Finally got to gather with the ‘American boys’ after two years of Covid restrictions, and had a go at the Napoleonic battle of Aspern-Essling during the Enfilade! Convention held in Olympia, Washington State, USA last weekend.
The Austrians did well in this game with both towns taken by the end of “the first day” We ended it at that point as the armies had created a bit of separation as both sought to consolidate their positions with the advent of the flood of French reinforcements crossing the famous ‘rickety’ lone bridge over the Danube River. I had a simple chart to rolled off after each Austrian turn to determine the repair or further destruction limiting those French reinforcements to each of their commands. I purposely created the chart to have the repairs done on low dice while destruction is made with high dice rolls. As I know, almost as a certainty, I will probably only roll low, the French will get their additional supports! this little trick worked as of course I rolled low each turn and thus the French engineers did their thing. Felt these additional forces might be necessary for the French to hold off the Austrians long enough to have a successful withdrawal as they were historically. While we would have loved to see the battle to its natural conclusion, the final deployments and strengths would suggest that that might well have been the outcome….. subject to the will of the dice, of course…..
I supplied the French side, while Seth supplied the Austrians. James’ beautiful Essling Granary model formed the Essling town element, while my yellow paper church formed the town of Aspern, both buildings famous within the historical affair.
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view from the south-west
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| French defence of the Granary (Essling) |
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| Another angle of the "Village of Essling" Further parts of Lannes command are being moved behind Bessieres' French heavy cavalry (upper right of photo) |
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| The Austrian advance upon the Village of Aspern. |
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| Situation in the final hour of the 'first day' of the battle/game. We agreed it will be considered a minor Austrian victory at this point with both villages in Austrian control |
