Campaign Map on 4 October 1813
In the north 10th
Bavarian corps has a bridgehead on the Traunreut road
Further south 9th and 11th
Bavarian corps force a crossing and take Rosenheim.
In the centre the Austrians retreat
and take up position in front of Traunstein.
2nd Austrian corps have
orders to hold the river Isar
They attack to drive 10th
Bavarian corps back over the river.
Battle of Wassenburg
End of Move 1
The Bavarians hold the right bank
of the river Isar
They have left one brigade to
garrison Wassenburg
That town is out of sight to the left
The Austrians have orders to hold
the river
They move to drive the Bavarians
back over the river
They have detached one brigade to
garrison Traunreut (on the right)
After a determined battle both
sides suffer heavy casualties
However the Bavarians still hold
the bridge at nightfall and claim victory
End of move 9
Austrians move first
The Austrians have routed the
Bavarian cavalry and artillery (on left of photo)
The artillery hit the square and
cause 10% casualties
All three infantry brigades move
forward, with the cavalry in support
Bavarians move second
The square pass their morale test
for the artillery casualties
They must remain in square because
of the threat of Austrian cavalry
The other two brigades are in line
They all wait for the enemy to
approach within musket range
End of move 10
Austrians move first
The artillery are screened by their
own infantry
Unable to
fire they limber and move forward
The grenadier reserve move up to
support the two brigades in line
The cavalry also advance, but keep
out of range of the enemy square
The infantry nearest the camera
move forward and fire on the square
The Bavarian infantry lose this one
sided firefight and rout
Bavarians move second
The right hand infantry brigade
move forward to engage the enemy line
They are elite light infantry and
rout the Austrian conscript brigade
The Austrians rout through the
grenadier brigade behind them
The grenadiers fail their morale
and are shaken
The left hand brigade must test
morale because of the rout
They fail and join the rout
The cavalry fail their morale for
the rout and are shaken
At the start of move 9 it appeared
that the Austrians must win the battle.
They had cavalry, artillery and
three infantry brigades
The Bavarians had three infantry
brigades, one had to remain in square
By the end of the Austrian move it
seemed even more certain they must win
They had routed the enemy square
for the loss of only 10% casualties
However the two Austrian brigades
in line had blocked the gunners line of fire
They also prevented the reserve
grenadier brigade from closing with the enemy
Even the cavalry had to take a wide
swing to get around the flank of the line
All of this gave the Bavarians a
very short window of opportunity
They only had two infantry brigades
left to hold the whole Austrian corps
However one of these brigades was
an elite jager brigade
The jager moved forward and engaged
the nearest infantry brigade in a firefight
This was a conscript brigade, and
no match for the jagers.
After a short exchange the
Austrians broke and ran
The grenadier brigade was directly
behind the conscript brigade
They failed their morale test and
were shaken
The rout caused the third brigade
(who had routed the square) to test their morale
They also failed, and routed
This caused the nearby cavalry to
test their morale
They also failed and were shaken
With only the limbered gunners
still formed the Austrian attack had ground to a halt
It would not be possible to rally
and regroup before nightfall
Meanwhile the two Bavarian infantry
brigades still held the bridge
Against all odds the Bavarians had
won the battle.
Campaign Notes
Though a small battle with only one
corps per side, this proved to be a very enjoyable wargame. It is
also a very good demonstration that the battle is not won until the last shot
is fired.
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