Davout at Wagram with Field of Battle, 3rd edition

My freind, Jared, recently moved to Torrington, Connecticut. To celebrate his move to a house with basement wargames room, he hosted an inaugural game. 

The scenario was the attack by Davout's Corps against the left flank of the Austrian positions along the Russbach stream.

Austrian defenders at Markgrafneusidl. 

On the day, I commanded the Dragoons and Light Cavalry on the far right of the French positions, plus one of Davout's infantry divisions, with supporting artillery. 

Overview of the table; Thomas commanded the remainder of the French infantry, and eentually a Reserve Cuirassier Division. 

Jared himself had the Austrian defenders on the Austrian right,.

Mike had the Austrians on the far left, opposite me. 

By the terms of the scenario, the Austrians HAD to start with an attack, in accordance with the historical orders from Erzherzog Karl. 

  

The Kaiserlicks advance!

French artillery commence their bombardment.

Jared and Mike discuss their battle plans. 

Another overview of the table. All the troops are 15 mm Napoleonics from Jared's marvelous collection. 

My cavalry, superior in numbers, engages Mike's, but fails to prevail despite their advantages!

With even more reinforcements arriving, my cavalry charge again! I think we had an 11 card run, the largest possible in Field of Battle.

 

French infantry moves to the attack. 

Situation near the end of the game. My cavalry have now tuned the Austrian flank, and some lucky artillery and musket fire has devastated some of the best Austrian troops. Thomas gave at least as good as he got, although he did wind up with an Austrian Hussar unit in his backfield, and, when they arrived, his Cuirassier Division underperformed quit\e notably, 

With their morale points almost down to zero, and their right outflanked. the Austrians conceded. The game was very enjoyable, but we concluded that requiring the Austrian to start by attacking just made their situation worse. Jared replayed the scenario a few days later with different players and no mandatory attack for the whitecoats. The game was much closer, although the French did prevail after a tough fight! That game exposed at least one new player to FoB3, and gained another apparent convert!