And thus the stage was set... an errant Austrian commander had overextended himself. A reinforced French division was poised to overrun the Austrian command holed up in a local village. Apparently this particular commander was also an Imperial Eaglet and for political reasons the nearest allied force, a Prussian infantry brigade was dispatched to extricate the Austrians.
Hapless Austrians.
The French out scouted the Allies (per C&G resolution) and were able to setup after seeing the Allied dispositions. Gen. de Bde. Bruno's cavalry brigade with Gen. de Div. Jacquinot in tow is pushed up on the French left while the infantry come march up the center. In an odd move, Jacquinot was seen cowering before the skirmish fire of the enemy... such conduct was unbecoming an officer and his action affected his men!
Meanwhile, GdB Charlet was showing exceptional courage at the head of the leading battalions of infantry.
Von Thumen and the 2nd (Silesian) Uhlans spoiling for a fight with the French 7th Hussars and the 3rd Chasseur
Silesian Schutzen open order screen charged by French Infantry
Schutzen left of a light volley and hot foot it back behind the Fusiliers of the 25th Line
French columns going straight in..... Guns not even unlimbered. In the woods the Westphalian landwehr dig in with some light works.
French try to force the issue on the left... Jacquinot goes in with the Chasseurs and finds a mortal lance blow waiting for him. The 3rd Chasseurs suffered only minor set back.... but that turned into full retreat with the fall of premier light cavalryman of the Empire.
GdB Bruno and GdB Gorbrecht frantically try to recover the situation.
Full table 3 turns in
The center... the French are taking a pounding from the Allied artillery. The converged Austrian 3lbers are doing significant damage at the close range.
French infantry cross the stonewall.....there was some discussion about the prohibition of infantry moving toward cavalry within their charge arcs. The cavalry promptly charge.
Landwehr run from the wall without firing a volley. (I think perhaps the French should have instead continued into the landwehr battalion or the Austrians in the built up area. Both were likely valid charge targets at the beginning of the charge. Allowing the French to penetrate so deeply might have been contrary to the moving between enemies w/ 50 paces on all sides rule [it would have been close].)
D'Erlon joins the party in attempting to keep the 3rd Chasseurs on the table.... and succeeds in bringing them back into good morale! We had a further snafu when the 3rd lanciers were deleted from the games OOB (i was checking their status in the middle of a charge check and there after the unit could not be located).
Round 2 and the II/Westphalian Landwehr lasts long enough to let off an ineffectual volley, then promptly retreats
The French are taking significant casualties, Gen. de Bde. Charlet is in now under compulsory retreat orders.
In order to recover the situation the 3rd and 11th Hussars are launched against the French right.... unfortunately the for the Prussians the French all make it into square or close column. The fights are surprisingly bloody (most rules cavalry vs square is just deadly to the cavalry...) in both cases the cavalry and the infantry take 70 to 100 casualties.
The cavalry take the worst of it and retreat
The morale status at games end
The Allied player decided his position was untenable with the loss of the woods and the disastrous/ inconclusive cavalry results on the wings. Battle Honors to the 2nd Uhlans. French took the field and the objective (the built up area), but at a cost.
Some End of Game Shots:
Not bad for a small test game. Again not much narrative in the report for which I vaguely apologize to my limited readership! Its been a long few weeks at work.
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