Aspern-Essling via Bloody Big Battles

On August 17 we played about half the Aspern Essling scenario from the new scenario book “Napoleon’s Bloody Big Battles”. It was a gas. Then we had to head to Maine early the next day, returning yesterday. The game is still on the table, must get the lads back into their barracks.

 

The French have seized a foothold on the north bank of the Danube. Archduke Charles’ Austrians are mobilizing to eradicate the foothold. Meanwhile, upstream, a whole Korps is busy shoving trees, barges and anything that floats into the Danube current to break the downstream pontoon bridge, so the French player rolls to see if any reinforcements can cross each turn. My original plan was to umpire a game between Jay and Andrew. Jay is usually a defensive player, while Andrew is quite aggressive. Jay had the notion that he should attack as Charles and Andrew defend as Napoleon, switching their usual stances. Andrew had to take his daughter to an event and would be late, so I started off with the French. The photos below tell the tale. Red arrows indicate attacks, yellow arrows show retreats. Each time a base is removed by combat, we leave a casualty figure. When enough fighting has gone on in a town, we take the top Paper Terrain building off and leave the wrecked version. Aspern is an example. Smoke markers show who has fired and look good in the photos. Yellow discs show disrupted units, empty .22 shells low on ammo.

The early seizure of Aspern masked the large Austrian artillery park. Only a few of them managed to get some shots off into the center.

The objective star in Aspern should be flipped to the red (Austrian) side.

The following photo is in error: the assault went to two ties. On the third try, one Austrian unit became spent. I thought the French unit was veteran and not spent, and won the fight by 2. After taking the photo, I noticed the French unit was trained, therefore spent, and therefore the third iteration of the assault was another tie! The French lost a base and the remaining one headed for the hills, leaving the Austrians with the position and the task of burying all the dead.

During the night most of Lannes’ Corps got across. Andrew arrived and was given command of the Austrian right and center. An attack out of Aspern drew most of Lanne’s troops into that fight, leaving the garrison of Essling out on a limb. Jay had to leave. Andrew got command of all the Austrians, just in time to launch an assault on Essling.

French infantry defeated the Austrians in front of Aspern, exploiting into the town, destroying the spent unit within.

 

Another assault went to two ties. The casualties piled up in heaps. The French infantry never got into the flood control berm between the towns. Real life intruded and we had to stop the game. It was officially a tie, though five Austrian units (including two of grenadiers) in the center faced a single French veteran unit. All were disrupted and most of the whitecoats were low on ammo. But if most of them rallied and went forward on the next turn… The French toehold on Essling looked forlorn. Meanwhile, Gemende Au and Aspern were firmly back in French hands. All agreed the game was a howl, and the situation unlike anything we’ve played before. Kudos to the designer. We must get this on the table again when schedules are not as tight.

The Butcher's bill: 9 French infantry bases (+1 ran off), 1 cavalry and 1 artillery, 10 Austrian infantry (+2 ran off). 

 

This report suffers from being a week late. Some details have vanished. I did annotate the photos before heading north. 

Edit: the troops are back in their barracks. Here's a shot of where the losses occurred.