Worst Case Scenario #13 - The Assault on the Aspern Churchyard - May 21, 1809

For quite some time I've been wanting to put on a large Sharp Practice game, focusing on the struggle for the Aspern churchyard within the Battle of Aspern-Essling. 

The battle of Aspern-Essling is an engagement that I find both fascinating and exciting. It was epic (HUGE), very close run, and resulted in Napoleon's first significant humiliation on the battlefield. 

Other reasons I was particularly keen to put this on twas that it features Sylvain’s lovely hand-built terrain of the Church and Rectory of Aspern which he made for me several years ago, AND it is graced with many beautiful 28mm Austrian figures from Greg’s collection.

Scenario Background

On May 20th, 1809 French troops began crossing the Danube, just a few miles east of Vienna. They were pursuing the Austrian army, led by Archduke Charles, after a grueling, fast-paced campaign which had been initiated by the ill-stared Austrians.

The lead elements of the French force, under Massena and Lannes, quickly moved onto the Marchfeld plain, establishing themselves in two villages separated by about a mile of raised road. The villages were called Aspern and Essling. They positioned themselves, awaiting the rest of their comrades who were lined up for miles on the opposite side of the Danube, queuing to cross the bridges to the northern bank.

The river's current was fast and in full spring flood. In the midst of the French crossing on the 20th, their pontoon bridges were swept away by debris purposefully launched upriver by the Austrians. This situation created an emergency which left a significant portion of Napoleon's army separated and isolated in hostile territory. Undeterred, the French Emperor was confident that the Austrians were still in withdrawal, so he maintained his position, awaiting repairs to his bridges. 

But the Austrians were not withdrawing. Archduke Charles had massed his Hauptarmee in a broad crescent in the Marchfeld, just out of eyesight of the French. The next morning, the 21st of May, sensing a rare opportunity, the young Austrian aristocrat ordered his army to advance on the French positions around the villages. His columns would strike first at Aspern...

Maps by Jeff Berry @ Obscure Battles

 

This scenario depicts the assault of Hiller’s VI Corps on the 67th Ligne's positions in the Aspern churchyard (the leftmost extremity of Napoleon's tenuous position on the Marshfield). Both the Austrians and French knew that the churchyard was a key tactical feature of the battle and did their utmost to gain and maintain control of it. 

The basis of the scenario is derived from 'Fondler's Waterloo' in the Too Fat Lardies scenario book 'The Complete Fondler'.

Close up of the Churchyard and assaulting Austrians

The action takes place in the mid-afternoon on the 21st, after the French have ejected the Austrian screening force in Aspern. Marshal Massena has just seen Regiment No. 10 Anton Mittrowsky supported by Regiment Klebek approaching from the west and orders Molitor to defend the village to the final extremity.

The table will have the French in possession of the church, rectory and graveyard of Aspern, all ringed by a chest-high stone wall. They will have a defined force, members of the 67e Ligne, to hold the position. The Austrians will assault the position with four waves of infantry from Regiment No. 10 Anton Mittrowsky, supported by Regiment Klebek and heavy artillery support. They have been tasked to overwhelm the defenders and seize the churchyard.

French Force = 144 men TOTAL (18 Groups including Eagle guard) 
8 Command Cards
This force is divided into 3 separate commands, each with it’s own morale rating of 10. 

13 Officers / NCOs:
1 Status IV
3 Status III 
6 Status II 
3 Status I

Each French command is composed of:

1 Status III 
1 Status I 
2 Status II
_______________________________________________

Austrians Assault Force = 104 men for each of 4 waves (13 Groups including one command group) 
7 Command Cards

7 Officers / NCOs
1 Status IV
2 Status III
2 Status II 
2 Status I

The Austrian force (each wave) is composed of one single command, with it’s morale rating being 10

Special Scenario Rules  

- The Austrian guns are abstracted into three 'beaten zones', each with a 10 inch frontage. When fired upon they throw 24 attack dice.

- If the artillery targets a single section of wall it can be reduced by hits on 10 ‘misses’. (original misses are re-rolled and any hits are accrued)

- When the Austrian Artillery card is drawn, randomly determine which of the three batteries will fire.

- The Austrian artillery will be masked by any Austrian troops within 6” of the walls or 6” of the church.

- The Austrian first wave starts at the table edge (they can select any 3 sides to enter). 

- Austrians decide if they wish to withdraw a wave and commit a successive wave. This will involve leaving one group as a marker of the 'highwater' mark of the assault. 

- If a wave is broken it will give a -1 to the 'Army Morale' of succeeding waves. These minuses are cumulative.  

- Marshal Massena has set up his observation post in the graveyard. His presence can help the French troops ignore up to 20 points of Shock. Once the 20 points are 'absorbed' his aides convince him to pull back to a less exposed position. 

- Charles will give one assault wave a +(2D4) to its force morale and also the Aggressive bonus.

- When activated, junior officers/NCOs of both sides can 'nod' to their commanding officer. Four 'nods' will activate that commander. This is in addition to the normal card activation for the commanding officer.


Can the French hold the churchyard? Will the Austrians sweep the French defenders away and award their Archduke with a victory at Aspern?

Here are a few pictures of our run at the scenario.

It was a fun, hard-fought game, with the Austrians slowly wearing down the French over their four assaults. The third attack was accompanied by the Archduke himself and that battalion took the French defenders' eagle before withdrawing to allow the final assault to pass through. A real hammering for both sides but still resulting in a decisive victory for the Austrians.

It was great game with many of dramatic moments running through it. My thanks to all the guys who participated, especially Sylvain for his terrific buildings, and Greg, who brought out his beautiful Austrian figures and who took the majority of these pictures.

 

Guest Post - 28mm Austrian Infantry Officers from GregB

28mm Austrian foot officers from Wargames Foundry

Hello again to the good folks who visit Analogue Hobbies!  It is nice to be back and intruding again with a little guest post here on Curt's blog.  Curt had a recent post featuring some 28mm French infantry officers, and I'm here to foreshadow some opposition to those fellows - featuring a group of stoic, hard-marching and (probably) hapless Habsburg officers from the Austrian Army.

Nice action in this sculpt - more variety would have been nice, but considering the huge range the Perrys did overall for Foundry, it's pretty amazing

I am painting these as I will be visiting Regina this weekend and Curt will be introducing me to "Sharp Practice" from the TooFatLardies. I find the Lardies' rules can at times be an acquired taste, but overall I really like how they embrace different approaches to different rules and settings ("Chain of Command" in particular is brilliant). My 28mm Austrians will be making another trip west down the TransCanada Highway to tangle with Curt's beautiful Napoleonic collection.  I'll save the scenario details for Curt to share, but suffice to say I am pretty psyched for the game!

This fellow is a Hungarian officer, but I snuck him in with some white pants - the big coat covers things up nicely :)

These castings are from Wargames Foundry, sculpted by the Perry twins.  These models are pretty old, and have that slightly plump look which defines a lot of the Foundry castings, versus the leaner look I personally see in the sculpts the Perrys have released under their own name in more recent years.

Love this rotund fellow saluting by doffing his helmet

Unfortunately the posing is not so varied in these Foundry Austrian officer packs so there is a bit of a monopose when they are all together, but overall they still look the business. It has been several years - at least two, maybe more - since my brushes have worked on any Austrian figures, so it is nice to be back in the groove a bit.  It was slow going at first, trying to remember how to approach the white coats etc. but having painted a good size pile of these fellows already, my memory caught up pretty quickly after the first figure.

A mix of facing colours are present - hopefully to help differentiate in the game

I left the groundwork neutral and barren - if I enjoy "Sharp Practice", I'll add more detail to it, but otherwise I will dig them out of the bases and use them for other purposes related to my 28mm forces, probably starting as a cadre to get another big 40-casting battalion started...

I know my toy Hapsburgs are looking forward to another tangle with Napoleon and his pretentious lackeys!  We can make Austria Great Again! And I can't wait to see Curt and the folks in Regina once more!

There was word of some snow in the forecast today...that has me thinking it will not be long until the next Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is upon us? How many points would this have been worth...?

From GregB: 40K Imperial Fist Space Marines, Dreadnought, Rhinos & Terminators (120 points)

From Greg:

I'm continuing to round out my sci-fi Space Marines from GW's Warhammer 40k line. This submission includes an officer, a group of scouts, and a dreadnought. 

The officer is a plastic kit from GW - the only change I made was to use a spare "beakie" helmet to help him fit in with the other Crimson Fist marines. Otherwise it is a very similar kit to the one Byron submitted recently. I've marked a "III" on his knee pad to represent his company. He carries a storm bolter (heavy automatic rifle of the dark future) and a scary power sword. 

The scouts are a mix of new plastic models and two metal models. They are nearly all armed with sniper rifles, save the one fellow carrying a rocket launcher (one supposes to "snipe" vehicles perhaps?). I really like the look of these oversize, scary sniper rifles, although I'm not sure how well the idea of light infantry fits in with the ominous feel of a Space Marine chapter. But they are fun models - between the rifles, the optics, the cloaks, a lot of fun details to paint. 

The dreadnought is from GW's current line of plastic kits, armed with an assault cannon (high velocity rotary cannon of the dark future), a power fist for smashing things/people, and a little bolt gun under the power fist. The dreadnought armour units give the Space Marines even more "oomph" on the battlefield. They are powered by the will of a severely wounded marine who is essentially entombed in the suit…how grim, very suitable for the setting.

The Forge World is continuing to fire up here in Winnipeg. Here are three more vehicles for my Crimson Fist Space Marines - two "Rhino" APCs and one "Razorback" APC. These are all plastic model kits from GW. 

My Crimson Fist marines are mostly Rogue Trader era figures, but these models are from GW's contemporary range. I really, really enjoy them, and they scale up very nicely with the old Rogue Trader figures. 

The Rhinos are very basic, capable of carrying ten marines into the fighting. The Razorback is a kind of hybrid vehicle, designed to carry some heavy weapons to support the Marines, but at the expense of room in the troop compartment - it only carries five Marines. The vehicle is often associated with command roles, and to reflect that I mounted the little command bits on this particular vehicle, along with a twin-barrelled heavy laser cannon to help deal with nasty bad guys. 

My Crimson Fists have gone from walking to having a few different "rides" to choose from now - enough APCs to carry 35 of them into a firefight. Watch out Orks! 

Finally, here is a squad of 28mm Terminator Marines from the Crimson Fist Chapter. The figures are pewter models from Games Workshop. These are old school Rogue Trader era models - not quite the original Terminators, but close. 

The Terminators represent the elite shock troops of a Space Marine chapter. The armour is very, very tough and reinforced, allowing the Marines to carry heavy weapons into firefights. They are also equipped with "power fists", heavy armoured gloves sheathed in a power field that allow the Marines to shatter armour, bulkheads and other enemies of the Emperor.

There are enough Terminators here to form a five-man squad, with an option of a heavy flamethrower or rotary-barrelled cannon as a squad support weapon. There is one sergeant figure (the fellow with the sword) and three regular grunts. The shoulder insignia were hand painted once again - mixed results, but not terrible.

These models are long out of production, and were acquired in bits and bobs over Ebay. These days GW has very nice plastic Terminator models. They are quite beautiful - bigger, more action-oriented and they have all sorts of extras to choose from. But these old Rogue Trader models are beauties. 

This represents the end of my Crimson Fist build up for now - my collection has gone from 20 assorted infantry models to almost 60 marines complete with command, vehicles and support. How fun! That is why these painting challenges are great - they get you moving in a direction, and off you go!

Wowza, that is a heap of Space Marines Greg! These guys look brilliant (I think those hand-painted shoulder insignias look ace). I like that in your text you describe their functions and roles - for the uninitiated it gives a bit of context to the various figures and models. Well done. 

This wide selection of marines and their vehicles will give Greg 120 points.

From GregB: 40K 'Victorian' Imperial Guard (55 points)

Greg sends in these 40K Imperial Guardsmen who seem themed as Crimean period Russians. 

From Greg: 

Another science fiction entry - a squad of ten "Vostroyan" Imperial Guardsmen from GW's Warhammer 40,000 range. There is an NCO with a pistol, a two-man heavy bolter team (heavy MG weapon) and a dude with a flamethrower. The rest have laser rifles. They are metal (yay!) castings. I think the range was originally released sometime in 2006 or 2007, and as far as I know it is one of the very last "themed" metal Imperial Guard ranges GW ever released. 

There is a unique look and feel to these castings, and I find they provoke strong views. People either love them or hate them. I'm obviously in the first camp - to me these castings really capture the dark, dystopian spirit of the Warhammer 40k setting. Even though they are (relatively) contemporary sculpts, they very much capture the feel of the original Rogue Trader game, much more than any of the other conventional Imperial Guard figures available today.

Clad in bearskins, bits of medieval style armour, armed with rifles that look as large and ornate as polearms, to me they are spooky and beautiful. The faces that are visible are drawn, worn and dark. It's like someone gave a picture of an Austrian Grenadier from 1809 to John Blanche and said "go nuts". These seem to me a very fitting portrayal of a "regular" force army that would be assembled in the setting of the Rogue Trader rulebook, either to defend and planetary governor, or slog through a horrible military campaign somewhere in the "grim darkness of the far future".

Many people loathe these same design features, particularly if they already dislike the GW style and the 40k setting, and I can see their point, so my apologies to any challenges who hate these figures!

And upon careful, thorough and balanced evaluation, I have determined that there are a number of Victorian influences to be found within these science fiction soldiers, and as such I shall also consider them a "Victorian" submission - right fellas?

I actually quite like these castings which is funny as I despise the ones they produced that had the guys in the pith helmets - go figure. The bearskin hats, mega-moustaches and archaic looking laser rifles are very cool. I also like the white and blue-trimmed colour scheme - it gives them an almost ceremonial air.

Michael, help me out here. The way I understand it these figures can't possibly be Victorian as I see no gypsy influence at all. ;P  Perhaps if they had bells on their toes and tambourines strapped to their hips...

These Guardsmen will give Greg 55 points.