The Battle of Caldiero 1796 - A French Revolutionary Wars Batrep

 

Some of the  Rejects gathered at Reject HQ last Sunday for the Battle of Caldiero 12th November 1796. 

I'm the last Reject to do my report, you can check out Richard's here and Lee's here.

Background

By November 1796, Napoleon and the French Republic’s Army of Italy had defeated the Piedmontese and chased the Austrians across Northern Italy. They had trapped an Austrian army in the fortress city of Mantua and defeated one attempt by a relief army to lift the siege.
However, the Austrians were not going to give up just yet. At the beginning of November, Napoleon faced a difficult situation. Whilst trying to continue his blockade of Mantua, he found himself faced with two large columns approaching from the north. The Austrian plan was to unite in the vicinity of Verona (held by the French) and then march onto Mantua.
Napoleon saw Alvinczy’s approach from the east of Verona as the greater and more imminent threat. Napoleon sent Vaubois to hold the Austrian army marching from the north while he concentrated troops around Verona.
Alvinczy’s advance guard had halted east of Verona; deploying in a position between Caldiero and Colognola. The rest of the Austrian army was further to the west at Villanuova.
Napoleon’s aim in attacking at Caldiero was to defeat the Austrian advance guard before they could be reinforced. His preferred plan was for Augereau to pin the enemy at Caldiero whilst Massena found the Austrian right flank and rolled them up from Colognola.

Victory Conditions
The French must force at least half of the advance guard to retreat, rout or be destroyed. Alternatively, inflict more casualties on the Austrians than they take.
The Austrians must hold both Caldiero and Colognola by the time the game ends.

The Battlefield

Myself and Steve played the Austrians, Steve on the left, holding Caldiero, (the town on the left of the road) and me on the right and reserve, holding Colognola, next to the woods.

The French were played by a very happy Lee and Postie!!

The Austrian right flank, a unit of Grenzer's defending Colognola, another unit of Grenzer's on the hill, flanked by 2 artillery pieces. I think we could be in trouble?

Posties French started the game in the Vineyard, which hampered their movement. So some units were changed into skirmish formation to add movement.

There's a LOT of French!!!!

Including Cavalry!

I had 3 Cavalry units 1 Uhlan, the Wurmser Dragoons (in their unusual cough, uniforms and the Stabsdragoner.

Steve was also outnumbered in the centre he had troops defending the small village of Stra, which didn't give much protection and the bigger prize of Caldiero itself. We were going to have to move units around the table quickly, but where would the French attack???

This is going to be a slog!

First shots of the day, my 2 artillery give fire.

Lee advances the French

As does Postie.

I send each unit of Cavalry in a different direction, this could be dangerous, as I kept their leader with the Wurmser Dragoons in the centre, so the other 2 units would be out of command range, which means they would have to pass a morale test to use their second action. it was a gamble, hopefully it would pay off?

It looks like Postie is going to attack the hill, I didn't think he'd do that?

Postie starts to bring his cavalry around to our right flank, so I race our Uhlans around, to help plug the gap.

Think I'll leave the Dragoons here, not sure where they'll be needed???

A massive mob of French head for Stra!!!

Lee's French Combined Grenadiers start to move towards Stra.

And they're in!!

The Austrians lose the melee and are pushed out of Stra.

Here they come!

There's an awful lots of smoke in the air.

Cavalry or an Elite Line unit to plug the gap?
I chose the line.

It was 6-1, I've moved it up to 6-3 in the French favour.

We still hold both towns and the heights.... but for how long?

Oh dear?

Out on our left flank, we see Steve's Hussars charging French Dragoons, with more Dragoons in support

Gulp!!

Colognola is attacked by two French columns!!

While the Elite Austrians go into square.

Across the Battlefield

The melee on the heights..

Lose the melee and are pushed back

And then follow up their attack, unfortunately only one unit reaches the fight.

The Grenzer's lose again and are pushed back again.

Back out on our left the dice are thrown, he shouldn't have but....

Steve's dice win the melee and push the French back

Abwa-cadabawa!!!

Lee then tried to use magic on his dice...

And would you believe it... it worked!!

We made a mistake with the rules, Steve still won the melee, but wasn't allowed to follow up.
Booo!!!!

The whole picture....

Then a disaster, there were several brigades that due to loses had to take morale checks.

My Grenzers and Artillery failed there check and had to move back one move.

Which meant I moved OUT of Colognola, leaving it open to all elements!!

Postie also failed his check on the heights, all the units in his brigade had to move back 1 move.

So It was vital to win the first move the next turn......

The French threw higher and moved unopposed into Colognola!

One down, one to go!

But we moved our brigade next, I charged into the retreating French on the hill.

And destroyed the French unit.

Then followed up the charge to hit the other retreating French unit.

Which was also destroyed!!!
Go Wormsers Dragoons!

Lee moved out of Stra, and moved another unit in behind. 

But as he came out he formed into skirmish, which was too tempting for Steve, he charged off the hill, won the melee and pushed them back to the other side of Stra.

But the big charge came into Caldiero, there were several melees, but there could be only one winner???

The French pushed the Austrians out of the town, this was the last turn of the game. The French had completed part of their task, taking both Caldiero and Colognola, on the last turn of the battle.

I thought we'd lost, but Richard worked out the rest of the points and as it turned out the Austrians had won the day. Even though they'd lost both towns the French had lost 32% of their army, so couldn't the ground they had taken and would have to withdraw.

Woo Hoo!!!

I took this pic as Rich gave the French the bad news, it was like he'd hit them round the face with a bit of wet cod!!!!

Hehe!

Well that was a terrific game, well done Rich. I thought we'd lost, but was still happy because both me and Steve had played a valiant game, trying our best to survive the constant French onslaught, but to here we'd won a minor victory really was the icing on top of the cake.

I do love a game that really makes you think, trying to guess and second guess what your opponent is up to, really makes for a great game.

Well done has also gotta to go to Lee and Postie, they had defeat snatched outta the jaws of victory.