Chevalier Plays AGEOD Let's Play/AAR

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

You'd think the loss of Vienna would cut your Morale more.  Is there no option to send spies to France to try to learn their tactics or something?  The early years of this game sound pretty dull if you're not playing as Napoleon.

I was kind of shocked to find that the game doesn't give me options for speeding up army reforms. It also doesn't let me control the coalition as a whole (absent clunky loading each power individually from the main menu) - which is different from Rise of Prussia (you control France/Austria/Russia/Sweden/Reich vs Hanover/Hesse-Kessel/Prussia), To End All Wars (Western Entente or Eastern Entente vs Central Powers), Wars of Succession (Bourbon powers vs Grand Alliance or Sweden vs literally all anti-Swedish powers), where you control entire alliances. The result is a particularly slow opening for Austria, as all I can do is just wait to get pummeled by France. 

The early years are more interesting for Britain (can raid French colonies and the coast while building up an army), Russia (distant from France and has early opponents in the Ottomans and Sweden available), and Prussia (no immediate war with France and lots of small German states around), so I think it would have been better to continue the alliance system from other games. Let me control the entire Third Coalition! Then I'd be moving British and Russian troops around right now, too, instead of watching the AI wander around the map (the entire Russian army is in the Caucasus right now, beating up Georgian tribesmen). 

I may need to start doing the clunky-loading thing to speed things up, if 1806 isn't more fun than 1805 was.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Does the AI at least behave in strange ways?  If that's the case, it might be more fun to watch them lose to the Georgian tribesmen than to manually control them through "clunky loading".

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Historian's Corner: 1805 in reality

Austria and Russia joined Britain in the Third Coalition shortly after Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy. The powers attempted to induce Prussia to join them, as well, but the weak King Frederick William III was unwilling to confront Napoleon just yet. So, the Allied staffs busily prepared a campaign without Prussian help to confront Napoleon's new Grande Armee, redress the humiliations of 1796 and 1800, and restore Europe to its 1789 state. 

The Austrian plan of campaign was, basically, terrible. The Emperor's brother Charles would lead the main army of 95,000 men in Italy, which the Aulic council (the Austrian council of state) insisted must be recovered for reasons of Habsburg prestige. They also anticipated Napoleon, following his historical pattern, would make his main effort in that theater. Meanwhile, the Emperor's other brother, Ferdinand, would lead an army of 72,000 men through Bavaria towards the Rhine. The third archduke, John, would serve as a liaison between his brothers in the Alps with 22,000 men. Further Austrian detachments would distract the French with offensives in southern Italy and Pomerania. For their part, the Russians dispatched one corps under Mikhail Kutusov with 35,000 men to link up wth Mack by October 20th, followed by Buxhowden's corps, 40,000 strong, close behind. Finally, a third Russian corps under Bennigsen with 20,000 men would march via Bohemia into Franconia and screen the Prussians. 


Strategic situation at the start of the 1805 campaign. 

In our game, the Russians made only a late effort to send Kutusov to my aid - he's hanging out around Buda at the moment, while most of the Russian army is in Georgia. I also obviously followed a defensive, even passive strategy instead of Austria's historical aggressive deployments forward in Italy and in Bavaria.

This plan sucked. Napoleon had no intention of making his main effort in Italy and left Marshal Massena with 50,000 men to contain Charles. Instead, he planned to crash down on the Danube and race to Vienna to knock Austria out of hte war in a single titanic blow, and concentrated nearly 200,000 men on the Rhine for this purpose. Secondly, Austria dispersed its troops with harebrained schemes - for example, the 'diversions' in Naples and Pomerania. It was apparently never considered that these efforts to 'distract' French troops were already distracting Austrian troops from the main theater. John was given 22,000 men to no real purpose in the Alps. Thirdly, the grotesque incompetence of the Austrian staff not only led them to set an impossible rendezvous date for Kutusov to reach Mack, but the fucking jokers in the ops department forgot that Russia does not use the Gregorian calendar. This screwup is on the level of NASA messing up its conversions to metric on a Mars probe. Kutusov, already hopelessly behind schedule, was a further ten days off than Austrian planners allowed. In the fourth place, apart from Charles the archdukes had no military experience or indeed aptitude. Mack was placed as a babysitter over Ferdinand with the Army of Bavaria. Both men were nominally in charge of the army - while Kutusov was under orders to obey the direction of the Emperor of Austria or one of the Archdukes, but no one else. Accordingly, Austrian command in Germany was a chaotic muddle. The result, especially matched up with probably the greatest military genius in the history of the world, was predictable disaster.

The campaign of Ulm

Napoleon, when he abandoned his hopes of invading England and resolved to deal with the gathering coalition against him, rapidly marched the Grande Armee from its camps along the Channel at Boulougne across northern France to the Rhine. He was able to do this with a speed that would have astonished the lumbering armies of Rise of Prussia due to revolutionary (pun intended) innovations in French command, control, and organization. Under Frederick the largest permanent organization was the regiment, which typically only fielded a battalion at a time in battle. Larger brigades and task groups were ad-hoc. The French, though, had created the division - multiple battalions, batteries, and squadrons all serving permanently under a single commander, trained and integrated as one. The division, in turn, enabled the permanent corps - a miniature army of multiple divisions with its own supporting headquarters, medical staff, supply organization, engineering support, etc. A corps could march independently and fight independently on its own. This flexible organization allowed the French army to march rapidly across widely separated roads, live off the land by and large, and then rapidly concentrate for battle to overwhelm an opponent, all directed by the mind of Napoleon at central headquarters. In 1805, the Grande Armee consisted of seven corps:

• I Corps, under Marshal Bernadotte, 2 infantry and 1  cavalry division, 17,000 men.
  
• II Corps, General Marmont, 3 infantry and 1 cavalry division, 20,000 men.
  
• III Corps, Marshal Davout, 3 infantry and 1 cavalry division, 26,000 men.
  
• IV Corps, Marshal Soult, 4 infantry and 1 cavalry division, 40,000 men.
  
• V Corps, Marshal Lannes, 2 infantry and 1 cavalry division, 18,000 men.
  
• VI Corps, Marshal Ney, 3 infantry and 1 cavalry division, 24,000 men.
  
• VII Corps, Marshal Augereau, 2 infantry divisions, 14,000 men.
  

In addition was the Imperial Guard, Murat's central cavalry reserve (22,000 strong), and assembling reserve formations, in all over 200,000 soldiers descending on Ferdinand/Mack's 70,000 at Ulm - much too far ahead for Kutusov's lagging Russians to arrive in time to support them. 


The campaign of Ulm, from my copy of Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon, where most of this post was written from. 

Lannes and Murat together feinted through the Black Forest towards Ulm, while the other six corps marched with astonishing rapidity from further down the Rhine across Germany, around Mack's left flank, towards Regensburg on the Danube - deep in the Austrian rear. Mack watched the movements in front of him mesmerized, like a rabbit frozen in front of a snake. Crossing the Rhine on September 25, 1805, by October 2nd the army  began swinging south to cut Mack's line of retreat. By the 7th, leading French formations were south of the Danube and beginning to circle back west to fall on the Austrian rear. Over the next week, skirmishes and minor battles erupted all around Mack, who was convinced the French were retreating across the lower slopes of the Alps back towards the Rhine to deal with a British invasion and escape from a trap between his army and Kutusov's. But in actuality, the Russians were still over 200 miles away, there was no British invasion, and his entire army was well and truly trapped at Ulm. In a series of running fights all around southern Germany, first 8,000, then 12,000, and finally Mack's entire remaining army of 30,000 men were swept up and captured by the Grande Armee. About 16,000 cavalry managed to cut their way out of the encirclement, but by and large the Army of Bohemia was destroyed within the first month of the campaign. 


Mack surrenders at Ulm, 20 October, 1805

In our history, I never ordered Mack forward to Ulm, instead staying out of Bavaria entirely near Salzburg. When the French invasion began with Napoleon marching through Tyrolia, I ordered an initial retreat to the region of Linz, and then abandoned Austria entirely to preserve the army and fall back to Hungary. As a result, Napoleon reached Vienna on Oct 1, a month earlier than in 'real' time, but I preserved a much larger proportion of the Austrian army.

The campaign of Vienna

After the fall of Ulm, Napoleon turned east. Kutusov's 35,000 men had fallen back through Bavaria and linked up with 22,000 Austrian stragglers; Buxhowden with 30,000 men was marching through Moravia to link up, Bennigsen's 20,000 was nearing the Austrian frontier, Archduke John still had 20,000 in the Tyrol, Ferdinand, who had escaped Ulm, was rallying 8,000 survivors of Ulm in Bohemia, and Charles's powerful army of 90,000 men, after a series of drawn battles with Massena in Italy, was believed to be marching towards Vienna. To top it all, Prussia with 200,000 men was expected to enter the war by late December. So, despite wiping out a quarter of the Austrian army, Napoleon might still see 400,000 men descending on the Grande Armee by the end of the year. He had to exploit Austria's temporary window of vulnerability or else be overwhelmed. 


Pursuit to Vienna - 26 October - 15 November, 1805

Like a river bursting its dam, the French army poured down the valley of the Danube in a torrent, sweeping all before it. Kutusov desperately raced to keep ahead of the French, narrowly escaping Murat's cavalry reserve and safely escaping to the north side of the river by November 9. Napoleon furiously berated his cavalry commander for blundering and allowing Kutusov to escape, but on November 12 Murat and Marshal Lannes personally captured the vital bridges over the Danube in Vienna itself - bluffing the Austrian garrison into surrendering the bridge through sheer force of character. The French army raced to cut Kutusov's escape and poured over the bridges to the north bank of the Danube, but again the wily Russian had kept ahead and continued his flight into lower Moravia, where he was able to link up at last with reinforcements at Olmutz. The weary Grande Army staggered to halt at Brunn, north of Vienna, on November 23. In 8 weeks' campaigning they had fought a dozen minor battles, suffered casualties, destroyed one enemy army, and run themselves ragged. 

Napoleon now faced a crisis. The Allied army - a mixed Russian/Austrian force totalling some 90,000 men, with the emperors of Austria and Russia themselves personally in attendance, were strongly posted at Olmutz with no vulnerable flanks or lines of communication to cut. Napoleon's army of 200,000 was now stretched from its base at the Rhine all the way up the valley of the Danube, with those communications threatened by John and Charles south of the Alps and Prussia's slow stirring in the north. If Napoleon marched with his available forces - only about 70,000 men due to all the detachments to guard his communications - to attack the Allies at Olmutz, there was no guarantee of success and he would stretch his LoC even further. The Allies might even withdraw further and lure him deeper into Moravia or even Poland, all the while Prussian intervention drew nearer. If he stayed put in Brunn, he placed himself between two fires - Charles and John were marching towards the Danube with over 100,000 fresh Austrians, while the mixed army in front of him could expect Bennigsen's reinforcements soon, and of course, the Prussian question. The safest course would have been a withdrawal back up the Danube valley to consolidate his communications and concentrate his army for a battle, but this would surrender the moral advantage won at Ulm and be a fairly hefty strategic defeat after the failed pursuit of Kutusov. 


General situation, 25 November

Napoleon found his way out of the dilemma: all would be solved if the Austro-Russian army at Olmutz could be destroyed. It could not be attacked, nor could it be allowed to stay in place; therefore, it must be induced to attack him. A grand battle, a great victory, and all would be resolved. He put the Grande Armee in motion once more on November 21. Marmont's II corps was covering the southern front against Charles, with Davout's III Corps and Mortier's VIII corps (made of divisions cannibalized from other corps and Bavarian allied troops) in supporting distance. Soult's IV Corps and Lanne's V Corps, with Murat's cavalry, would advance up the Olmutz road to the little town of Austerlitz and the nearby Pratzen heights, about 53,000 Frenchmen a tempting target for 90,000 Allies. When the emperors took the bait, Napoleon would summon Davout and Bernadotte's I Corps from their positions on his southern and northern flanks respectively to join him on the day of battle, bringing the French up to 75,000. 

A flurry of deceptions further lured in the Allies. Napoleon asked for an armistice on November 27, which was seized on by young firebrands in the Allied HQ as a sure sign of French weakness. Emperor Josef was cautious, as was Kutusov, but Emperor Alexander and the Austrian staff urged immediate action. Then the French evacuated Austerlitz and the Pratzen heights and began to withdraw to the west, and the Allies eagerly pursued. Napoleon even entertained Allied staff officers under flags of truce and gave every appearance of nervousness and trepidation (while quietly the French emperor sent out orders to Davout and Bernadotte to march with all speed to Austerlitz). 

Finally, Napoleon needed to manuever the Allies into just the right position for battle - he needed to destroy them, not win a bloody draw like Frederick at Zorndorf or Torgau. He needed to cut off their retreat, scatter the army - and do it with numerical inferiority. Accordingly, Bonaparte weakened his right flank - which covered the road to Vienna. The Allies saw that if they could break the French right, they would cut off the emperor's retreat - and be in position to destroy him. Of course, to do so, they would have to weaken their own right flank, which covered their line of retreat towards Olmutz...but they were so much more powerful than the French that retreat was not to be thought of. Eagerly, the allies came forward to Austerlitz.

[shallow_thought]

matched up with probably the greatest military genius in the history of the world

I find it interesting to compare Napolean with  Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, perhaps his most obvious parallels (at least to a western mind). They all share extremely high military and (short term) political competence with a willingness to take very, very large risks - perhaps because, in the end, they didn't actually are much about anything except their own personal glory and were quite willing to sacrifice everyone else on that altar if necessary. I suspect that there have been both equally competent military leaders who are less famous because they weren't as willing to see their countries burn if they failed, and a fair few near "geniuses" who history remembers as idiots because their gambles did not pay off.

But they were certainly entertaining ... .

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

matched up with probably the greatest military genius in the history of the world

I find it interesting to compare Napolean with  Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, perhaps his most obvious parallels (at least to a western mind). They all share extremely high military and (short term) political competence with a willingness to take very, very large risks - perhaps because, in the end, they didn't actually are much about anything except their own personal glory and were quite willing to sacrifice everyone else on that altar if necessary. I suspect that there have been both equally competent military leaders who are less famous because they weren't as willing to see their countries burn if they failed, and a fair few near "geniuses" who history remembers as idiots because their gambles did not pay off.

But they were certainly entertaining ... .

I would defend Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander, and Frederick all from this charge. In what I think is order of talent:

Frederick wanted to make Prussia a great power and incorrectly thought he could win Silesia off a weak Habsburg queen as part of the normal course of 18th century politics, overestimating what a great battle could accomplish. He also was a typical Prussian diplomat - ie, bad, and managed to piss off France, Austria, Sweden, and Russia by 1756. But the Seven Year's War was mostly forced on him, and he had no real alternative to his aggressive strategy of trying to knock off one of his foes first. And his enemies were clear about their intentions to dismember and destroy Prussia if they won - so Freddie, while an indifferent tactician, isn't really a personal-glory type of general but was a legitimate king who cared about the welfare of his state (and he certainly shared his soldiers' dangers, nearly being killed several times, last and most notably at Torgau). 

Caesar was a typical Roman politician - willing to spend lots of men's blood to feed his own ambition. But he's a product of his culture and of his times. He frequently showed mercy to his enemies (to his own downfall), was generous and beloved by his men and by the common people of Rome, and was the most gifted politician of the four. 

Alexander can be accused of starting the most wars for personal glory, and for fits of rage and pique - notably the destruction of Thebes and Tyre, his murder of Cleitus, and the murder of Parmenion. But at the same time, the Hellenic world had been at war with the Persians for over a century when he took over Phillip's army, and he had a more enlightened view than most of cultural tolerance and fusion, shared his men's dangers at every turn (note his refusal of water in Gedrosia, and his near-death at the hands of the Aspasioi). He didn't lead Macedon to destruction for his own glory, but actually managed to establish a Greek political system over the entire East that lasted nearly a thousand years after his death. 

Finally, I defend Napoleon most of all. Remember Napoleon almost always was the defending party in his wars - France was attacked by the First Coalition in 1792 (ended by Napoleon in 1797), by the Second in 1799 (ended by Napoleon in 1801), by the Third in 1805 (ended by Napoleon at Austerlitz), by the Fourth in 1806 (ended by Napoleon in 1807), by the Fifth in 1809 (ended by Napoleon at Wagram), and by the Seventh in 1815. The only aggressive wars he launched were in Spain (admittedly a holocaust that consumed half the French army) and the war of the Sixth Coalition against Russia in 1812 (also a holocaust that consumed the other half of the army). And he certainly set up his own glory during these times - but he also made France the premier power in Europe, was an enlightened despot whose Code still forms the basis of civil law in half of Europe, and of course showed more talent than anyone before or since in understanding his tools and applying them. Unlike Caesar and Alexander, he beat symmetrical opponents time and time and time again, so much so that he began to believe he could overcome anything, including time and space - hence the Russian disaster. He wasn't perfect, but he was damned near to it and closer than any other commander has gotten, I think.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Military history isn't my specialty, but Khalid ibn al-Walid came to mind in the "greatest commanders" list of candidates since he was essential to the expansion of the Rashidun Caliphate.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Historian's Corner, 1805 pt 2: The Battle of Austerlitz

Let's dive in-depth into just one Napoleonic battle, for a couple of reasons. One, to just appreciate Napoleon's talent on the battlefield as much as on the campaign map (and why AGEOD rates him as such a gifted commander - he's basically unbeatable in-game as well), and second, to serve as example for future battles, so both in future historian's corners and in our own game exploration we'll have a feel for what's happening on the ground when these results get reported. 


Dispositions on 1 December, 1805, the eve of battle. 

The battlefield at Austerlitz is divided into two by the little Goldbach stream. Along the north side runs the Brunn - Olmutz highway, and comparatively open terrain. In the center, the Pratzen Heights rise 1,000 feet above the plain just east of the Goldbach. To the south, little villages lie among streams and fishponds along the road to Vienna. 

The Allied plan, advanced by Austrian chief of staff General Weyrother (who displaced the more cautious Kutusov as commander in chief), was more or less exactly what Napoleon wanted them to do: They would strike the weak French right flank and sever their retreat to Vienna, then turn north and envelop Napoleon as his army fled in panic for Brunn just to the north. Buxhowden with his 40,000-men corps would lead the main attack, supported by 20,000 Austrians - 2/3 of the entire Allied army. The attack was divided into three - Doctorov's advance guard, Langeron's column, and Przbysewski's third column, to be joined by a fourth column under Kollowrat and Miloradovitch's mixed Austrian-Russian corps. Meanwhile, Prince Bagratian would occupy the French left with a diversionary attack, Lichtenstein's 6,000 cavalry would maintain a link between Bagratian and the attack on the right, and Grand Duke Constantine would command the only Allied reserves, the Imperial Guard of 8,000 men. 

It need not be said that dividing the Allied army into 7 different parts, with 2 emperors and a huge headquarters squabbling over tactics, and denuding their center and the vital ground of the Pratzen Heights of troops in order to throw everything into the rough terrain on the French right, was a fucking terrible plan. There were basically no reserves to respond to unexpected French moves, the center was gruesomely vulnerable with only Lichtenstein's cavalry covering it, Bagratian was well out of supporting distance, and most of the attack troops were a mix of nationalities, commanders from different chains of command who had never worked together before, and all packed into too-small a space for their numbers. The danger to the center was noted at the Allied council of war on December 1, but Weyrother dismissed it - Napoleon was half-beaten already, as evidenced by his panicked withdrawal from the Pratzen the day before, and besides, the Russian Imperial Guard could deal with any surprises in that sector. The Allies had swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker. 

Napoleon massed the vast majority of his troops behind the Santon heights, a low ridge just west of the Goldbach, where they would be concealed from Allied scouts until the decisive moment. One division was to hold his right until III Corps could come up, while on the left V Corps would defend the road to Brunn supported by Murat. Bernadotte's I Corps had come up and was in reserve. Soult's IV Corps would make the main attack - storming the Pratzen and breaking the Allied center. The final reserve was the Imperial Guard. 


Allied and French plans overlaid, from Chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon.

His orders issued, Napoleon slept well the night of December 1, while the Allied staffs argued late into the night. 

December 2 dawned with a thick mist hanging over the low ground around the Goldbach, shrouding the entire French army from Allied scouts atop the Pratzen. The first Russians and Austrians were shaken out of their bivouacs and began marching to the southern flank at about 3 am, grumbling and cursing to mask their nervousness on the day of battle. Across the way, French soldiers were roused at about 4 am and began to take up their allotted positions for the day's work. The heavy fog and mist, the tens of thousands of men stumbling over the hills towards the French right, the chaotic confusion of languages and uniforms, reduced the Allied attack to a shambles before it even reached its jumping-off point. But by 7, as the December sun began to peek over the horizon, the legions of the three emperors were in place and the battle of Austerlitz began. 

Keinmeyer's advance guard threw themselves at the village of Tellnitz, a little hamlet of wattle houses and thatch roofs, defended by Legrand's division of Soult's IV Corps. At first Legrand held off Kienmayer's 13,000, but by 8 Doctorov's second column loomed out of the fog and over 20,000 Russians hurled the French out of the village. To the north, Langeron and Przbysewski's divisions were storming the hamlet of Zokolnitz. The entire French right flank was aflame with the sounds of musketry and cannon fire. The French fed in reinforcements judiciously, fighting house to house, as Allied columns stormed in, ducked their shoulders beneath the sleet of musket balls and canister fire hurled at them, like men hunching in the rain, and then went in with the bayonet. A fierce struggle - men stabbing, clawing at each other, firing - and then the scattered survivors fleeing back over the open ground, lashed by French cannon, as yet another brigade came in to try its luck. By 8:30 the Allies had overcome this hamlet, too - but by now Davout had come up.

The Iron Marshal of III Corps, personally on the scene since the previous evening, calmly organized a counterattack and threw in a brigade. Austrian cavalry, attempting to pursue the fleeing survivors of the garrison, fell upon them - hussars riding out of the thick fog and gunsmoke to saber men down individually. The only defense against cavalry in the open is to form square, but in the confusion the French battalions had not noticed the horsemen until too late. But they rallied to their standards, men clustering together with their bayonets forming iron hedges for protection, and drove off the Austrian horse with disciplined volleys. By 8:30 the disorganized Allies had been hurled once more out of the village. Again the Russians hurled in reinforcements and half an hour later it was back in their hands. So the struggle for the right swayed back and forth through the morning, as over 40,000 Austrians and Russians descended on the weak flank. 

Through this struggle, in the center, Napoleon calmly waited next to Marshal Soult for the sun to burn off the mist and reveal the Pratzen. As it began to lift, his staff officers gasped to see "torrents" of men flooding off the heights and towards their flank, grinning to each other. They urged the Emperor to launch the attack, but Napoleon was patient. "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake," he replied, then turned to Soult - "How long will it take you to move your divisions to the top of the Pratzen Heights?"

"Less than twenty minutes, Sire," was the reply.

"In that case, we will wait a further quarter of an hour." Napoleon watched, just a little longer, as more troops vacated the heights and the Allied center grew weaker, and weaker. Timing was everything - too early and his troops would plunge into the mass of Allied infantry in a sanguinary struggle atop the Pratzen. Too late and his flank might collapse entirely. At last, he gave the word. It was 9:00 in the morning. 


Situation, 0900

Orders echoed up and down Soult's waiting divisions - Vandamme and St. Hilaire, the two best divisions in the whole damn army. Drums beat the charge, men moved off in step, and as they splashed across the Goldbach, suddenly, like a curtain being lifted, the last of the mists burned away and the sunlight glinted on their bayonets - the legendary sun of Austerlitz. Allied observers gasped in shock as two entire French divisions roared up the heights as suddenly as if they had sprung out of the ground. There was little opposition - the Heights were vacant - and in twenty minutes the top of the plateau was French. Only Kutusov was close enough to spot the danger - he halted the columns near him, turned them about, and the doughty old Russian marshal led the first desperate counterattacks against the wedge being driven into the Allied center. 

Away to the north, on the French left, Bagration had been passive, and Napoleon ordered I Corps to shift to support Soult's attack. Bagration now intervened, Russians pitching into the French columns, and now Lannes and Murat came forward in support of I Corps. Soon the fighting became general and by 1000 the entire French left was locked in furious combat with the Russians. Horsemen swarmed Cafarelli's division - but Kellermann's Light Cavalry division intervened and in a swirling contest of saber against saber the Russians were beaten off - with heavy losses for Kellermann. Bagration's 30 cannon took a heavy toll on Lanne's V Corps - 400 men from Cafarelli's command were lost in less than 3 minutes from the Russian barrage. Attack was followed by counterattack, as villages were cleared at bayonet point before the disorganized victors were turned out next by enemy reinforcements. 


French Cuirassiers 

As the two sides momentarily recoiled, Murat glimpsed an opening to sever Bagration from the rest of the Allied army and threw his cavalry into the gap. Three thousand French horse started forward, to be met by 6,000 Russians as Bagration, clearly spotting Murat's intentions, threw every available squadron in to stop him. Two regiments of heavy cuirassiers - breastplates gleaming, the largest horses in the French army, heavy sabers, plumed helmets streaming in the wind - slammed into the Allied horse with so loud an impact that it's been reported it was heard all over the field, over the musketry and cannon fire and battlecries. Lichtenstein's cavalry were overwhelmed and began to dissolve, abandoning the field. On their right, Lannes' infantrymen were steadily mowing their way through Bagration's divisions. By noon, the battle on the north had virtually isolated Bagration from the rest of the army as Napoleon designed. 

In the center, the battle had only just begun with the fall of the Pratzen. Langeron flung in troops from the south, Kutusov led up his cobbled-together task force from the southeast, and Kollowrat's troops came on from the east. St. Hilaire's division was assailed in the front and on both flanks - but the cream of the French army held out doggedly, then counter-charged with bayonets, momentarily repulsing the Allies. Soult rushed up in person with his reserve battery of artillery, the marshal directing hte fire of the guns himself as the French clung to the plateau with their fingernails. Langeron's men were torn to shreds by Soult's guns, and by 11 he was recoiling back to the south. To St. Hilaire's left, Vandamme's division grappled with Kollowrat and with Miloradovitch, but by noon these, too, were beaten and withdrawing. 

So, too, on the right was the situation stabilizing. The French flank had come near to breaking, but as the struggle on the Pratzen developed Langeron had led his men off, relieving some pressure, and then Kutusov had summoned most of the unengaged troops here as reinforcements. Soult's cavalry, not able to get into the fight atop the heights, slashed in and out of the Allied columns as they attempted to disengage and countermarch, and Davout's arriving corps began to assemble a firm defensive line along the Goldbach, then pressed forward. 10,000 Frenchmen locked 35,000 Allies in place in a furious battle of attrition over the hamlets and millponds. 

Napoleon now prepared hsi final stroke. Lannes and Murat drove Bagration back - so Bernadotte's I Corps was pulled out and joined with the Imperial Guard in the center to form his mass of decision. Soult drove Kollowrat back and off the plateau, Davout held the right. Now the Emperor would envelop Buxhowden's badly exposed command, and destroy them. All that stood between him and that goal was the last Allied reserve - the Russian Imperial Guard. 

Grand Duke Constantine threw his men and horse forward in one last furious counterattack. The Russian infantry were so eager for battle that they raced up the slopes of the Pratzen - out of breath when they came within musket range. Nevertheless, they overwhelmed the first French line and stormed on - to be brought up short by crashing volleys from the second line. Vandamme's division on the left was savaged by Russian cuirassiers as the grenadiers of the Guard came on a second time. Vandamme threw in his last reserves, two battalions of the 4th Line Regiment, but the men were overwhelmed and fled backwards in a panic, almost sweeping the Emperor himself away in the rout. 


The Guard capture the 4th's eagle

But the Allies had shot their bolt. Constantine had no reserves on hand to exploit the success, and Napoleon plugged the hole with the Guard cavalry. The struggle was fiercely contested, but the Russian Guard gradually and grudgingly gave ground - when now General Druoet's division, dispatched on his own initiative by Bernadotte from I Corps, arrived on the field. The French Imperial Guard came on again, Drouet's fresh troops piled into the Russian flank, and the Russian Guard dissolved, fleeing the field. Their commander, Prince Repnine, was himself captured and escorted personally to the Emperor. Napoleon remarked, "Many fine ladies of St. Petersburg will lament this day." Bernadotte poured his entire corps into the pursuit and the Allied center ceased to exist. It was shortly after 2 in the afternoon.


Prince Repnin is presented to Napoleon atop the Pratzen.


Situation 1400. Lannes and Murat pursue Bagration to the north. Bernadotte drives the Allied center into retreat. The rest of the French turn on Buxhowden's isolated battle group. 

Now came the endgame. Soult, Davout, and the Guard were now ringing Buxhowden, who was isolated from the main army and without orders. Too late, the Russian marshal attempted to withdraw to the east, and to fight his way north up the Goldbach - but Vandamme and St. Hilaire's battle-weary divisions were already blocking the way east and north. From the west Davout's footsore but relatively fresh soldiers crowded in, the Guard and Soult pushed down from the north and then the east as well, and the way south was blocked by the frozen ponds and streams. Half of Langeron's division was captured. Przbysewski surrendered his column. Buxhowden lost half his men, though the marshal himself escaped. Doctorov was totally isolated in the south and his command dissolved into every man for himself. Only 5,000 Russians were present in this portion of the battlefield by this time, so the claims that 20,000 men drowned when Napoleon fired on the frozen ponds is exaggerated - actual losses are somewhere between the low hundreds to low thousands, most likely. 

By 3, as the winter sun was sinking towards the horizon, the Allied center and left were in total tatters. Bagration on the north continued his fighting withdrawal, and was able to escape the battlefield largely intact. By 4:30 and sunset it was all over - no organized Allied force remained on the battlefield around Austerlitz. Something like 11,000 Russians and 4,000 Austrians lay dead on the field, while 12,000 more had surrendered. 180 guns and 50 colors were in French hands. All told, 1/3 of the Allied strength had been destroyed. Napoleon, by contrast, lost 1300 killed, a further 7,000 wounded, and 573 prisoners, less than 10% of his total force. 

The next day, Emperor Francis (apologies for misnaming him Josef earlier, that was his father) asked for an armistice. The Russian survivors, including Tsar Alexander, withdrew across Moravia towards Poland. The War of the Third Coalition was over.

[shallow_thought]

I would defend Napoleon, Caesar, Alexander, and Frederick all from this charge.

Thanks for replying. I was being a bit provocative - I'd hoped to spark a fun debate, but while you seemed up for it   at my end all my energy, enthusiasm and time to play devil's advocate drained away (bloody January).  I'm about to head off on holiday (will definitely be following this thread while I'm away) and can hopefully be a bit recharged when I get back.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Spring 1806
January 1 - April 1

A new year dawns with Austria, somehow, still in the field against France. Despite the best efforts of the Emperor to plea with his nobles and the populace, as long as the Austrian army remains undefeated the general will in Austria is unbroken. Franz, unable to muster the political influence to make peace, is forced to continue the war even though nearly all of Austria west of the Danube is now under Frankish occupation (ie, my national morale is too high to fire the Pressburg peace).

Well, even though I'm not making as many conscripts and gold as I could be, were all my cities out of occupation (I'd give up Venice and a few Alpine cities in the Tyrol in exchange for peace, not a bad trade at all), I can still maintain the army and even continue to expand it. We have 310,000 under arms:



About 200,000 of those are mobile, too. Now, we still use the brigade system of the Seven Year's War, not the new French division-corps system, so I can't effectively command or coordinate those 200,000 - but against anyone other than Napoleon it's a pretty formidable army. Looking over the national intelligence estimates, we can project that the French field about 775,000, the British 600,000 (the vast majority of this is the immobile Indian army), and the Russians 540,000 men. The Prussians, French, and Ottomans all field 230,000 men:



Note that these are combat power estimates, not actually raw numbers - ie the British have the equivalent of 600,000 Austrian soldiers, due to better organization, morale, training, leadership, etc. But it's a useful rule of thumb.

Anyway, this shows that we could comfortably strike at either the Ottomans or the Prussians this year, assuming we don't get our army destroyed by Bonaparte. Prussia is scheduled to fight the French in 1806 in the War of the Fourth Coalition (spoilers: it goes poorly for them), and I have lingering trauma from our drubbing at the hands of Prussia in the Third Silesian War of 1756 - 1757, so let's focus on the Ottomans. Our targets are Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Bucharest from the Porte and its vassal of Wallachia.

By February, I have concentrated six battle groups on the Danube:



Charles, Mack, John, Ferdinand, Schwarzenberg, and Reitsch all lead armies or battlegroups of varying sizes, from 20,000 - 60,000 men each. All told, it's nearly the entirety of my mobile striking power. In the meantime, Austrian diplomats busily comb the Reich archives in Pest (cut off from Vienna), in Constantinople, and other border cities searching for some imagined casus belli. Am I plotting an invasion of a powerful neighbor while half my country is under French occupation? Yes. Is this suicidal? No. It's gamey as hell, but eventually the French should capture enough cities to lower my morale down to Pressburg levels - then they'll fire the event and go home. As long as my armies keep ahead of them, they can live off captured Ottoman depots and I'll be in no danger from the Porte.

A wider look at the theater of war:

Belgrade is just visible in the northwest, below my conscript company count. Sarajevo is south and east of that, at top left. Those are my two main targets. From there, a narrow road winds through the mountains to Nish, where it splits, one branch running south and east to Sofia and Constantinople beyond, the other due south to Salonika and Greece. Another road runs along the south bank of the Danube towards Wallachia, where it joins roads coming out of Transylvania for a coastal road to Constantinople.

In this constricted terrain, there's not much room for fancy maneuvering (especially since I can't coordinate different stacks until 1810! bah.). We will open the campaign by crossing the Danube in force and seizing Belgrade (crossing east of the city and then hooking right). Charles and Mack will march together down the road to Nish, hoping to find and defeat the main Ottoman army along the way. My light cavalry will be scouting heavily for this purpose. Schwarzenburg, meanwhile, will thrust towards Sarajevo, while John is a general reserve. Ferdinand will cover the connection to my concurrent Wallachian invasion, about 60,000 men total, which will seize Bucharest, and then form a second column approaching Constantinople from the north.

Once Nish is taken, if the main Ottoman army is still unlocated, I will be forced to divide my force in two for reasons of supply. Charles will take the depot at Sofia and push for Constantinople, while Mack will press south for Salonika, then swing east to rendezvous with the other two columns at the Ottoman capital. Supporting forces like John, Schwarzenberg, and Ferdinand will seize smaller Greek and Balkan cities. That should compel the Porte to make peace and surrender my 3 objective cities.

By the end of February, our casus belli is in place:


But I wait until March to declare war, for the weather to clear and the mud to dry. The initial invasion in the western Balkans:


Cavalry scout and pillage while 3 battle groups march on Belgrade. Schwarzenburg will seize a border fortress before marching on Sarajevo. Reisch covers the left flank.

By March 16, 1806, we are across the Danube in force, and only light Ottoman cavalry forces are spotted:


The same week, Wallachia joins the war. I order Reisch and Ferdinand to advance down the Danube on both banks towards the important city of Nicopolis, an important junction between the Wallachian front and the main Balkan front. They will seize that city and hold it so I can march armies into either nation as needed. The Kaiser himself will lead a force out of Transylvania towards Bucharest once he's gotten his men fully organized.


Later that afternoon, Schwarzenberg bloodily storms the border fortress:

But he is narrowly repulsed. The fortress holds.

While Charles's 70,000 man army defeats the 14,000 defenders of Belgrade by storm:


The Ottoman troops are backwards and demoralized, but they fight hard. Canister tears bloody swathes in our grenadiers, the fighting in the breached walls sometimes comes to hand-to-hand - but in the end the Ottomans give way and the white-coated infantry pours into the streets. Belgrade is ours by March 16, less than two weeks after the official declaration of war. Charles will hurry south to join Mack, pushing for Nish.

By March 22, situation:

Schwarzenberg has taken losses and is beginning to run low on supplies - he needs to win soon or withdraw. The main army is marching on Nish. Cavalry picked up a powerful Ottoman cavalry corps at Sarajevo, and a lighter force at Nish. So ends March.

In April, I plan to take Nish and start the advance on Bucharest. With Nish in hand, we will re-evaluate our supplies and morale for a push deeper into the Balkans or if I need to rest and regroup. I also need to see about sending support to Schwarzenburg - he will be bloodied after the battle at Schabacz and may not be able to overcome that Ottoman battlegroup at Sarajevo by himself. We will also see the Wallachian army take the field - I believe that Reisch, Ferdinand, and Franz should be able to overcome them and storm Bucharest.

As for the French? They piddle around, taking a few border cities, but no knockout blow yet. In fact, with my victories at Belgrade, my morale is as high as it's ever been...so no peace of Pressburg in sight. Oops!

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

April 1806

In this month, we move into contact with the main Ottoman armies. The frontier fighting is over and we begin to maneuver for the decisive showdown with the main Turkish force, which looks like it's concentrating near Nikopolis to relieve its Wallachian vassals.


Wallachia at the start of April. Kaiser Franz himself leads a force out of Translvania and descends towards Bucharest, which seems to be defended by a powerful static force. I have another task force under Ludwig making its way here to link up and support the Emperor.


The main front here is northwest Bulgaria, stretching from Nish to Nicopolis. The main Ottoman army is led by Prince Ibrahim, with multiple supporting forces in the area. Thick forests and tall hills will slow our advance in this area. My intention is to swing Reitsch and Ferdinand over the Danube at Nikopolis to cut off the Ottomans, while Archduke Charles, my best general, leads the main army over the river near Nish and pincers Ibrahim. If all goes well, the Ottos will be scattered or destroyed and the road to Constantinople open.

By April 19 we arrive at the gates of Bucharest and are ready to place the city under siege:

This is one of our objectives and will also more or less knock Wallachia out of the war.

Away to the west, April 2 sees a sharp defeat for General Schwarzenberg, who is repulsed from the breaches at Schabacz:


I am forced to limp to Belgrade to recover.

However, two weeks later, on the 17th, Archduke John successfully forces the surrender of Sarajevo without losing a man:


In the center, the plan begins to evolve. I have 3 armies in place to encircle the Ottomans. Supplies are beginning to run low and Mack must capture Nish and its magazines, or I may be forced to withdraw back over the Danube:


The operation begins with Charles crossing the Nishava River. His 55,000 men meet an Ottoman covering force under Mehmed-beg, and in a sharp afternoon's fighting quickly drives them back:


An entire Ottoman brigade is captured in the fighting.

A few days later, on April 24, Charles meets a major Ottoman battlegroup under Hursid, nearly 30,000 strong:


Hursid's battlegroup is driven back with the loss of 7,000 men, nearly 1/4 of his army, against less than 3,000 Austrian casualties. The final fighting in the center comes when Archduke Ferdinand meets a force under Sultan Selim himself.


Despite near-parity in numbers, Ferdinand drives Selim back to the east and away from Nicopolis, inflicting over twice as many losses as he suffered.

The resulting situation sees a massive Ottoman force concentrated just west of Nikopolis. Selim III holds positions near the city, and Charles, Ferdinand, and Reisch have cut the Ottomans in two:



Right now I have supplies for perhaps two weeks on this line. Mack at Nish is finally active and I order an assault, despite the lack of breach -we can hope that his guns open a hole for the infantry. I want to capture hte city and bring Mack up to join Charles, giving me the edge I need to overwhelm Hursid's army, rated at 2000 power. That will also open up supply lines to my main armies and sustain the advance to Sofia and Nikopolis. Meanwhile, the other three battlegroups will dig in, rest, and recover morale and cohesion.

The final bits of news - John marches north from Sarajevo in Bosnia and hits a gathering Ottoman army at Schabacz under General Mustafa. 23,000 Austrians battle 22,000 Turks, mostly irregular infantry and cavalry, Balkan fighters. John's brilliant division generals absolutely crush Mustafa, who loses a third of his army and inflicts less than 1,000 casualties in return:


Resulting situation as of May 1, 1806:


Note the French army, which has reached Belgrade. My supply lines could be cut if they continue onto Ottoman territory...hm. I may have miscalculated here. I may need to go and get drubbed by the Grande Armee and make peace, or else I could be cut off and lose the entire army!