The Corlears Hook Fencibles played our Castiglione scenario for the third time Thursday evening. The dice determined that Rick would be Bonaparte, aided by Ken as Augereau, and Tom would be Wurmser, aided by me as Davidovich. This was a further game test for our "Bonaparte Waltz" rules.
We started the first turn with the initiative but let the French move first. Tom deployed his two artillery battalions in a single battery without support to lure the French into an attack. It worked too well and Massena's large division surged forward, over-running the guns before supports could move up.
Tom then launched a vicious counter-attack into the disordered French. The fight went back and forth for several turns. A coordinated attack by four brigades scattered one of Massena's brigades.
A French riposte scored four retreats on one fairly intact Austrian brigade and sent it running off the table, lost for the day. The Austrians finally pulled back and both sides paused to re-group. A close look at our line after this showed a number of brigades that were one hit from dissolving. Massena's division didn't look all that pretty either.
Meanwhile, I made sure that the Austrian left made mistakes too. Augereau's division moved up into artillery range of my force. My two artillery battalions opened fire and disordered the two leading brigades of French infantry.
Instead of waiting in my redoubt on a hill, my two brigades of infantry and one cavalry brigade attacked Augereau. My attack was repulsed, with both sides the worse for it. The knowledge that another French division was marching towards our left rear was like a shot of whiskey on an empty stomach. That's my excuse, anyway.
By this time French losses were considerable. But we had more units broken. Fiorella's French division duly arrived behind our left flank and slowly moved towards the redoubt. More fighting flared up in the center. About this time we broke for dinner, sitting down to jambalaya. Over an hour later, the game resumed. I realized during dinner that we hadn't been treating the Austrians as having battalion guns present. This was one reason for playing that scenario again. We resolved to start using them during the second half of the game.
During one Austrian counter-attack, the garrison of Solferino (the town anchoring our right flank) came out and joined the fray. Massena's division was being hammered. But Despinoy's French division arrived near our right flank and playing an "on the double" card, marched into the town and threatened our line of communications. Things were rather sticky and about to get worse.
My redoubt was now closely threatened front and rear.
Augereau's division moved forward. Marmont's horse artillery unlimbered at close range and blasted the redoubt, scoring a hit I didn't manage to save. I took the hit on the infantry unit in the redoubt, a mistake since that hit dissolved the unit and left the position held by an unsupported battalion of artillery. I should have taken the hit on the guns, leaving two fragile units in the redoubt. My defensive fire was enough to convince the French guns to limber and retreat. But two brigades of Austrian infantry poured over the walls of the redoubt and captured the guns. During the final scramble, Davidovich's horse was shot. He barely managed to get clear and escaped on foot just ahead of the French grenadiers. He needed another horse and probably a shot of schnapps.
Despinoy's division poured out of the streets of Solferino in disorder and was knocked back into the town by an Austrian brigade. Both Wurmser and Melas were fighting amidst their troops. Both had to roll for Risk to the General, both had better luck than Davidovich. The Austrian army was wavering, which makes activating troops more difficult. The table had disordered and exhausted troops on both sides. If we could get the initiative on turn 8, we might be able to put some serious hurt on the French and perhaps get them wavering too.
Alas, we rolled a tie for initiative. Bonaparte wins ties against the merely competent Wurmser. Fiorella's division was stirred by the sight of the tri-color waving over the redoubt and charged the rest of my command, through heavy musket fire. My cavalry brigade dissolved into a stream of fugitives. The infantry barely managed to stand and repulse Fiorella's attack. Meanwhile, in the center another French attack scattered one of our shot-up brigades. We'd reached our breakpoint. The Austrians streamed off the field, game over.
We'd played 8 turns in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. French losses were slightly under 8,000 (of 30,000). Austrian losses were less, 5,000 (of 24,000) but concentrated in a number of units. Three of our four artillery battalions were overrun. Half of our units had dissolved and the jig was up. We checked the pursuit rule, but the Austrians still had a brigade of cavalry in good order, enough to foil pursuit by the one brigade of French cavalry.
From a game test point of view, we'd tried the battalion guns and found them useful but not over-powering. This bodes well for future games of Marengo and possibly Auerstadt, where the Allies had lots of battalion guns. The Austrian high command was lacking in this game. First we had the artillery mistake, followed by the attack from the redoubt, denuding the town of its garrison and finally my half-baked final defense of the redoubt. I suspect that since we were on the defensive we should have refrained from some of the wild counter-attacks. While they drove up French losses, they used up our troops too. We ran out of steam on the 8th turn of a 15 turn game. Although it must be said that remaining calm while your left flank is enveloped is easier said than done.
