Hi folks.
Last week-end we refought the battle of Austerlitz. As usual we used 15mm miniatures with 1"=100ydrs scale.
We played it during 3 days (the 15th, 16th and 17th of june).
We where only 3 players! But we managed to play the battle in game terms from 7am to 5pm.
5pm at that latitude and in December it is quite dark, I assure you because we (the 3 friends players) were at Prace (Pratzen) in Czech republic the 2nd of December 2014.
I have taken more than 150 pictures of the game and I will placed them on my website shortly. I'm still working on the AAR for now.
We played no special rules and we used the Scott Bowden OB variant with the French outnumbering the allies. Nonetheless it was a very small victory for the French side, a Pyrrhus one.
We planned to refight another game with specials rules and the ESR official OB, maybe in July.
Just a question about the "Grand parc d'artillerie" on the French side, David G. Chandler in the Osprey campaign book of Austerlitz mentioned that it was 12pdr austrians guns. Bowden indicated Austrians 3pdr of Position. But position guns in Austrian army are 6pdr or 12pdr not 3pdr... Do you think that it is a misprint or anything ?
Fred.
Hi Fred,
Look forward to the pictures and AAR. Please post your website when you can. Tanks!Â
Just a question about the "Grand parc d'artillerie" on the French side, David G. Chandler in the Osprey campaign book of Austerlitz mentioned that it was 12pdr austrians guns. Bowden indicated Austrians 3pdr of Position. But position guns in Austrian army are 6pdr or 12pdr not 3pdr... Do you think that it is a misprint or anything ?
It could be, though the question is which part is incorrect in Bowden and Chandler – the poundage or the title? Hard to say. I don't recall Chandler calling it out in The Campaigns of Napoleon, nor Duffy mentioning the size of the guns in Austerlitz. The context of Bowden's reference to the guns is a quote from Napoleon indicating he did not think they would last terribly long and that it was acceptable to him that they be lost. My suspicion is that this is more believable about 3-pdrs than 12-pdrs. I don't believe Goetz mentions the guns in his book and Nafziger does not call out artillery pieces with any specificity in his French order of battle. So there we left it.
Semi-related: I skimmed back through Chandler's Osprey title on Austerlitz, but wasn't able to find the caliber of the captured Austrian guns denoted in the text, can you point me at it so I know the reference?
-David
Chandler is very vague in the OSPREY CAMPAIGN p28 P29, He simply stated mostly 12pdr for the V corps artillery
Â
Chandler is very vague in the OSPREY CAMPAIGN p28 P29, He simply stated mostly 12pdr for the V corps artillery
This I was aware of. I believe it is incorrect to conflate Chandler's reference to V Corps artillery with the captured Austrian guns assigned to the Army's Grand Park.
Chandler says there are 20 guns with the V Corps and says "mostly 12-pdrs".
Duffy indicates 20 guns for the V Corps, gives no breakdown and does not list the Grand Park in its order of battle.
Goetz says there were 20 guns with Suchet's Division of the V Corps and that Caffarelli's Division (III Corps) had an additional 6-12 guns (of the III Corps). He breaks out the Grand Park and says it has 18 guns but does not give any further specifics.
Bowden states the V Corps has 23 guns total giving the variety of calibers; the minority of them are 12-pdrs and this includes the guns of Caffarelli's Division (III Corps). He breaks out the Grand Park as entirely separate and specifying the inclusion of the 18 Austrian guns which he says are "3-pdr position batteries".
Thus, everyone agrees there are at least 20 guns with Lannes, some believe there are more. Those who list the Grand Park list additional guns with it in excess of those with Lannes. Assuming the guns of the Grand Park are part of Lannes's V Corps would reduce the number of guns between the two by effectively half and poses the question: Where did the V Corps artillery go?
Our stance was that the V Corps artillery was separate from the Grand Park and the captured Austrian guns were assigned to the Grand Park.
-David
I have updated my web page.
For now I have put just the deployment of the battle the rest will come soon.
The links :
http://socom.free.fr/ESR/Et_sans_resultat!.html
http://socom.free.fr/ESR/Austerlitz.html
Â
Very nice!
Austerlitz is always interesting to stare at because the elements of the Armies are so widely spread across such a long frontage. It is in many ways the anti-Borodino.
-David
Yes absolutely I agree. The battlefield of Austerlitz is huge. I've been there in 2014, a 2nd of december. It's very large with relatively few troops in comparison to Waterloo which so tiny and overcrowded !
Â
