Battle of Caldiero 1805 - Austrian Deployment

1400 Austrians. A 16x6 foot wargaming table with Battle of Caldiero setup. Couldn't resist posting a few pics of the deployment.  Have finally sold the wife's jeep so the double garage is now filled with the field of glory. :)

1100 infantry,144 cavalry, 26 guns and 100 crew, plus limbers and generals.

Ok so they are mostly not 1805 Austrians but I'm not fanatic enough to paint another 1000 Austrians with slightly different hats.. at least not yet! ;)

Sadly for the Austrians 48 Cuirassiers will remain sitting in the box for this battle, but they do get 48 Dragoons and 72 Light Cavalry. Also a stupidly large number of Austrian infantry were Grenadiers and even though I have 200 of them I need over twice that, so Hungarians and Grenzers will be honorary veterans for the day!

Enough jabbering here's some more pics.

Before... Michael Hopper's excellent scenario book 'Rise of Eagles' in the foreground.

After...

I started deploying on the Austrian right flank, and thought OMG this will be impossible for the French! Austrians have a hill position with three solid lines of infantry, a wall of artillery and five redoubts. 

But then I got to the Austrian left flank and it all starts to thin out a bit....

Austrians start well and then they just leave their weak flank exposed like this...

Back to the reassuring mass in the centre.

Austrian reinforcements, a few more line, and many Grenadiers,  Dragoons and some Hussars. They'll be needed on the left I think...

More pics and a battle report to follow of course!