Raszyn 1809 Part II

The Austrian bombardment of the Saxons, too bad they lacke the troops to exploit any breakthrough in the center.

Picking the game up from the tactical pause at the end of PART ONE, the Austrians are pressing all along the river and both sides are fairly battered.  The Austrian 1st Division is nearly spent, and the Advance Guard is beating their heads against the bridge on the Right.  The Polish Advance Guard was finally ejected from Falenty and is reforming North of Raszyn itself.

 Both sides established their unit objectives:

Austria

The Austrian commander recognized that his best opportunity to force a crossing was on the right.  He needed to force the crossing before the Polish reinforcements could move in to support.  He detailed his plan to his commanders:

Advance Guard - Fix Polish forces on the right in order to prevent them from reinforcing the crossing point on the left.

1st Division - Fix Polish forces defending Raszyn in order to prevent them from reinforcing the crossing point on the left.

2nd Division (Main Effort)  - Seize Michalowice in order to allow a breakthrough into the Polish rear.

Cavalry Division - Follow and assume 2nd Division attack oriented Northeast towards the road North of Raszyn.

Corps Artillery - Fix Polish forces defending Raszyn in order to prevent them from reinforcing the crossing point on the left.


Poland

The Polish commander recognized the same vulnerability in his lines.  His left was secure, and his center, while weakened, had gutted the Austrian 1st Division's infantry.  The Austrians were seeing some success against his dithering 2nd BDE commander, and he raced reinforcements to try and plug the game.

Advance Guard (ME)- Counterattack against Austrian forces crossing the river on the right in order to re-establish the defensive line.

1st BDE - Defend Jawowow in order to prevent Austrian Forces from crossing the river.

2nd BDE - Defend Michalowice in order to prevent Austrian Forces from crossing the river.

Saxon BDE - Defend Raszyn in order to prevent Austrian Forces from crossing the river.

Cavalry BDE - Support Advance Guards attack.

In the opening action of the game, both units decide they aren't moving...

With objectives thus established, the game continued.  The first result being a spate of "1's" on the command rolls on both sides.  The forces on both sides of the River at Jawowow decided they liked where they were and were not moving.  This is where the effects of the "Dithering" Austrian Commander really impacted the game.  In Honours of War he cannot have any positive influence on his army, and limits your ability to get those critical double moves.  The Polish commander was able to instill confidence in his subordinates to get them into the fight, and inevitably won the race to the right.

Forcing back the Polish 2nd Brigade, the Austrians make their push in Michalowice

More Austrians surge forward as the action in the town heats up.  An errant bullet ends the career of the Dithering Bieganski, the only commander lost in the battle.

Saxon guns are driven off as the Austrian heavy guns finally move into position.  The Austrian center, however, lacked the infantry to assault and carry the position. 

The Austrian Advance Guard pushes on the river again even as their artillery is driven off by Polish counter-battery fire.  The grenz would be unable to hold position long enough to allow a decisive follow up.

In a last ditch effort to stem the White tide, the Polish Cavalry launches an "inspired" Charge against the weakened vanguard.

The Polish 1st Brigade manages to achieve a stalemate on the left.

The Austrians manage to finally form square and repulse the Polish Lancers

At this point, it became obvious to the Polish commander that he needed to withdraw before his losses cascaded.  The overall result was an Austrian tactical victory and a Polish strategic victory.  The Polish losses were less than a quarter of those of the Austrians.  Although they lost their advanced position, and inevitably would be forced from the river, they managed to gut two Austrian divisions.

This proved to be a rather good scenario, and did manage to produce a generally historical result.  In using Honours of War, a Seven Years War rules set, I managed to get a fairly quick playing game that felt right for the time period.  The 6mm scale game rules provided the right overall feel for the maneuver (Musket range = 6cm, Movement = 6-8cm) The rules are designed to favor direct fire and minimize the impact of Close Assault and Cavalry (you can hear the designer's thought here in an interview with Meeple's and Miniatures.    Go to 1:35 for the start.)

I tried a few rules addendum to reflect the Napoleonic period

Response to charge

Infantry response to cavalry charge  roll 3+ (4+ if 3 or more hits) May take either action:

• Form square and fire at long range (6cm)
• Maintain formation and fire at short range. (3cm) 

Cavalry can halt charge into Square, but still will receive fire.

Infantry response to infantry charge:  Counter charge on 4+, otherwise roll d6 (-1 for 3+ hits):

• 1-3:  Response fire at long range
• 4-6: Response fire at Short range

Fire Modifiers

• Firer in square (-2)
• Target in Square (+1)

Melee Modifiers

• Infantry Square vs Cavalry (+2)
• Cavalry vs Infantry Square (-2)

Basically, I wanted to make charging an ordered unit a dangerous proposition, but encourage decisive action to destroy the weak and lame.


With that, I have completed my initial trial by fire of the long delayed Saxon brigade.  Although they did little more than receive artillery fire, they did so with great aplomb.  I have all of the forces necessary to play through the 1809 campaign painted and prepared, so will start working my way through the campaign with some solo games (unless my son suddenly gets the urge to try analog entertainment again.)  My original intent was to play through sequentially, but Grochow is looking fairly tempting.