One Hour Aspern Essling

 I was keen to try out Disgruntled Fusiler's "Echeloned Attack" scenario, but as is my predeliction, turned it back into something more like the historical battle. This uses my One Hour Napoleonic variant of Neil Thomas's rules. The original scenario is on the AMW groups.io group. 

It is May 1809 and Napoleon is trying to bring Archduke Charles to battle by forcing a crossing of the Danube, having already occupied Vienna.

Battlefield from the south. I've not bothered to model the Danube and in this area it is a flat flood plain with lots of meanders. The French actually crossed by a succession of islands, the largest being the Island of Lobau. Imagine the waterway at the bottom is fringing a large island.

There is dense and largely  impenetrable woodland in the bottom left, and the ground rises towards the north. The overall layout is based on the Echeloned Attack scenario scenario, supplemented b the Bloody Big Battles Napoleonic Aspern Essling scenario, so I've added in some of the roads in fairly historical places as well as another village. There are actually a lot of small hamlets in the area so I've sort of amalgmated some of them. 

The key feature as far as the battle is concerned are the villages of Aspern and Essling, with the road between them running along a berm, some of the local flood defences. The berm provides some cover from fire across it. Aspern's flank rather handily rests on the woods, but both are overlooked by the ridge to the north. The other village to the northwest is Breitenloe. 

The road through Aspern-Essling leads to Pressburg to the south east, and the road to  Bohemia leads to the northwest. 

Some representative pontoon bridges. Any French reinforcements need to cross these, but very unfairly the Austrians are floating logs etc down the river to try and damage them.

Massenas 4th Corps established a bridgehead over the Danube on the 21st and occupied Aspern and Essling while the rest of the French army waited to cross. Each of these units is around 6-8000 infantry or 3-4000 cavalry. Massena has two infantry units, one cavalry and an 'artillery' which has attached infantry as well. Most artillery is factored into the standard units as they can shoot around a mile.

Massena himself is represented as a notable formation leader.

Napoleon pushed two more Corps over the river on the 22nd to support Massena. In the lead is Lannes' 2nd Corps with two infantry units and Lannes himself (historically he fell in battle).

Behind them we have Davouts 3rd Corps (1 x Infantry), the Imperial Guard (1 x Elite Infantry) along with Napoleon who is the overall CinC. Finally we have Bessieres with the reserve heavy cavalry.

Napoleon and the wagons are representational, I'll use those to show units which reorg.

John A and Jim played the French. John was overall commander and also commanded Massena and Bessieres. Jim had everything else.

The French figures are largely my old H&R 6mm figures from the mid 1970s, which have been rebased many, many times.

The Austrians under Archduke Charles arriving from the north and west in echelon. They need to take either Aspern or Essling (or both!) to win.

From the west are Hillers VI Korps and Bellegards II Korps with 2 x Infantry and 1 x Artillery between them. The Austrians had loads more guns than the French, so they get two artillery units

From the northwest is Prince Friedrich with III Korps (1 x Infantry and 1 x Artillery). There is also Archduke Charles Army HQ and some wagons which are representational.

Tim commanded all these.

From the north we have Lindenau's Grenadiers, Lichtenstein's reserve cavalry and Prinz Franz's IV Korps. 2 x Cavalry, 1 x Infantry and 1 x Elite Infantry.

On Tuesday Ian commanded these, Russell took over on Wednesday. The Austrian figures are actually my Irregular 1866 Austrians, but they are all in white jackets and grey or blue trousers, so hopefully no-one will notice the difference.

To simulate the disjointed Austrain attack, there is no overall Austrian CinC, just the two halves of the army. Imagine one half speaking Austrian and the other Hungarian...

Right, to battle!

Hiller decided on a rapid deployment so came on in March column, hoping to overwhelm the French left with a rapid assault. Long range cannon fire from Aspern inflicted minor losses on the leading units. 

KP Friedrich began marching on down the northwest road as Hiller deployed to attack Aspern. The leading formation pushed forwards aggressively to cover the deployment of the rest and was punished by brutal close range French fire. Massena even put in a spoiling attack with his cavalry, but the Austrians held firm. 

Lannes managed to successfully negotiate the chain of pontoon bridges and Napoleon directed him to the right flank, even though all the Austrians were on the left. Perhaps he had a cunning plan... 

Hard pounding at Aspern. The battered lead Austrian unit pulls back to reorganise and a fresh unit moves up, covered by the Austrian grand battery. Friedrichs units also deploy, although only his artillery is in range. 

The French cavalry decide discretion is the better part of valour and pull back, but despite Massenas personal intervention, the Aspern garrison completely missed the nearby Austrians! 

Liechtensteins cavalry and the Grenadier division began to move up to the ridge above Essling. 

Heavy fighting around Aspern, both sides had massed all their available reserve artillery to support the battle. The French garrison inflicted equal casualties, but had already taken losses earlier on, so were looking a bit shaky. 

Liechtensteins cavalry went out wide on the Austrian left and the Grenadiers advanced in line with Friedrichs infantry. Lannes suddenly had a fit of caution, not wanting to be caught in March column by the Austrian cavalry so hung back somewhat from Essling to deploy. 

The French cavalry once again put in a spoiling attack on the Grenadiers, supported by cannon fire from Essling, inflicting some loss on the Austrians. 

At Aspern the Austrian numbers and massed artillery finally told and the garrison were routed, despite the presence of Massena. With flags waving and drums beating , the victorious Austrian infantry marched through clouds of smoke and occupied the village. 

This put them right under the muzzle of the French reserve artillery who blew huge holes in their ranks with cannister, but they were undeterred. 

Massena survived the rout but fled all the way to Essling! I'm not sure what the Emperor will make of that... 

Back at Essling, the bold French cavalry came unstuck. The Grenadiers poured volleys into them as they milled around, and the Austrian cavalry put in a counter charge against their flank. They were fortunate to survive with just one hit remaining. 

They withdrew to the south to reorganise. Massena was suddenly looking a bit thin on the ground, but Lannes was finally deployed southeast of Essling. 

The victorious Austrian cavalry fell back to ridge, joined by Franzs infantry. The other cavalry put it in a spoiling attack on Lannes' right to little effect while the Essling garrison cannonaded the Grenadiers. 

Now it was the French artillery which got pummeled at Aspern. 

Massena pulled the guns back to join the cavalry and reorganise. Napoleon himself was now over the river, accompanied by Davout  and the Imperial Guard, their columns angled towards Aspern. 

Back at Essling the impudent Austrian cavalry were punished by massed musketry and cannon fire and took heavy losses. I think both sides cavalry commanders need reminding of the role of reserve heavy cavalry on the Napoleonic battlefield.... 

There was something of a lull in the fighting as both sides shuffled units around and reorganised in anticipation of the forthcoming French counterattack. 

The Austrians sent some reserve artillery towards the ridge, but otherwise consolidated their lines and reunited their cavalry. 

Lannes took over the defence of Essling, while Massena reorganised his artillery and cavalry and shuffled his remaining infantry west towards Aspern. 

Napoleon supervised Davout and La Garde as they deployed south of Aspern. Meanwhile Bessieres was still stuck on the other side of the Danube figuring out how to get his Cuirassier divisions across the pontoon bridges safely. 

We broke for the night at that point, with everything to play for tomorrow. 

Overnight Russell joined us and took over the Austrian left (Lichtenstein, Franz and the Grenadiers). The Imperial Guard boldly marched up to Aspern, covered by cannon fire from Davout and Massenas artillery, which was sadly ineffective, unlike the musketry from the Austrian defenders.

Davout shook out his Corps into open order and entered the forest, but the Imperial Guard were being hammered by the Austrians in and around the town as well as the artillery up on the ridge. A bit more softening up before committing to the assault might have been in order.

Over at Essling there was much excitement as the Austrian cavalry tried to flank the village and were counterattacked by the French cavalry. Numerous Austrian saddles were emptied but they hung on.

In response the whole Austrian left wing attacked. Infantry marched up to Essling and the Austrian cavalyr charged. They put a couple of hits onto Bessieres' Cuirassier but Massenas' already weakened Cavalry were put to flight and fled in disorder 

Bessieres returned the favour and routed his opposite numbers, while the Essling garrison engaged the Austrian infantry. 

Back at Aspern the pounding was too much for the Imperial Guard and they retired exhausted. Davout was in a good position to attack the town from the forest though, covered by the French artillery.

The situation at Essling was now desperate for the French, the massed Austrians poured in numerous effective volleys as well as cannon fire, which reduced the garrison to one hit.

This was followed up by a charge from the Austrian cavalry. Cavalry need 6 a to hit attacking towns, so that is three dice, which rolled.....1,1,6! The French were routed and sabred down by the victorious cavalry! Essling fell, but Massena was poised outside waiting to counterattack.

Back at Aspern, Davout succeeded in recapturing the town as the defenders were routed.

At Essling Massena was content to shoot at the cavalry, which almost routed them, while rallying some of the disordered troops outside the town. Bessieres meanwhile manouvered his cavalry onto the flank readying for another charge.

The Austrians counterattacked Davout, who easily weathered their feeble attack. The Austrians were suddenly looking a bit thin on the ground here.

Sadly for the French, Lannes, who was also in the otwn, managed to roll a double 2 and was taken from the field, mortally wounded.

At Essling however, the French counterattack failed. Unfortunately I forgot to take a couple of photos here in the excitement as Bessieres charged the Austrian infantry but was in turn routed by the a flank attack by the remaining Austrian cavalry.

Massena attacked the town but no longer had the strength to retake it, particularly when the Austrian Grenadiers stormed the adjacent berm.

As time ran out, the Austrians and French held a town apiece, which meant that Napoleon had lost. Time to retreat back over the Danube and try again at Wagram in July.

That was a very hard fought and close battle, very enjoyable to run and with  very positive feedback from the players. It is always nice to get to a vaguely historical result in a sensible amount of time. I'm pretty happy with this version of the rules, and while you could ride a horse and cart through some of the holes, they work well enough for this sort of game and produce a decent narrative. I'm still not sure I've got the Imperial Guard quite right, I can't help feeling that they should be better than just a 7SP unit, but hey ho. 

I can't help thinking the French made rather more errors than the Austrians, but such is the nature of war.