Battle of Reishach - Set Up

0800 21 June 1813

Transfer from Map to Wargames Table

Tactical Map at start of battle

Campaign Background

Archduke Charles has ordered an attack on Reishach by 1,3 and 4 corps to destroy the enemy before they can move 11 corps north and take his army in the flank.

Marshal Oudinot expects Charles to withdraw his army to the east following his defeat at Salzburg. He orders 9,10 and 12 corps to strike at Branau before they can retire. 11 corps will abandon Salzburg and march north against their left flank at Mattsee.

The battle starts at 0800 20 June 1813.

Wargames table at start of battle

Wargames Table
Reishach is the town at the top left of the table
The road bottom to top is from Hochburg (bottom) to Simbach (top)
The road left to right is from Muhldorf (left) to Branau (right)

9 and 10 Bavarian, and 12 Baden, corps have orders to attack Branau
1, 3 and 4 Austrian corps have orders to attack Reishach.


Game Notes
This is an encounter battle and all corps are on Move orders. Order of march for all corps is the standard one cavalry, first infantry brigade, artillery then remaining three infantry brigades. All start the game in column of march.

The head of each corps column is on the table at the start of the battle, and they must continue to move through moves 1 and 2. Orders can be changed from the start of move 3.




New Move Orders
For some time we have been trying to counter the disadvantage of attacker over defender due to the command points system. Under the present rules the corps commander must use one point to move each brigade and even himself. This means the attacker requires at least 7 command points to move himself and his whole corps. He rolls one average dice and adds 3 if he is Gifted, 2 if Average and 1 if Poor. So the range is between 3 and 8.

The result is that most attacking corps take most of the game moving within attack range, and most defending corps can quickly and effortlessly react to any initiative from the attacker.

To overcome this we are testing a new rule. A corps commander can move himself and as many brigades as he wants for one command point providing that each brigade is within 2” of each other and the commander within 8” of the centre of the leading or centre brigade.