Scourge of War Boards

The morning sky hinted at rain. A more apropos foreshadowing would have been a sign of deluge.

I suffered no illusions. The day would be grim and chances of victory were slim and the chance of survival not much better. Rumor had it Napoleon himself would lead the defense of Sausage Hill: the runt defending the little weenie.

From south of Austingen, we moved north by road all the way to Hohenwart and then further east down Ulm Strasse, finally moving south and forming up northeast of Sausage Hill.

I had hoped to have my division on the left, Will in the center, and Swinder on the right. But we didn’t have time to worry about keeping with the plan. French infantry and guns were adjusting positions. Soon the French artillery would serve pain for lunch. Swinder wasn’t up yet and I wasn’t sure where Will was. So I sent a courier to Swinder and told him I was going to assault the hill from the northeast and that hopefully I could weaken them enough so that he could follow me and clean up. I sent Will a courier asking him to screen Swinder’s right and follow him to glory if the opportunity arose.

I had three brigades of good troops. Two under my direct command, Prince Bernhard and von Butler; Whiteflag commanded the third, Sir John Lambert: all together some 10,000 able-bodied soldiers.

I formed Prince Bernhard’s brigade into double line and marched them up the slope and sent my best troops to the orchard on my left.

I ordered Whiteflag to move to the orchard as well and screen my left flank when I started the assault.

I hoped moving two brigades to the left would cause the French to shift troops to their flank. They complied, leaving Leffe’s brigade on the hill with a small brigade of Weathers’.

So far the brunt of the French artillery fire had been directed at Swinder, I guess, because I hadn’t suffered many casualties. With that in mind, my morale was high. I was going to run Leffe off that hill and do my best to kill Napoleon, sitting on his horse right on the crest.

I gave the order to von Butler to form assault columns and use the creek which separated the orchard from a rather large wood on my left as a screen for his four level five experience regiments as they followed one after the other up the hill and into Leffe’s brigade’s right flank. At the same time, I let loose Prince Bernhard’s six level four regiments from their position directly in front of Leffe’.

Glory followed. Drunk with battle’s rage, my men put the French to the bayonet and broke regiment after regiment. “To the guns” I shouted and brave lads ate canister but pushed on, capturing several guns but taking too many casualties.

Weather began moving fresh regiments across the creek to attack my left. I screened them as best I could and tried to reform and rally my troops. I was up over 600 points. That wouldn’t last.

I hoped that Swinder would have the strength to finish what I’d started but his division had taken massive casualties from artillery and I think even some French cavalry and I wasn’t sure where Will even was at this point.

The left was pretty solid. Whiteflag had done well protecting my left and Digby showed up to take up the task just as Whiteflag’s men began to falter.

I called on the boys for one last go. We drove to the crest of the hill and turned the objective in our favor for a few minutes.

Then we fell apart.

A very nice battle indeed. Many thanks to Palmer for hosting it.
I commanded the 3rd French Division with 2 brigades of good quality and a third attached brigade commanded by Wheaters.
"The enemy will have to attack us. They can approach from the south, west or southwest." told us Mitra in his pre-battle briefing (The attack came from the north ). I covered the south but it looked very peaceful there. After some time lots of British flags were seen in the north. So I deployed from the objective to the east, while Palmers 2nd Division was moving to my right flank in the woods.
"The enemy will have more numbers, while we have better quality" explained Palmer before the game. So Mitra ordered me to attack the enemy lines before me who seemed equal in numbers. But in the chaos that followed, the enemy infantry charged with all vigor and to my surprise our veteran troops routed very quickly. At least Palmer and Chernov were making some progress on the far right, dragging more enemy troops there.
"Our centre is collapsing. My division is gone down to one regiment" I had to inform Mitra. And that one left regiment was commanded by Wheaters :whistle:
But the enemy was not unstoppable. Constant charging and taking artillery fire seemed to take its toll finally. The enemy lines collapsed as well and Palmer was moving forces to secure the centre again.
A memorable line after the fight also came from MTG (Iron Duke) "You could have used a few more guns on that hill". Viel Feind, viel Ehr! it seems

A memorable line after the fight also came from MTG (Iron Duke) "You could have used a few more guns on that hill". Viel Feind, viel Ehr! it seems

That was no exaggeration, I saw room up there for one more battery. :laugh:

Yes initially on the hill there was only 1 brigade of Leffe, but the other brigades are all around ready to move in every direction, the frontal lines you saw are only 1 brigade for division; it is the good of have the internal lines. Suchet saw the enemy NW soon, and started to switch slowly the reserve to north, but still I was not really sure about where is the main force, I feared most the possibility of another direction attack. People have the natural tendency to run to first and nearest enemy, remaining engaged and vulnerable to other direction attacks: have space between the units permitted us to send Palmer, to NE to Leffe help, at place of NW where initially the enemy appeared, and move Suchet to center-left side.

Stefan, I failed to communicate (translate) well my intention about your attack, sorry: my intention was that you gave orders to Palmer for coordinate the assault against the same enemy you attacked, my intention was that two divisions attacked the central brigade in the meantime the other enemy moved in the woods to the south, so to break the enemy line and force them back or be broken in two. When i saw you attack alone and Palmer move to the woods for surround, I saw my communication error but it was already too late. Luckily Palmer attack attract more and more enemy troops to south, from the center and artillery gave his best, but in general my opinion is that surrounding movements are good if you have time and numbers on your side, if you have numbers only in a particular point only for a limited time you must use them in direct mode in brutal frontal assaults, like you did but unluckily with half of force I thought when I gave you the order. Personally I dislike also make attacks passing from the woods when I command personally troops, they are very good for defence with few troops, but in attack, if there is not surprise, you lost the bigger picture of your formation and the battlefield without having a real advantage.

Anyway great delay action of Suchet and Armstead on the left with the help of cavalry against a great number of enemy troops.