Summary

Davout with 6000 men set up on the north side of the Danube. Rosenberg with 5,000 men, plus large reinforcements, attacked him, and eventually forced his way across the bridge. Davout retreated in good order toward Ratisbon.

Detailed Description

Davout had two fake gun emplacements, which were the two outermost gun batteries on the table.

Davout kept most of his troops up on the hill slope, out of range of the Austrian field guns. His strategy was to pound any Austrians crossing the bridge into chutney, while keeping his own troops safe from the superior Austrian artillery he knew would be massed against him.

Davout set up several units of light infantry in skirmish order, near the bridgehead, ready to intercept and harass any troops crossing. Two French batteries were in range to punish any troops making the long trip across the bridge. These batteries were also set up so as to be immune to Austrian counterbattery fire. Due to a slight miscalculation, they were in fact in range of the Austrian heavy guns, but this did not play a major part in the battle.

At the bridgehead itself, Davout threw a line of abatis across his end of the bridge, and two lines of undefended light works. The abatis could not be crossed until removed or blown apart by artillery. The works could be crossed by infantry, of course, but at a cost in movement. Troops would be able to "squirt out" to either side of the works, once the abatis was destroyed, but the lines of works made a direct advance away from the bridge impossible.

Rosenberg set up his heavy guns on the west side of woods "A", as shown on the map, in order to perform counterbattery fire against the French guns. He later said that this was a mistake.

General Thierry set up the field guns to the east of woods "B", in order to rake any enemy troops approaching the bridge from that side. Since ballshot has NIL effect against skirmishers, the French light troops were immune to Austrian fire.

The Austrians first sent their battalion of German line infantry, 1000 strong, across the bridge. These troops took heavy artillery hits on the way across, but passed their morale test. They then spent one turn trying to remove the abatis, and failed. They then suffered yet more hits -- 16 field guns battering at a clumped column on the bridge -- and routed back across. They took no further part in the battle.

The Austrians now re-sighted one of their heavy batteries and began blasting the abatis. In a couple of turns they had destroyed it. They also fired on one of the fake batteries, thus discovering that it was a fake (needing to roll a 9-10 each time they fired to observe the effect of their hits).

The Austrians now sent a column of Grenzers, in skirmish order, across the bridge. These troops were immune to the French artillery fire, so Davout sent his own skirmishers forward, to form a three- sided box, facing inwards, ready to deal with the Hungarian interlopers.

The Grenzers streamed across the bridge, came around and over the lines of works, and began a desultory firefight with the French light troops. Eventually, they charged the French skirmishers, and a large skirmish melee began, with the French getting the better of it, but the Grenzers managed to pass their morale tests. More Grenzers piled up behind on the bridge, with. grenadiers and hussars also waiting to cross.

After a couple of turns, the Grenzers routed into the Danube and destroyed. However, the second Grenz unit had made it across, followed by the grenadiers. The French light troops masked the fire of their guns at the bridgehead, so that the Austrians could cross in relative safety.

The French were now forced to commit line troops to the bridgehead; a unit of chausseurs charged one grenadier column in the flank as it rounded the works, and a unit of line infantry charge the other grenadier column in the flank as it, too, rounded the works.

The grenadiers were routed back across the bridge, but the French units were then decimated by artillery fire the next turn, The grenadiers rallied and once again braved their way across the "blood bridge" into the tangled ground north of the bridgehead.

More confused fighting occurred, with the French eventually forced to commit more and more troops to defend the bridgehead, giving the by now overwhelming Austrian artillery more and more targets.

The Austrians also got their hussars across, and these troops did considerable damage to the French. However, the French were able to set up fields of fire onto the bridgehead area again, and combined artillery and combat hits routed both hussar units back across the bridge, and these dashing troops took no further part in the battle.

The Austrian cuirassiers also took heavy losses when they were committed, mostly to French artillery fire as they "stacked up" at the bridgehead. By the end of game, all the Austrian cavalry had been routed back south, in a state of total exhaustion.

But Austrian artillery fire eventually forced the French back also; mostly they took refuge behind the woods "A". What had really turned the tide was the appearance of the additional Austrian field batteries in Pfanzeiter's and Veczoy's reinforcing columns. By the 18th turn, there were six Austrian batteries blazing away across the Danube, flaying any French unit in range.

The sight of the sheer mass of Austrian troops cloaking the entire ground between Neustadt and the bridge, with more troops streaming in along the roads, tended to lower Davout's spirits.

At the very end of the day, the French made a final, doomed charge with their remaining chausseur unit, into a disordered line of Austrian grenadiers. They should have routed the grenadiers -which would have been a grave blow to the precarious Austrian foothold across the river -- but supporting artillery fire did 12 hits on the horsemen, wiping out the entire unit.

This ended the day's fighting. The Austrians had two grenadier units still across the bridge, with the entire Austrian army of about 20,000 men (ab ut 1,000 figures) waiting to cross.

Aftermath

I rolled 2D6 for Austrian initiative during the night, and rolled a 7. Typical for Austrians, I guess. This let the Austrians move two more units across the bridge during the night, but the rest of the army basically milled about in torchlit confusion. French hussar parties had been sighted from the northeast (I rationalized), on the south side of the Danube. This led to a false rumor of a French attack from Ratisbon, which led Rosenberg to halt the pursuit of Davout.

For the French, I rolled an 11 -- about right for Davout! The French used their high initiative to make a very clean getwaway during the night. They retreated northeast toward Ratisbon, ending the turn at Kelheim.

Rosenberg remained on the field for the rest of the turn to regain losses. He kept Pfanzeiter with him in case Demont did indeed attack from the Ratisbon area, but this did not materialize.

If you look at the situation map for the end of turn 3, you will see that the Tyrol has begun to revolt, and is sending partisans into southern Bavaria -- one more thing for the French to worry about. The level of partisan activity depends on two factors: the number of troops the Austrians commit to the Munich area, and the level of propaganda the Austrians produce each turn relative to the French.

For More Information

You can follow the course of the campaign online. Here is the URL to the page covering this particular campaign:

http://www.angelfire.com/wa/rogerswhome/napcampaign.html

This page will let you view the campaign map, battle maps, and see the Munich Chronicle, our campaign newsletter. The "tone" of the newsletter depends on which side controls the city of Munich. So far it has been the French, so the Austrians may not be presented in the best possible light. 

Introduction