Wagram is one of the four battles presented in the recent Deluxe Edition release by Decision Games of the original Napoleon at War quad, a design that is now more than 50 years old.
A couple of weeks ago I played the Marengo battle from the same game box and have found Wagram to be more the more dynamic of the two, with more moving parts, so to speak ….. but as simple as this system is, I still managed to misread the victory conditions properly and that did influence the game!
Above - The objective for the French (blue) is to cross the Russbach Stream and occupy the Russbach Heights beyond (marked VP) and also to destroy Austrian Units. The Austrians must keep the French off the Heights and also inflict losses on the French ….. but there is a lot more going on that will influence decisions.
The three circles at the bottom of the photo are the villages of Aspern, Essling and Gross Enzerdorf and if the Austrians enter them, they get a big wedge of Victory Point and ALSO if they are present in those locations at the end of the game, they get another big wedge of Victory Point - so although the French must advance on the heights, they also need to guard these rear areas and so those Austrians in the top left of the map are an obvious threat to those villages, together with some Austrian reinforcements that also come in on the left side of the map.
The ‘?’ symbol on the the right of the map is the entry point for potential Austrian reinforcements (turns 7 - 11 inclusive). These will test to arrive on each turn, but need to roll a ‘1’, so a low risk per turn, but over 5 turns, another threat to the French. These represent the forces of Archduke John arriving from the east, a threat that Napoleon was aware of.
Now for that mistake …. The Austrians also get VP’s for exiting units off the western edge (left side of map). I did not recall this condition and I could have and should have bagged the Austrians a goodly amount of VP’s from exiting!
THE FIGHTING.
Opening manoeuvres - The French advance towards the Heights, initially seeking out easy crossing points (bridges), while they develop their left wing to block any Austrian moves towards those lower villages. The French Guard are ordered to Essling (a lower village) as a central reserve.
Above - the First successful French attack occurs at the bridge near Glinzendorf by Gudin, but he is immediately counter-attacked and thrown back … no-one said it would be easy!
The French may have over compensated to protect the left at the expense of the assault on the heights. They advance the left to new positions between Hirschstatten and Brietenlee to effect a forward defence.
Night falls - (positions above) The French have breached the Russbach at the eastern end (right). The French left have pinned the Austrians and something of a stalemate exists there, so the French plan to thin the line here and continue pinning, to free some troops to assist the assault for the Heights. The Guard remain at Essling, but have orders to move overnight to a more central position at Ráasdorf - with half an eye on the Heights.
Morning - At Baumersdorf (centre left of stream) the Austrians repeatedly repulse French attacks (these are low 1:1 assaults and it is just a 50/50 dice thing that keeps favouring the Austrians).
Noon - there is fighting everywhere now and the Austrians are suffering the greater number of casualties, but the French left is sufficiently threatened (above) for the Guard to be re-directed down towards Aspern.
However, the next hour sees the Austrians suffer unacceptable losses and they become Demoralised (cannot advance after combat), so it is now much harder for them to take ground. They will revert to a defensive stance. [It is at this point that remembering that Austrians can retreat off the west map edge (left) for VP’s would have added something to the mix].
Afternoon - The Guard are re-directed back north to support the assault on the heights at the Wagram / Baumersdorf sector, which is still resolutely in Austrian hands!
Late afternoon - The risk of Archduke John arriving on the battlefield disappears. French casualties are very heavy, but the Wagram / Baumersdorf area is only thinly held by the Austrians, so the French push on. They have already taken the eastern end of the heights (right).
2nd to last turn - The Austrians are getting crushed, but the French casualties have become excessive and they too are now demoralised.
Dusk - The Young Guard are the first guard unit to get into action and secure a place on the Heights. Wagram, the gateway to the western end of the Heights is firmly under Austrian control. The last chance for the French to get units onto the Heights has now passed. BELOW - final positions.
Conclusion - I really enjoyed that game. I played it as a solo game and it was fine, helped by the flow of the situation across the battlefield. At one point it really looked like the Austrians might break the French left flank, requiring the Guard to be sent back towards the villages as a precaution. In fact the guard spent all day marching back and forth and pretty much missed the action!
Once again, the rulebook did not come out of the box (perhaps it should have done for the Victory Conditions :-) ), allowing for concentration just on play. Quite a lot of the early French attacks across the Russbach were repulsed, it could so easily have been the other way and what if Archduke John had entered play? or if everything had gone right for the Austrian assault on the French left? - the panic to protect the three villages would almost have become a game on its own. Overall, I think this scenario has good replay value.
Victory. The French inflicted 81 points worth of losses on the Austrians, while suffering 55 themselves. They got 58 points worth of troops on to the Russbach Heights. Of course, of importance was the fact that the Austrians scored zero points for exiting units from the west edge of the map. These sums give us a ‘Decisive’ French victory, but I think my mistake regarding exiting Austrians to the west contributes to that and had I done some exiting of Austrian units, it is likely that the French victory level would be reduced to ‘substantial’ instead.
I remain happy that I bought this deluxe edition.
Resource Section.
My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’ showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.
Previous write up about the Marengo game - LINK
https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2026/05/marengo-june-1800-napoleon-at-war.html
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