1809: French Campaign Log

[Didz]

1809 Charles Plan (Full Fog of War): French Campaign Strategy

The French know they are about to be attacked. The Austrian army is massing on the borders and intelligence are reporting anything up to 82,000 troops dispersed amongst the towns of Wimperk. Budweis and Zweittel in the forests north of the Danube and a further 56,000 deployed behind the River Inn at Braunau, Schaerding and Lambach.

Expected enemy strategy

Taking the limitations of the road system into account the most likely strategy for the Austrian Army will be to advance directly on Passau from the North in order to establish a concentration of troops West of the Inn before marching in force on Landau and Deggendorf to secure a crossing of the Isar. At the same time it is likely that at least one enemy Corps will attempt to seize the supplies stored at the French Depot in Munich.

Having secured a crossing of the Isar and seized our forward supply depots one would expect the Austrians to attempt to force a decisive victory over both Davout's III Corps and Lefebvre's VII Corps before our main army can move to reinforce either.

If successful this would match Davout and Lefebvre with 82,000 men against an Austrian force of approximately 110,000. Whilst in the South Lannes with 22,500 men would face approximately 28,000 troops.

Intended French Strategy.

It seems unlikely that we will be able to defend our forward depots along the Isar and so these will be withdrawn to deny the supplies to the enemy whilst our forces concentrate to the rear.

Davout and Lefebvre will withdraw to Ingolstadt, whilst Lannes at Augsberg will be reinforced by the main army of observation under Massena and Vandamme's Wurtemberg Corps from Ulm.

At the same time the centre of operations will be moved north to Donauworth in order to expliot the better road network and shorter communication distances. The depot at Ulm will be reduced and the supplies redirected to Inglostadt and Augsberg.

Both Ingolstadt and Augsberg have good road networks and the intention is to expliot these to frustrate Austrian movements.

If the Austrians attempt to force the Danube at Ingolstadt then Napoleon will advance on their left flank and communications from Augsberg. If they attempt to attack Augsberg then Davout will move against their right flank and communications from Ingolstadt. Finally if a decisive victory is acheived then the road network will allow both Napoleon and Massena to concentrate their forces quickly to expliot the advantage.

Thats the plan anyway. We shall see if it works in practice.

[Didz]

1809: Turn 1: 1 April 1809 The French march out of Ulm

Napoleon watched the troops of Massena IV Corps march out of Ulm over the Danube bridges and take the road from Augsberg followed by the Wurtemburgers of Vandammes Corps.



The depot at Ulm was busily being reduced and barges were already en-route for Donauworth and Ingolstadt.

Fresh reports suggested that the Austrians deployed along the River Inn had not moved and neither had 44,000 reserve troops deployed around Olmutz.

However, nothing had been heard from Davout or Lefebvre and so Napoleon decided to ride for Eckmuhl in the morning and confirm that his orders were being obeyed.

[Didz]

1809: Turn 2: 2 April 1809 Davout and Lefebvre on the move

Napoleon was unable to leave Ulm as planned this morning delayed by formalities following receipt of the Austrian Declaration of War. (In fact, I found that for some reason he cannot be moved but as yet I'm not sure why)

However, riders arrived in the morning to confirm that both Davout and Lefebvre were withdrawing to Ingolstadt as ordered.



Fresh intelligence reports claim that the Austrian forces at Branau have increased to from 10,500 men to 21,000 men and that fresh units totalling a further 5,500 men are marching through Linz. The Austrians on the Inn seem to be planning a more southerly advance perhaps directly on Munich.

Another report suggests that the Austrian force at Pilsen has been increased from 9,500 men to 18,000 but it is not clear if these are reinforcements or a revision of the original estimate. So far there seems to be no movement from the enemy troops North of the Danube.

[Hanal]

Nice going and you are making me antsy for Gamemapper..[:)]...one thing I have learned while playing CotD is that I needed to leave my Blitzkrieg mentality behind....patience and planning win out and sometimes it isn't easy to correct your mistakes!

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Nice going and you are making me antsy for Gamemapper..[:)]

So, far Game Mapper seems to be working really well (mind you only 2 turns) it certainly helps to be able to record your intelligence reports and compare them from turn to turn. Plus it enables you to zoom out and get a total picture of troop deployment which can't be done very well in the game.

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon...one thing I have learned while playing CotD is that I needed to leave my Blitzkrieg mentality behind....patience and planning win out and sometimes it isn't easy to correct your mistakes!

Yes, this isn't really the sort of game where you can point at an enemy unit and say 'attack that one', and rushing units from place to place merely wears them out and stresses their commanders. I've found its best to concentrate on co-ordinating the sound deployment of your Corps, making sure they are properly supplied and then to leave the fighting to the Corps and Divisional commanders on the spot.

For instance at the start of this scenario both Davout and Lefebvre begin 'out of supply' and Ulm is far too far away to supply them effectively. So, they either needed to move to the depot at Landau or withdraw to Donauworth. Landau would have placed them right in the teeth of the Austrian advance with the real risk of becoming isolated from the supply source at Ulm. Therefore, it makes more sense to withdraw them towards the Donauworth depot whilst at the same time moving the centre of operations north to Donauworth to close the gap. Hopefully, both these corps will reach Ingolstadt before they run out of supply and be able to draw fresh supplies from the newly established Ingolstadt depot once they get there.

If so, then I may be in a position of having two fully supplied corps facing two or three Austrian Corps that are operating at the end of a long supply chain and already fatigued and short of supply. If thats the case then I shall leave Davout to reap the benefits.

[Hanal]

One Question...are you able to attach Napoleon to a Corp?.....I found that in certain scenarios, including the one you are playing, the attach to Corp command is blacked out for Napoleon...I thought it might have been because initially they were at peace but even when the situation changed the command did not appear....I have the update so I wonder if I'm missing something here.....

[FrankHunter]

In the 1809 campaign the Napoleon HQ is "stuck" at Ulm. This was because Napoleon was still en route to the theatre and Berthier was in charge (and doing a less than stellar job). I forget the date but eventually the HQ is freed up.

[DoomedMantis]

I came very close to buying this last night, but was put off by some of the problems people are having with the maps and control. Is there anything in the pipeline to improve this?

[Didz]

I was actually reading about this last night. Berthier, Prince of Neufchatel was appointed Chief of General Staff to the Army of Germany on 17 March 1809 and he left for Strasburg on the 30th. The Emperor staying in Paris. He was ordered to stay in Strasburg and proceed no further East partly becuase Napoleon felt Berthiers arrival in Bavaria could suggest that he himself was about to arrive which would panic the Austrians into declaring war earlier than he wanted and mostly because Strasburg was as far as the aerial telegraph link to Paris extended.

It is clear from Petre that Napoleon was very much in command of the situation in Bavaria at this point even though he was in fact in Paris. Berther was finally released and ordered to Augsberg by Napoleon on the 10 April by a telegraph stating "I think the Emperor of Austria will attack shortly. Proceed to Augsberg, in order to act in conformity with my instructions, and, if the enemy has attacked before the 15th, you must concentrate the troops at Augsberg and Donauworth, and let everything be ready to march. Send my Guard and horses to Stuttgart." (Note 1) Unfortunately the telegraph was broken and this order didn't arrive until the 13th by which time Berthier was already on his way to Augsberg having left on the 11th so he didn't get it until the 16th.

This seems to have been the first of many communication difficulites that arose once Berthier was in Bavaria and out of daily touch with the Emperor but he did not leave Paris untl 4am 13th April, reaching Strasburg on the morning of the 15th and arriving at Danauworth at 5am on the 17th.

So, basically Berthier had 7 days in more or less sole command of the Army of Germany and managed to get it in a right mess which Napoleon had to sort out when he arrived.

Incidently, I could not help noticing that in Petre there is no mention of Lannes and his Corps seems to be commanded by Oudinot, at least in the early stage of the campaign.

Note 1 The Guards Movements

The Guard had been recalled from Spain to in February but on the 24 March the order was given to speed the march by having the infantry, by then strung out between Bayonne and Poitiers, carried 75 miles per day in a relay of carts. This process began with the 1st Fusileers of the Guard on the 4th April and they arrive in Paris on the 9th. The last units arriving by the 30 April. They were given a 24 hour break in Paris before secretly leaving for Stuttgart the leading units using wagons again to speed their movement the arrival of the first units were reported to Napoleon on the 17th. The first units of the Guard arrived at Augsberg on the 23rd April. The Old Guard arrived on the 27 April and on the 1 May Roguet's and Mouton's Division's were formed frm the Guard units present.

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis
I came very close to buying this last night, but was put off by some of the problems people are having with the maps and control. Is there anything in the pipeline to improve this?

There are a few gliches to be ironed out. The 'Range Check Error' seems to be the worst for me at present. But most newly realeased games have a few teething problems. The good news is that so far everything I have spotted has been a programming problem rather than a design flaw and therefore easily corrected. The nearest thing to a design flaw I've spotted so far is the annoying tendency for the Austrians to run out of supplies before the end of the campaign and I'm not sure if this is intentional or a problem with the rate of flow from Vienna.

Compared to say Lords of the Realm III my previous purchase to this which is pretty much unplayable and already gathering dust on my shelf due to the flaws in its design I consider CotD to be a bargain.

[Hanal]

Thanks Frank for the reply......DoomedMantis, as Didz pointed out the problems are relatively minor and do not hinder gameplay to the point of being unplayable....I think you can gather by Didz AAR that he's having a good game...

[DoomedMantis]

Do we have any ideas on what is coming out in the next patch?

[Didz]

1809: Turn 3: 3 April 1809 The plan comes together

Massena and Vandamme have almost reached Augsberg, whilst Lefebvre has reached Ingolstadt and Davout is close behind. All is going according to plan.



Intelligence reports arrived during the night report a large enemy column of 18,000 men approaching Cham and yet another increase in the estimated strength of the enemy at Pilsen from 18,000 to 21,000. If the 18,000 men near Cham are the same troops reported a Pilsen yesterday then this could be interpreted as a large movement of troops through Pilsen bound for Cham. If so, then the Austrians North of the Danube are clearly on the move and bound not for Deggendorf as originally predicted but Straubing or Regensberg further west.

A column of 8,500 men is reported near Lambach, possibly the reinforcement column spotted crossing the Danube at Linz yesterday.

Meanwhile, reports from Vienna confirm that a large force of 25,000 men marched through the city yesterday heading west, that the garrison of Prerau has been reduced from 10,000 to 6,000 and that columns of 28,500 and 11,500 men are approaching Zwettel and Znaim repsectively.

The fact that these troops seem to be marching west along the north bank of the Danube is of interest as if the enemies main thrust was aimed at Munich one would have expected their line of advance to be further south via St. Polten, Enns and Brannau. More importantly the Austrian movement on Cham is putting the French depots at Neumarkt and Nurnberg under threat and Napoleon was hoping to leave these in place for use by the Bernadottes XI Corps when it arrived at Nurnberg about 21 days.

[Hanal]

Your intelligence reports help serve the need for a campaign map......are you using Gamemapper, as you play the game to plot these reported positions?.....I found that I have been drawing crude maps in a sketch pad to show the whereabouts of possible enemy units as I have sometimes advanced too far, only to find Austrian Units behind me, cutting my suppy train lines....

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Your intelligence reports help serve the need for a campaign map......are you using Gamemapper, as you play the game to plot these reported positions?.....I found that I have been drawing crude maps in a sketch pad to show the whereabouts of possible enemy units as I have sometimes advanced too far, only to find Austrian Units behind me, cutting my suppy train lines....

Yes. I'm having quite good fun pondering the implications of these intelligence reports and it certainly helps to have a means of tracking the day to day changes.

However, to be fair to Frank, I have to admit that I would find it hard to see how the program could help with this task. There is a lot of subjective judgement involved in updating Game Mapper to reflect the latest intelligence.

For instance the 18,000 troops now reported approaching Cham, may or may not be the same 18,000 troops reported at Pilsen yesterday and the fact that no troops have been reported at Wimperk since turn 1 might mean they have marched to Pilsen or it might just mean that nothing has changed worth reporting and that they are still there.

To a large extent the key to the process of analysing the reports is making judgements on how and where to update the map. To have the program do this automatically would devalue the process.

Of course what would be nice is an integral planning map which allowed the player to plot their own reports and movements without leaving the game. Perhaps with the program only placing the confirmed contacts.

[Didz]

1809: Turn 4: 4 April 1809 And then it started raining.

A messenger arrived in the morning informing Berthier that Davout and Lefebvre were at Ingolstadt but that there were no supplies available in the town. Furious he ordered the immediate dispatch of barges from Donauworth to Ingolstadt carrying 200 supply points.

It began raining during the day hampering the march of Massena's Corps which ended up 9km short of Augsberg at dusk.



More interesting though was the pattern that seemed to be emerging in the intelligence reports on Austrian forces north of the Danube. The pattern of reports seemed to suggest that the Austrians were passing a number of Corps possibly four west along the North bank of the Danube from Zwettel to Budweis, then Budweis to Wimperk, Wimperk to Pilsen and then heading for Cham. Thus the 22,500 originally reported at Wimperk could likely be the 21,500 now reported near Cham, whilst the 26,500 now reported at Busweis might probably be the 28,000 who were at Zwettel yesterday.

If so, then the French were tracking a long column of Austrian Corps moving steadly along the North bank of the Danube. However the fact that the head of this column now seemed to be marching on Cham rather than Amberg suggested that their objective was to make a crossing of the Danube at Regensburg or Straubing rather than seize the French depots at Neumarkt and Nurnberg.

Only time would tell if this assessment was correct.

[Didz]

1809: Turn 5: 5 April 1809 Massena stuck in the mud.

Its still raining and Massena's Corps didn't manage to move at all today no doubt stuck in the mud on the Augsberg road. The good news is that Davout and Lefebvre are happily settled Ingolstadt with their new supplies.

The only other important news today was that the Austrian's have marched into Cham. This at least confirmed that the intelligence reports are accurate and that the enemy are that far west. The report states that Cham is currently garrisoned by 13,000 Austiran troops which is significantly less than the 21,500 reported to be en-route. This may mean that some have already marched on perhaps heading for Regensberg or it could mean the entire force of 21,000 has marched on and been replaced with a follow on smaller corps.

Other reports show little change, the only interesting one reporting a large Austrian Corps of 25,500 men marching through Iglau which is even farther North than Zwettel and seems to add weight to the theory that the Austrians are planning to attack along the North bank of the Danube.

Other reports received today:
Enemy forces reported near Braunau : 20500 Hardly any change
Enemy forces reported near Goding : 17500 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Pressburg : 13000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 16000 Increased from 10,500

[Didz]

1809: Turn 6: 6 April 1809 Surprise Arrivals.

The rain stopped and Massena finally managed to pull his boots out of the mud and complete his march to Augsberg.

Passau fell to the Austrians this turn making the French wonder if the Austrians were planning to attack across the Inn after all and not at Regensberg.

But the big surprise for the French was the discovery that Nansouty with 6,000 cavalry of the Guard had suddenly arrived in Ulm together with an entire Division of 7,000 Bavarian Infantry under General Rouyer, 1,000 veteran French infantry under General Gency and 1,500 light cavalry under General Bruyer.

Without further delay Gency and Bruyer were ordered to Donauworth where 3,000 conscripts awaited integration into units. The intention being to use the Veteran infantry of Gency's force to act as the Cadre of a new Division and train these recruits to bring it up to at least a weak fighting strength of 4,000 men.

Rouyer was ordered to march independantly to Ingolstadt and there to join the other Bavarian troops of the VII Corps under Lefebvre.

Nansouty was ordered to remain at Ulm to await the arrival of Napoleon or further units of the Guard.

*** Intelligence Report ***
The intelligence reports didn't shed much extra light on the situation most related to the movements of Austrian corps moving up from reserve. Only the slight increase in the number of troops at Zwettel suggested that any movement was happening close to border. The forward units of the Austrians North of the Danube must already be straining their supply lines.

Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 18500 Increased from 16000
Enemy forces reported near Brusau : 21000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Goding : 28500 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Nikolsburg : 14000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near St.Polten : 9000 Reserve formation
Enemy forces reported near Wagram : 18000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Zwettel : 18500 Increased from 16000

[DoomedMantis]

Im enjoyng your AAR.

Is the map above the entire map?

Also is there anything that tells you the conditions of the roads, defensive positions, layout of the country etc

cheers

DM

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: DoomedMantis

Is the map above the entire map?

Also is there anything that tells you the conditions of the roads, defensive positions, layout of the country etc

Glad you are enjoying it. What is always interesting with these things is being able to look back and read just how wrong you were at the start.[8|]

I was actually inspired to do this by Herr Colonel's thread and I'm a little bit dissapointed that he seems to have stopped posting updates because I was hoping to find out what happened next.

None of the maps posted above actually show the entire campaign area but the master map I am using does. I just post the area appropraite to the subject here.

As for the road conditions etc. Thats a good question, if there is anything that tells you about road conditions and defensive positions I haven't found it yet. In fact, as far as I know there is no way to order troops to build defences or fortify a town. If I find I am wrong later I'll let you know.

The nature of the terrain is shown as you run your cursor over the map and is described as either Clear, Broken, Wooded, Marsh or Rough. The nature of the terrain affects both movement and combat but there is no attempt to generate say a battlefield map, this is much more like a boardgame in format so the terrain affects are handled abstractly as combat and movement modifiers.

[Didz]

1809: Turn 7: 7 April 1809 Raining Again.

After 24 hours rest the Divisions of Rouyer, Grency and Bruyer leave Ulm in the pouring rain and head for Donauworth.

The current dispositions of the Army of Germany are as shown below.



*** Intelligence Report ***
Once again the vast majority of reports relate to the movement of enemy reinforcements from their rear area westwards.

The only notable difference is that these reports suggest that they are now following the south bank of the Danube rather than the more northerly route taken by the columns three days ago

Enemy forces reported near Brunn : 29000 Reserve Formation increased from 19,000
Enemy forces reported near Brusau : 16000 Reserve Formation
Enemy forces reported near Prerau : 18000 Reserve Column increased from 10,000
Enemy forces reported near Pressburg : 17000 Reserve Column increased from 13,000
Enemy forces reported near Vienna : 24000 Possibly the column from Nicholsberg reported on the 5 April.
Enemy forces reported near Wolkersdorf : 26500 Possibly the column from Pressburg reported on the 5 April

More interestingly a large Austrian column is now reported at Enns perhaps moving in support of the Austrians along the Inn. Whilst the number of troops in Braunau has fallen perhaps indicating that they are on the move at last.

Enemy forces reported near Braunau : 16000 reduced from 21,000
Enemy forces reported near Enns : 23500 Probably a fresh column moving up to reinforce the troops on the Inn

The report of more troops at Wimperk suggests a continued movement along the North bank of the Danube although there are no reports of movement south of Cham.

Enemy forces reported near Wimperk : 21000