Life has that nasty habit of getting in the way sometimes, and after a few weeks of forced hiatus we sat down around the table once more for some serious gaming. We chose the Teugen Hausen 1809 (or Thann) scenario from the splendidly presented "The First Battle Lost" ESR scenario book. For those not entirely familiar, this was one of the opening engagements of the 1809 campaign where Davout's III Corps was in danger of encirclement. The French were thus forced to pull off a dramatic breakout with the Austrians desperately trying to prevent this from happening.
As the rest of the gang were not familiar at all with the ruleset, we spent most of the afternoon in explanations and generic chatting on aspects of the rules but this notwithstanding we still managed to put in the first couple of moves. The mood was positive overall and for gents who are more accustomed to Age of Eagles and General de Brigade, initial impressions seemed upbeat enough. The gradual deployment of a column on the march went down especially well, it being agreed that most rulesets allowing instantaneous deployment of long march columns are not entirely realistic since in real life this would probably not have been so easy. ESR reflects this very elegantly, with the French needing more than an hour in game time to deploy a fifteen-battalion division on the move. This forces people to think well ahead since nobody wants to be caught napping in march column! I'm attaching a few pics to give an impression of the table and forces involved. There hasn't been any firing or combat as yet but this is sure to be the case next session. Until then........
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| The battlefield represents an 8.5 x 3 mile area, which in the 100 yard scale translates into a whopping 12.5 x 4.5 feet table. |
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| In the foreground San Julien's division approaches Hausen in column. Beyond the village, other Austrian units are deployed. The French III Corps can be seen in march column in the distance along the opposite edge of the table. |
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| The bulk of Rosenborg's IV Korps marching through Hellring (top) and Pairing (bottom). | | |
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| San Julien chooses to bypass Hausen and crosses the Feckingerbach on the way to Teugen. |
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| Seeing Lusignan's division top the high ground to his left, St Hilaire commences to deploy his troops from march column. |
