Thursday, January 28, 2021

Napoleonic Scenario: Wagram, 1809

I'm on a good roll with my Napoleonic scenarios.  The weather here hasn't been great so has kept me mostly out of the garage this week so I turned to my trusty books and have been working on this scenario (Wagram) and some others (Friedland, some updates to Borodino and Austerlitz).














I have a large painting in my garage (over the bar) of the battle of Wagram.  This is a battle that will have me finally update/finish up my Austrian army.  This is all in theme with my push to finish long standing projects (AWI and ACW finished this last year).  Wagram, Friedland and Borodino will put the finishing strokes into my Napoleonic collection, which spans the French, Bavarians, Dutchy of Warsaw, Wurttemberg, Saxons, Russians and Austrians.  Dan Kerrick from our group is in the last stages of finishing the Prussians (we'll have Wavre on the tabletop this year for sure along with several other Prussian oriented scenarios).  Roy Scaife covers the British (+1815 allies), Spanish and Portuguese.  That's essentially all the coverage of Napoleonic's one could ask for.
Ok, enough of all that, on to the scenario.

Design Notes


Just a little bit of background on this scenario design.  My goal with Empires at War is to be able to play complete/large battles in 28mm - generally on 6 foot by 16 foot for most battles (sometimes larger, I tend to think in increments of 6 foot by 8 foot).  Much has to be compressed when looking to do this in a reasonable size footprint (something you can fit in a standard garage (in California a standard garage is 20 foot by 20 foot).  













The French army significantly outnumbered the Austrian army, which is also the case in orders of battle for this scenario.  That being said, the French are on the offensive.  Additionally, the Austrians have a high proportion of "large" units as compared to the French (who really only have large units in the Imperial Guard).  While pure unit count is very much in favor of the French, the Austrians make up for it with larger units.  I've done much to compress the armies and units down into something in line with the historical orders of battle while making small adjustments for balance of play (e.g. adding Uhlans in the cavalry reserve for the Austrians for some added punch given the the French have a major cavalry advantage - historically this would be instead a unit of Hussars).

Lastly, if you play this scenario you can certainly substitute certain units (e.g. the "insurrecto" I list - this is a unit I have in my collection and like to use - it's essentially the same as legion infantry from other places).  When I design scenarios I do take into account my collection and I try to avoid the need to buy/paint "one off" or seldom used units.


Scenario Map and Special Rules


Deployment:  The map serves as a general guide for the deployment areas for each corps.  Each square represents a unit from the corps, however each player may deploy units within the general corps area in any way they choose.  The Austrian player must finalize deployment of all units before the French player.

Table Size:  6 foot by 16 foot

Below you will find the scenario map with the starting areas/dispositions for each corps.  








Game Length:  8 Turns

Victory Points:  Standard victory points apply (units shaken/broken).  All towns are worth 15 points to the side that holds them at the end of turn 8.  If a town is contested at the end of turn 8 then 10 points are awarded to the Austrian player and 5 points to the French player.

River:  The river is fordable at all points.

Towns:  Each town is capable of holding up to 2 units.

The Wagram:  Austrian artillery units deployed on the Wagram (hill) are in fixed positions (add earthworks in front of the unit for cover).

Order of Battle - France

















C-in-C: Napoleon

Imperial Guard
  • 2 x Young Guard (Small)
  • 1 x Grenadier a Pied (Large)
  • 1 x Chasseur a Pied (Large)
  • 1 x Grenadier a Cheval
  • 1 x Guard Chasseur a Cheval
  • 1 x Empress Dragoons
  • 1 x Guard Foot Artillery (Large)
  • 1 x Guard Horse Artillery (Large)

II Corps (Oudinot)
  • 2 x Light Infantry
  • 5 x Line Infantry
  • 1 x Chasseur a Cheval
  • 1 x Foot Artillery

III Corps (Davout)
  • 2 x Light Infantry
  • 5 x Line Infantry
  • 1 x Hussar
  • 2 x Dragoons
  • 1 x Foot Artillery (Large)
  • 1 x Horse Artillery (Large)

IV Corps (Massena)
  • 1 x Light Infantry
  • 6 x Line Infantry
  • 1 x Chasseur a Cheval
  • 1 x Foot Artillery (Large)

Cavalry Reserve (Bessieres)
  • 1 x Carabiniers
  • 5 x Cuirassiers

(EUGENE'S ARMY OF ITALY)

V Corps (MasDonald)
  • 3 x Line Infantry

VI Corps (Grenier)
  • 1 x Light Infantry
  • 3 x Line Infantry
  • 1 x Foot Artillery
  • 1 x Chasseur a Cheval

VII Corps (Wrede)
  • 1 x Bavarian Light Infantry (Small)
  • 2 x Bavarian Line Infantry
  • 1 x Bavarian Chevauxleger

(SAXON ARMY)

IX Corps (Bernadotte)
  • 3 x Saxon Line Infantry
  • 1 x Saxon Schutzen
  • 2 x Saxon Grenadier
  • 1 x Saxon Cuirassier
  • 1 x Saxon Foot Artillery (Small)

(ARMY OF DALMATIA)

XI Corps (Marmont)
  • 1 x Light Infantry
  • 2 x Line Infantry

Order of Battle - Austria
















C-in-C: Charles

Advanced Guard (Nordmann)
  • 1 x Hussar (Large)
  • 1 x Jager
  • 2 x Infantry Regiments
  • 1 x Grenzer Infantry
  • 1 x Horse Artillery

I Korps (Bellegarde)
  • 4 x Infantry Regiments (Large)
  • 1 x Jager
  • 1 x Foot Artillery

II Korps (Hohenzollen-Hechingen)
  • 4 x Infantry Regiments (Large)
  • 1 x Jager
  • 1 x Foot Artillery

III Korps (Kolowrat)
  • 1 x Infantry Regiment (Large)
  • 2 x Infantry Regiment
  • 1 x Uhlans (Large)
  • 1 x Jager
  • 1 x Foot Artillery

IV Korps (Rosenburg)
  • 2 x Infantry Regiments
  • 1 x Landwehr Infantry

VI Korps (Klenau)
  • 2 x Infantry Regiments
  • 1 x Grenzer Infantry
  • 1 x Insurrecto (Legion) Infantry
  • 1 x Landwehr Infantry
  • 1 x Hussar (Large)
  • 1 x Foot Artillery

Reserve Korps (Liechtenstein)
  • 4 x Grenadier (Large)
  • 2 x Cuirassiers (Large)
  • 2 x Dragoons (Large)
  • 1 x Uhlans (Large)
  • 1 x Horse Artillery

12 comments:

  1. So organized and as I looked over all the miniatures that will be involved I started to think about where the heck I would store them. Heck I just painted 16 Carthaginian veterans and had to go online and purchase some pluck foam for them. My sad hobby life šŸ˜¢

    I look forward to when you field the battle reports later this year.

    Cheers
    Kevin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol ... oh man, I can't use foam.

      This is my go to box for storing my miniatures:

      https://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/usa/html/onlineshop/rub/b11_0litre.php

      I have tons of these.

      For terrain I use the 21L:

      https://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/usa/html/onlineshop/rub/b21_0litre.php

      Delete
    2. Do you magnetize them? How do you get to conventions when packing up your stuff?

      Delete
    3. Nope. I put a paper towel down. They don't move to much. The single base guys move a bit but no damage or anything. Hasn't failed me for 15 years.

      Delete
  2. Nice to have access to such large collections šŸ‘looking forward to seeing some action

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Years of effort paying off :-) Can't wait myself ... lots to do but making steady progress.

      Delete
  3. This looks super useful, many thanks.
    Stay safe & best wishes,
    Jeremy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks great, but need s Badeners and Hessians! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol, you could certainly include them. At the scale of the forces it would only equate to part of a unit and I have enough French allies to paint already ;-)

      Delete
  5. Sounds fantastic Jay. I love my Napoleonic Wargaming so will follow your progress keenly. Best of luck with this great battle.

    ReplyDelete