Monday 16 September 2019

Rosenheim Campaign – Day 3


Campaign Map on 5 October 1813
Oudinot has established two bridgeheads over the river Isar.   In the north at Wassenburg and in the centre at Rosenheim.
                        
Schwartzenberg was surprised by the occupation of Rosenheim.  However he immediately orders 1st and 3rd corps to concentrate at Traunstein in order to push the Bavarians back over the river.
                         
Battle of Rosenheim
End of Move 3
Schwartzenberg was at a particular disadvantage in fighting this battle.   The city divided the battlefield into two, with a wide gap between them.   Rosenheim is much too strong to attack with the troops available, so the Austrians must attack with one corps either side of the city.

The battle went badly for the Austrians.   They needed to gain an initial advantage, and the only way was to do this with artillery or cavalry.   The artillery proved ineffective, so the cavalry were ordered forward.

1st hussars (on the left) were defeated and routed.   Worst still the Bavarian hussars failed their morale, pursued and inflicted even more casualties on the fleeing horsemen.  To add insult to injury the Bavarian cavalry returned to their own line without a single casualty   This was the end of 1st corps attack.

3rd corps were luckier.   They greatly outnumbered the small force deployed between the city and the river.   They also won the initial cavalry melee.  But their horsemen also failed to rally and charged the nearest enemy – a full strength Bavarian square.   They suffered 30% casualties and routed.

By nightfall the Austrians had failed to make much impression.   The Bavarians still held the city, and had suffered no casualties at all in 11th corps.   Schwartzenberg accepted defeat and withdrew.

Campaign Notes

Each side started the battle with seven infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades and two batteries of artillery.   So evenly balanced the Austrians could not hope to attack the city itself.   They would have to defeat the large number of Bavarian troops deployed either side of the city.

On the left 11th Bavarian corps was full strength, that is to say they has four infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade and corps artillery.   1st Austrian corps had only three infantry brigades, plus one cavalry brigade and corps artillery.   The Austrians would have to cause damage to the defenders, either with artillery or cavalry, before they could hope to attack.   The artillery failed and the cavalry were defeated and routed.   That was the end of the attack on the left.

On the right 3rd Austrian corps had four infantry brigades, a cavalry brigade and corps artillery.   Deployed between the city and the river was a small Bavarian force of one infantry brigade, one cavalry brigade and corps artillery.   However there was very limited space for the larger Austrian corps to attack.

The Austrians defeated and routed both the infantry and cavalry.   The Bavarian gunners were forced to retreat into the city.   But the Austrians were unable to redeploy to attack the city.   And with the loss of 1st corps it was always possible that 11th Bavarian corps would move against them.

Marshal Oudinot took command of this small force on the Bavarian left early in the battle.   By doing so he effectively gave up control of the rest of his army.  But they were on Hold orders, so that did not appear a problem.

However at the height of the battle his cavalry were shaken in the first phase of a cavalry melee.   He took personal command of them to rally them.  But they lost the second phase of the melee and routed, taking him with them.

So at the critical moment when 11th corps desperately needed orders to either pursue the retreating 1st Austrian corps, or move against the disordered 3rd Austrian corps, there was no one to give them orders.  By the time Oudinot disengaged himself from the fleeing mass of cavalry it was too late to reach 11th corps and give them fresh orders.

It is always satisfying when a small and unexpected outcome like this happens.  It supports the strength of the wargame rules that misuse of a commander can have dire consequences.

Another interesting wargame, even if it was another defeat for my Austrians at the hands of Jan’s Bavarians.

6 comments:

  1. Thistlebarrow,

    I've just got back from a Baltic cruise and have managed to catch up with your latest campaign.

    It's been interesting to see how events have unfolded so far, and it looks as it the Austrians might not be able to maintain their 100% success record. Mind you, there's still some way to go yet!

    Looking forward to reading the next instalment.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Hi Bob

    Welcome home.

    Things are not going well for the Austrians at present, but as you say it is early days.

    The river makes it easy for the Bavarian's to concentrate and gain local advantage. It also makes it easy for the Austrian's to counter attack. But neither side can survive a series of defeats.

    best regards

    Paul

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  3. Hello Paul,

    How were the Austrians prevented from re-deploying to attack the city?

    All the best

    John

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  4. Hi JWH

    The short answer is that they ran out of time.

    Each game is 12 moves, which is also 12 hours in the campaign. So each move on the wargame table is one hour in the campaign. A full day is 8am to 8pm. This game ran the full 12 hours, so night stopped play as it were.

    The wargame rules were carefully designed to allow time for a sequence for each game. The first 4 moves allow the attacking corps to advance within artillery long range and deploy. The second 4 moves allow the artillery battle, plus cavalry activity. The lasst 4 moves are the advance to contact, the melee and the decision. If the attacker delays too long the game may end before he can compete his attack.

    However we have allowed an extra move to reach a conclusion in a complicated game, or where the defender has retreated a short distance to delay the attacker reaching him.

    In this particular battle it will make more sense if you read the full battle report on the Campaign Diary blog. You will find it here
    http://1813pbemcampaigndiary.blogspot.com.es/

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  5. Thanks Paul, I have read it and that explains it.

    I do have two questions though, related to it.

    1 - Does the relatively tight timings in terms of game turns create somewhat stereotyped tactics?

    2 - In this or a similar battle, is there anything to stop the Austrians just bombarding the town day after day until the defence cracks?

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  6. Hi JWH

    The campaign is designed to provide interesting battles to wargame.

    It does this by a series of campaign phases, or mini campaigns. Each is stand alone, but all fit within the overall 1813 campaign. Each phase is similar to a short historical campaign of about ten days, such as Waterloo. It does not include sieges, because these would be pretty boring as a wargame.

    Each battle/wargame is 12 hours/moves, so I suppose they all follow a similar style. But I would not say that the tactics are stereotyped. Because the wargame rules rely heavily or luck of the dice, each game is unpredictable. The battle plan may be similar, but the actual wargame can change at the roll of a dice.

    The campaign rules ensure that at the end of a day's fighting one side will retreat and recreate one map square between them and the enemy. There are no rules to allow the two corps to remain within adjacent squares, which would be necessary for bombarding or siege. This is because I need a fast flowing campaign to provide lots of battles to wargame.

    regards

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

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