Dresden AAR

 Is this a picture of the Austrian line advancing, or retreating? Read on to learn...

My friend, Jerry, was in town recently. He and I started playing Napoleonic miniatures in 1972. Our most recent game, in which my son, Brady, also played, was a scaled down version of Dresden. I've been wanting to play a Dresden scenario for a while, but hadn't been able to pull a big game together.
For this game I cut down the armies for both sides; one French player, me, one Russian player, Jerry, and Brady played the Austrians.
The game was set up as a desperate French defense. It worked well. 

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Dresden

 

One of the French redoubts

Russian Cavalry division

Austrian Infantry division supported by a cavalry division

I seen confused by the scenario design. How am I supposed to hold off these overwhelming odds?

 This turned out to be one of the closest games in which I have played. On the final turn, my final die roll decided the game.
The Russians were on the Allied right, the Austrians were their left. Both wings closed in on me from turn one. I received a Guard division as reinforcements and threw them into an attack immediately against the Russians. The Austrians pushed their artillery up to point blank range and started an assault against one of my redoubts. While that position held out, I attempted to deal with the Russians.

The French Cavalry attempt to defeat the Russians.

The Allied line pushes forward

 After 12 turns of furious fighting, the Allies made it to the outskirts of Dresden. By this point, every infantry division on the table was exhausted or collapsed. Volley and Bayonet used exhaustion and collapse to show the effects of combat on divisions. Once a division reaches it's exhaustion level, normally 50% casualties, the owning player rolls for collapse. To avoid collapse, the player must roll higher on one D6 than the number of casualties suffered by that division during the current player turn. I failed my final collapse roll and my last division retreated.

On to the 1814 battles...