Sunday, 22 February 2026

Pursuit of VI Corps - 12 noon

The Lower Bridge. Map is Copyright of Henry Hyde


The Pursuit of VI Corps campaign continues; 

12 noon

The weather remains fine. Visibility is now at 176” (essentially this translates to 14½’ over the 6’ tables, so units on high ground can pretty much see all over the map, having regard for any line of sight obstructions.



Austrian Headquarters.

Klenau is in the process of moving his headquarters to the Kis-Megyer Farm (top right of map, covering the exit road). Assessment, the Lower Bridge (9) appears lost and Froon’s troops are dispersed, possibly routing.

Up on the slopes and at the church behind the village, Austrian formations, though weakened are holding those positions. The French appear to be re-organising. 

We are in urgent need of Schwarzenberg’s 2nd Cavalry, disengaging from the slopes, crossing the ford and unifying our forces before he gets cut off.

Orders. No new orders.

French Headquarters.

Massena has moved his headquarters onto the upper slopes in front of the village and he now has an excellent view of the battlefield.

Assessment, the Austrians are on the backfoot, but the French forces immediately to hand are not in a position to pursue until they reorganise and Lasalle’s cavalry moves up from their success at the lower bridge, to support an assault at the church.

Orders. Molitor (3rd Infantry Division) - advance over the Lower Bridge and follow Lasalle up to church. Continue to advance until you can contact and engage the enemy. (This order will be received and acted upon at 2 PM).

Lull

There is an apparent lull across the battlefield as the French reorganise and neither side has the local initiative to act. 

Throughout the hour, artillery of both sides bombard as and where they can. Over on the slopes in front of the village, 14th Chasseur á Cheval have been particularly harangued by Schwarzenberg’s 1st Horse Artillery and are now unsteady.

Schwarzenberg has noted that in front him, the French infantry are disengaging and moving towards the village. He is in two minds about attacking Marulaz’s cavalry, who have remained to screen the departure of the infantry, but with the French now in control of the village he does not want to get drawn further south.

Resources - 

My other piece of webspace is called COMMANDERS, it has a variety of snippet based type pieces there. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html



The previous campaign turns (10 and 11 AM) can be found here - LINK


https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-bridges-pursuit-of-vi-korps-10-am.html



The next campaign turns can be found here LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/02/fighting-at-church-pursuit-of-vi-corps.html


18 comments:

  1. The campaign appears tor be shaping up nicely there Norm?

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  2. Hi Phil, Yes, with all units having seen some action during the morning, they are at various stages of fatigue. The lack of fresh troops is going to be the thing that brings some unpredictability to events. I am overseeing all of this, yet wouldn’t put my money on one side or the other yet!

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  3. Nice to see a dose of "reality " enter a wargame, with a lull in activity as the two commanders reorganize their armies, Norm. The next installment should be interesting!

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    1. Hi Keith, yes I think so, the 1 PM turn sees the Austrian cavalry commander receive his orders to pull back …. Will it be too late?

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  4. Very interesting and inspiring game/campaign Norm.

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  5. Thanks Ben, I have really been drawn into this and it was a bit disappointing to have been interrupted by ‘life’, but it has been easy enough to pick up the threads again. I will certainly be doing a bit more of this sort of thing in the future.

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  6. Great to see you have been able to pick up from where you left off Norm:). This 'lull' seems right given the initial encounters and engagements, with both sides needing to get themselves set for 'Round Two' as it were. Real life impacting stuff here too, but hopefully things will settle down later on in the week...

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  7. Hi Steve, I actually got back into it quicker than I thought, though this natural lull comes at a convenient time as it allows me to do some map moves rather than taking figures to the table to run any situations. Even the artillery fire can be done on the map, using ‘long range’ as the standard modifier.

    I think even when things hot up a bit, games will be shorter (though probably more important / significant) due to the number of casualties that have been racked up already as unit cohesion deteriorates.

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  8. Glad to see the campaign up and running, wrt your comments on picking it up again on the website, yes, it is surprising how much we hold in our heads with this sort of thing, and how quickly it goes, particularly as we get older. I have an on/off WW3 campaign going as a background for tabletop games, and looking at my notes recently, it doesn't make a great deal of sense.

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  9. Thanks Martin, that made me smile :-)

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  10. My money is on the French still. Glad you are back at it!

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  11. Hi JB - the tout at le Ferme is not offering anything better than 1:1 odds on a French victory, but he takes your 5 Euros anyway.

    I am enjoying picking this back up.

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  12. Good to have a lull before it all kicks off again!
    Best Iain

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  13. Hi Iain, I have just been looking at the map and I think this is going to be a shorter lull than the Austrians might have hoped for!

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  14. Seems to be shaping up nicely. I look forward to how things develop after the lull.

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  15. Hi Richard, I am in the game now and there is much ado :-)

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  16. Great work Norm you are putting me to shame as I have hardly opened the book yet !

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  17. Thanks Matt, it is probably the best 8 quid I have spent in some time.

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