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ORIGINAL: carnifex

I was playing last night, and after consolidating my Italian minors, I moved my entire Ejercito de Tierra, composed of 3 Armies and 2 Corps, into Venetia to draw out the Austrians and to provide respite to my French allies who were busy fending off multiple thrusts at their borders.

Venetia fell in one turn. Emboldened, I gave the order to concentrate in Vienna in order to force a definite conclusion. The Austrians responded that same month. The gods of march favored both sides equally and both armies were able to fully concentrate before battle.

My army had roughly 220K men facing 200K Austrians. My slight numerical advantage was more than mitigated by my lower infantry morale (average 3.75 SPA vs 5.5 AUS).

The initial deployement did not favor me, as both flanks of the Austrian line were anchored by forts. Getting ready for a bloody frontal assault, I spent two turns forming a double line of infantry in line formation, with supporting artillery units deployed in the gaps, roughly every 3 hexes. My Cavalry was kept in reserve, massed on the right flank.

I advanced on a broad front until the the enemy dispositions were determined, then ordered my army to execute an echelon attack, leading with the left wing. I had mixed success initially. My infantry were clearly inferior, suffering double and triple the casualties inflicted, and I faced a moment of crisis when charging Austrian cavalry smashed into the most exposed units on my left flank, forcing many of them to rout. The moment was saved by coordinated artillery fire, when several heavy and regular artillery divisions were transferred to the left flank and enveloped the Austrian cavalry with murderous fire (Massed Artillery I,II,and III owns hard).

In the center my attack was also stalled, with my infantry exchanging point blank fire with the better trained Austrians, and I had to abandon my right echelon and use those units to fill in the gaps in the line in the center and on the left. Again my artillery proved decisive. I massed all my artillery (2 Heavy and 4 Regular) in the center, opened the lines slightly to allow better sighting, then let fly for several turns in a massive barrage (love those smoke effects btw). This broke the Austrian center, and I directed my fresh infantry from the now disbanded right echelon to move into the schwerpunkt.

More bloody fighting followed, but again my artillery kept on pouring fire, and after several turns the Austrian army broke. This was a happy moment for me indeed, as I was massing my Cavalry Corps (3 Heavy Cav, 2 Cav, and 2 Lt. Cav) to provide support in the center, and when the Austrians began the retreat I quickly moved my cavalry into the breach and began the pursuit, charging every nearby Austrian unit I could find. The slaughter was horrific - entire divisions were shattered beyond redemption. Night fell and I called off the pursuit and the battle ended shortly.

I suffered about 40K casualties with several infantry divisions disbanded. The Austrians lost a comparable amount, around 45K, but I also accepted the surrender of their Guards division, 2 cavalry and 5 infantry divisions. In short, the Austrian army was smashed and Vienna invested.

It took me several hours to fight this and I had to go to bed real late, so I won't know how the campaign turns out until tonight, but with the Grand Armee having defeated the Prusso-British thrust through the low countries and now sitting in a mighty stack in Tyrol, I'm not too worried [:D][:D]