SCENARIO 31: ECHELONED ATTACK - Developing an Aspern-Essling Inspired Scenario for One Hour Wargames

 I've been reading over Martin Rapier's "One Hour Wargames" Napoleonic rules of late and I am very much looking forward to getting a game in soon.  Martin's application of sound historical thinking to the One Hour Wargames ethos has had me excited about breaking out my Napoleonics and having a go at some big Napoleonic battles.  The only problem?  I don't want to play Quatre Bras or Salamanca again.  And until I get some Prussian and French Epic Warlord troopers painted up, I'm stuck with the nations that I have now (those being French, Austrian, Russian, and 1815 British and Dutch and the Napoleonic-inspired scenarios in the book...  Cue Donald Rumsfeld: "You go to war(games) with the Army you have, not the Army you wish you had".

Anyways, Martin's rules were written, I believe, with the scenarios from the OHW book in mind.  It's no secret that developing scenarios is one of my favorite aspects of the hobby so how do you do a titanic battle like  Aspern Essling justice?  There are some decent choices in the OHW book that would work now, but none of them are exact hits for this unusual fight, and all would require me to shift terrain types and locations.

Take for example, "Scenario #10 "Late Arrivals".  This scenario sees blue awaiting its reinforcements, and making a nail-biting defense work using the terrain.  This *could* work for Aspern Essling, or at least just for Aspern, by switching the "impassible hill" with the forest, and making the forest "impassible" and allowing the hill to be occupied.  Easy, but there's only one town.  I'd have to add another, and who knows what that would do the scenario.

Easy - just move the town left and up, switch the hills and forest, straighten out the road...seems like alot of work (Taken from OHW without permission, all rights reserved to their respective owners, no challenge to the author's status intended)

Scenario #15 "Fortified Defense" comes closer, and it has 2 built-up areas in it.  You would have to move the location of the woods but it looks like a halfway decent contender, at least for the topography (IE the 2 BUAs).  I just dont like the "troll Corps" that can regenerate to simulate additional attacking waves.  It seems like I'm watching a Ridley Scott Napoleonic battle, only the trenches are missing...

Getting closer - we'd just need to move the BUAs around and move the woods - and no troll Austrian regeneration!  (Taken from OHW without permission, all rights reserved to their respective owners, no challenge to the author's status intended)

While I like Scenario 15, and you could make the argument that the Austrians did come in "waves" against the French positions, I want the Austrian "Columns" to be stand-alone elements, not a regeneration of the entire force.  So Scenario 15 is close, but is still out.

Reading through all of the scenarios made me realize what's needed is a NEW scenario.  A "Scenario 31" if you will, representing an attack that I dont feel is very well represented in the OHW book - that of an "echeloned attack", where blows fall in succession upon an enemy in a timed (but not necessarily intentional) sequence.  Gettysburg on Day 2 is a classic example of an echeloned attack.  You want to know another great example of an attack where the various Corps fell upon the defenders in an echeloned sequence?  Aspern Essling in 1809!  Great!  So how do we do it?  Well Mr Neil Thomas already has a scenario that will *start* to fit our needs...

Scenario #5: Bridgehead.

aside from the fact that AE, 1809 is an actual battle for a Bridgehead, this scenario has some great starting points for our new scenario - namely the various entry points for the attacking force.

It doesnt look like it yet, but we're going to make Aspern-Essling out of these 9 boxes...

The letters on the perimeter represent random entry points for the various antagonists.  What if they instead represented actual, timed locations for the attacker to show up?  IE 2 units enter at Point A on turn 2.  3 Units enter at Point B on Turn 4, etc.  We'll get rid of that river, and move the woods south by 12".  Next we'll put a BUA where the woods are now, and put another BUA 2 squares to the right.  Simple right?

Now THAT is more like it!

We'll need Scenario Parameters too, right?  Can't forget those.  

Situation: The Blue Army has invaded Red territory, occupied its capital and is marching to force a decisive battle against the Red Army.  To do this, it must cross its army over a large river and establish a foothold on the opposite bank.  The Red Army, rather than resisting the passage, allows the Blue Army to build  a small foothold on the opposite bank, while planning to attack the bridgehead from multiple directions so that it can isolate the Blue Army from its reinforcements and destroy it.

Army Size: Both Armies have 6 units (although I'd like to scale up to 9 - if you do, simply add 1 unit to what Red receives on Turns 1, 2, and 3.  Blue should then start with 4 units on the table, and receive 2 x units on Turns 3 and 6)

Deployment:  The Blue player begins with 3 units deployed.  He must place 1 unit in each town.  He may place his other starting unit anywhere between the 2 towns, up to 18 inches from the southern table edge.

Reinforcements:

Turn 1: Red player places 2 x units at Point A

Turn 2: Red player places 1 x unit at Point B

Turn 3: Red Player places 2 x units at Point C

            Blue Player places 1 x unit at Point E  

Turn 5: Red Player places 1 x unit at Point D

Turn 6: Blue player places 1 x unit at Point E

Turn 9: Blue player places 1 x unit at Point E

Special Rules:*UPDATED*  Blue Reinforcements.  The Red Army is actively trying to destroy the bridges used by the Blue Army to reinforce their bridgehead.  Before placing a reinforcement, the Blue player must roll a 1D6.  On a roll of “1” the scheduled unit will arrive on the following turn, instead of the current turn (IE Turn 10 instead of Turn 9).

Blue Deployment.  The Blue player must deploy one unit in each town when the game begins. 

The woods are impassable to all units.

Game Length & Turn Order: The game lasts 15 turns.  The Red player goes first in each turn.

Victory Conditions: The Blue Player wins by occupying both towns at the end of the game.

I plan on playing this game in a few days with Dave, using Martin Rapier's excellent Grant-Tactical One Hour Wargames variant.  If you decide to try this scenario, leave a comment and let me know how it went!  Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

You can download the scenario here, and a link is available at the top right of the blog.