We were joined by Andy, who was our Dupont in this replay. Malcolm volunteered to be Ferdinand and that made me Mack for the afternoon.
An experienced Napoleonic gamer, Andy's deployment was shrewdly defensive. He protected his division's right flank by placing his dragoons behind the infantry and at right angles to the line. His artillery was set up centrally opposing Ferdinand and the Hussars were placed to cover his left flank. The 1st battalion of the 9th Legere were held as a reserve and were given specific orders to counter attack at the first opportunity where there may be an enemy break-through or threat.
The battle began with Ferdinand's two brigades standing quite motionless in front of Haslach; only being disordered from time to time by the long range fire of the French artillery battery, posted to the right of the
With some confidence, but without issuing any definite orders to von Loudon's infantry to carry on their advance much further beyond Jungingen, Mack took personal command of the Austrian cuirassiers to attack the French dragoons. The Austrian Chevauleger and an attached cavalry battery were left behind at Jungingen.
Despite the fire from a section of French horse artillery, Mack leading the Austrian heavies closed with the French cavalry; immediately routing the 17th Dragoon regiment. Being forced to test morale, the 15th however held on, but they were beaten in the next turn of combat and both French cavalry units were pursued.
This early success back-fired on me however, as the cuirassiers continued to pursue the routers off the battlefield. The Austrian left columns now became leaderless and a pause followed, during which Andy was able to re-set his defence of Haslach.
The threat of enemy cavalry in the rear of his division had passed, but there was still the possibility of attack from von Loudon's and Ferdinand's infantry.
In his re-organisation, Dupont ordered the 96th Ligne to take the position that the Dragoons had originally held, supporting them with the divisional artillery and shifted the 1st battalion of the 9th Legere to support the 32nd Ligne which was defending Haslach itself. After being pulled back in response to the earlier cavalry action, Colonel Rouvillois` Hussars were sent back to cover the French left just beyond the
Ferdinand ordered the advance of Reich's and Werneck`s brigades. These were arrayed in two treffen (or battle lines) in line formation. Also after some delay, von Loudon had taken the initiative to attack the French right, but only with his first brigade.
The 8th and the 20th infantry regiments advanced taking fire from Dupont's divisional artillery. The two treffen were halted and routed in successive turns by medium range fire from the battery, the 20th infantry regiment who were the first to break rallying behind von Loudon's second brigade.
This failure left Ferdinand`s commands with the last chance for a victory.
On clearing a small wood on their right, Reisch and Werneck`s brigades formed square in response to the presence of the French hussars. After some pause the Austrians resumed their advance in square, deployed to line and issued skirmishers to protect their advance. Leaving four battalions of his right flank in square as protection from the French hussars, Reisch had changed his position and his regulating battalion to the 3rd Battalion IR15 Karl Riese; Werneck followed suit in the second line, with the 3rd battalion in his command.
Reisch`s line supported by Werneck`s then, moved forward in line, skirmishing with the voltigeurs of the 32nd 96th and tirailleurs of the 9th Legere. These gave ground until finally two assaults and a fire fight developed between the two opposing lines.
The first to be resolved was an assault on the French divisional artillery battery by the 1st Battalion IR17 Reuss-Plauen; this assault failed and the battalion was routed.
The second assault took place at a lightly built up area (a small hamlet) defended by the 2nd battalion of the 9th Legere, which was attacked by the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the IR17 Reuss-Plauen formed in two columns. The assailants were repulsed in some disorder.
And also in the first turn, the 3rd Battalion IR15 had started a fire fight with the 2nd battalion of the 32nd Ligne.
In the following two turns the condition of the Austrian battalions engaged gradually worsened and after a counter-attack by the 1st battalion of the 9th Legere, Reich's brigade was made to test its morale. This test was failed and Reich's command fell back, rallying behind that of Werneck.
There had perhaps only been two slight chances of an Austrian victoryin this game; if only Mack had rallied and retained control of the Austrian cavalry earlier in the game* and later if only the French artillery had failed to rout or disorder the 1st Battalion IR17 Reuss-Plauen. With the French artillery over-run and a broken divisional line with no reserve the command would have needed to test its morale until that break in the line had been filled, or covered. If Dupont had failed a divisional morale test he would have to withdraw one move, abandoning Haslach to the advancing Austrians.
So, it was a French victory within 3-4 hours, which was probably 2 ½ hrs playing time (with movement deductions for catering breaks; wine, coffee, cookies and pancakes etc…)
*In this game there was a special roll for the victorious Austrian heavies; 50:50 that they pursue the French dragoons off the field to raid and loot the divisional transport and baggage.
