Pollster Play of Austerlitz! The Details

Europe had been in turmoil since the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792. In 1797, after five years of war, the French Republic subdued the First Coalition. A Second Coalition was formed in 1798, but by 1801, this too was defeated, leaving Britain the only opponent of the new French Consulate. In March 1802, France and Britain agreed to end hostilities under theTreaty of Amiens. For the first time in ten years, all of Europe was at peace. However, many problems persisted between the two sides, making implementation of the treaty increasingly difficult. The British government resented having to turn over most of the colonial conquests it had made since 1793. Napoleon was angry that British troops had not evacuated the island of Malta.[4] The tense situation only worsened when Napoleon sent an expeditionary force to crush the Haitian Revolution.[5] In May 1803, Britain declared war on France.

Thus we enter the 3rd Coalitions war after the battle of Ulm at Austerlitz in 1805. You have an opportunity to be Napoleon or the ill fated Allied joint command. Here is what I am thinking in 4 minutes or less:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68rjaIaaag]

OR follow along here:

We are going to play a concealed forces game, where YOU command the Armies of one of the sides.

Each Corp or Column is made up of a series of Brigades or Divisions.

The Orders for each Corp for the French and Column and or Brigades of the Allies will be driven by you via votes on Polls that offer suggested courses of action and take in additional options directly from comments you make here in each poll post.

  • Separate posts for each side will be made. Knowing both sides and  ‘gaming the votes’ is not cool.
  • You will then choose commands for each formation as listed below with a dummy counter, and move it from A-B (well I will move it)  you will provide the Formation with an order:  ” Gents run down the road and attack Telnitz!”  from a list of options for you to vote upon. Or submit you own orders for consideration.
  • You may be as detailed as you wish or issue general orders as above. I will take care of the painful stuff as referee.
  • This is FUN. No griping. No whining if your choice is not selected. Get more people to vote with you!
  • Along the way you may decide you want to confuse matters for the enemy, so you can spawn dummy counters and give them an order too, you say when.
  • When next eligible to I will spawn a blank, and you will then need to tell me where to move it to and at what pace (i.e. cavalry pace, Infantry pace or command pace!) I’ll pop up polls with choices for this too.
  • Or you may elect to ‘pop’ a scout unit to go see what the enemy is up to!? Once again you will direct traffic for the scout.
  • All the combat and paperwork is what I will manage. You just direct the troops to go “git ’em”
Some images of OOB, and Initial Orders, and locations and capabilities of troops will be forth coming.
Prepare for battle Generals.

Allied Camp

0600 Fog is limiting visibility to [2 hexes] 150 yards. It would be like this most of  the morning you surmise. With the steep hills of Pratzen further obstructing visibility, “Finding your way to objectives will be challenging Herr Boxhowden” you say. ”
“Our plan is fool proof. Find your way!” Says Boxhowden. “Let us review the plan our Great Leaders Alexander’s has provided”

The original plans for the Austian-Russo Army..Holy cow! Note our map is East to West Top to bottom.

Initial dispositions:

On the game map for comparison (I rotated the image)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68rjaIaaag&w=853&h=480]