Campaign Battle of Babensham

The Situation

Four days after the Russian victory at Ottenhoven, the Grande Armée is finally getting to grips with the army of Austria.  A strong push by Bernadotte, backed by Davout, has expanded to the East the Wasserburg bridgehead across the Inn, only to discover a solid line of Austrians stretching for miles to the South-East in the direction of the Chiemsee.  It has been raining for days, and will be an uphill fight.  The French have fought with mud on their boots before, though, and if the Austrians are willing to accept battle the French are more than willing to give it to them...

We played the battle in the extremely congenial location of Bundanoon, in the Southern Highlands of NSW, where the Bundanoon Hotel were kind enough to allow us the use of their private dining room.  Thanks, Gavin!  We hope that this will be only the first of many such meetings.  Robert led the Austrians, assisted by the (nominally Russian, in the campaign) John and Colin, while David and Michael handled the French.

Playing Austrians in 1805 - Some Notes

Toward the end of the Battle of Babensham, Robert as the Austrian commander was heard to exclaim "How can you win with this army?  How can you attack?".  Later, when the post-battle dispositions had been completed at operational level, he was dismayed again.  The French, having the initiative, moved first in the following pulse, and piled straight into his rearguard.  Feeling obliged, for reasons I will not go into here, to accept battle, the pulse ended immediately.  Despite knowing that that would be the consequence of the decision to fight, he nevertheless opined that "this sucks", for it meant that his forces elsewhere would not get to move, nor the Inn valley force even to re-construct brigades broken in the previous day's fighting.  The same could be said, mind you, for all of the other French and Bavarian forces - they did not get to continue their advance, either.

Naturally I do not like my players to be unhappy, but this is after all a simulation of war, and in war a good deal of excrement occurs.  Some of the Austrians' current predicament is simply down to that, but some of it is a reflection of the fact that the Austrian army in 1805 was pushing 'it uphill in facing Napoleon at the height of his powers, leading arguably the best French army that ever existed.  That is, this is not a balanced tournament scenario, but a simulation of an historical situation that was deliberately set up, historically, to be unfair.  In that context the French were certainly more successful than the Austrians, but it was not a foregone conclusion, I think, and it is still not one in the campaign.

While trying, as usual, not to give any intelligence away that is not already public knowledge, I want to offer a few notes on the situation at Babensham in the campaign, and also (of more general interest) on the Austrian Imperial army at this date and how this is reflected in the rules.