Ingolstadt Campaign – Day Seven

Campaign Map

French occupy Ingolstadt and win the campaign
7th French army – advance to Buxheim
8th French army – occupy Ingolstadt
9th French army – hold Manching

Austrian abandon Ingolstadt and lose the campaign
1st Austrian army – retreat to Kosching
2nd Austrian army – retreat to Vohburg
3rd Austrian army – hold Emsgaden

Comments

The campaign ends in a well deserved French win.

Both armies won three battles each, and at the end the Austrians had the advantage in the north. But in the centre and south they had suffered many more casualties than the French, and in particular at the final battle for Ingolstadt. Even allowing for my generous battle casualty replacement rules, there is no way that Second Austrian Army could have recovered, counter attacked and stood a reasonable chance of retaking Ingolstadt.

It also made sense that with the centre and southern Austrian armies in retreat, First Army in the north would have had to retreat or risk being surrounded by 7th and 8th Bavarian armies and forced to surrender.

Two aspects of the campaign require adjustment of the rules following this campaign phase.

Despite making the supply rules easier than in Spain, I found them time consuming and unnecessary in Germany. Obviously supply is important in any campaign, but historically they did not play a vital role in the 1813 campaign in Germany. Unlike in Spain, there were not large bodies of irregular troops constantly attacking supply trains or depots. To reflect this, the supply rules in this campaign were just a record keeping exercise. This could just as easily be done by allowing each army six or seven days supply, and when they ran out the campaign ended.

I also spent some time thinking about the combat and morale value of infantry brigades. I have long used a system of national characteristics. For example French are better at skirmishing, British are better at volley fire, Russians are very stubborn. This raises a lot of problems when deciding which brigade is most suitable for which role in each wargame. It is made considerably worse when campaign casualties are added. For example an elite skirmisher becomes a standard skirmisher when the brigade has 10% casualties. I am working on new orders of battle, of which more later.

Yet another enjoyable campaign, not least for the colourful table top with white and blue uniforms for the Austrians and light blue and white for the Bavarians.

Next time it will be Napoleon v Blucher in northern Germany, but with a slight twist in the tail. Of which more later.