Crisis on the Danube AAR vs Coalition AI

[gwgardner]

Total newbie doing this AAR more of a challenge to myself rather than showing competent play - the challenge being to play to completion and learn the rules primarily. I've often found that doing an AAR leads me to enjoy a game more and instills in me some discipline in playing it. Hopefully some out there will enjoy it, as well.

I'll try using the default map with chemkid's counter mod. I ike rasputitsa's house rules also, so will try to follow those that relate to the French:

House Rule : Captured supply cannot be sent to the LOC by the player, the computer supply control system may do this, but the player must either, set a corps commander to use the supply from a captured depot, or burn the supply.


House Rule : The player may form supply convoys of no more than 100 supply points, for each
town, or city, per turn/day.
Except those originating from larger cities including AUGSBURG, LINZ, MUNICH, PILSEN,
REGENSBURG, PILSEN, ULM and VIENNA, which can be up to 300 supply points for each
convoy, per turn/day.

[gwgardner]

Victory pt cities for the scenario

[gwgardner]

The scenario begins on May 17 1809, after Napoleon and the Grande Army have taken Vienna. The Austrians abandoned the city and took up positions across the Danube just to the east.

In game terms, in or near Vienna are:
83k infantry 18k cavalry ~300 guns

(note: the game refers to a gun strength point as 48 lbs, eg 4 12 pounters, 8 six pounders, etc. One reference says that typically there was a ratio of 4 guns per 1000 infantry in 1809, so the listing of guns here is VERY approximate. I'm assuming that the game refers to corps artillery.)

Lannes/II Corps 21k Inf ~60 guns
Davout/III Corps 24k Inf 3k Cav ~75 guns
Massena/IV Corps 26k Inf 6k Cav ~80 guns

Curial/Young Guard 7K Inf
Dorsenne/Guard 3k Inf
Arrighi/Guard 2k Inf

Bessieres/Reserve Cavalry 9k Cav

Engineers 1k


114 miles west in Linz: Vandamme/I Wurtemburg Corps 7k 2k 28

~175 miles west near Braunau: Lefebvre/VII Corps 6k 0 24

~240 miles west near Eckmuhl: Bernadotte/IX Corps 4k 8k 12



later reinforcements:
Macdonald´s corps will arrive south of Vienna in 40 days
Grenier´s corps will arrive near Vienna in 40 days
Grouchy´s corps will arrive near Vienna in 40 days
Marmont´s XI corps will arrive near Vienna in 40 days

[gwgardner]

May 18

General movements to bring the outlying corps into the main force, along with cavalry recon. It was surprising to find Brady's division of the Austrian II Corps just north of Linz. Perhaps I'll have to rethink the general move of the outlying corps.

Austrians busy destroying bridges? Davout's cavalry will have to continue their recon, perhaps hit and run raid on those sappers if they're not defended well.

[gwgardner]

May 19

Have lost contact with Brady's Division of the enemy II Corps north of Linz. Vandamme's cavalry has moved east, have not yet received revised orders to probe north.

The main Austrian force still appears to be moving northeast. Their engineers are still busy to the east. Davout's cavalry will check that out.


Lannes has moved closer to Krems, in case it is determined that the enemy is attempting to close in there.

[gwgardner]

May 20

The Austrian main force is definitely moving west, and fast. Our cavalry made contact with them in Krems. Elements from the III and II corps were sighted.

French engineers have repaired one bridge over the Danube at Vienna, but now instead of pushing the Grande Army over en masse, the situation has to be reevaluated.

Is the enemy intending to cross at Krems, to cut off the Grande Army from its LOC at Linz? Or is their occupation of those crossings merely a prelude to a retreat north?

The urgency level of French movements has to be stepped up. The liesurely pace of Vandamme, et al, coming east to join the Grande Army is not going to satisfy. BUT ... should Vandamme be holding at Linz to protect the Center of Ops there?

[gwgardner]

...

[zgrant]

Great AAR so far! Creating an AAR can be a lot of work, so I appreciate you sharing this with us. Looking forward to how this plays out and any reflections you have on the game and the result when you are done. [:)]

[gwgardner]

ORIGINAL: zgrant

Great AAR so far! Creating an AAR can be a lot of work, so I appreciate you sharing this with us. Looking forward to how this plays out and any reflections you have on the game and the result when you are done. [:)]

Thanks. The FOW and orders implementation have me hooked so far.

[gwgardner]

May 21

Let down by his Marshallate's slow response to his orders, Napoleon's plan to forestall any Austrian move across the Danube at Krems failed. Worse, it placed his HQ in dire straits, with only his Guard confronting enemy infantry across the narrow Traisen river at St. Polten.

[gwgardner]

May 22

In bold strikes, the Austrians offered battle west of St Polten and at Vienna, apparently hoping to retake the capitol, expecting the French to leave the city lightly defended while reacting to the Austrian drive south of Krems.

However Massena's Corps remained at Vienna and repulsed the Austrian I Corps, inflicting heavy losses.

And near St Polten, Lannes' Corps arrived too late to take part in the skirmish.

In both battles the Austrians fell back across the Danube.

[gwgardner]

Battle of Vienna May 22

Massena's IV Corps and most of the Guard, 43,000 strong, held the city against a strong probe by 30,000 troops from the Austrian V, VI, and IRu Corps.

[gwgardner]

West of St Polten, Napoleon's Guard fought a defensive skirmish against Austrian IV Corps infantry and cavalry, who aggressively crossed the river to the assault.

Sulpice's Cavalry brigade from the Reserve Corps had crossed to the north of the battle and forestalled any reinforcements for the Austrian force.

[Rasputitsa]

I see that the French Engineers took part in the battle of Vienna and maybe they got swept up in the battle, but there are no replacement units, once destroyed they are gone. You can only put replacement points into existing units.

So wondering how best to use the Engineers and not risking them, when you might have to cross broken bridges against opposition, because as a small unit (strength 2) they would be very vulnerable.

Interested to know what contact stance the Engineers had ?

[gwgardner]

Engineers were on 'regular' stance. I'll keep that in mind for the future, thx.

Oddly enough, or perhaps this is WAD(?), at the end of the turn there are both Austrian and French forces in the same Vienna hex.

[Rasputitsa]

I was thinking more on whether the engineers were on 'defend' etc., contact stance and wondering how the game system handles engineers in combat.

Often after a battle, units of both sides will still be in the same hex (maybe the battle hex), so it is worth checking through the stacks to see if enemy units are still hidden there.

It is useful to read the battle report text in the Battle info panel, to assess the damage and see routed units. The text box has a slider so you can see all the text of a longer battle. The text can be mouse/highlighted and copied to a text file, FOW will descend after the battle so this is one chance to see what damage has been done to the enemy.

Obviously if the enemy units left near the battlefield were routed you don't need to worry, but if not, you may still have a fight on your hands.

In your example in post #13, Rohan is routed, so no danger.

Once you close the 'Battle Completed' panel all that info is gone !

Friendly and enemy units are often mixed in the same hex, facing off, but no battle has occurred, maybe depending on the contact stance they both might have.

[gwgardner]

Stance was fallback. But they stayed in the hex.

I'll remember that about the battle reports.

One thing that surprises me is that the Guard, which are supposedly attached to Napoleon, did not follow him as he moved towards St Polten. I never detached them. They stayed in Vienna a second turn after Napoleon left, also. I didin't give them orders, thinking they would follow him.

[gwgardner]

May 23

The Austrian forces that probed into Vienna withdrew, and their forces withdrew from the St Polten battleground also, moving north to be met by elements of Davout's Corps. Although Lannes' orders were to engage, his corps did not follow the fleeing Austrians to the north.

Massena also had 'engage' orders, but did not follow the retreating enemy across the Danube at Vienna.

To the west, Vandamme has again been slow to probe north from Linz.

[gwgardner]

The Austrian's reinforced their position south of Krems, forcing Davout into a defensive battle in which he was substantially outnumbered. His corps held the field, hopefully pinning the Austrians south of Krems so that Napoleon can order a convergence of Lannes, the Reserve Cavalry, and the rest of Davout's Corps.

[Rasputitsa]

Stance was fallback. But they stayed in the hex.

The contact stance dictates what units, or corps, will do if they meet the enemy, it may be to avoid contact (fallback) and not get involved in combat. I guess that they may stay in place until the threat of combat makes them move, but in this case, since the French won the battle of Vienna, there was no need for the engineers to move.

But, this is not knowledge, just guessing.