so making them more prone to breaking in their turn.  This in an important rule, and we must be sure to play it next time!