Tactics in 'Napoleonic
Battles: Austerlitz'
Part II: 0700 to 0900 Hours
By Doug McNair
March 2007

The Battle of Austerlitz continues in today’s installment of my Napoleonic Battles replay. At the end of the first turn, the Allies had shored up the center of their line and had fought off Marshal Lannes’ attempt to grab the high ground on their center-right near the village of Blasowitz. Their left-wing artillery had scored hits on all three of Marshal Soult’s advancing infantry divisions, and Prince Johann von Liechtenstein’s Fifth Column cavalry had formed an effective screen in front of the Allied left and center. But Soult’s elite troops gave a bad bloody nose to General Dokhuturov’s counterattacking infantry division, and if the French can get the jump this turn they may be able to cut through the cavalry screen and open breach in the Allied center-left.

The battle continues.

Turn 2 — 0700 Hours

a) Reinforcement Phase: The French player rolls to see if Marshal Davout’s III Corps arrives, but he rolls a modified 7 (after the +1 bonus this turn), so it doesn’t yet. He then rolls against his HQ’s initiative of 4 and gets a 2, meaning he can assign one cavalry division from Murat’s reserve to any corps he wishes. He chooses General Kellermann’s 1st Light Cavalry Division and assigns it to Marshal Soult’s IV Corps on the French right.

b) Command Phase: All units and leaders are within the command radii of their own leaders, and the number of formation leaders doesn’t exceed the initiatives of the army commanders and HQs. So, everyone is in command.

c) Order of Battle: The Allies roll a 1 + 5 = 6, and Napoleon rolls a 2 + 5 = 7, so the French get to try and activate first this turn.

d) Activation Phases:

Napoleon rolls a 3, which subtracted from his initiative of 5 means he can activate two formations. Napoleon would like to activate I and V corps for a coordinated attack on the Allied right flank, but that would leave Soult’s IV Corps on the French far right open to a merciless bombardment before they have a chance to activate. Napoleon’s Imperial Guard is on the road and can reinforce I and V Corps quickly if they take damage from artillery, so he activates Soult first.

Soult starts by having his heavy artillery bombard Essen’s Cossacks in Pratzen, but they score no hits. Then Beaumont pulls in the two dragoon brigades screening IV Corps’ right flank, and sends them to help St. Hilaire’s elite division hit Prince Hohenlohe’s Austrian cavalry screen dead ahead of them. He also brings his IV Corps horse artillery across the Goldbach Stream to Kobelnitz, so they can attach to Legrande’s division there next turn.

Kellermann’s newly-assigned 1st Light Cavalry Division rides south from Murat’s reserve and takes up the flank-guard position that Beaumont’s cavalry just vacated. IV Corps then attacks the Austrian cavalry screen and Kienmayer’s Austrian infantry division on the Allied left. Kellerman doesn’t score any hits on the Austrian cavalry screening the Allied left flank, but Legrand scores one hit on Kienmayer’s division, which does one hit in return and stands its ground.

Then Soult and Beaumont attack Prince Hohenlohe and General Caramelli’s Austrian cavalry at 10 dice to four, and St. Hilaire’s elite troops come through again, scoring three hits and doing two step losses to Caramelli’s brigade before its last step retreats southwest.

Beamont’s two cavalry brigades advance to occupy the area Caramelli vacated (St. Hilaire keeps his infantry back to stay out of the line of sight of the Russian artillery south of Pratzen), and the Russians will have to plug the breach ahead of them soon. Finally, Vandamme’s division hits Liechtenstein’s cavalry north of Pratzen at five dice to four, but neither side does any hits.

Napoleon really wants I and V Corps to make a coordinated attack, so instead of activating one of them he activates his HQ, which moves east to Lapanz Markt. The Grand Artillery Park under artillery leader Coulin takes a long-range shot at Liechtenstein and scores a hit, wiping out his heavy cavalry brigade and leaving him with just the C step of Uvarov’s light cavalry division.

The Allies also roll a 3, so they can also activate two formations. First priority is stopping the French infantry advance and plugging the breach on the left, so they activate their Left Wing and open fire point-blank with that formation’s artillery. They score no hits on Beaumont’s cavalry at the breach, but they score one hit on Vandamme’s infantry across from the center, and another hit on Caffarelli’s infantry division near the Allied center-right.

Then General Dokhuturov’s infantry division lunges back into the breach along with his attached artillery, while an unattached light artillery unit follows him in and a heavy artillery unit goes to join Kienmayer farther left. Dokhuturov and Kienmayer’s infantry plus a Left Wing Cossack regiment counterattack Beaumont’s cavalry at 10 dice to three, and with their combined-arms bonus (infantry, cavalry and attached artillery) they score four hits to none. Cavalry can’t stand against an assault with infantry anyway, so Beaumont avoids two step losses by retreating back to Soult’s position, and the cossacks advance to reestablish the cavalry screen. The other infantry divisions of the Left Wing hold the line on the high ground, happy to let their artillery cut the French to bits.

The next Allied priority is to hit Marshal Lannes V Corps hard and keep them from pushing in the Allied right. Bagration’s Right Wing infantry and cavalry activate, making a broad frontal assault on Lannes and Walthier’s infantry and cavalry west of Krug and the Goldbach Heights. The lone cavalry brigade on the French north flank retreats from what would have been a nine-die-to-one cavalry assault, but Walthier and Lannes stand and fight Bagration’s infantry division. Bagration scores just one hit while the French score two, and Soult and Walthier retreat north to join Walthier’s retreating cavalry and avoid the step loss.

Unfortunately for Bagration, he has to take both hits as step losses because retreating would leave Prebyshevsky’s flank wide open to the as-yet unactivated French. He stays in Krug, because advancing down the road to the west would expose his own flanks. So, while Bagration got Lannes and Walthier to retreat and cede their flanking position, it was ground dearly bought.

Napoleon rolls a 1, meaning he can activate 5 – 1 = 4 formations, which is everybody. He starts by activating Lannes’ V Corps on his left, whose artillery begin by bombarding Prebyshevsky’s position on the Rise near Blasowitz. They score no hits, and since a frontal assault on Prebyshevsky’s position would be suicide, Lannes and Walthier stay where they are and attack Voropaitzki’s two cavalry brigades to the east.

Voropaitzki can’t retreat his heavy cavalry before battle, so they all stay and defend against the French assault, which goes in at 13 dice to five. The attack does three hits, flipping both Russian cavalry units and forcing them to retreat up onto the Goldbach Heights to avoid the third. They do one hit in return, and the French actually opt to retreat behind the stream into area 120 and avoid the step loss, because that opens the door for Bernadotte’s I Corps to march in and attack the Allied right immediately thereafter.

I Corps does this, and with the Russian cavalry having retreated back up onto the Goldbach Heights, Bernadotte can do what Bagration was worried about — cutting behind him to attack Holubitz on the road to Austerlitz. Unfortunately, the attack on Chaplitz’ cossacks scores no hits on either side.

All that’s left to activate is Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, and with Davout still iffy, Napoleon decides to send the Guard infantry and artillery south toward the action, while he himself rides east on the road with the Guard cavalry to keep Bernadotte and Lannes within his command radius.

The Allies roll a 4, meaning they can activate one formation, and with Bernadotte’s I Corps attacking the Cossacks in Holubitz, Grand Duke Constantine decides to take action.

He starts by having the Imperial Guard artillery that’s up on the high ground pound Vandamme’s division, and they score one hit (Vandamme has got to get out of Puntowitz!). Then the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry, infantry and attached artillery move north to Holubitz and the Goldbach Heights and counterattack Drouet’s infantry division from Bernadotte’s I Corps.

The attack gets a combined-arms bonus and a morale superiority bonus, and goes in at 15 dice to six. It does five hits, which the French infantry division reduces to three step losses by retreating. Nevertheless, Bernadotte himself is killed, and I Corps is now leaderless (until the Recovery Phase). The French do two hits in return, which the Imperial Guard infantry and its attached artillery absorb as step losses (they can’t afford to retreat if they want to keep the pressure up on I Corps). It’s starting to look like the Allied right flank isn’t the flank of choice after all.

Napoleon has activated all his formations, so the Allies get to roll again for activation, and they roll a 2, meaning they can activate everybody else. With the French assault on the Allied right flank failing and Vandamme’s division getting pounded in Puntowitz, the Austrian generals Rottermund and Jurczik decide that it’s high time the Allied Center joined the battle. Their artillery scores no hits, but even so the two Austrian infantry divisions storm down off the Pratzen Heights and attack.

Jurczik heads due west and hits Vandamme, Rottermund crosses the stream to area 102 and hits Caffarelli’s weakened division to the north, and Repininsky’s division moves in to occupy the Pratzen Heights behind the advancing Austrians. Jurczik hits Vandamme at five dice to three, but neither side scores any hits. But Rottermund scores three hits on seven dice, wiping out Caffarelli’s division! He advances across the stream to Caffarelli’s former position, and all of a sudden he’s right in the south flank of the leaderless French I Corps!

Liechtenstein was going to try once again to separate Vandamme from the rest of IV Corps, but Rottermund’s bold advance has been at the expense of leaving his rear wide open. So, Liechtenstein does his duty and takes his own unit plus some of Essen’s Cossacks north to screen Rottermund’s rear, and then attacks the French V Corps artillery to Rottermund’s left. The attack, at four dice to three, hits on every 5 and 6 since all that’s defending is artillery, and it scores two hits. The French non-horse artillery unit dies, but the horse artillery retreats north toward Lannes. Liechtenstein doesn’t have the troop strength to cross the stream and still screen Rottermund’s rear effectively, so he stays put.

The Austrian HQ’s activation ends the activation phases.

e) Recovery Phase: No damaged unit is far enough away from the enemy to recover steps, but I Corps has a dead leader who needs replacing. The only French staff officer are too far away to help, so Napoleon gives General Raffiniere of I Corps’ 1st Division a brevet promotion to Marshal. He is the new leader of I Corps.

The Allied counterattack has wiped out one French division and is threatening the same to another, and with a flurry of paperwork emanating from Napoleon’s HQ, play proceeds to . . .

Turn 3 — 0800 Hours

a) Reinforcement Phase: The French player rolls an 8, and with the +2 bonus for it being 0800 hours, Marshal Davout’s III Corps finally arrives. Davout can enter anywhere from the middle to the southern end of the west board edge, and the French player decides to bring him in at the southwest edge so he can support an attack on the Allied left wing. He’ll let Murat’s cavalry reserve hold back the Allied northern advance, and to that end he rolls a 2 and successfully assigns General Nansouty’s 1st Heavy Cavalry Division to I Corps.

b) Command Phase: Everybody’s within their leaders’ command radius, except for the Allied Center’s main artillery unit, which Kolowrath left too far behind in his charge to the north. It won’t be able to attack this turn.

c) Order of Battle: Napoleon rolls a 3 + 5 = 8, but Kutusov rolls a 5 + 5 = 10, so he gets to try and activate first.

d) Activation Phases:

The Allies: Kutusov rolls a 3, so he can activate two formations. As much he’d like to let loose with the Left Wing artillery and cut Soult down to size, he’s got to press his advantage on the northern flank and wipe out I Corps before the cavalry reserve can shore them up.

Bagration activates the Right Wing and attacks General Frere’s division to his front, with Chaplitz and Voropaitzki’s Cossacks riding out to support him on the right. But amazingly, the attack does only one hit on 16 dice, and while Frere has no retreat route due to Rottermund’s sudden appearance on his right, at least he takes only one step loss and isn’t annihilated. Frere hits back and scores a hit, but Bagration retreats to avoid the step loss.

This wasn’t the result Grand Duke Constantine was hoping for, and rather than commit the Imperial Guard just to wipe out Frere’s last step, General Kutusov directs his Center to hit I Corps from the south. The Center’s horse artillery had redeployed to Krug with Bagration, but it fails to score a hit on Frere.

Center’s main artillery moves north to get back into Kolowrath’s command radius, and then Rottermund’s division attacks Frere in the flank. He scores two hits, wiping out Frere and clearing the road for the Russian Imperial Guard to advance westward. Farther south, Jurczik’s division attacks Vandamme in Puntowitz, and each side scores one hit. Both retreat to avoid step losses (Jurczik loses nothing by doing so, and Vandamme gets the hell out of Puntowitz, where he took massive damage from Russian artillery).

Napoleon rolls a 1, meaning he can activate four formations! This is a very, very good thing for him, and will likely be I Corps’ salvation. But he starts by activating Marshal Soult’s IV Corps, whose heavy artillery begins by scoring a step loss against General Essen’s last Cossack brigade in Pratzen.

Then IV Corps’ horse artillery attaches to Legrande’s division at Kobelnitz, and all three of IV Corps’ divisions execute a sidestep to the south to get out of Russian artillery LOS while bearing down on the Allied left flank. Beaumont and Kellerman’s cavalry complete the maneuver by enveloping the Cossack cavalry screen to the north and the Austrian protecting the Allied left flank to the south.

Beaumont begins the attack by hitting the Cossacks, but does no damage. Then St. Hilaire’s elite division under Soult hits Kienmayer’s Austrian division and its supporting heavy artillery attack with nine dice to five. They score two hits, both of which the Allied units take as step losses since the unattached artillery would be annihilated if the infantry retreated. The Allies also score two hits, and Soult takes one and then retreats across the Goldbach with his cavalry to where Kellermann’s horse artillery is (they can attach next turn).

Finally, Legrande hits the Austrian cavalry screening the Allied left flank, and with his combined-arms bonus he scores three hits, flips both Austrian cavalry brigades (who retreat southwest to keep Kellerman out of the Allied rear), and crosses the Goldbach Stream to gain Kienmayer’s flank.

Next, Napoleon activates his HQ, sending it north to take command of the north-flank holding action while he heads south to command the assault on the Allied left. The Grand Artillery Park takes another long-range shot but misses.

Then I Corps activates, and Friant’s division pulls back from its near-death experience at the hands of the Russian Imperial Guard, retreating west down the road and across the Goldbach Stream. Nansouty’s newly-assigned heavy cavalry gallop out east to screen the road against Russian advances, and they also attack the Austrian horse artillery in Krug while Raffiniere attacks Rottermund’s infantry. Unfortunately, none of them score any hits, but Rottermund scores one against Raffiniere, who retreats west across the Goldbach Stream to avoid it.

Finally, Lannes emerges from his cozy position west of the stream and attacks Rottermund while Walthier screens his left. His horse artillery scores no hits, but V Corps’ infantry and cavalry score three hits on Rottermund while the Austrians score none. V Corps retreats to avoid the loss, but Rottermund has to take two hits and shrink to a small counter before retreating south to avoid the third. That done, the French have pulled back their left flank to the Goldbach Stream with just a light cavalry screen to the east.

The Allies then roll a 4, meaning they can activate one formation. They do the obvious and activate their Left, since the pressure has been taken off everywhere else. Most of their targets have retreated to a long distance or out of LOS, but the heavy artillery with Kienmayer on the Allied left does score a hit on Legrande’s division.

Prebyshevsky attacks the cavalry screen the retreating I Corps left behind and drives it off, and then Kienmayer makes a successful refacing roll to pull back and hit Kellermann’s cavalry along with the remaining Austrian cavalry. At the same time, Dokhuturov wheels west and hits Legrande (unattached artillery follows him).

Kellerman puts up a fight to try and stay on the east bank of the Goldbach and take a bite out of Kienmayer, and he does! Kienmayer takes a hit but gives none in return, and Kienmayer can’t retreat since that would leave Dokhuturov’s flank open. So, he flips and takes the step loss. Then Dokhuturov attacks Legrande and scores one hit, but as Legrande pulls back across the Goldbach to avoid the loss he does two hits to Dokhuturov, who pulls back after taking one step loss.

Napoleon rolls a 1 meaning he can activate the rest of his formations. Davout, Napoleon and the Imperial Guard infantry and cavalry all move toward the Allied left, while the Imperial Guard artillery wipes out the Cossack cavalry screen in front of Dokhuturov.

The Allies then roll a 6, which is more than Kutusov’s initiative, so he can’t activate anyone. And since Napoleon has already activated all his formations, all activations for the turn end.

e) Recovery Phase: Bagration’s infantry division is four areas away from the nearest French division, so he recovers it up to its B step. No other divisions are far enough away to make recoveries, so the turn ends.

Napoleon has taken a lot of damage, and with his line now mostly on the west bank of the Goldbach he’ll need to start organizing the recovery of I Corps while Lannes and Murat’s cavalry hold back a likely Russian advance in the north. But at the same time, the vanguard cavalry of Davout’s fresh III Corps will be able to start hitting the weakened Allied left wing next turn, giving Soult’s IV Corps a chance to recover as well.

It’s still very early in the day, so if Napoleon can revitalize his infantry divisions while keeping the Russians on their side of the stream, he has a good shot at smashing their south flank and pushing into the Allied rear toward Austerlitz.

Can he do it? Tune in next time and find out!

Order Austerlitz now!