Campaign Map on 15
October 1813
Schwartzenberg
orders a joint attack to defeat the Bavarians and force Oudinot to retreat.
2nd
and 3rd Austrian corps will attack and take Holzkirchen
1st
and 4th Austrian corps will move north and prepare to attack Bad
Tolz
Battle of Holzkirchen
Both
armies have considerable battle casualties.
The
Bavarians are in a strong defensive position, and they outnumber the Austrians
in Infantry
The
Austrian cavalry and artillery are considerably stronger than the enemy
Schwartzen
fights a cautious battle, but still manages to inflict a convincing defeat on
the Bavarians and take Holzkirchen
Campaign Notes
The
campaign has reached an interesting and critical phase.
Both
armies have suffered heavy battle casualties, but the Bavarian army more than
the Austrian army. However as the
Bavarians retreat they abandon depots and their garrisons return to their
parent brigades. As the Austrians
advance they leave brigades behind to run the depots needed to bring supplies
forward.
After
a series of defeats the Bavarians have retreated to Holzkirchen and Bad
Tolz. They must hold both to allow them
to rally, regroup, resupply and reorganise their battered corps. If they are allowed to do so their field
army will be stronger than the Austrians, and they can go back on the attack.
Oudinot
is aware that his army is not only outnumbered, but also very brittle. In addition the enemy hold two very strong
defensive positions. But if he must
attack before they can recover from their defeats. Every day he delays they become stronger.
He
has already won the first battle of Holzkirchen, but he has failed to take the
town. Having resupplies 2nd
and 3rd corps, he now orders them to attack the fortified town
again.
The
Austrians are outnumbered in infantry, but have twice as much cavalry and
artillery. The enemy are in, or behind,
the town and an inn to the south.
Oudinot orders his artillery to move forward, with the infantry in
reserve and out of enemy artillery range.
He
then creates a cavalry reserve by combining both brigades under his personal
commend. They advance in the centre,
and pin the single Bavarian cavalry brigade.
He then sends one brigade to charge the single Austrian artillery
brigade. This is a limited risk. If the cavalry fail, he will still have one
brigade to counter the enemy brigade.
In fact they capture the Austrian guns and rout the gunners.
The
Austrian artillery can now approach within short range of the two enemy
strongholds. They pound the garrisons
until they break and rout. The
supporting Bavarian infantry are brittle from battle casualties. They must test morale if within 4” of a
rout, which two brigades are. Both fail
and rout. More brigades within 4” of
them must now test morale, and the rout spreads
The
battle ends abruptly, with seven of the eight Bavarian brigades in rout
The
Bavarians suffer 1100 casualties, the Austrians none
In
effect the game was decided by the Austrian artillery. They needed 9 to hit the garrison with
2D6. By move 6 they had two batteries
firing each move, and the game could go on to move 12. In fact the Bavarians routed on move 8.
If
the dice had gone against the Austrian artillery, Oudinot would eventually have
to launch an infantry attack. This was
full of risk, because the enemy infantry were behind stone walls and were
anyway stronger than the Austrians. If
one Austrian infantry brigade routed it was likely that it would be their army
who ended the game in full rout, not the Bavarians.
Once
more the luck of the dice was with the Austrians. But it was still a fun and interesting game,
because both of us were aware that it could so easily go either way.
