Saturday 3 May 2014

Prelude to an 1809 campaign: 54mm Napoleonic battle Austrians vs French and Bavarians. (27/04/2014)

After years of inactivity, the Austrians came out of the boxes again.

Robby, Siegfried,Adrien Patrick VDB, Jochen, Sean, Erwin, Jeroen, Steven and Alex.

Before Italeri came with Austrians,  some 15 years ago, I made my first wargame army. Thanks to Patrick VBD, I could make heads that could be  used for Austrians. Most of these figures are converted  Airfix French Guard grenadiers.
The Italeri grenadiers side by side with converted French Guard grenadiers

Converted French hussars from Siegfried

These figures are also from Siegfried




Also some converted Guard grenadiers with a Austrian shako.

The Bavarians had intial success in pushing back the huassars and grniadiers


The Austrans in the centre had little resistance when advancing and splitting the allied army.

On the far left, the Austrian heavy artillery dominated the battlefield.
The French did harm the Austrian infantry lines, but the telling Austrian battery fire pushed them to go into the offensive.
After several assaults being repelled in the centre left, the French were driven back.



 The Bavarians fortune turend, being pused in retreat too.
The assault on the French left flank stalled while causalties were mounting at a to heavy pace.
Retreat was unavoidable.
Now Bussy preparing an campaign: movement on the map with e-mail masseges. battles on tabletop.

4 comments:

  1. Eye candy! Marvelous to see such crowds shuffling around the game table(s). And so inspiring again. I've signed up for this upcoming campaign. I could use an advise here guys. I'm about to order some loose helmets intended for Austrian round helmeted infantry (I suppose that's light inf.?). Question: what type headgear would you order with HELMET SOLDIERS in Sussex, England? Eric Kemp ( Helmet Soldiers: http://www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk ) has different types available. I reckon the SP16 (French Line Lancer Helmet) spare part headgear could pass the test. Other suggestions?
    This tip on French Guard Grenadiers to be converted into their Austrian counterparts, great. I've just successfully turned a French Bonnet a Poile into a Austrian one with a small Bosch belt grinding machine. Neat performance, thanx Dirk and all other players!

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  2. Dear people, I just had to put aside my Austrian infantry. I wanted to focus more on wars in Russia. But now I see that I still do regret. When I look at the pictures, it was a good fight with many movements of armies. Something that I really like.
    regards, Peter.

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  3. The armies look considerably unbalanced in the pictures. This can be the observers pre occupational view, though ánd it can be a depiction of a given historical situation at the time. In the birds eye view that I have over the illustrations, the Austrians seem to have at least a two-to one majority over their French/Bavarian counterparts. Is it the crossing of the border, sort of crossing the river Niemen?

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  4. Hi Marcel,

    The battle is pure fiction. TheAustrian outnumbered indeed the Allies, but not 2/1. With the heavy losses the French and Bavarians took, this could have turend to 1/2 in the end (bird eye view). I think the French /Bavarians had a chance of succes in numbers, as they had a large number of veteran units, and the Austrians a number of militia units. Whhat made the difference was the to strong postion of the Austrian heavy battery on the right. Also bad luck in the dicing on the crutial moments didn't help them.

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