The Battle of Hohenlinden:
A Napoleonic Refight

Battle Plans, Rules, and Refight

by Jim Arnold and Ralph Reinertsen

In our rule set, (Generalship Napoleonics, described in detail in issue Vol. VIII, no. 2), players issue game length orders. When Jim pondered his orders he concluded that because of the likelihood of a piecemeal Austrian commitment, an all out assault was impetuous to the point of fool-hardiness. Accordingly, his battle plan called for all columns to build up a battle line along the high ground. They were to wait until a grand battery formed and bombarded for two hour. Then all columns were to deliver a general assault while retaining one-third of strength in defensive positions on the high ground. The Habsburg leaders always focused on the preservation of the monarchy and never risked all in battle. Neither would Jim.

Ralph placed three infantry divisions in defensive positions along the valley road. General Jean d’Hautpoul’s cavalry provided a tactical reserve while Richepance’s division was in general reserve. Ney’s Division received the mission of outflanking the Austrian left. Essentially, Ralph was emulating Moreau’s strategy.

George Jeffrey’s event-driven approach to game rules, Code Napoleon but commonly known as variable length bound (VLB), inspired many aspects of Generalship Napoleonics. After toiling alone for well over a decade at HMGS conventions to keep the VLB flame burning, Jim recently received word from Dick Bryant that both George and his muse, Ned Zuparko, had reappeared. In fact, there is a new web site devoted to discussion of VLB. Here gamers earnestly discuss some of the most difficult rule design issues.

Except in broad concept, there is not much overlap between Generalship Napoleonics and George’s Code Napoleon. Among various departures, Jim’s study of Napoleonic history has persuaded him that Wellington excepted, army generals laid out their plans before a battle and then only occasionally intervened to alter the plans in important ways. Accordingly, Generalship Napoleonics now allows players to change their game length orders a finite number of times according to an assessment of the historical ability of the rival generals.

For the Hohenlinden refight the Austrians could issue two “change of plans” (generous to Johann but having only one change is too frustrating to a gamer) and the French three. In addition Moreau had a bonus to be used only during the first two hours. This represented his response to the reports from the outpost line about when and where the Austrians were coming.

The Battle Begins

Kollowrat’s advance guard began the battle at 7 a.m. To recreate faithfully the historic battle, the advance guard had to attack. Accordingly, 1,800 men made a frontal assault while the remainder extended the Austrian battle line north along the high ground. The French voltigeurs outfought the grenzers to gain “skirmish superiority” (this gives a bonus to the ensuing infantry close combat). The French divisional artillery scored a hit but the gallant Austrians pressed through the bombardment. Grouchy’s infantry defeated the lefthand portion of the Austrian attack.

The Austrian right contacted an exposed French battery on a knoll. The battery’s canister fire drove back the Habsburg infantry.

Ralph’s game length order for Grouchy’s command required that it defend its front while the reserves (both infantry and cavalry) counterattacked any enemy success against the front line. Should the front line repulse an attack, the cavalry reserve was to charge the defeated troops.

According to the rules, the tactical French commander, in this case Grouchy, had to roll a D12 to determine if he perceives his opportunity and can exercise his “initiative”. Grouchy’s rating was seven (Ralph had to roll a 7 or under). By a roll of 10, Grouchy did not “see” his chance and the cavalry stood still while the Austrians retreated in peace.

At 7:45, while the balance of Kollowrat’s column deployed, the Austrians found that their deployment north along the ridge had overlapped Grouchy’s flank. This was an unforseen opportunity. Since Kollowrat’s orders were to bombard for two hours before attacking, Jim had to make an initiative roll of 4 (Kollowrat was not the most gifted commander) to seize the opportunity. The roll failed.

Ralph also saw the problem for Grouchy and used Moreau’s bonus order to order Grouchy to guard his flank. According to the rules, all orders go through the historic chain of command and require the recipient (Grouchy) to meet his initiative in order to execute the order without delay. If all went smoothly, this meant Moreau spent 15 minutes (our basic increment of time) writing the order, the courier spent 15 carrying it, Grouchy spent 15 reading and transmitting it to his brigadier, and the brigade would spent 30 minutes changing front.

Instead, an initiative of “12” showed that Grouchy (in the words of the French after action report) “must be attending to some business, but it is not the business of battle.” Now Ralph had to make a D6 “delay roll.” The delay factor, representing the friction when staff officer explain the order and the general strives to comprehend it, means the order will be carried out some time later; in this case, one hour later.

At 8 a.m. Jim secretly rolled to determine when the other two Austrian columns would appear. Perversely, Riesch rolled a 6 modified to a 3 while Baillet rolled a 1; in other words the pre-planned coordination fell apart in typical Austrian fashion at the moment of contact. Riesch would enter at 9 a.m., an hour after Baillet. Meanwhile, Ralph secretly rolled for Ney and determined that he would appear on the Austrian flank at 10:00.

It took close to two hours for Kollowrat’s column to debouch from the forest and complete its deployment. According to Jim’s plan, the Austrian artillery was to soften the French position for two hours before the assault began. At 9 a.m. Kollowrat’s artillery opened fire from the heights. Generalship allows players to form “grand batteries” by using their corps and reserve artillery.

Applying the VLB event-driven concept, such batteries bombard for a chosen amount of time and then the results are determined. Divisional and brigade batteries are assumed to be also firing but rather than waste time calculating their effect incrementally, we wait until they participate in a tactical action to determine what these supporting batteries have accomplished.

While the Austrian artillery thundered, Ney’s division appeared in the forest to the right of Grouchy. The exact entry point was determined by a die roll: 1 behind Grouchy; 2 or 3 next to Grouchy on the Austrian flank; 4 to 6 beyond Grouchy deep on the Austrian flank). The result of this important roll indicated that Ney had not made it as far around the flank as Ralph intended. Also, the slow Austrian buildup meant that Kollowrat was not yet inextricably engaged at the time 10 a.m. time Ney appeared.

Nonetheless, Kollowrat failed (via an initiative roll) to perceive the danger. Johann (Jim) cannot react to something unless he can see it, as determined by a strict line of sight, or until he receives a report from a subordinate. Ney was hidden from Johann’s position by the forest so the Austrian reaction was up to Kollowrat as now determined by a delay roll. Kollowrat will respond to Ney’s flank attack at 11:30.

The Battle is Joined

To our way of thinking, one of the great benefits and joys of the VLB approach, when combined with realistic command and control rules, is that it takes away a player’s ability to micromanage a battle. When Ralph and Jim issued their game length orders, neither could predict when and where the climatic confrontations would take place. The noontime period proved decisive. At 11:30 Kollowrat’s assault began. By coincidence this was when Ney attacked Kollowrat’s left.

An Austrian brigade stationed on a small knoll in the forest anchored Kollowrat’s left. Because this brigade occupied the knoll before Ney had appeared, it had assumed an L-shaped formation in order to defend both directions from where Ney might appear. The French voltigeurs gained skirmish superiority over the St. George Grenzers on the knoll. Ney’s infantry also benefitted from the fact that half the defenders were facing the wrong way. After a stiff fight the grenzers held their position although they suffered three times more losses than the attackers. Ney’s men fell back to regroup.

A force of Bavarian light horse (during the 1800 campaign the Bavarians fought with the Austrians) linked the defenders on the knoll with Kollowrat’s center. A French infantry column emerged from the forest and approached the surprised Bavarian horsemen. The Bavarians courageously passed morale and charged. The French failed to form square and were routed.

Yet just as in the real battle, it seemed as though a constant flood of French troops issued out of the trees to assault the Austrian position. From the forest came more of Ney’s men to attack Kollowrat’s flank and from Kollowrat’s front came a heavy attack from Grouchy. The twin effort struck Kollowrat’s grenadiers who were trying to advance west along the main road leading to Hohenlinden.

Jim had deployed his Austrians in their historically preferred alignment, namely half of each brigade in the frontline and half in a second, reserve line, with the brigade battery stationed in the intervals between the frontline battalions and on the flanks. It was a handsome alignment and proved futile. At first contact the French easily bested the first line of Austrian grenadiers and captured the brigade battery. However, the second line of grenadiers checked the French attack.

While Kollowrat’s left and left-center became bogged down in defensive fighting, his right descended from the heights onto the fields northeast of Hohenlinden. The Austrians pushed back Grouchy’s left and met the French mobile reserve, d’Hautpoul’s cavalry division. (Note: to reflect the poor visibility of December 3, 1800 we used a restrictive sighting distance. Consequently, both players often had to advance “into the unknown”.) The Austrians tried to pass their supporting cavalry through their infantry (requiring a “passage of the lines” roll) and succeeded. But the Habsburg horse lost the combat against the French cavalry and had to retire to safety behind their infantry.

However, the victorious French cavalry also pulled back to reorganize and this allowed the Austrian infantry to resume their advance. Spearheaded by some Bavarian infantry, the Austrians charged a small hill defended by a French 4-pounder battery and took the first Austrian prize of the day. With this small success, the Austrians paused to reform their line.

Grouchy was now faced with a threat to his left and a success with his right. Ralph wanted to exploit his success but Grouchy’s reserve cavalry merely had orders to counter-attack any enemy penetration. So, Ralph had Grouchy roll for his initiative. Success allowed Grouchy’s cavalry to face and charge. The Austrians managed to form hasty squares but the impetuous French hussars and chasseurs á cheval broke the squares and sent the surviving whitecoats running to the rear. Comment: Already by 11:30 three Austrian brigade batteries had been captured. This well meshed with the historical difficulty of utilizing brigade batteries effectively. Infantry officers tended to overlook the special requirements of the artillery, often leaving the gunners to struggle to find good firing positions during an infantry engagement. The batteries also reduced the infantry’s mobility. By the end of this game Jim began to think of the brigade batteries as French trophy opportunities rather than effective tactical weapons.

At 12:30 Baillet’s artillery, stationed on the high ground in the Austrian center, completed its preliminary bombardment. Baillet’s column descended the heights to assault Kronacker. Austrian “Red Mantles” (irregular light infantry) drove back French voltigeurs, thus scoring the only light infantry success of the day for the Habsburg side. Perhaps inspired by its patron in the royal family, the Erzherzog Ludwig Infantry Regiment stormed the village in a bloody, house to house fight.

Meanwhile, in the fields outside the village a stubborn French demi-brigade defeated all comers and thus limited the frontage of what had appeared to be a promising Austrian breakthrough. Back on the Austrian left, Kollowrat saw Ney and part of Grouchy surging forward. He ordered his second line to counterattack. After yet another delay, Kollowrat’s reserves, including grenadiers and cavalry, moved forward. Grouchy’s men had been fighting for more than five hours and Grouchy’s front line was not fully reformed from their latest combat. The Austrian grenadiers made initial progress but the effort to exploit the success failed when the French infantry formed hasty square and repulsed some Austrian chevaulegers.

It was 2 p.m. Johann (Jim) examined the field: Kollowrat stalled with his left endangered and his right in an untenable position unless it received reinforcements; Baillet restricted to a narrow break through at Kronacker; Riesch finally about to advance. It appeared as though the French retained ample reserves so Jim abandoned hope for his offensive and ordered his army to go over to the defensive. This order used up one of Jim’s two change of orders.

On the main road, elements of both Grouchy and Ney again attacked, pushing back Austrians only to be met by another force. This third line included the reserves who had not taken part in the abortive Austrian offensive. Jim’s decision to retain one-third of his strength on the heights had hampered greatly the offensive, but now it paid dividends.

On the French right, the remainder of Ney’s command tried again to gain the knoll but were repulsed with some potentially fatal losses. Ney decided to reorganize his attack, but was delayed (he did not make his point and rolled on the delay table). During this pause the Austrians on the knoll refaced to confront Ney in a solid line (by virtue of Kollowrat trying his initiative, failing, but rolling a short 30-minute delay).

In the center, the hapless Bavarians faced the threat of a formidable French counterattack from Louis Bastoul’s Division. The came the order to retreat. But it would take time for the Bavarians to execute this order. Meanwhile, in accordance with Ralph’s orders, French reserves were to counterattack any Austrian breakthrough. This movement also took some time and the question was when the action would take place: before the Bavarians began their retreat or during the retreat?

A quick calculation of time (an ‘update’ in VLB language) determined that fortunately for the Austrian side, the French struck before the Bavarians were in motion. The Bavarians managed to form hasty squares but their fine maneuver was for nought. French heavy cavalry bowled over one after another Bavarian square. Indeed, during the battle the French were six for six when charging hasty squares. The odds of one success were about fifty-fifty, the odds of six in a row show how far the gods of battle favored the French cause.

Ralph chose not to try to storm the Austrian-held heights. Consequently, the French hope for victory rested with Ney. Ney, in turn, recognized that the key to the Austrian flank was the knoll against which the French had failed three times. For a fourth attack, Ney organized a combined-arms assault and then rode to the front of his infantry columns to lead them personally to victory. By rule, all commanders who take this risk have a one in six chance of being wounded or killed, except for Ney whose historical exploits earn him a one in twelve chance of harm.

The supporting French divisional artillery attempted to engage the Austrian brigade battery on the knoll in a duel in order to attract its fire away from the charging troops. The Austrian gunners remained steady and opened fire against the advancing French infantry and their courageous leader. A lucky shot unhorsed Ney and left him stunned on the ground (the one in twelve chance). The French infantry tested: would Ney’s fall unnerve them or would they charge home to revenge their leader? The French passed. Climbing over the bodies of their fallen comrades, they ascended the knoll for a last time. They drove off a supporting Austrian line regiment and captured the brigade battery.

Only the much reduced St. George Grenzers remained. By rule, an infantry combat lasts two “rounds”. Whichever side suffers the most losses after the first round must check morale first. If they fail they must retreat. The grenzers passed and grimly held their position. The French also passed and a second round of combat took place. Again the French won thus forcing the grenzers to make a very tough morale check (a roll adversely modified by casualties, fatigue, and having been outfought). The grenzers had a 20 percent chance of holding their position. If they passed the French would retreat. In the game’s most important single roll Jim summoned all his “courage” and rolled successfully. The French sullenly retired from the knoll.

Kollowrat had received reinforcements from Baillet to be used for a major counterattack. Tardy as ever (failed initiative roll plus delay) Kollowrat could not organize the attack until 5 p.m. However, December days in northern Europe are short. The battle took place in a snow storm. Accordingly we used a D6 roll to determine the end of the battle with the range between 4:15 and 5:30. At 4:45 darkness descended on the battlefield.

Pass in Review

So ended a most satisfying refight of the Battle of Hohenlinden. Baillet’s column had achieved a partial lodgement on the valley road near Kronacker. The French had no troops on the heights. Neither player achieved his victory conditions so the game was a draw. The Austrians lost 8,650 men and the French 6,500. Sadly the Habsburgs also lost 80 pieces of artillery, everyone of them a brigade gun. The French recaptured their 4-pound battery so the Austrians failed to seize any trophies.

Both players maintained a running battle commentary on a word processor during the battle. This formed the basis for our battle report. As this conclusion is written, Ralph has returned to his home in Switzerland “conceding” the field to Jim’s pen. Military history has many cases of generals retrieving their reputations during the post-battle report writing. Here in Virginia we are also keenly aware that the victors write the history.

Accordingly I can faithfully report that Ralph was unconscionably HOT with die rolls, not only breaking six squares in six tries but also rolling preternaturally high on his combat tosses during the all important morning Austrian offensive. Clearly any candid historian recognizes that the fates were against the Hapsburg monarchy on this day. Johann will also report to Vienna that FML Kollowrat was a dunce. Kollowrat never met his initiative(an historically-based low rating of 4 on a 12-sided scale) and since his column did most of the fighting his failure of leadership proved particularly significant.

Whining aside, the game demonstrated to our satisfaction the value of restricting players to a finite number of command decisions, or change of orders. During the battle Jim used one of his two when he canceled his attack orders and switched to the defensive. Ralph used his bonus order to shift Grouchy and one of his other three to move d’Hautpoul to bolster the French line against a potential breakthrough. Some gamers will say that this limitation is artificial, and in a sense they are right. I counter this criticism by noting that real Napoleonic generals, again Wellington excepted, seldom deviated from their pre-battle plan and issued surprisingly few significant change of orders during the battle.

My efforts at rule writing have focused on compensating for the effects of a gamer being able to see almost everything, instantly on the tabletop. We don’t make optimal moves because the rules don’t let us. Instead we have to rely upon a sound battle plan and upon subordinate initiative. Historically, the French at Hohenlinden had a superb team of generals including Grouchy, Ney, and the battle’s shining star, Richepance. The Austrians had far lesser talents. This hurt them on the field and hurt them in our refight.

Trial and error over a more than fifteen year period have brought us to a rule system that meets our sense of history and playability. We can briefly be the battalion commander when we make decisions to form column or line, play the role of a divisional leader striving to respond to a critical threat by rolling initiative and making a good move, and also play the role of the army commander and watch, for example, Kollowrat ineptly meet Ney’s eruption from the forest and try to figure out what to do about it.

I know that the event-driven Variable Length Bound approach and restrictive command and control rules are not for everyone. For us they capture the realistic flavor of Napoleonic battle and Jim uses VLB concepts for all of his games. For those who want to consider VLB, I again recommend the VLB Internet site. Here thoughtful people are vigorously debating rule mechanics. They seem to be producing something that is much more complex and detailed than the games I prefer, but their stimulating debate is interesting and thought-provoking.

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