Battle for the Centre (Post II)

The previous post set out a process for creating a Corps level battle set across three tables, but fighting the engagement one table at time.

This post covers the first action, which takes place in the centre, with roughly a division of troops per side.

Below - a schematic of this particular battlefield, which was created by the terrain chart in the previous post.

It will be noted that the battlefield favours the French, as the defensible terrain is on their side of the table and since they are both victory objectives, the Austrian side must work hard in this action.

You may recall that the Austrian Corps Commander is Lethargic. This means that at the start of each Austrian turn, a randomly selected Austrian infantry unit cannot move that turn. As it happens the dice were rather cruel to 3rd Infantry Brigade (on the hill) and so their early moves against the village were rather tardy.

Below - Out of interest, since I have already worked out the terrain and the forces for the whole three table battle, here is a plan of all three tables from the French perspective (today we are in the centre portion);

You will note that overall the French have a lot of defensive terrain on their side of the table, plus they also have the majority of the victory point locations. This is just what the terrain creator threw up. I rather like the fact that the battlefield favours one side (the French) and that their stance is almost certainly going to become defensive because of that.

I fancy that if I had ‘designed’ the table myself, I would have felt obliged to even out the terrain a bit so that both sides saw a bit of balance, but battle situations are rarely balanced, so I like what the random selector has done here, especially from a solo point of view, it has served up a challenge.

The system (previous post) requires that the first battle is fought in the centre. If I were a betting man, I would probably put my money on a French win …. we shall see!

Above - here is how the table looks with units deployed. The artillery of both sides has open views.

We dice for who is player 1. The French get an uplift for having cavalry, but despite this, the Austrian player will go first each turn (9 turns, plus a possible 10th).

Here is a brief overview of the battle;

Austrian guns target the French cavalry and cause them to fall back. 

The Austrians at the hill keep suffering from their Corps Commander being lethargic!

In the centre, there is an early charge by the French Light cavalry (above). The Austrian infantry fail their response test. The charge goes in and the Austrians are lucky to recoil with light casualties, but the Austrian centre is now tied down - they were intended to support the assault on the village.

Above - outside the village, a French column throws in a spoiling attack against part of the Austrian advance. The other half of the Austrian advance attacks the village, but is thrown back.

Turn 4 -   And then we come to turn 4, when we must roll on the Random Events Table as instructed and outlined in the previous post.

The French - get the ‘Ney type commander’ result and they are obliged to immediately launch their light cavalry to attack the nearest enemy, even if doing so takes more than 1 move.

The Austrians - get reinforcements as the Corps Commander calls upon support from his left flank - they arrive in the form of the heavy cavalry brigade, two regiments of dragoons.

The reinforcing cavalry (above) fall upon the flank of the French column in front of the village that just launched that spoiling attack …… they are swept away by the dragoons. 

This turns the table in that sector of the battlefield and a renewed Austrian assault on the village takes it (above), ejecting the French garrison. While all this has been a great success for the Austrians, they will suffer the absence of the cavalry when they play that battle on the Austrian left flank!

As for the ‘Ney’ type charge, once again the Austrian infantry fail their response test, but they manage to retain cohesion, while falling back.

Above - on the French left, amongst the fields, the French 1st Infantry Brigade have taken heavy casualties, but still hold the fields and as the clock ticks, it becomes clear that the Austrians will not be able to eject them.

End of the game - even though many of the units in the game have taken heavy casualties, with some wavering, the surprising truth is that only one unit has actually been removed from play (the French infantry swept away by the cavalry charge).

If we count up the victory points, the French get 2 VP’s for holding the walled fields. The Austrians get 2 VP’s for holding the village, but also get a VP for the destroyed French unit, giving the Austrians a win in this part of the battle.

That was a genuine surprise to me at least. Almost certainly the arrival of the Austrian cavalry was the thing that swung the outcome, though now that Austrian left flank must fight without the cavalry in the next battle.

I am thinking of tweaking the scenario builder set out in the last post, to have each flank battle on Turn 7 be influenced by the news coming from the battle in the centre.

On this occasion, both flanks 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 Morale Test. If a testing unit fails, it will fall back 6” and take a disordered marker.

I think this helps knit the relationship between the three battlefields a little more and is gentle enough as not to be too dramatic.

Anyway, that’s it. A third post will cover the pending two flank battles. I did intend everything to be wrapped up in this post, but my play has been interrupted, so I thought I may as well do a more detailed account of the centre battle and allow the other two battles to follow in due course.

Once the other two battles are played out, I will put together a PDF of the process described in the last post and tweaked after the three plays and share it on my DropBox (thank you DropBox). I will put links for it in the Resource section of each related post.

RESOURCES;

The scenario creator process in the previous post can be found here - LINK

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

I also have another bit of webspace called COMMANDERS which is a bit more magiziney than here - LINK

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

The Three Table Battle - not! (Part I).

This post discusses putting on a corps level action, fought over three different tables …. or rather the same table three times!

Backdrop - this is a meeting engagement during the 1809 campaign between two corps sized formations. In the first instance, it is an attempt at doing hypothetical throw down games in a structured fashion, but with the scenario generator mixing things up a bit. In time it will be applied to a couple of favourite corps actions, the idea being to simply make them do-able at home.

Battle Structure - each corps has three divisions. In our meeting engagement, these divisions are already allocated to battle, one to each table. Our battlefield can be imagined as being three tables wide, defined as a centre table and two flank tables. Each corps has one of its three divisions on each of the three tables.

Above - shows each table, relative to the other. There is potential from the Random Event table for some communication between tables during the first game.

Populating each table with a division - Each player rolls 1 D6 for each table. The die score determines the construction of their division at that location from the following list. Every Division automatically gets a Divisional Commander. There are basically 5 types of division.

D6 ‘1’ - 3 infantry brigades and 1 artillery battery

D6 ‘2’ - 2 infantry brigades, 1 artillery battery and 1 cavalry brigade

D6 ‘3’ - 2 infantry brigades, an artillery battery and 1 conscript infantry brigade

D6 ‘4’ - 2 infantry brigades, an artillery battery and 1 elite brigade

D6 ‘5’ - 1 infantry brigades, 1 foot artillery, 1 horse artillery, 1 cavalry brigade

D6 ‘6’ - re-roll the die, but add 1 battalion of light infantry to the selection (once only).

All infantry brigades have 3 units.

All cavalry brigades have 2 units.

If a cavalry brigade is selected, roll again, there is a 50 / 50 chance it is either light or heavy cavalry.

Select the Divisional Commanders attributes with a D6 for each commander.

D6 ‘1’ the commander in aggressive / decisive

D6 ‘2’ to ‘5’ the commander is average

D6 ‘6’ the commander is lethargic / indecisive

MODIFIERS to the above roll;

-1 if the division has cavalry or elite units (only one counts for a max -1 DRM)

+1 if the division has conscripts

Select the Corps Commander (you!) - Use the same selection process as for divisional commander, but die modifiers are not used.

Dress the battlefields - all three tables are dressed with terrain when first creating the scenario. Each table is divided into 6 imaginary equal areas and 3 of those areas will get a piece of terrain. Roll  3D6 to identify which 3 zones will get terrain, re-roll any replica die rolls, we want three separate zones identified, then for each of the three zones, roll 1D6 and check the result against the below list of terrain types.

D6 ‘1’ place a woods it is 50 / 50 whether the woods are heavy or light

D6 ‘2’ place a small village of 2 - 3 buildings, this counts as a single built up area

D6 ‘3’ place a medium sized hill that is gentle, blocks line of sight and only gives a small observational advantage (allows artillery to fire over friendly troops).

D6 ‘4’ place a large hill, counts as difficult terrain when moving uphill.

D6 ‘5’ place a grouping of walled fields, with ploughed land or low crops. The walls are difficult terrain and provide cover

D6 ‘6’ gives a waterway with a bridge in this location. Roll a second dice to see where the waterway runs to. Place the waterway so that it runs from board edge to board edge from the first location to the board edge of the second. There can only be one waterway per table, so just re-roll for different terrain if you already have a waterway. Do a 50 / 50 die roll to see whether the waterway is fordable (stream) along its entire length or not (river). If fordable it counts as difficult and disordering terrain - except at the bridge.

For each table, decide which player should actually lay the terrain. Both sides roll a D6, if a side has cavalry on that table, add +1. The winner places the terrain. Re-roll a drawn die roll.

Victory Objectives - Roll a dice for each terrain item just placed, for a waterway, this means the bridge. On a score of 4+ that terrain item becomes a victory point objective. A small village is ALWAYS automatically a victory point objective.

Playing the three games.

The first battle will always be the centre table.

At the start of a battle, both players roll to see who will be player 1. If a side has cavalry, add +1 to that die roll. Re-roll a draw.

A battle lasts for 9 turns. At the end of turn 9, roll 2D6, if the combined die roll is higher than the total number of units lost (both sides) so far in this battle, then a 10th turn is played. Otherwise check for victory.

The Corps Commander - starts the game on the centre table. He notionally represents a focus on where the important part of the battle is at any one time.  At the start of every turn, the corps commander is placed next to the divisional commander as a reminder that ONCE during the current turn,  the Corps Commander can cause the friendly side to re-roll their dice (for any reason). This is a one off ability each turn in which the new roll replaces the original roll. After taking a re-roll, remove the corps commander as a reminder that this function has been used this turn, he will be re-allocated back to the divisional commander at the start of the next turn.

Additionally;

When a Decisive Corp Commander is present at the battle - One friendly unit per turn has its initial movement allowance, (including when charging) doubled. The unit does not have to be identified until that actual moment of movement is reached.

When a Lethargic Corps Commander is present at the battle - at the start of the friendly part of the turn, randomly select ONE friendly INFANTRY unit on the battlefield. It cannot voluntarily move or support a charge in that turn.

Victory conditions - in a battle, victory points are earned by destroying enemy units and holding objective terrain at the end of the game. For each objective held, score 2 victory points. For each enemy unit removed from play, score 1 victory point. A draw in an individual battle is possible.

At the end of the first battle, use a dice to determine which flank battle will be fought next. 

The above rules apply to the flank battles. Once all three battles have been fought determine an overall winner. The side that has won the most battles wins the encounter, but since an individual battle might end in a draw, there may not be an outright winner.

Special Rule for the Centre battle (ONLY).

At the very start of game turn 4, EACH player rolls a D6, referring to the following Random Event Table and applying the result immediately.

D6 ‘1’ The Corps Commander moves now to a flanking table. Randomly determine which one. When that flank battle is played, the Corps Commander will arrive there on Turn 4.

D6 ‘2’ The corps Commander orders 1 brigade (you choose which one) from a flank table (randomly select which flank) to march to the assistance of the centre. The brigade will enter from the appropriate flank at the mid point along that table edge in that players friendly movement phase of this turn (4). Remove that brigade from the flank’s order of battle.

D6 ‘3’ The Corps Commander orders the artillery in the centre to limber up and move to a flank table (randomly determine which flank). Simply remove the gun battery models. When the flank game is played, the artillery will arrive limbered, on the appropriate table edge at the start of turn 4.

D6 ‘4’ If the division has a cavalry brigade, it is commanded by a hot headed young ‘Ney type’ of character.  All of the friendly  cavalry units must immediately start moving their maximum movement allowance toward their respective nearest legitimate enemy, relevant to their own positions, with the intention of charging as soon as possible in the game. They will persist at best speed until they make charge contact, even if this takes more than 1 turn and even if the move is not advisable. If you do not have cavalry in the centre, then re-roll on this table now.

D6 ‘5’ The Corps Commander has released a battery of foot artillery from the artillery reserve, randomly select which table it arrives at. If it is a flank table, it will arrive on turn 4 from the baseline when that battle is fought - add it to the order of battle. If it is to arrive in the centre, deploy it now, either limbered up or deployed within 8” of the friendly baseline.

D6 ‘6’ The Corps Commander seizes the initiative. Select one friendly brigade and allow them a bonus round of fire or movement right now, including a charge if wished. Each unit in that brigade can do something different, move, fire or charge. This is a bonus pre-turn activity and does not count towards anything that the brigade could normal be expected to do during the coming turn. Use the normal rules of play, such as pre-charge tests and return fire etc. A Lethargic Commander ignores this roll and instead treats the roll as if a ‘1’ had been rolled.

And that’s it!

This is part one of a two part post. The next post will give an overview of the three battles that fall from this process, the nature of the battlefields and the nature of the forces involved. It will be an overview of process and battle rather than a detailed AAR (phew you say!) :-)

A taster for part II;

This is the table created for the French left flank. The forces are generally similar, with the Austrian division including a light cavalry brigade and a Jaëger battalion, while the French division includes an elite infantry brigade.

The French are advantaged by having two Victory point objectives on their side of the table. Another thing that might matter is that the Austrian Corps Commander is Lethargic, so here, the Austrian Divisional commander is hoping that he won’t show up on turn 4!

I have another bit of web space (COMMANDERS) that is a bit more magaziney than here and updated more often. Link if interested.

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