Teugen-Hausen 1809 with FAST PLAY GRANDE ARMEE

Well I finally was able to play a game of Sam Mustafa's "Fast Play Grande Armee" (FPGA).  These are available for free as a download from the Yahoo Group of the same name.  Link here [click].  It is very easy to see where the "Blucher" rules came from after reading through and playing FPGA. 

It's very similar to Blucher although with more structure.  Anyways, the Austrians and French are once again fighting on my table!  Teugen-Hausen, one of my favorite battles of the Napoleonic wars, occurred early during the 1809 campaign and was part of the lead-up to Eckmuhl.  You can read about the real battle here [click].

Teugen in lower left with Saint Hilaire's Division passing through.  Marshall Davout encourages them on, and lends them 2 dice for their control test!  The Austrian advanced guard under Vukassovich are deployed on the hill and awaiting Davout's Corps.  You can see troops from St Julien's Division and Lusignan's Division in the background.

This game will start at Turn 2 (mid morning) and end on Turn 6 (evening) with the possibility of a thunderstorm ending the game early.  FYI - I love putting labels on bases.  what's that about?

Davout urging the men forward at Teugen.

 The [huge, vastly over-strength] Austrian advanced guard is spoiling for a fight! 

A brigade of Grenzers, and 2 brigades of Ehrerzog Karl Legion troops.  I goofed the OOB and made them both 5 strength-point brigades...

Karl Legion troops!  (cleverly disguised as Nassau Light Troops from Quatre Bras...)

 Saint Hilaire's attack goes in with elan but the vastly over-powered Karl Legion troops hold their ground in some instances, and are pushed back in others.  The Grenzers give ground as well but it's going to be a long, tough slog through these woods for St H's division.

Lusignan forms behind the ridgeline.

Hohenzollern-Hechingen takes up position behind the ridge.  The forested ridgeline would be the scene of bitter and confused fighting as Divisions became intermingled after rolling high on their control tests...

St Julien's troops along with the Corps Artillery move up past Hausen

end of the first "pulse" French units in contact will have to roll to see what they can do next.

French maintain the initiative in the second pulse of the first turn.

 Combat is pretty simple and straightforward (but even more so in Blucher - i missed quite a few rules on the first turn).  Units fight equal to their strenghtpoints, but they garner bonus dice for the location of the commanders, sub-commanders and some other factors.  Additionally there are numerous penalties that force you to re-roll dice.  As a credit to Sam Mustafa's writing, however, almost all of my questions were answered by the rules.  (what happens to officers who survive an enemy passing over them?)

French attacks grinding their way up the ridge.  

Saint Hilaire's Division gave a good accounting of itself although the "vanilla" nature of the units did not come through since i used the bog-standard units from the FPGA rules.  (5 SP, 2 Sk).  I think STH's units should hit hard considering they were some of the best units in the French Army at the time.  Anyways they did an awesome job and eventually pushed back almost all of the Austrian Avant Garde.  So far, so good.  Everything that has happened, happened in real life.

Hard fighting as a Grenzer Brigade repulses a French assault!  Tie goes to the defender!

Red bead means the battery has been suppressed by skirmish attacks!

Note the echelon left.  That's important as STH's division will advance into the woods in that fashion.

57th Ligne advance!

 One important thing I'll mention is that when you roll high on a control test, your troops must advance towards the enemy.  Do I have to make a control test for every force on every turn?  I have to double check the rules.

Also - what about Corps troops?  Does the Corps Commander make control tests for them?

The 57th claws its way through the woods.

Battery is contacted and fails its evasion test.  Knocked out!

French Legere advance up through the woods on the right.  They'll contact more Austrians than they had hoped for!

Saint Hilaire victorious so far!  From the roads and all points west, they have driven the enemy back!

Saint Hilaire has reason to be happy - for the moment.

 At this point, all of the French attacks have mostly gone off as expected.  My mistakenly overstrength Austrian units give ground grudgingly but have been in the retreat however it has been taking its toll on STH's units who are all now dangerously close to breaking and the reinforcements from Gudin's Division and Friant's Division are nowhere in sight.  Speaking of reinforcements, here is what I came up with:

The FPGA turns on the left - and the historical arrival times of units on the right 

 It's now early afternoon.  The men of Saint Hilaire's Division are tired but so far victorious.  There are rumors that both Friant and Gudin are on the field although no one has seen them.  The Austrians are almost everywhere in retreat.

The left ridgeline is held by French troops.  The right is held by Austrian troops.

reinforcements have arrived!

 To Davout's horror, Gudin's men arrive on the field, not where he told them to flank march to, but close to Teugen on the french side of the ridge.  (I rolled for this action.  Davout wanted them to flank Hausen and show up in the Austrian's flank but since I'm gaming solo, I had the dice gods make the call) 

Additionally, they are halted and not moving.  (they rolled "HOLD" on their control test 3 pulses in a row!).  Friant arrives.  And also rolls HOLD on his control test.  Sacre Bleu!

Legere assaults a fresh brigade from Lusignan's Division, who rolled ATTACK on their control test and MUST advance towards the enemy.  They find themselves on the ridge now and in perfect position to counterattack the French who are ready to break.

What happens next is beyond belief but I'll write it anyways.  Lusignan's Division of 2 modest Austrian Brigades, launches an assault that would probably have taken them to the outskirts of Paris if the game didn't end.  I'll explain.  With Saint Hilaire's units in rough shape, Lusignan launches his 2 fresh brigades against the weaker French ones and destroys the Legere on the right side of the road.

Luck finally falls on the Austrians, who steal the initiative away from the French for the next pulse.  Lusignan rolls ATTACK once again on his control test, sending his brigades against the lead elements of Saint Hilaire's division who are emerging on the road from the forest.  They slam into the flank of the lead brigade and destroy it.  Next pulse they slam into the 57th Ligne's front and break it as well, sealing the fate of Saint Hilaire's Division and pushing the French over to their Army breakpoint of 5 units.  They will have to test every turn now to end the game.

2 lead French Brigades would be next to be broken by Lusignan's wild counterattack

Lusignan urging his men forward in the fighting.  He bestows a bonus dice onto the fighting at risk to himself (you have to roll for command casualties when commanders are involved in fights)

Vukassovich and his staff were in the middle of some of the worst fighting during the day and he was displaced and almost killed no fewer than 5 times!  Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time!

The Austrians roll well on their control tests and stabilize the line.  With the left side of the road secured, they form a line to deal with French attacks they know are coming.  The French likely will not meet their victory conditions in time but you never know.  There may be up to 4 pulses in a turn!  Many things can happen.

St Julien's division coming up to guard the Austrian left (your right in the pic) against Friant's Division who finally moves.

Vukassovich's men join the counter attack!  The Austrians know the key is to fight the french on the ridgeline and not let them onto open ground.

Gudin's men finally shake out to attack.  They'd assault the woods with elan before the whole attack is called off.  The Army is retreating?

Gudin's men shake out finally to assault the ridgeline.  Had they passed SOME of their control tests, we may not have been in this pickle...

Austrians throw everything at the French to keep them bottled up in the woods.

Friant doffs his hat to Lusignan while his men launch their assault.

 Half of Lusignan's Division falls back while the other half remains solid and holds.  The turn ends abruptly and the French have failed their break test.  The game ends.

The overall operational picture.  Solid walls of Austrians on both sides of the road.

Final dispositions on the left.

Final dispositions on the right.

Wow.  A meatgrinder and a few things come to mind.  Namely, the Austrians in the avant garde were much too powerful.  Not only were there 3 brigades of lights but they brought 21 strength points to bear against the division, which isn't right considering a SP is a very large collection of troops.  Saint Hilaire's units should have made better progress than they did fighting against full brigades.  The Ehrerzog Karl Legion troops should not have been brigades, they should have been consolidated into a single, smaller unit.  Additionally, Saint Hilaire's Division should have been more lethal in the attack to demonstrate their elite morale.

I really liked the grinding nature of the battle, and I really liked the feeling that I needed my troops to move and I was constantly asking why they were not moving.  On the other hand, I'm not sure i liked that my troops could move against orders.  I had wanted St Julien's men to stay behind the creek as they did historically. 

Also, although Lusignan's Division was extremely powerful in the attack, they were not ordered to attack!  I merely wanted them to reinforce Vukassovich on the ridge.

This battle was a ton of fun and I will likely play FPGA again.  I'm not sure it's my "go-to" set of rules for grand tactical napoleonics so the search continues!  I would like to play this again with an "off the shelf" scenario to see if it plays any differently.  i know "Deep Fried Happy Mice" has a bunch of Grande Armee scenarios.  [click] 

 Grab your map and looking glass - there is  more Grand Tactical Napoleonics coming this weekend for the would-be generals out there!