After helping The Wargaming Company run some demo games at Adepticon 2025 on Thursday and Friday I came back wanting to paint my Austrians. I remembered they recently released a new version of their Mid War ESR Napoleonics Campaign Guide, The First Battle Lost, 1809 in Germany. I spoke to my buddy who offered to loan me his copy and within ten minutes he had driven it over to my house for me to take a look at. I figured since I had it in my hands I might as well give it a review!

This book comes in hardcover at 210 pages, with the first 115 pages dedicated to scenarios, and the remaining containing the awesome uniform plates I have come to expect from The Wargaming Company. The book retails for $49.00. Previously The Wargaming Company books were softcover and spiral bound. While I did like the spiral binding as the book could lay flat I prefer the sturdiness of the hardcover.

The contents laid out.

The book contains two pages of the history of the 1809 campaign. As you can see it is a very basic overview which I’m more than okay with. This is a campaign guide, and while you’ll see later it has a lot of historical value, it is not a text book. It provides just enough background for someone who doesn’t know a lot about the period, but knows they like fancy uniforms and infantry in line to get their feet wet and find new things to research. Dedicating more space would be a waste for people who are truly knowledgeable of the period and still not enough for someone completely new to the period.

This campaign book provides optional rules for nighttime operations, as well as a guide on running the whole campaign as a linked scenario. Each scenario provides specific victory conditions, and in some cases the opposing armies might not even have directly opposing objectives! In some cases victory is determined by holding certain objectives, not exceeding a specified number of break points, inflicting a specified number of break points, or even a combination of all three! One scenario has me losing my historical miniature gaming cred by comparing the Austrians to the Wood Elves of Warhammer lore because if the Bavarians get to close to the woods they suffer fatigue from the Landsturm lurking about!

Each scenario provides a background of the battle, a map of the overall area of the battle, and the battlefield itself. The majority of the scenarios have been extensively re-written from v1 based on additional research. Not only are the scenarios further researched to be more historically accurate but so have the orders of battle. The Wargaming Company even consulted with Napoleonic author and professor John H. Gill, a specialist in the Napoleonic battles of 1809!

While the initial battles are relatively small affairs the campaign guide works its way all the way up to Aspern-Essling. As an example the second scenario, 1st Landshut, contains less troops (but one more artillery asset) than the average ESR Force box!

As you can see from the Force roster below the last scenario is a much bigger battle than the earlier ones, in fact the French formations take up three pages for Aspern-Essling, and the Austrian forces take up two pages!

Of course knowing where to be on the battlefield isn’t the only reason we play Napoleonics, looking good is important too! The Wargaming Company has you covered on this front too as they have dramatically increased the number of uniform plates from v1 to v2 of this guide. Not only does it show more Regiments it also shows the fronts and backs of the uniforms, something v1 did not have. While I haven’t done a line by line examination of the uniform plates compared to the Force lists it appears as if every unit in the book has a corresponding plate! In this version even the cavalry saddle blankets and saddles are shown!

An example of French uniforms.

More French, this time with saddles and saddle blankets!

Bavarian plates.

Austrian-Hungarian plates. In v1 the force list indicated AU for Austrian and HU for Hungarian. In this version all Austrian forces are listed as AU. If I’m understanding right based on what I was looking at comparing v1 and v2 Austrians were wearing the helmets and generally had white pants while Hungarians were wearing shakos and had blue pants. This is important if you are painting the Austrian Force box as it comes with both Austrian and Hungarian infantry!

Oftentimes people will wonder if it is worth upgrading from v1 to v2 of things like campaign books. In this case the extra uniform plates make the purchase well worth it on their own if you are interested in the period and want to have a collection of accurate uniforms. Beyond that the scenarios are totally re-written with many interesting and unique special rules for the scenarios. You can easily use these special rules when crafting your own one off battles for other campaigns. If you are interested in the period and the time frame this book is a must buy and I will definitely be picking up my own copy of this book next time I get the chance!

-Wachtmeister