Goscieradow part three

I am in here on the  computer to quickly put in the action for turns 4 and 5. Ivan was buoyed by his destruction of the Austrian Regiment and so when he won the initiative for turn 4 he took in and pitched into the Austrians. Knowing they had another 4 Regiments now on the table he had to try and even the odds up a bit more and thought he had two ripe targets. The 2nd Regt of the 5th and the 2nd Regt of the 46th were both exposed. He also had the 1st of the 5th out in front of Goscieradow so moved his reserve regiment into the area just to the left of the village so they could hopefully take the Austrians in the flank.

For his part Franz was not worried about losing a Landwehr regiment - basically he said, he was counting the Russian guns. Franz chose to move in for the most part where the Russians did not make contact and where he could tip the scales he did so to gain two to one advantages.

Austrian 2nd of 46th move into contact with what remains of the Russian 3rd regt. The picture here shows the Austrians have destroyed the better part of the Russian line and with the morale check the Russians 3rd broke.

Here is the Austrian 3rd of 46th moving into the gap where the 1st had been. You can see the Russian 2nd and Austrian 2nd and 4th regts 5th division starting to push hard into the Russians on the high ground.

Austrian 2nd of the 5th moving in, well supported by the 4th regt just out of camera.

1st Regt, 5th div, closes the line and you can see the artillery burst from the 104mm howitzer battalion.

Russian 4th regt moves through the fields to the east of Goscieradow.

 A dog fight of sorts had erupted on the high ground held by the Russian 2nd regt. They were engaged against a total of 3 Austrian Regiments. Two from the 5th div and one from the 46th LW. Yet they held on and in fact dealt more damage than they received. The loss of the 3rd Russian regiment skewed things badly for Ivan and he was cursing now about not bringing in the 4th Regiment earlier and in a different location. For his part Franz could not affect and order change on the 2nd Regt 46th LW and so they continued to move straight ahead towards their original objective.

Out numbered 3 to 1 the 2nd Russian regt holds on to the high ground.

Austrian wave hits the Russian line. Best thing for the Russians was that the 104mm battalion lifted fire to drop another target but couldn't establish good fire control and so did not fire this turn.

Austrian 3rd Regt, 5th div, moving across the fields to support 1st Regt.

Good shot of just how many Austrians are going in against the 2nd Russian, not only were they out numbered but 1/3 of the remaining stands on the table for the 2nd were disordered this turn prior to melee!

Austrian 2nd and 4th Regts of the 46th moving ahead as per their orders, no opponents to their front and comms were bad so orders failed to get through.

Russian 4th Regt, not quite into action yet but next turn maybe! You can see two Russian batteries on the hill helping to defend the high ground with 2nd Regt. One of the batteries had been destroyed by Austrian rifle fire as they closed in.

Could this be the Coup de grace? Austrian 15cm Corps Artillery Battalion. They should be in the fight on turn six as well!

An indication of the damage taken by Russian 1st Regt and Austrian 1st Regt 5th div. Each side has had six companies and/or batteries put out of action. The Austrians have a second regt in direct support. The Russians are still waiting for the 4th Regt to get in position.

End of turn 5 look at the hill. More than half the Russian infantry companies are out of action!

Here is a good indicator of the badly thinned out Russian line!

Austrian 2nd and 4th Regts of the 46th move into the vicinity of Marnopole.

The Russian managed to hang on at the end of turn 5. Moving to turn 6 it is difficult to imagine that they can hold on much longer barring some miracle. The weight of the Austrian attack has managed to carry the high ground and although a bit of bad luck played a part, the Russians couldn't take advantage of the terrain. Maybe Ivan will pull of a miracle though. Bad news for Ivan is that the final Austrian Regiment came on as well, so with an advantage of 8 to 3 in Regiments, going to be an uphill fight!

Turn Six!

Well I missed a lot of the movement as I typed up the past two turns, but here it is. The Austrians won the initiative and pushed in hard. The 15cm's opened fire destroying 2 infantry companies and a batteries of 76mm guns. In the shooting and melee that followed it was pretty even, but this was actually not good for the Russians and finally at the end of the turn the Russian 2nd Regiment broke and fled, but at the same time so did the 3rd Regiment of the 46th Landwehr. Russian 1st Regt is right on the brink of taking a morale check which will likely happen on turn 7. We could probably call this one but the Ivan wants one more turn to see if he can hold on. So far the 46th have for 3 turns in a row been unable to affect orders changes to the remaining regiments.

The burst marker for the 15cm battalion, left a hole in the already thin Russian line. It was the icing on the cake for the 2nd who broke under the pressure of 3 regiments and the combined strength of 5 artillery batteries.

The final scene for 2nd Regiment as they fled north was a wave of pike gray uniforms moving up and over the hill.

Austrian forces moving towards the Russian 4th Regiment.

The remains of the Russian 1st Regiment can be seen trying to hold back the Austrian wave! The only reason the Russians didn't do a morale check this turn was because they had attached two artillery batteries to the 1st Regiment. Next turn could well mean their destruction.

Turn Seven.
Yep its over, the Russian 1st Regiment was over come by the Austrian 1st and the 104mm Battalion. The 15cm battalion dropped fire on the 4th Regiment causing another 3 infantry companies to become ineffective. Austrian casualties were minimal with the 1st losing 2 more stands which brought them to a morale check which they passed.

The 18th Division was thrown back with heavy loss, but the Austrians 46th LW Division was at less than 2/3 strength and not good for offensive operations until they could be re-enforced and rested.