The time has come that I can begin to tell the story of the campaign without giving away crucial military secrets. At the time of writing we are still mid-campaign, so I will be rationing what I say and when. Once it is all over I may go back and update posts giving more detail. Or not. In the meantime the account will trickle out in several parts.
Introduction (from the campaign handbook)
The War of the Third Coalition began with an Austrian assault in September 1805. The Austrian plan was to attack the French possessions in northern Italy with the main army under Archduke Charles, while a secondary force under his nephew, Archduke Ferdinand (nominally, but really managed by the Chief of Staff, Karl Mack von Lieberich), was to cross Bavaria to invade France. Its real purpose was to distract Napoleon from reinforcing Italy, not to prosecute the main war. The main French force was far away, preparing at Boulogne for an invasion of England.
Napoleon responded with shocking speed and force. He ignored Italy, where in any case Charles had as yet made no move (having grave reservations about the safety of the army north of the Alps) and launched a counter-invasion of Germany. The Bavarians, meanwhile, revealed a secret alliance with the French - not formally concluded, in fact, until some weeks after the Austrians crossed their borders - leaving Mack’s army in an embarrassingly exposed position.
Dramatis Personae
The campaign started with eight players for the four nations competing, not terribly evenly divided. From West to East...
Team France is led by my old friend David, who I have been facing across the wargames table, and the schooner glass, for more decades that would be politic to set out in so many words. An avid Francophile and Napoleonophile, he takes the role of the emperor. David is assisted by Michael, a well-seasoned player of 28mm Napoleonics using WRG rules. Those rules are very old-school - published in the '80s (or 70's even? Not sure what edition the guys have been using) they are good for small actions (a division or two a side) but do not scale to big battles. Finally, Angus, an old schoolmate of mine, is a lifelong fan of the American Civil War (an ancestor of his fought in it) and of the Fire & Fury rules. He is a newcomer to Napoleonics, but a canny and thoughful general who has already shown on the tabletop that he can hold his own.
Team Bavaria is a one-man band. Gordon is a careful and calculating gamer, and one who never gives in, no matter how dark things look. Like Mr. Micawber, he knows that something may always turn up... Militarily, he represents Karl Philipp von Wrede, commander of both the Electoral Army of Bavaria and of the first of its three divisions. Diplomatically, he is the Prince-Elector himself, Maximilien von Wittelsbach.
Team Austria is another one-man band. Robert is another Francophile, and usually to be found flinging his little tin 28mm Frenchmen against John's (see below) little tin Prussians and British. He agreed to try Austrians for a change, and with no other volunteers is every general in the Austrian army.
Team Russia started with three players. John is another old WRG player, and has been Robert's regular antagonist for years. In this campaign they are allies, but that doesn't mean they can't jostle each other... As the senior Russian John likes to syle himself "Tsar of all the Russias", but mostly he is Mikhail Illionarovitch Kutusov. Colin used to play ancients a good deal, but has not wargamed in years. He returns to the field with a good deal of enthusiasm as Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhöwden, commanding 2nd West Army. Geoff joined Team Russia as a battlefield commander only. He did not care to manage strategic matters, but would push the troops about on the table top with a will. Geoff's health has been delicate for years, and as it turned out he was too unwell to join us for the campaign's first major battle - involving the Russians and indeed a hard-won Russian victory. Geoff died peacefully just a few days later, and is much missed. Vale.
Forces and Dispositions
The French start with just one corps in Germany, but over the course of a few weeks, as the camp at Boulogne is broken up and troops moved east, the army will grow to around 170,000 men. In Italy are another 60,000 under André Masséna, facing the Archdukes Charles and John, and Feldmarschall Johann von Hiller. They have between them 120,000 men, but are scattered in a cordon guarding all of the exits from Italy, from the passes of the Western Tyrol, communicating with the Vorarlberg, over to the Adige valley and Venetia.
On the Inn the Austrians start out with some 30,000 men, with half that again in Bregenz under FML Franjo Jelačić. More are being mobilised in Austria, though, to reinforce the intended push west, with over 100,000 additional troops available in theory to face the invader if it comes to that.
The Russians, meanwhile, have a long way to march. Three armies are on their way, but only the first, with 30,000 under Kutusov, are likely to make an early contribution. The second, under the German General Buxhöwden, doubles that strength, and brings with it the Russian Imperial Guard under the Emperor's brother Constantine. The Third West Army will not enter the map until November, but if the fighting is by then far enough east (the little town of Austerlitz is only forty miles from their entry point) they bring another 20,000 men to the field.
Opening Moves
From the beginning, the French and Coalition commanders diverged from historical decisions. The game opens on September 10, 1805. Although the Grande Armée was already on its way from its camp at Boulogne, Bernadotte's I Corps was the only French force in Germany at the start of the campaign. Historically, he hung back in the North, waiting for the rest of the army to join him. In the game, directed by Michael, he drove agressively south through Bavaria, seeking out the Austrian enemy (and the Bavarians, if they did not choose to see the light of French reason).
The Bavarians start the campaign uncommitted, and may in the end join either side. Historically they had signed an agreement with Napoleon at the end of August, but this was not made public for another month, and when the Austrians crossed the Inn on 10 September they fully expected that Bavaria would remain neutral, or if General Schwarzenberg played his cards right in his role of envoy to the Elector, would even join the war as a member of the anti-French Coalition. Gordon played a careful diplomatic hand in the game, communicating with both parties until it became clear on which side his bread was buttered.
Robert, uncomfortably aware that the Bavarians might well join the French, and of the catastrophe that had historically befallen Mack at Ulm as a result, kept his own cards close to his chest, and his troops on the east bank of the Inn. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Jelačić, at Bregenz, rather than either racing for the Rhine or staying in place to pose a threat to French supply lines, cut across Bavaria at his best speed to join his comrades further east.
The Russians, meanwhile, entered the map on September 17 through the Moravian town of Olmütz. Rather than marching south to the Danube valley, as Kutusov did historically, he bored directly west through Moravia and Bohemia, not turning until he reached Weiden, in the pass through the Bohemian Forest to Bavaria.
The French advanced inexorably, foraging as they went, and were alternately enthused and worried by the continued non-appearance of the Austrian foe. Diplomacy continued with the court at Munich, even as French armies marched east across the Black Forest and into the valley of the upper Danube. This was the traditional French invasion route to southern Germany, and the one that Napoleon feinted at to conceal his actual flanking action around to Mack's north.
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| The Situation on September 20 - the Bavarian army watches its borders, while Bernadotte's scouts approach the Danube at Donauwörth |
A few days later the Grande Armée began to cross the Rhine. Davout, Soult and Ney led their corps (III, IV and VI, respectively) on a frontage starting between Worms and Strassbourg to a concentration on the Bavarian frontier at Ulm, with I Corps cutting off the city's route to the east. Unlike historically, though, the Austrians were not there.
On the 8th of October Marmont's II Corps entered Germany in the north, and Lannes' V Corps in the south. They were accompanied by the Imperial Guard and led by the Reserve Cavalry, punching east straight through the Black Forest to Memmingen, on the Ilm, under the bold but unsubtle leadership of Joachim Murat. The Electoral Army of Bavaria fell back before the French flood on their capital, but their (increasingly precarious) neutrality was preserved and no diplomatic agreements were announced.
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| 15 October, 1805: The French advance through Germany, while the Bavarians hedge their bets and the Austrians, determined to avoid the catastrophe of Ulm, prepare to defend the line of the river Inn. The 32,000 men of Kutusov's 1st West Army, meanwhile, are approaching the Bavarian frontier undetected, through the passes of the Bohemian Forest. |
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