Battle for the French Right (Post III)

The reader may recall that a few weeks ago, I started a corps level action by planning to use a 6 x 3½’ table three times, once for the battle in the centre and then twice more for the flank battles, with each table having roughly a divisional force per side.

Post one gave the ‘method’ for setting up the table, establishing the forces and how to manage the action.

Post two gave an overview of the game that covered the first battle, the one in the centre. There are links to both posts below in the Resource Section, but simply put, the two things that mattered in that battle were that the Austrian Corps commander ordered the heavy cavalry brigade on his left (table) flank, to move across to the centre table and attack the French infantry outside Süssenbrunn village and that this in turn secured an Austrian victory in the centre.

Good! Well only partly, because now the Austrian left (French right obviously) are going into action with their cavalry now absent! Will the re-deployment of the Austrian cavalry from flank to the centre, turn out to have been done at the detriment of the wing …. we shall see …. Today! 

One idea that I did add after the first game to further develop the relationship between centre and wings, was that whoever wins in the centre (the Austrians in this case) when the flank battles are fought, that news of victory will filter out and influence the flank fighting. 

In our action the French right flank will be told that the Austrians are winning in the centre and this will cause all French units involved in those two battles to test their resolve at the start of turn 7. Each French unit will take a Capability Test (think morale test). If a testing unit fails, it will fall back 6” and take a disordered marker. This can be a gentle influence, but could be enough to disrupt an attack or unhinge a defence, depending what shape the testing force is in by Turn 7.

Above - a reminder of the three table area being fought over in our corps action. Today we are playing the action on the right.

Above - A view of the French right wing from the French perspective.

Forces Austrian - 1 x Average Divisional Commander, 2 x Infantry Brigades, each of three regiments. 1 x 6pdr Foot Artillery Battery. Absent of course is the Heavy Cavalry Brigade of two regiments that were sent to the centre.

Forces French - 1 x Average Divisional Commander, 3 x Infantry Brigades, each of three regiments, 1 x 6pdr Foot Artillery Battery.

We can note at this stage that not only do the French now have superior numbers, but they start the game in possession of two out of the three victory locations, not an enviable situation for the weaker Austrians.

Deployments - French. They concentrate two infantry brigades amongst the wall fields, showing a determination to defend those victory locations. On their left, they deploy one infantry brigade and the artillery in front of the hill, but their orders are to demonstrate here, inflict casualties and pin the Austrian force - leaving them without the strength or support to attack the walled fields.

Deployments - Austrian. With only two infantry brigades, from the outset they are stretched. They will deploy one infantry brigade to defend the hill as this is a victory point location. Their other infantry brigade, with artillery support will attack in the centre, refusing their left flank. Their attack will be limited, intending just to secure the fields in the centre, taking a victory location …… frankly I think the Austrians are being overly optimistic! But if they do nothing, the French already have enough Victory Points to win!

Roll D6 to establish Player One. F = 4, A = 1, so the French will be Player One throughout the game.

As per the instructions in the original post - the game will play for 9 turns, at the end of that time roll 2D6. If the result is higher than the total number of units lost by both sides, a 10th turn is played, otherwise the game has ended at the conclusion of Turn 9. Also, terrain objectives are worth 2 Victory Points and each enemy unit removed from play is worth 1 Victory Point.

Early Manoeuvres - The French centre and right take up defensive positions amongst the walled fields. Their left infantry brigade set off in three assault columns, with artillery support, to assault the hill. The Austrians on the hill ready themselves, while their 2nd Brigade in front of the fields, stay out of French musket range and rely on their artillery to degrade the French units amongst the fields, while the action at the hill is decided.

On their approach to the hill, the French centre column goes into line, so that the French are now in a Mixed Order formation. Defensive fire from the hill is poor.

The initial clash at the hill - the French columns push the Austrian battalions back onto the rear slope, with the French maintaining relative good order.

Mid Game Manoeuvres - The Austrians recover sufficiently to counter-attack and for several turns, there is a too and fro of advantage gained and lost. With this uncertainty, the Austrian 2nd Brigade  holds off from attacking the fields, instead allowing their artillery to weaken the opposing French, but their firing is surprisingly ineffective.

Turn 7 testing - Word has arrived from the corps commander, half a mile away to the left (the corps main central position) that the Austrians are decidedly getting the better of it there and so on our wing, each French unit must test their resolve. With fairly heavy French casualties at the hill, the divisional commander worries that his men will lose heart, but his concern is unfounded … everything passes their resolve test! Perhaps the fact that French troops are still on the hill and the rest of the Austrian division is standing inactive has buoyed French resolve!   

Concluding the Game - At the hill, casualties amongst the Austrians are now very heavy and a tipping point had been reached, who will break first, surprisingly it is French.

101st Line received a very powerful volley of 3 hits (adding to the 4 they already had) at first they held, but there nerve just went and they routed. 

The French Divisional Commander acted immediately to make sure that there wasn’t a reversal of fortune and ordered the two brigades in the fields to attack at once and overwhelm the Austrian side. 

One French battalion from the right went into assault column and directly assaulted the Austrian guns - a most risky and ill-advised decision, but the artillery defensive fire can can only be described as abysmal and as the French closed, they lost heart, limbered up and routed from the field.

Any chance of stopping the French had now passed and the Austrian division was given the order to  retire, leaving the battlefield in French hands. The French had lost 190 men, the Austrians 260.

The fact that the Austrians had vacated the battlefield gave us our result of a French Victory, but it is reinforced by the Victory Point count. The French hold all three terrain objectives, worth 6 points and routed one enemy unit for a further point, giving 7 points. The Austrians get one lonely point for the rout of the French 101st Line Infantry. 

Thoughts - A division a side gives a nice sized game, a simple affair, not too taxing and easily playable to a proper conclusion. 

Having surrendered their cavalry in the previous game to the centre, the Austrians started the fight with one hand behind their back. They were really obliged to attack to either claim a victory object or inflict casualties - but in the numbers game, they would never have been strong enough to pull off an attack or create higher casualties on the French.

The idea behind this ‘corps’ level action is that the activity at the centre should have a relationship with the flank actions and we have seen that working. Our Austrians lost their cavalry to the centre, which did help the centre and that in turn caused our French today to test for resolve, from which they did very well, but on another day - who knows! Perhaps at a critical location some troops would fail and the resulting disruption could change outcomes.

The things that seemed to matter was the overall abysmal shooting of the Austrians, they just couldn’t inflict the harm needed to keep the French at bay. Plus the testing on Turn 7 of French resolve was a stonking success for them! Perhaps in the next fight the two sides should swap dice!

Next up, we need to visit the French left flank and then our corps level action will be complete. So far there has been one Austrian victory in the centre and one French victory today, so a draw at the moment and the left (French perspective) flank fight will be the decider … no pressure there then! 

On further think about this, not only can this engine give me a corps action, which is one level higher than my gaming space allows, but you could run several of these corps level actions as part of an army level campaign, it would not involve any significant amount of administration, just increase the number of games that need playing …. but that’s why we are here!  

Resource Section;

Post I - instructions

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-three-table-battle-not-part-i.html

Post II - Battle for the Centre

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/04/battle-for-centre-post-ii.html

I have another bit of webspace called COMMANDERS, which is a bit more snippet based than here - LINK  

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