Battle of Pasta Castiglione, August 1796

Last weekend saw a gathering of the Rejects in Postie's Shed of War.  This time to play a game organised by me not Stuart.

This was a fairly loose interpretation of the Battle of Castiglione on 5th August 1796, with a slightly different "sauce" from the historical events.  The players had a degree of latitude in their deployment, a couple of terrain features are absent and the units on the table are not the named units that fought on the day.  Alas, the limits of my collection.

By Victor Adam

Brief Background

Napoleon and the Army of Italy had pushed the Austrians out of the northern Italian plain and were laying siege to the Austrian led fortress city of Mantua.  The imperial Field Marshall Wurmser wanted to lift the siege and relieve Mantua, thus also pushing the French back westwards along the river Po.  In order to do this Wurmser split his army in two and sent each half down each side of Lake Garda with the aim of crushing Napoleon in this pincer.

The strategic map of Lake Garda of August 1796.

Unfortunately for Wurmser, by Napoleon having the central position, the western army under Quasdanovich was defeated and fell back towards the Tyrol.  This meant that the revolutionary army could now face Wurmser as he approached from the east.

The Forces

The army lists are as follows:

Austrian Commander in Chief - FML Wurmser			French Commander in Chief – General Buonaparte
	Rating			Rating
Division General Melas	Line		Division – General Massena	Vet
IR29 Kerpen	Line		6th Demi Brigade	Line
IR25 Brechainville	Line		75th Demi Brigade	Line
IR14 Klebek	Line		85th Demi Brigade	Conscript
IR8 Huff	Line		57th Demi Brigade	Vet
Artillery			Carabiniers of 4th Legere	Vet
Division  - General Davidovich	Vet		Artillery
Szluiner Grenzers	Line		Division – General Augereau	Vet
IR24 Preiss	Vet		4th Demi Brigade	Line
IR4 Deutschmeister	Line		69th Demi Brigade	Line
IR13 Reisky	Line		14th Demi Brigade	Line
Artillery			19th Demi Brigade	Line
Division – Sebottendorf	Line		51st Demi Brigade	Line
Illyrischer Grenzers	Line		12th Demi Brigade	Line
IR51 Splenyi	Line		Grenadiers	Elite
IR43 Thurn	Line		Artillery
IR27 Strassoldo	Vet		Cavalry Division – Marmont	Vet
Artillery			5th Dragoons	Vet
Cavalry Division – General Placzek	Vet		20th Dragoons	Line
2nd Hussars	Vet		10th Chasseurs a Cheval	Vet
Stabsdragoner	Vet		Reserve – General Despinoy	Line
Reserves			5th Demi Brigade	Line
Carlstadter Sharpshooters	Vet		Legion d’Allobroges	Conscript
IR 49 Pellegrini	line

In order to provide a little fog of war, I have kept from the players the exact quality rating of each unit.  In fact, I may have been slightly "ambiguous" here and there.  Plus, casualties will not be marked on the tabletop units.  I will record them.

The Players

Austrians
Wurmser/Melas - Ray
Davidovich - Lee
Sebottendorf and Placzek - Surjit

French
Napoleon/Massena - Mark
Augereau and Marmont - Postie

Deployment

The table was set up based on this rough hand drawn map. 

Umpire's map of the Battle of Castiglione

Austrian
Melas Division could deploy in a box A1 to C3
Davidovich in B2 to C6
Sebottendorf in B6-B7, C7 to D8
Placzek and reserves could be deployed anywhere along A row after the French deployment.

French
Massena could deploy in squares F1-F3
Augereau in F3 to F5
Marmont in squares F7 to F9
The reserves could be deployed anywhere along the F row after the Austrian reserves had been deployed.

Player Briefings

These were the briefings given to each side.

French Briefing

An Austrian attempt to relieve the besieged city of Mantua by a pincer movement down both sides of Lake Garda has been weakened.  Thankfully you have been able to throw Quasdanovich’s western wing back to the north in disarray at the Battle of Lonato.
However, Wurmser’s army threatens to now push you back west towards Lombardy and Piedmont.
You have had to lift the siege at Mantua to deal with the Austrians.
You have sent orders to Fiorella to march from the southeast to smash the Austrian rear.
You must push back the Austrians.  If you capture the heights and Solferino you can cut off Wurmser’s line of communication, and hopefully force him back into the Tyrol.
Your line of communication is the road west to Castiglione.

Austrian Briefing

You have heard that Quasdanovich’s army on the western arm of the pincer around Lake Garda has been pushed back.
In order to complete the relief of the besieged city of Mantua, you need to hold the French and force them west and away from Mantua.
Your line of communication is toward Pescheria.  If things go badly a retreat towards Mantua could spell disaster as you may find your army trapped there.
If you can cut the French line of communication back to Castiglione this may eject the French and force them towards Piedmont and west.
You are aware that French troops may lie to the south or southeast, but no contact has been made to determine their exact whereabouts.

Basically, the winner is determined by who can hold their line of communication and control Solferino and the heights.

The Battle

For a better report of the battle itself have a look at Lee's blog and Ray's blog.

In the meantime here are some truly awful photos of the progression of the troop positions.

After deployment.  The troops are arrayed.  Most of the fighting will be down this end and in the centre.
You can just see Postie and Mark doing some serious chin rubbing as they ponder.

The French line on the left advances.

The opponents start moving into musketry range.

At the far (southern) end of the table Austrian and French cavalry clash.  The Austrians are the immediate winners, which quickly evaporates once their hussar regiment pursues the French off the table.

Postie has been making slow progress in the centre as Lee continues to backstep his division.  However, the situation close by is very much in the balance.

The worst photo!  Mark cracks open Ray's command.  However, even though the Austrians are obliged to retreat, the French soldiery is too exhausted to follow up.  The Austrians have won a tactical victory but suffered a strategic reversal.

Analysis

Essentially the two armies lined up as follows:

In the north around Solferino:  Melas (Ray) vs Massena (Mark), with two units from Augereau.

In the centre:  Davidovich (Lee)  vs Augereau (Postie)

In the south:  Sebottendorf and Placzek (Surjit)  vs  Marmont (Postie)

In the north.

Melas lost 45.3% of his effectives whilst Massena lost 40.3%.

This actually reflects nicely the close run nature of the fighting that took place in this part of the tabletop.  To reinforce this, both sides captured a standard from the other - IR8 Huff and 85th demi-brigade being the careless units.

In the centre.

Davidovich lost 23.9% of his men.  Augereau lost 33.3% of his troops.

This probably reflects the Austrian being able to contain and inflict losses on a slightly less coordinated assault by the French.  Nonetheless, French losses look worse until one considers that one demi-brigade alone (the 51st) suffered 75% loss of effectiveness.  Plus, they captured the standard of IR49 Pellegrini.

In the south.

Sebottendorf did nothing and lost nothing.  Placzek lost 66% after the hussars chased French dragoons off the table.  However, Marmont's 43% loss needs to also take into account their now reduced ability to contain Sebottendorf's division.

Where the battle mattered most, on the heights and towards Solferino, it was a close engagement and fortune swung back and forth.  The Austrians just held on, but the French were drawing alarmingly close.

All participants played with great thought and reflection.  The Austrians played to their strength of keeping a line and withdrawing when needed.  The French were rewarded for aggression in the north, but were perhaps a little too cautious in the centre.

As umpire, I enjoyed it.

To get a player's perspective visit Big Lee and/or Ray's Don't Throw a One blog for his report on the game.