More Hills and Even Further Away

 Travelling again - my life seems to have taken on an unfamiliar level of sophistication, not to mention luxury. I have just returned from the home of the Archduke, in the mountains of Northern England - a wild region which was once known as Scottish Cumberland, I understand. There we were joined by more travellers - Stryker and Goya - for a very fine day of Old School Napoleonic gaming, and of gazing in awe at the resident soldier collection.

Our game scenario was from 1809, the setting being what is now known as the Battle of Aspern-Essling, taken as a single action, and fought on the open ground between the two villages. I shall not attempt a detailed account of the action, but will include a series of my own photos, to give a taste of what the day looked like. I was Hiller, commanding the Austrian right flank, fighting alongside Stryker. [You will find rather better pictures and a more coherent narrative on Stryker's blog here.]  

 

General view at commencement; Austrians on the left. Both sides are expecting reinforcements, but the French reserves may only arrive if they can still get across the Danube. The Danube, you understand, is just off the table-edge on your right, and there is a wooden bridge on the edge of the table to represent this crossing 

 

This is my command, the Austrian right flank. You can see me (Hiller) bravely leading the infantry forward

 

 A look over towards the Austrian left. The cavalry unit nearest the camera is the best the army has to offer - because of problems with Austrian command, all the rest of the cavalry were rated as "militia". The unit pictured here looks very impressive, and it took me 5 or 6 turns to remember that these were mere chevauxlegers (O'Reilly), however smartly turned out

 

Here I am, with me boys, steadfastly remembering not to fight uphill

 

Our plan was to get cracking, just detaching small forces to watch the edges of the villages and sweeping everyone else forward and toward the bridge in the centre. The idea was that this would restrict the space in which the French could deploy their reserves, and in any case capture of the bridge was a potential game-winner. Here you see my advance getting a little bogged down, as my own regiment of infantry takes a battering from the French artillery

 

View from the French side. The battery in the lower left corner caused me a lot of discomfort throughout the day. I should mention that for years it has puzzled me that one's own army in a wargame always looks more intimidating from the front...

 

After a while, the Austrians are definitely cramping the space available for the French reinforcements. You may notice a number of guns facing the wrong way - this is obviously because they are now limbered up, trying to advance with the army. We were reminded that if you rush forward over flat terrain there is a tendency to mask your own artillery

 

The French are bringing more troops over - things getting more crowded all the time

 

At the very end of the day, I made a token attack on the brickyard of the village at my end of the table, and was reminded that stone walls are tough going. At this stage we ran out of time, and had to end our game to address the requirements of transport and dinner 

At the point at which we broke off, there was still some fighting to be done, and the Archduke continued later, solo, for about 4 hours; once again history required the Battle of Aspern-Essling to extend into a second day. He subsequently sent a photo of the Austrians in command of the crossing of the Danube, so Stryker and I had won, if only in absentia. It could be argued that we are usually at our best in absentia, anyway, but that's a discussion for another time.

My thanks go to my colleagues for their company and enthusiasm, and most especially to our hosts (Mr and Mrs Archduke) for their kind hospitality and a great deal of work - a splendid trip in every way, and very much appreciated.