Landshut Campaign – Day 1

Campaign Map

                                             

The campaign opens in the north

1^st Austrian army attack the northern border town of Dingolfing.

  

1^st Austrian army – attack Dingolfing

2^nd Austrian army – hold centre, east of border

3^rd Austrian army – hold south, east of border

 

7^th French army – in and around Dingolfing

8^th French army – hold Reisbach

9^th French army – hold Muhldorf

Start of battle of Dingolfing

Most of the French are deployed west of Dingolfing

This is for ease of supply

19^th Bavarian corps in reserve the top right

20^th Bavarian corps in and around Dingolfing

21^st Bavarian corps in reserve top left

 

The Austrians are deployed out of artillery range

1^st corps on the right

2^nd corps in the centre

3^rd corps on the left

Austrians win battle of Dingolfing

1st Austrian corps attack through the woods on the right

Schwarzenberg has taken half of 2^nd corps to support this attack

They break 19^th Bavarian corps and then swing left to outflank the town

 

2^nd Austrian corps artillery fire on the town, supported by half the infantry

Only when the garrison is weakened, do the infantry advance and skirmish

No attempt is made to attack the town until the defenders withdraw

 

3^rd Austrian corps have orders to pin 31^st Bavarian corps

Their artillery are deployed on the right

The intention is to create a gap between the woods and the town

Towards the end of the battle their jager brigade enter the woods

 

By nightfall the Austrians have taken the town and broken the French right

With half of his army in retreat, Massena orders a general retreat.

The French have lost 12 infantry, 3 cavalry and 1 artillery casualties (5100 men)

The Austrians have lost 2 infantry and 2 cavalry casualties (1000 men)

 

Comment

Normally we accept the outcome of each wargame, no matter how it affects the campaign

 

This goes back to the PBEM campaign, when it seemed like cheating not to do so

However it does seem silly to ruin a whole campaign phase, just because of bad dice rolls

 

And this can happen more often with our new rules which rely heavily on the luck of the dice.

 

This game was a good example of how things can go wrong.

 

Each campaign phase is based on one side crossing the regional border to attack

It is important that the attacker wins the first three battles, or at least two of them

Otherwise he has to retreat and the campaign is at an end

The campaign should provide six battles, one for each town

So one which produced just one or two would be disappointing

 

Therefore the first battle of a campaign is particularly important

A defeat for the aggressor makes it hard to justify the winner retreating

If it is the third battle, and the attacker has won the first two, it retreat is reasonable

 

The first time we wargamed Dingolfing everything went wrong right from the start

On move three the Austrians had advanced within artillery range

The first shot fired by the Bavarian gunners (rolled a 6) hit Austrian gunners.

The Bavarians failed their morale test (rolled a 1) and they routed

A nearby infantry brigade had to test, failed (rolled a 2) and also routed

Without artillery that Austrian corps would find it difficult to continue to attack

 

To recover the situation they ordered their cavalry to charge the enemy guns

This is always risky, particularly if the guns have their own cavalry support

The Bavarian gunners hit the charging cavalry (rolled a 4)

The cavalry failed their morale and halted disordered

The Bavarian cavalry charged and caused more casualties

The Austrian cavalry failed their morale test (rolled 3) and also routed

The Austrian corps now had no cavalry or artillery, and only three infantry brigades

 

The Austrian attack moved to the opposite flank

They had a 6 pdr gun, which cannot hit enemy artillery at long range

So once more their cavalry was sent to removed the enemy gunners

They received fire at short range (rolled 5) and had to test their morale

They rolled 1, and routed without any help from the Bavarian cavalry

 

Meanwhile the other two Austrian corps artillery were firing on the enemy gunners

Counter battery fire requires a roll of 6 for a hit, 5 or 6 for 12 pdr guns

The Bavarian 12 pdr battery in the centre rolled 5, which was a hit

The Austrian gunners tested their morale (rolled 1) and routed

 

At the start of move 6 the game was half way through

The Austrians had lost two artillery batteries and two cavalry brigades

It was clearly impossible to continue to attack

It was bad enough that the aggressors had lost the first battle of the campaign

Worse still their cavalry and artillery would start all future games with 10% casualties

 

It is really important to accept setbacks in a wargame, particularly dice

Otherwise what is the point of Wargaming?

However this defeat would, in effect, end the whole campaign phase

 

We solved the problem by accepting that Jan had won the wargame

But we would ignore the rest and refight the wargame for the campaign

The battle report above is the result of that refight

The Austrians won, as they needed to do

 

However we both felt very guilty “cheating” the campaign!