Start of Ingolstadt Campaign

1813 Campaign Phases 

This 1813 campaign started in April 2009 and since then there have been 93 campaign phases and 505 battles fought as wargames.    A campaign phase is a mini campaign, and usually lasts 6 campaign days, with a battle being fought on each day.   This map shows the location and winner of each of those campaign phases.  The map used is the latest version, not the original map used in 2009.

1813 Sixth Campaign

During that period there have been six major changes to the campaign.

April 2009               first campaign was solo campaign with paper maps

October 2009          second campaign was computerised and first attempt at PBEM

June 2013               third campaign reached 1814 set in France

February 2015        fourth campaign restarted 1 January 1813

February 2016        fifth campaign reverted to solo campaign

June 2020               sixth campaign created new maps with military regions 

This map shows the 19 phases of the sixth campaign, which has produced 132 battles to wargame.   

Ingolstadt Campaign Phase

This is the campaign map, which is used for daily movement.   It shows the location of the nine Austrian and nine Bavarian and Baden corps on the first day.   It also shows the infantry brigades detached as garrisons to secure the rear area of both armies.  The white star indicates the location of the first battle, which is at Weichering.

This is the second time I have used the larger map showing 15, rather than 12 towns.   This allows for the losing side to launch a counter attack after the campaign objective, which is Ingolstadt, has been taken by the French.   This will allow for a maximum of 9 battles, rather than 6 battles.

Southern Germany is my favourite of the three campaign areas in Germany.   This is because of the colourful uniforms of the Austrian, Bavarian and Baden armies.   At some time in the future I would like to introduce the Tyrol, with the Bavarian “guerrillas” of Andreas Hofer.   But it was a very limited campaign and did not really affect the larger Danube campaign.   However ever since I visited Innsbruck back in the early 1970s I have always wanted to do it!

Resupply in Germany

 

Ingolstadt Campaign Map on day one

Having spent so much time and effort working on supply and lines of communication for the campaign phase in Spain, I find myself back at square one for the three campaign theatre’s in Germany.

My campaign is designed to provide wargames, not to replicate the historical 1813 campaign. But just as I want my wargames to have a flavour of Napoleonic battles, I also want the campaign to have a Napoleonic feel about it. However I don’t believe that lines of supply played a major part in the historical campaign, or at least not to the extent that it did in Spain.

It goes without saying that supply was a major problem for every military commander throughout history, including in the 1813 campaign. But I don’t recall that the campaign in Germany was dominated by it, as it was in Spain.

It would be easy to create a complicated system of supply which would include living off the land. But I doubt that it would be worth the huge amount of effort required. Nor would I want it to affect the campaign objective of providing wargames.

I have decided that the most limiting factor will be the total amount of supplies available to both armies. This will be sufficient to allow them to fight for nine days, providing that they remain within a day’s march of the nearest garrison. They will also have to halt for a full day to resupply, which will prevent them from advancing nonstop. And finally each army will have to detach one infantry brigade to garrison each town within the area they hold. This will mean that the army which has won, and therefore probably suffered fewer casualties, will have to leave one brigade behind as they follow up the retreating enemy. The one retreating will collect the garrisons in the towns they a

End of Jean Campaign

Campaign Map Day 10

Main French depot at Hellin – 0 days supplies
French have no more reserve supplies
French occupy Martos
French have defeated Spanish army
Spanish in general retreat

13th French army – resupply and secure Linares
14th French army – occupy Martos
15th French army – regroup and resupply at Mortalalla

1st Spanish army – retreat off map
2nd Spanish army – retreat off map
3rd Spanish army – retreat to Alcaudete

Guerrilla cease active operations

Comment

The defeat of Second Spanish Army at Martos signalled the collapse of the Spanish Army Group.
In the north First Spanish Army immediately abandoned Andjuar and also retreated off the map.
In the south Third Spanish Army was in a very exposed position far to the east.
They immediate retreated to Alcaudete, hoping to follow First and Second Armies before being cut off by 14th French army at Martos.

The French had not only secured the campaign objective of Jean, but also routed the whole Spanish army. However they were in a weaker position than the map would indicate. 6 of their 9 corps were down to one day’s supplies. The main depot at Hellin had run out of supplies, but there were sufficient supplies spread between the nine towns now held by the French. But to access these supplies Second French Army would have to retreat to Jean.

Had the French lost the battle of Martos 14th French army would have found itself in a very difficult position. If they attempted to hold Jean they would have run the risk of a combined attack from Second and Third Spanish Armies. In addition they would have had only one day’s supplies. I suspect that given all the circumstances I would probably ordered them to abandon Jean and retreat to Jodar. This would have resulted in the Spanish winning the campaign.

The French did win, but only just. At the start of the battle of Martos the Spanish had won four battles and the French had also won four. Whichever side won Martos would have deserved to win the campaign.

This was our most enjoyable campaign in southern Spain. It has taken me a long time to balance Spanish weakness in set piece battles against French problems with guerrilla attacks on their lines of supply. All of this has worked much better in this campaign than in previous ones.

Jean Campaign – Day Nine

Campaign Map

Main French depot at Hellin – 0 days supplies

French have no more reserve supplies
French occupy Linares
French attack Martos

Spanish retreat to Andjuar
Spanish attack Jean
Guerrilla brigades active

13th French army – occupy Linares
14th French army – attack Martos
15th French army – regroup and resupply at Mortalalla

1st Spanish army – retreat to Andjuar
2nd Spanish army – attack Jean
3rd Spanish army – regroup and resupply at Huelma





4 guerrilla attack convoy Tobarra to Riopar – fail no casualties

8 guerrilla attack convoy Elche to Jodar – fail no casualties

15 guerrilla attack convoy Hellin to Minateda – fail 10% casualties

Battle of Martos – Start of battle

14th French Army commanded by General Saint Cyr attack Martos
2nd Spanish army commanded by General Elio attack Jean

French have 8 infantry brigades, 2 cavalry brigade, 3 corps artillery
4 infantry and 1 cavalry brigades are detached to protect lines of supply
They have lost 4 infantry and 1 artillery battle casualties (1700 men)

Spanish have 13 infantry brigades, 2 cavalry brigade, 3 corps artillery
They have lost 6 infantry, 2 cavalry and 1 artillery battle casualties (2700 men)

The French are running short of supplies, there are none left in their base at Hellin. St Cyr is ordered to attack Martos and destroy 2nd Spanish army before the campaign grinds to a halt.

To win the campaign the Spanish must retake their base at Jean. They have more infantry than the French but have suffered more casualties to their cavalry and artillery.

Neither command is aware that their opponent is under orders to attack. The result is an encounter battle between Jean and Martos.

Comments

The Spanish have three more infantry brigades than the French. They have two 12 pdr and one 6 pdr guns. Both of their cavalry brigades have casualties.

The French have to detach one infantry bridge to control Martos. They have one 12 pdr and two 9 pdr guns. One of their cavalry brigades have casualties

Both armies start the battle with considerable casualties, so neither can afford to risk unnecessary casualties, which might prompt wide spread loss of morale. This applies particularly to the cavalry, who are restricted in what they can attempt. In particular a charge on enemy artillery is unlikely to succeed.

The French must take the initiative to delay the stronger Spanish infantry occupying all three game objectives. They decide to attack the bridge on the left and the woods in the centre. They will not attempt to take the woods on the right, but will deny it to the Spanish.

The two best Polish infantry brigades attack the left side of the bridge, but struggle to defeat the two defending Spanish brigades. They do eventually take the bridge, but at the loss of 3 casualties, rendering them pretty useless for the remainder of the game.

On the right the French infantry are heavily outnumbered, and lose one of their three brigades to Spanish artillery fire. They are fortunate to be able to prevent the Spanish taking the objective.

The French choose the centre because 6th Spanish corps have 6 pdr guns, and also have 1 casualty. The attacking Poles have 9 pdr guns, and no casualties. This means that the Spanish gunners are ineffective against enemy artillery at longer than short range (which is 4” on the table). The Poles keep their gunners out of range and force the Spanish to withdraw from the bridge to avoid artillery casualties. The Polish cavalry and artillery, under the command of Saint Cyr, then support the attack on the woods in the centre.

The Spanish have no answer to the French tactics, but due to particularly bad luck (in the form of very low dice rolls) it takes much longer than expected for the French to win.

It is possible that if the Spanish had fought a more aggressive battle they might have won. But they could just as easily have suffered casualties attacking resulting in the whole army failing their morale and running away. This is the danger when poor quality troops start a battle with considerable casualties spread throughout the whole army. But it was the only way they could have won.

Strangely a rather dull game, particularly for the French player who had to play a very cautious game and avoid the temptation to risk an aggressive attack for a quick victory.