Landshut Campaign – Day 3

Campaign Map

Austrians attack Muhldorf
1st Austrian army – regroup and resupply
2nd Austrian army – occupy Reisbach
3rd Austrian army – attack Muhldorf

7th French army – regroup and resupply
8th French army – retreat to Landshut
9th French army – defend Muhldorf

End of battle of Reisbach

The Austrian plan was to pin the French on their left, ignore the town and attack on their right. To achieve this general Merveldt took command of 2 infantry brigades from 7th and 8th corps, plus artillery from 7th corps. They were deployed on the left bank of the river Danube.

The remainder of 7th corps was on the right bank of the river. They would pin a similar sized Bavarian force near the main bridge

8th corps would deploy in front of Muhldorf. They would not advance on the town until Merveldt had delivered his attack between the town and the river.

9th corps would deploy on the left and occupy the nearest half of the pass. They would attack in support of 8th corps.

The plan worked perfectly. The French had to keep most of 26th corps in and around the town. They held the town throughout the battle, and only retreated when 25th and 27th corps were forced to do so.

The Austrians won the battle.

The French lose 5 infantry, 6 cavalry and 2 artillery casualties (2800 men)
The Austrians lose 3 infantry, 3 cavalry and 1 artillery casualties (1600 men)


Comment 

It has taken a long time to determine the best tactics to attack a strongly held town.

I soon found that with a maximum of 12 moves per game an attack on the town itself ran out of time, even if the attackers did well.

In this game I commanded the 3rd Austrian army, the attacking side. The defending army had to deploy first, with the Austrian troops arriving on the table at the start of move 1.

A glance at the table will show that the weakest part of the French defence is between the town and the river. Both the centre and Austrian left have hills which delay the attacker.

The only problem for the attacking player is the river Danube. It can only be crossed by one of the three bridges. The French had left two infantry and one cavalry brigades to hold the bridge. I did the same. But I put two elite brigades, to give me an advantage. One was a jager brigade, who could skirmish across the river and support the main attack on the left bank

As always, things did not go smoothly for the Austrians. Artillery plays an important part in the attack, and particularly with my new rules. 12 pdr guns require 5 or 6 for a hit against enemy artillery. Both the French and Austrian guns on this flank were 12 pdr. With the opening shot the Bavarian gunners killed 10% of the Austrian gunners. Worse still the Austrians lost their morale test and had to retreat shaken. It would take three moves to rally and bring them back to their abandoned guns. This delayed the attack by three moves. However the actual attack went well and the Bavarians were forced to retreat.

On the opposite flank the Austrians were less successful, but they did eventually force the Baden corps to withdraw.

With both flanks gone, the garrison had to retreat without firing a shot.