This is the battle arising from our campaign, that we fought out this week at the club. Three stages of the battle are shown.
First is the position at the start of the battle at 2.30pm. A corps of three french divisions is attacking the town of Konigstat, which is defended by two strong divisions of Austrian infantry.
The french plan was for their right-hand (better quality) division and the corps reserve artillery to deal with the Austrian left flank, while the other two divisions concentrated on the other flank. The french commander opted to leave the town alone for now.
By 5pm the initial french attack on its left flank had been repulsed and was getting reorganised with the shaken division being covered by its colleagues in case of an Austrian counterattack. The french infantry on the right was slowly and steadily rumbling towards the Austrian left.
The battle was all over by 9pm. The french attack had gone largely to plan and their right-hand division had swept round behind the town to cut the Austrians off from the bridge over the river. The Austrian commander decided to evacuate the town and break northwards to escape. At this point the french lost a bit of their impetus and decided it was best to consolidate their position than risk an exhausting infantry pursuit at night.
All in all a satisfying win for the french. On reflection I think the Austrians could perhaps have had more success by placing some defenders in the town but placing the bulk of their force behind it, forcing the french to either attack the town or bypass it, leaving an Austrian bastion in their rear. On the other hand, the Austrians had chosen to defend a strategically unimportant town with their backs to a river, so perhaps just had themselves to blame...
First is the position at the start of the battle at 2.30pm. A corps of three french divisions is attacking the town of Konigstat, which is defended by two strong divisions of Austrian infantry.
The french plan was for their right-hand (better quality) division and the corps reserve artillery to deal with the Austrian left flank, while the other two divisions concentrated on the other flank. The french commander opted to leave the town alone for now.
By 5pm the initial french attack on its left flank had been repulsed and was getting reorganised with the shaken division being covered by its colleagues in case of an Austrian counterattack. The french infantry on the right was slowly and steadily rumbling towards the Austrian left.The battle was all over by 9pm. The french attack had gone largely to plan and their right-hand division had swept round behind the town to cut the Austrians off from the bridge over the river. The Austrian commander decided to evacuate the town and break northwards to escape. At this point the french lost a bit of their impetus and decided it was best to consolidate their position than risk an exhausting infantry pursuit at night.
All in all a satisfying win for the french. On reflection I think the Austrians could perhaps have had more success by placing some defenders in the town but placing the bulk of their force behind it, forcing the french to either attack the town or bypass it, leaving an Austrian bastion in their rear. On the other hand, the Austrians had chosen to defend a strategically unimportant town with their backs to a river, so perhaps just had themselves to blame...
The game played nicely, and we were all done in about 2 hours including setting up and describing the scenario to the interested bystanders. Roll on next time!
cheers!
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