Return to Montebello

After Jonathan (Palouse Wargaming Journal) and I played out the Battle of Montebello (see here), we tentatively agreed to a refight.  On Monday we gather around the remote table.  For this iteration I swapped sides and took command of the Austrians while Jonathan led the French attack.

Deployment and Plan

With the bulk of my Austrian forces marching on, I only had to deploy O'Reilly's command around the village of Rivalta.

My initial plan was to delay the French before Rivalta by slowly trading space for time.  Hopefully, this would win me enough time to march Vogelsang's brigade into position and deploy.  If the wargaming Gods were really with me, I might even get Schellenburg's brigade marching on and beginning to provide a supporting line.

O'Reilly's brigade with the Jagers in Rivalta, the Grenzers and Light Infantry either side and behind.  The Hussars deployed north and south of the line.

The Battle

The French, starting with Watrin's brigade, began to arrive from the east along the road.  A sharp small arms exchange started around Rivalta.  However, O'Reilly chose not to fully engage but to place his brigade on reserve orders.

Vogelsang's brigade advanced from the west and started passing through Casteggio.

Watrin developed his battle line in front of Rivalta.  However, O'Reilly used his reserve orders to backstep away from danger.  It wasn't damaging the French but it was doing two things: buying a little time; and preserving his brigade from the risk of quick collapse.
In the meantime, Vogelsang began to deploy at the T-junction.

As Watrin continued to push, O'Reilly continued to avoid engagement as much as possible and give a little ground to win a little time.  With Watrin not advancing quickly,  Lannes' cavalry arrived.

Whilst O'Reilly's plan was working well, there was one huge flaw... it ultimately relied on continually snatching the initiative from the French.
In what should be seen as a dramatic change of fortunes, the Revolutionary forces seized the initiative before O'Reilly could send out his orders and crashed into the Austrians around Rivalta.  The result was swift and bloody.  All of O'Reilly's infantry were annihilated, leaving only his cavalry to the north and south and the brigade broken!
Fortunately, Vogelsang was now deployed.  However, the line was short and looked exposed on the northern flank.  O'Reilly's Hussars would have to step up and protect the flanks.  Especially as Schellenburg's reinforcements had not yet arrived as hoped for.

Emboldened by their success, the French cleared the north of Austrian cavalry and Lannes launched his infantry into the centre of Vogelsang's line.  With weight of numbers, quality and Lannes' presence, the French quickly dispatched a battalion and 12 pounder battery.
The Austrian Hussars, with O'Reilly present, were doing a better job in the south funnelling the French northwards.

Taking the opportunity to exploit his success Lannes drove his troops into another of Vogelsang's battalions and battery.  With depressing inevitability the Austrians were quickly sent packing.  Lannes had punched a big hole in the defenders' line.  All Austrian plans were seemingly in tatters.

At this point, Schellenburg's troops marched up the road.  Would they be able to intervene before Vogelsang was broken and the battle lost?

To make matters worse, Chamberlhac's brigade now appeared in the east.
Nonetheless, O'Reilly took the opportunity to attacked an exposed infantry flank.  Unfortunately, the French foot repulsed the Hussars.
Encouraged by O'Reilly's opportunism and Lannes' exposed infantry, Vogelsang assaulted the now depleted French infantry front and flank.

The Austrian success was total.  The mixture of devastating musketry and advancing bayonet destroyed Lannes' units and killed Lannes where he fought.

While Schellenburg moved into Casteggio from the west and Chamberlhac moved past Rivalta from the east, Watrin was developing a French attack against Vogelsang's infantry to the north.  The French aim being clear... to break Vogelsang's brigade.

... and so the attack went in.  With one unit destroyed just north of Casteggio, Vogelsang's brigade was now teetering on the edge of collapse.  Fortunately, the French follow up against the columns in Casteggio were repelled.

With Schellenburg entering the fray, Vogelsang quickly moved most of his brigade out of harms way.

With another dramatic turn of luck, Schellenburg seized the initiative to deploy out of Casteggio to face Watrin's units pressing on the Austrian north.

Schellenburg's infantry fell on Watrin's infantry with the fury of the desperate.  A French battalion was overrun as the Austrians then destroyed another of Watrin's command; throwing back another.  Schellenburg was now covering Vogelsang's badly damaged and retiring brigade.
To the east, Watrin's lone unit deployed into square to guard against O'Reilly's Hussars.

Undeterred, O'Reilly launched himself and his Hussars against the square.

With Watrin's brigade now on the brink of collapse, the order went out to retire the brigade and open space for Chamberlhac's brigade to press on.
However, the order came too late!

With nothing to lose, O'Reilly's Hussars showed their skill and competence by breaking the square and riding down the infantrymen.  With this unit destroyed, Watrin's brigade was broken!

The order now went out for the French to retire eastwards in good order.

An Austrian victory!

Afterthoughts
That was a very close and exciting engagement.  Jonathan makes a great scenario designer and a worthy opponent.

This was a thinking person's game.  There were a lot of decision points and developing dilemmas.  The action was non-stop.  All of these ingredients made for the most memorable of games.

As for my plan.  Well, it more or less collapsed when I lost the initiative.  However, I had slowed the French advance a little.  I think a lot of credit has to go to O'Reilly.  First of all he survived a number melees and personally led the southern cavalry in providing a zone of control which pushed most of the French effort to the north of the line.  When Lannes did break Vogelsang's line, he was left exposed and isolated.  It was the best chance to inflict damage... and it broke the French brigade.

Fortunately, Schellenberg arrived just in time to develop a counterattack which damaged Watrin's brigade enough to leave it to O'Reilly to finish the job with a risky, yet successful, attack on a depleted infantry square.

The rules worked wonderfully.  I must highlight that clever use of the reserve rules is a necessity.  This gave me several opportunities to move units out of danger, especially early on in the game.

For anyone who gets an invitation to join Jonathan in playing this scenario... take it!

Thank you Jonathan.  Great game, great fun.