Bloody Big Battles – Wagram 5th - 6th July 1809
The terrain map was put together with brown wrapping paper – 100gsm 750mm x 50m Kraft Wrapping paper. Overlapping in the middle set to size 6’ by 4’ with side edge extra for strength of a few inches – glued with PVA / glue stick. Terrain map basic layout courtesy of Mark Smith’s BBB Napoleon battle scenarios. So I sketched out to scale and painted on with Acrylic paints to designate the hills, roads, woods (an adaption I chose from the lovely maps created by Colin in our 20mm campaigns – see Simon’s blog on http://www.servicerationdistributionhobby.blogspot.com ). Found with 15mm figures the 2D maps are the easiest and Mark’s maps and positions of terrain make all the difference in the battle. So cheap, easy to store, and if you are finished with it then environmentally easy to dispose of.
Our last big game before Christmas break. The game is 10 turns plus night interval. The Austrians have a little more flexibility on setup positions again but suffer with the lack of command and most troops Passive, and most starting on difficult terrain (another -1 to activate). The French hope to get a jump on the Nordmann and Klenau Korps and destroy them before smashing into the North and Wagram. The Austrians have a choice at turn 2 to turn 8 whether or not to activate the 5th Korps Reuss which affect by reducing the number of victory points the French require. Once the Austrians trigger their 5th Korps Reuss also creates another Eastern flank attack for the French by Austrian reinforcements. Due to the French victory in Aspern Essling Massen’s infantry are marked as Aggressive!
Final result French 4 points. This results in a DRAW!!
The end discussion came to “should the Austrians called in Reuss earlier” rather than waiting to the gasp at turn 8, when they had no choice. The French players new that firing at the enemy guns to get them silenced put them to a great advantage and they used this to good effect. Both sides has some blistering fire effects and bruising melees. But the French did just that bit better and with a couple of important exploits made a significant dent in the Austrian army. The Austrian force was very beaten up. Both sides had a good day and thoroughly enjoyed the scenario.
Needless to say a replay was asked for. And why not all three again!!
To keep the game flowing I made up a basic crib sheet showing table of turns 1 – 10, the scenario specific terrain effects, melee / shooting benefits, and the victory conditions. This helped keep the pace up and made sure which of the French / Austrian units could move.
I hope to put up my downloads for unit markers, victory markers, and turn crib sheets for Aspern Essling and Wagram on PDFs.
Bye for now. | 
