Austerlitz: Lines of Succession
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
May 2007

Play in Austerlitz, the first offering in our revived Napoleonic Battles series, revolves around each player’s leaders — as is true in all games in the series and its sisters, Rome at War and War of the States and Empires.

Each side has an army commander, and is divided into formations (corps for the French, wings for the Allies), each in turn led by a Formation Leader. Some formations in turn have smaller subordinate formations (usually cavalry divisions) within them, and these have their own leaders.

Leaders activate units, allowing them to move and attack. They do so at the direction of the army commander or, if outside his command radius (the distance a courier can ride, with horses showing the same turn of speed for every commander), by using his own initiative. Better commanders have better initiative, ranging from 5 for Louis Davout of the French III Corps or the Allied Right Wing’s Prince Pyotr Bagration on down to 2 for the Russian Imperial Guard’s Grand Duke Constantine (no French commander sinks to his level; it’s good to be the tsar’s brother).

Antoine-François Callet interpreted the outcome at Austerlitz as the result of divine favor. Players will do better to concentrate on their leaders.

They also can lend their influence directly in battle, a reflection of both tactical skill and raw “follow me” leadership. No one’s more inspirational than Napoleon himself (rated 4); there are a few “3” leaders on both sides (Murat, Liechtenstein) with most leaders are rated 2. No one wants to follow poor Kaiser Franz into battle, though; he rates a zero.

But no weapon has killed more officers than those two little words, “follow me.” Each time losses are inflicted on units in an area, the owning player rolls two dice for each leader present. On a result of 12, the leader is killed in action (or wounded so badly as to be out of action). Heavy losses modify the die roll, and leaders taking part in cavalry charges are more vulnerable as well.

Napoleon can’t be replaced; if he’s killed, the game immediately ends with an Allied Decisive Victory. The Allies don’t lose immediately if Mikhail Kutusov is killed, but since Tsar Alexander takes personal control in that event, they’d better be on the verge of victory or they might as well suffer automatic defeat.

It’s not always a man on a white horse . . . M.I. Kutusov issues orders.

When a lower-ranking leader falls, the owning player can replace him with a Staff Officer. Each side has one in Austerlitz – Dalgoruky for the Allies, and Roussel for the French. Both are equally uninspiring, but better than nothing (at least their formation can be placed in command). Once they’ve been assigned, any other leader casualties are replaced by generic officers with a tactical rating of zero and a paltry initiative of one.

As a variant, here we’re providing individual replacement leaders for the formation commanders of Austerlitz. The charts below show which replacement leaders succeed which leader in the game. You can download the new pieces here.

These replacement leaders also face the prospect of death or serious wounds before the chance for promotion arrives. If the unit corresponding to their name suffers two step losses in any one phase, roll two dice. On a result of 12, the replacement leader is removed and never enters play. If the unit is eliminated, he’s also removed (assuming he survived the rout of his unit, he was probably sacked for losing his command). If a replacement leader is killed (either in action, or before entering play), replace him with one of the generic “General” pieces provided in the download. Ignore rule 16.22 in the series rules.

Subordinate (cavalry division) commanders in Austerlitz receive no specific replacements; instead they’re replaced by generic generals. Cavalry is harder to control in the midst of battle, and allowing specific replacements leads to a few “gamey” responses by players trying to upgrade their leadership through enemy fire. Murat is not a formation leader in Austerlitz in terms of his game function; if Liechtenstein is lost, he is replaced by the Russian leader Essen (who already has a piece in the game).

Allied Lines of Succession

The Allied player doesn’t truly have “corps” commanders, as this innovation came to the Austrian and Russian armies only after the 1805 campaign. The Allied army is instead divided into five columns, but to complicate things, three of the columns are grouped together as the “Left Wing.” A number of Allied leadership positions have been handed out due to seniority and influence, and as a result in some cases the Allied player actually benefits if a Formation Leader catches a bullet. Such is war in the aristocratic age.

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
Commander: Buxhowden	Commander: Kolowrath	Commander: Bagration
Successor: Kienmayer	Successor: Repninsky	Successor: Kamensky
Imperial Guard	Fifth Column
Commander: Grand Duke Constantine	Commander: Liechtenstein
Successor: Maliutin	Successor: Essen

French Lines of Succession

The French Army boasts the most modern and effective command structure of the day. The corps commanders are quite good, but there’s a reason Napoleon will depend, with a few exceptions, on these same men for the next 10 years. As the saying goes, it’s hard for saplings to grow in the oak tree’s shade. The division commanders for the most part are not the equal of their superiors and French leadership falls off dramatically in the next echelon.

I Corps	III Corps	IV Corps
Commander: Bernadotte	Commander: Davout	Commander: Soult
Successor: Drouet	Successor: Friant	Successor: Vandamme
V Corps	Imperial Guard
Commander: Lannes	Commander: Bessieres
Successor: Suchet	Successor: Hulit

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