4 PM

Lannes’ artillery obliterates the remnants of the Arkhangelgorod regiment. Lannes directs Suchet to hold the southern flank near Krug, supporting Bernadotte, while Caferelli, with the 34th and 17th Ligne, mop up the Goldbach Heights. Bagration is left with a mere 2400 horse, but are still a dangerous force, not to be ignored. Bernadotte’s 94th Ligne again provides a dazzling display of musketry, destroying the Guard Grenadier regiment #2, which allows units to advance and solidify the line near the Post House. The Guard sees that the time to take the Post House is gone, and retreats south to the Raussnitz Brook.

Kolowrat artillery severely canisters the 16th Dragoon in a puff of smoke. His artillery causes 4 steps of French casualties. Soult returns the favor, blasting 3 Austrian steps into oblivion. Soult continues his attacks into the center and south of Kolowrat’s line. The Austrian IR9 and IR24 are charged and cannot get into square, but they successfully fend off the French Dragoons. Several Austrian units are drubbed and routed with losses, as are several more Russian regiments, although they do not entirely flee. St. Hilaire’s 14th and 36th regiments destroy the Austrian IR 38 and IR 49 in the center of the line and Kolowrat is captured during this combat. Overall, it is quite the bloody combat but the Fourth Column is collapsing south of the Stare Vinohradi.

5PM

Murat attacks Bagration’s cavalry, again leaving one division in reserve. Nansouty and the Russian Hussars engage. Bagration attempts to lead a counter-charge against General d’ Hautpoul’s Cuirassiers. This attack is uphill, but at even odds. This counter-charge is absolutely demolished, and d’Hautpoul with Kellerman follow up, destroying the Leib-Cuirassier “Tsar” and the St. Petersburg Dragoon regiments.

Soult continues to press, working Vandamme to surround the center and right flank of the Fourth Column. However, Coalition artillery is still active, killing two more French steps. The Austrian IR 9, 24 and 58 hang on despite being surrounded. The Russian first battalion of the Novgorod musketeers and the second battalion of the Apsheron musketeers are not so lucky. The large first battalion of the Salzbug IR 23 is routed with heavy losses inflicted by the 14th Ligne.

Langeron tries to salvage the Coalition situation and finally destroys the 3rd Ligne regiment and takes Telnitz on the last turn.

Final Victory: 

French:

Four net VP hexes
1 Captured leader (Kolowrat)
3 Battle flags
1C 42 Inf
2C 20 Inf
3C 41 Inf, 20 Art
4C 55 inf, 17 Art, 1 Cav
LW 68 inf, 23 Cav
Guard 19 inf, 18 Art
Total routed off map 10 inf, 7 Cav, 4 Art

Total French VP 689

Coalition:

Davout lost 19 Inf VP (16 on last turn…)
Bernadotte lost 9 inf, 12 Art, 16 infantry routed.
Soult lost 21 Inf VP, 3 Cav and 17 Inf routed.

Total Coalition 95

594, 6 shy of a Major French Victory.

 

Comments:

Murat’s destruction of much of Bagration’s cavalry was the result of very bad luck during the initial counter-charge of d’Hauptoul’s units. Turns out that despite this, the taking of Telnitz and the destruction of the 3rd Ligne on the very last activation swung the VP balance to the Coalition.

I have played the full game five times previously, and this was my worst performance as the French/best as the Coalition. I think there are several reasons – the defense of the Pratzen Heights was good and delayed the French enough that by the time they took on the Fourth Column, it was too late to extract enough casualties. Also, the Imperial Guard was not aggressive enough, perhaps they could have done better by attacking 5 Column and threaten Kolowrat’s rear. The problem with that is that 5 Column has plenty of artillery, and a few lucky rolls would have been disastrous for the smallish French Guard (and VP-wise). In other games, Murat took on the 5th Column, charging the horse artillery line, allowing the French Guard to attack the Fourth Column. This time, Murat had to rescue Bernadotte quickly. I think sending the French Grenadiers with Bernadotte would have been a better idea to hold off the Russian Guard and the French then could have concentrated on taking the exit hex nearby. The Russian Guard nearly broke up Bernadotte’s mission of taking the Post House. There just is not enough quality units in I Corps, he you would need to attack the Russian with 3-1 odds just to break even due to the quality difference. Also, French Corp artillery is not very plentiful. Duroc would have evened the odds there.

Bagration has a good unit, but he has too much ground to defend. Either he defends Krug or Bosewitz. And with the high quality French units around Blasowitz, any early Russian Guard movement north would have allowed the French to thoroughly destroy the Coalition center. I think I should try to be more aggressive with Bagration’s cavalry, but by Lannes not advancing after combat in most cases, this becomes more difficult and the Russians would likely be relegated to attacking the northern or southern flank (which did happen in this AAR)

Keinmayer sat idle due to lack of activations and priority within the bigger scheme of the battle. In previous battles, I did use him historically, but he doesn’t have much infantry. One bad assault and he becomes a cavalry force that can only threaten the bridge south of Telnitz. Because of the weather and the lack of urgency, Davout never built up too many forces to be more active in counterattacking. I do think that 3C is better as a defensive force on the Heights, as attacking in the South, they just get in the way.