The Battle of Znaim 1809

 This is John Gill's detailed study of the final battle of the 1809 campaign between France and Austria. I have gamed it a couple of times, largely because it appeals to me for the key role my favourite French Marshal, Marmont, plays. It also tends to get forgotten, as many histories end the campaign at Wagram. 

The Battle of Znaim (Znojmo) was fought on 10–11 July 1809, between Napoleon Bonaparte’s French army and the Austrian army under Archduke Charles. It followed the major French victory at the Battle of Wagram (5–6 July 1809). Austria was retreating toward Bohemia, while Napoleon pursued it, albeit slowly at first. The fighting began on 10 July and continued into the next day. The Austrians made a determined defensive stand, particularly around the town and nearby crossings of the Thaya River. Neither side achieved a decisive battlefield victory. However, the Austrian position was increasingly threatened, and Archduke Charles requested an armistice. The armistice effectively ended major fighting in the War of the Fifth Coalition. It led to the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809, under which Austria made substantial territorial concessions to Napoleon. These included Austrian territories in the Balkans that Marmont governed.

I tend to read more strategic studies of the Napoleonic Wars, so it was a change to read a largely tactical study of a single battle. Gill writes very well, and there are many more maps than you usually get, which enables the reader to follow the flow of the movements up to the battle itself.

Marmont and Massena led the pursuit after Wagram as their troops were fresher. Marmont commanded the Army of Dalmatia, which sounds impressive, but was actually only two weak divisions (8,322 infantry and 259 cavalry). They may have been fresh at Wagram, but they had marched a huge distance from Dalmatia, fighting several actions. Napoleon gave him the 2nd Bavarian Division (5,461 infantry and 566 cavalry), and most importantly, Montbrun's Light Cavalry Division, which had three brigades and 4,400 troopers. With this force, he crossed the river and pinned the Austrian left, giving Napoleon time to arrive. Clever limited assaults and effective use of terrain kept Charles guessing about how many men he had, forcing him to detach troops to defend a flank rather than make his planned retreat. 

The Austrians were not broken after Wagram and were generally in good order. Napoleon also needed to recover his losses, and he wasn't sure where Charles was planning to go. This led to a genuine meeting engagement, something the Austrians were never very good at, and Charles wanted to avoid. Strategically, historians often fail to recognise the importance of the Russians, who were technically allied to the French, but didn't intend to intervene. However, Charles didn't know that, as being caught between both armies would have been disastrous. Peace, even with heavy territorial losses, was better than the destruction of the Habsburg state.

This is a really interesting battle, brilliantly described by John Gill. Highly recommended.

Some of my Army of Dalmatia

Some of my Austrians, albeit for the 1812 campaign.

Pillage

The skirmish game, Pillage, is very popular at my wargames club.  I have resisted the temptation, taking the view that I have plenty of skirmish games for the Dark Ages or Early Medieval: Lion Rampant, Saga, etc. However, these are really small battles, and I can see the merit in a genuine skirmish-level game that can be played quickly. So, after an introductory game at the club, I picked up a copy at Claymore, and we pitched in last night for the midweek game. 

  As the name suggests, this is a game about raiding, using 10 to 20 figures, more if you want. The aim is to pillage the village, which will be defended by the villagers or other armed forces. The booklet is pitched at the Viking years, but there are free downloads for other eastern European armies, and a generic list which can be used more widely. You will need plenty of scenery to make it a more interesting tactical game, and some pillage, like animals, is useful. It is a D6 game, and you can use any figures you want. Victrix sell it in the UK, and they have all you need if you don't have suitable figures.

The basic rules are very simple. You roll for initiative every turn, then move one of your three types of warrior: light, some armour and full armour, plus cavalry. Movement is in any direction, with a bonus for charging, and the usual terrain rules slowing you up. I liked the swimming rules!

Shooting and combat are a simple hit number depending on the weapon and armour, followed by a defence roll. Most figures have one life, but chieftains have three. There are a few factors around ranges and weapons, and the number of shots, but nothing that you can't remember. You will be on the QRF very quickly. There are a few extras if you want them about supporting figures with a spear, defending obstacles, multiple combats, but again pretty straightforward. Once you have lost your chieftain, or 50% of your figures, you have to start morale tests.

You don't need to use the pillage rules, but it adds another level to the game. You can start searching buildings during the game and carry them off the table. Tricky if you haven't killed off the enemy, but perfectly possible. 

There are army lists for the main factions, with plenty of options for weapons and armour. Each faction has a special ability, although why Anglo-Saxons ignore fog is beyond me! You can tell a Frenchman wrote these rules😂. You can also buy some special figures like berserkers and huscarls, and equipment like banners and warhorns. The rules are well laid out, with little need to scuttle back and forth, and helpful graphics, not just eye candy. Decent value for the £26.00 I paid. All in all. Highly recommended.

My bedtime reading is the latest book in Matthew Harffy's Bernicia series. This is pre-Viking, but with similar troop types. In our game, the Picts are invading Bernicia (roughly Northumberland). The Picts won the game, although they did lose their chieftain. We will try some Balkan armies next.

Claymore 2026

 Yesterday was the Edinburgh Claymore show, held on the Edinburgh College site at Granton. As usual, it was excellently organised by the Edinburgh club, in a venue with good car parking and catering.

I took the latest GDWS participation game, The Battle of Grocka 1739, the decisive battle of the 1736-39 war, which resulted in the Austrians losing most of the territory Prince Eugene had previously won for them in Serbia and Wallachia. The Austrian players yesterday did no better than General Wallis in attempting to get their cavalry through strong Ottoman positions. The best effort was one dragoon regiment, ironically the Eugene regiment, which breached the first line.

I was kept busy all day chatting about the history and playing the game, so I didn't see much of the show. Many thanks to all those who bought my new book on this war. Hopefully, growing interest in obscure 18th-century conflicts.

Here is a selection of the fine games on show.

The Durham club, with their 54mm figures, is always a joy to see.

A clever quick participation game, with Caledonians trying to get through the Roman lines.

The Glasgow Veterans Hub brought their ACW Epic game.

Tradeston's White Mountain game.

The Yorkshire Gamer came north with his Italian Wars armies.

The latest edition of Lilies banners

Wars of the Roses, if I recall.

Zulus in a proper scale before Epic armies appear!

Ian's Border Wars in Hexham Gaol.

Tradeston went space something.

A very long Arnhem game

1866 War.

I only had time to grab a few bits and pieces from the traders, but most of the usual suppliers were there. It is challenging coming to Edinburgh when the fringe grabs the hotels. So, I hope they did well.

Empire of the Moghul

 My bedtime reading has been the first of Alex Rutherford's Empire of the Moghuls series. I am sure I have read one of the later ones many years ago, but this one is new to me. It covers the first Moghul Emperor of India, Hindustan in those days, Babur. He came from the former Timurid regions, hence the title, Raiders from the North.

Babur (1483–1530) was born in Andijan (present-day Uzbekistan); he was a descendant of both Timur on his father's side and Genghis Khan through his mother's lineage. Babur inherited the small kingdom of Fergana at the age of 12. He faced constant rebellions and lost his kingdom several times while attempting to capture Samarkand. After years of struggle, he established a strong base in Kabul (Afghanistan) in 1504. Unable to regain his Central Asian territories, Babur turned his attention to northern India. In 1526, he defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat, marking the beginning of Mughal rule in India. He strengthened his control by winning the Battle of Khanwa against Rana Sanga in 1527 and the Battle of Ghaghra in 1529. Babur died in 1530 at the age of 47. He was succeeded by his son, Humayun. Although his reign in India lasted only four years, Babur laid the foundation for the Mughal Empire, which became one of the most powerful and culturally influential empires in South Asian history.

The author sticks pretty close to the history while adding a few extra people to the narrative that we don't have. However, Babur did write a very open memoir, the Baburnama. It is ideal territory for historical fiction as Babur’s life was a whirlwind of battles, blood feuds and epic challenges. Most of the action here is well before he invaded Hindustan. Rutherford does not let us down. This is brilliant fiction, with fast-paced action, victories and defeats, with all the uncertainty that brings. Babur had a lot of luck, as he was offered the crown of Afghanistan when he was reduced to living in a small village with a very small force.

I got into this period back in 2008, and I did a display game for GDWS at the Targe show that year, and I wrote a piece for Wargames Illustrated with army lists for WAB. I plan to dust them down again to play Scourge of Princes, as his key edge was the introduction of cannons and muskets into India. The armies have a long time frame, and many were still OK for the battles against the British in the 18th century.

British intervention in Sweden 1808

 I was listening to the Age of Napoleon podcast on Sweden in the Napoleonic Wars, which reminded me of Britain's intervention in their war against the Russians in 1808-9. We were planning to have another go at General d'Armee 2 rules this week, so this was an opportunity to dust down my Swedes, with new allies.

The little-known Swedish–Russian War of 1808–1809 (often called the Finnish War) was fought because Sweden resisted Russian pressure to join Napoleon's trade blockade against Britain. Russia was allied to France at this stage, but enforcing Napoleon's Continental System wasn't Russia's primary reason for attacking its old enemy. 

Russian forces quickly occupied much of southern Finland. Swedish and Finnish troops were poorly prepared but, led by commanders such as Johan August Sandels, won several local victories, including the Battle of Koljonvirta, yet could not stop the overall Russian advance. Russia had larger forces and better logistics, gradually forcing Swedish troops to retreat northward. The war ended with the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809, which ceded all of Finland and the Åland Islands to Russia. This article by Goran Frilund is a good overview.

Britain got involved because Sweden was resisting the Continental System. In 1807, Admiral Gambier had intervened in Denmark, destroying the Danish navy, but it also ensured that Denmark would remain a French ally. The British retained a Baltic fleet, and when the war broke out between Sweden and Russia, Admiral James de Saumarez was sent to the Baltic Sea. The Baltic command was established and effectively protected the coasts of southern Sweden from a Franco-Danish invasion, as Marshal Bernadotte of the French army had arrived in Denmark with an army to invade Sweden. On May 17 1808, General Moore arrived outside Gothenburg with a British expeditionary corps of 10,000 (some sources say 12,000) troops bound for Sweden. The troops were never landed in Sweden because King Gustav IV Adolf protested strongly. Moore was sent to Portugal instead, with well-known consequences. The Royal Navy remained on station.

10-12,000 men was a large force for Britain at this stage of the war, and it was therefore a bold move to send it to a remote conflict in very tough terrain. And while they didn't land, our game assumes they did.

Sadly, as this was only our second game with General d'Armee 2, and it's not a simple set of rules, we didn't make as much progress as we hoped. The Russians got across the table, as the Allies floundered a bit. The Russian left made a charge on the British line but was rebuffed. They didn't reach the Swedish line, but did a lot of damage with firepower. We will return to the game and rules, although I am finding the rules hard work. Not ideal for a wargames butterfly like me.

Königgrätz 1866

 This is Angus Konstam's examination of the crucial battle between Prussia and Austria in June 1866. Fought at the town of Könnigrätz (now the Czech city of Hradec Králové) on the River Elbe, it set Prussia on the road to the domination of Germany.

The book is set out in the usual way for an Osprey Campaign study. The introduction argues that Könnigrätz was a truly decisive battle, citing a contemporary comment that 'Thirty dynasties had been swept away.' I was watching the astonishment at a book talk I was giving to a young audience when I put a map of Germany up before this period. They were astonished by the vast number of states that existed in what we today just call Germany. It was this battle that established that process, although there was a little way to go before it was finalised. In military terms, technology played an important role, with the telegraph and railways being key, at least until the battlefield.  

The war was caused by the Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck’s goal of unifying Germany under Prussian leadership, and he successfully brought in allied states. Roon, a soldier as well as a statesman, had spearheaded the reform of the Prussian Army, and, together with the army’s Chief of Staff, General Helmuth von Moltke, the three men sought a military solution to further their ambitions. The Prussian Army's breach-loading needle gun had helped win the Prusso-Danish War in 1864, while the Austrians still relied on the bayonet, a false lesson learned during the last war with the French in Italy. 

Commanding the Austrian forces was von Benedek. Unusually for the Austrians, he was a Protestant who had fought well at Solferino against the French. However, he was a reluctant commander who had lost his earlier drive. The Prussians were commanded by Helmuth, Count von Moltke, who would dominate the army for years to come. He had helped modernise the Turkish army (there is always a Balkan link!). At Königgrätz, he proved himself to be a new style of commander – one perfectly suited for this modern style of warfare.

The Austrian army was similar to that of the Napoleonic period, although even more undermined by nationalism. Unusually, they had abandoned divisions for brigades, of which four made up a division. This placed a heavy burden on the brigade commander without the necessary staff. A corps usually had four brigades plus additional artillery and cavalry. They had a rifled musket with a longer range than the Prussian gun, but it was slower to load. The artillery was armed with rifled guns, in larger numbers and well-trained. The Prussians did use divisions, typically two per corps, plus jagers, artillery, and a cavalry brigade. They used the Dreyse needle gun, with four times the Austrians' rate of fire, and a mix of rifled and smoothbore artillery. To reflect their weaponry, tactics relied on loose formations and firepower.

Austrian troops in the Vienna museum

In the campaign, the Prussians invaded Bohemia with three separate armies, while the Austrians concentrated their forces near Königgrätz. The battle began with Prussia's First Army and the Army of the Elbe engaging the Austrians, with fierce fighting around the Swiepwald Forest. The Austrians were holding their positions until around midday, when the arrival of the Prussian Second Army, attacking the Austrian right flank, turned the tide. Prussia's Dreyse needle gun was the decisive factor. Austria lost around 44,000 men (killed, wounded, captured, or missing), while Prussia lost about 9,000. This is well laid out in the book with the usual excellent maps and colour plates.

I haven't been to this battlefield, but it looks to be in excellent condition, with memorials, little development and a museum. certainly one for my list, and this book will be an excellent companion.  I got interested in this war after reading Geoffrey Wawro's excellent book, The Austro-Prussian War, which also covers the fighting in Italy, which the Austrians won. I have an Austrian army in 15mm that I used to play the Principles of War rules. It is a large battle, so today I would use Bloody Big Battles, which incidentally I am playing tomorrow, albeit for the Franco-Prussian War.

Some of my 15mm Austrians (line, grenzer and jager) being attacked by Italians. I used to have Prussians but sold them years ago with the French.

Kolubara 1914

 One of the reasons I chose western Serbia for my recent trip, apart from the stunning scenery, was to visit the sites of the early WW1 battles. These were the opening clashes of the war in the east, fought between the Serbian and Austro-Hungarian armies. I based myself at Valjavo, which was a key point in the Serbian defences.

The battle is not forgotten in Valjevo today, with a statue in the city centre of General Misic, commander of the 1st Army

By November 1914, the Serbian armies were in retreat, despite their achievements in pushing the Austrian's back twice. On 16 November 1914, the Austrian armies commanded by Oskar Potiorek had pushed the Serbs out of Valjevo and had reached the Kolubara River west of Lazarevac. Belgrade, to the north, would fall on 29 November, and this was the last decent defensive line the Serbian army under Radomir Putnik could reasonably hope to hold. While it was wintertime and the 'Serbian mud' was at its worst, the four Serbian armies were understrength and short of supplies and ammunition. Putnik was advising his government to seek a peace treaty. However, the Serbian army received additional supplies from France and pulled off one of the most remarkable battles of the war.

The Austrian offensive started at Lazarevac, which would have given them access to the Mladenovac railway line and the ability to outflank the Serbian forces holding the road to Belgrade. Further south, the Austro-Hungarians attacked the Serbian 1st Army. After fierce fighting, the Serbian forces withdrew in reasonable order, while the increasingly exhausted Austrians were dragged further into Serbia, without adequate support. Potiorek was so confident that he appointed a governor for Serbia.

The Kolubara River near Lazarevac

Having received fresh artillery supplies, the Serbian armies counterattacked on 2 December, catching the overextended Austrians by surprise and leaving them too far from their heavy guns. By 6 December, the Austrians were in full retreat, reaching Valjevo on 8 December. While this shortened their lines of supply, the surprise attack meant they had not built sufficient defences, particularly on the hills surrounding Valjevo. A huge sweep around the town resulted in the Austrians losing 20,000 troops. The remaining Austrian forces headed back to Bosnia. The Serbian command said, "The recapture of Belgrade marks the successful end of a great and magnificent period in our operations. The enemy is beaten, dispersed, defeated and expelled from our territory once and for all." 

The Austrians then had to abandon Belgrade, and Potiorek was dismissed. The Austro-Hungarians suffered about 225,000 casualties, including 30,000 killed, 173,000 wounded and 70,000 taken prisoner. The Serbs also suffered heavy casualties, with 22,000 killed, 91,000 wounded, and 19,000 missing or captured. If you want to read more, I recommend Dusan Babac's The Serbian Army in the Great War 1914-1918, published by Helion.

Misic's HQ, reproduced in the National Museum in Valjevo.

So, for the tabletop this week, we decided to play a representative action within this massive battle. We will be using Chris Pringle's Bloody Big Battles rules in 15mm. While I have these armies in 28mm, these rules are great for smaller scales in big battles. A base size of BBB represents between 1,000 and 1,500 infantry.

Here is the initial setup, with the Serbians in the hills as the Austrians advance.