Jonathan played host again as the Rejects gathered online to play this second part of the Battle of Montebello.
For part one click here.
The situation was balanced with the French pushing the Austrians away from their points of entry, but good handling of reinforcements gave the Austrians a formidable looking line running south to north, from which to defend or launch attacks.
Here is the table as it stood at the end of the first part.
The Austrians advanced onto the hill south of Montebello causing Beuret's advance on Montebello to stall.
With reinforcements arriving (and splendid dice rolling), the Austrians were repulsing all French assaults and causing damage to increasingly depleted brigades.
And so at this point, with Austrian reserves replacing damaged units and brigades, the French command conceded defeat and congratulated the Austrians on a game well played.
Analysis
In some respects I think that the French were a victim of their success at the end of the first session. With units exposed, further advance would have left them victim to counterattack. This was perhaps compounded by the French not having sufficient units in reserve to guard those flanks and/or press the attack.
This helped the Austrians to press forward with their reserves and pull back their depleted brigades.
Perhaps the French should have pressed straight towards the bridge at the start. However, dogged defence put paid to any such plans.
I believe the fog of war, that Jonathan created, was really good and worked to make the commanders act as such rather than gamers. For example, if one Austrian wing lost one more unit their whole army would have retreated. With this knowledge I think the French would have made moves that might have been more game like and less in keeping with what ground commanders might do. That's just my view.
The Austrians played an excellent game in first containing the French by being surprisingly aggressive from the start, and then by good use of their reserves to keep their front line fresh.
Well done and thanks to Jonathan for this excellent game and being such a gracious host, as usual.
Couldn't agree more Richard. I do like Fog of War in a game, but if we'd known the Austrian's were weak (Steve's brigade), we would have played a completely different game and ignored our orders to capture the towns. So not knowing made for a better game. Shame about their bloody dice though, you're never gonna win anything throwing against their rolls.
ReplyDeleteIndeed Ray.
DeleteRichards dice stole all the ones and twos from our dice 🤣
DeleteLOL. Alas, so true.
DeleteGood summary, Richard. If you only knew what I (as umpire) knew, you would have pressed on and hard. Breaking an Austrian brigade or wing would not have caused the collapse and retirement of the whole army but only that one brigade or wing. However, if Steve's Left wing had broken (which it was very close to doing), its retirement may have placed the Austrian army in a very precarious position.
ReplyDeleteI thought the fog of war worked well by providing each army with different goals to attain and pitfalls to avoid.
On dice rolling, the Rejects really cannot be rejected for their consistent upending of probability tables. It seemed rare for less than a 7+ to be rolled.
Good game all and thank you.
I appreciate your support and encouragement to forge ahead.
By the way, how did you pound this post out so quickly? Amazing.
DeleteThe fog of war made us play a battle not just a game. Very good.
DeleteAs for dice, Surjit recorded that for 35 consecutive dice rolls Lee rolled 4 or more. So with pluses made him almost untouchable.
I had to stay up late to drive my son to his night shift, so had the time.
DeleteA rather brief summary Richard...or was the second session over in a couple of moves (that's how it read to me but I could be mistaken). Personally, I am happy to see the Austrians win ANYTHING! On a serious note though, the "fog of war" sounds exactly like it should ...I often think, it's a pity the opponent can see the effects of firing etc on the enemy forces....they know when a unit is shaken and can time charges accordingly, whereas in reality, you would only have the vaguest of ideas about the morale if the unit opposite you....this scenario was a perfect example of why the attacker should not know!
ReplyDeleteWell put Keith and much better than I could have said! Thanks for the brief AAR Richard and for once great to see the Austrians on the winning side:).
DeleteYes Keith, we only played 2 turns. We French were hopeful at the start that we could make a fight of it. But in the end we had nothing left in the tank against the Austrian reinforcements.
DeleteThe fog of war made the game.
Nice use of the fog of war by Jonathan as you say Richard, which really added to what seems like a very interesting game. It looks like that Austrian wing was very close and would have turned things dramatically for the French.
ReplyDeleteYes Lawrence it was.
DeleteNo commander knows his enemy is broken until they break. And so it was on this tabletop.
Excellent.
Lovely gaming, Richard. Great seeing this underplayed period.
ReplyDelete