Battle of Lesagno 20 April 1796: The Ground

Bonaparte snapped shut his eyeglass and shifted nervously in the saddle; his horse, sensing the general's impatience, pawed the ground.

'What's Augereau waiting for? Not like him to dally,' he fiddled with his riding crop.

'Wwwaiting for powder and shot, the roads are abbbominable ...' said the Chief of Staff, glancing past his chief at the distant Tarrano river.

'Well he'd better hurry, the men are all pent up...pointless attacking without a diversion though.'

There was a dull rattling sound carried by the wind and every officer who had one raised their eyeglass. Puffs, then clouds of smoke on the the other side of the river.

'Thank Gggod for that!' said Berthier.

'God? God's got nothing to do with it! Sound the advance!'

The Piedmontese's strategic aim is to delay the French and then fall back on Mondovi. They have six of their eighteen battalions facing Augereau, who is staging a diversionary attack off table on the Tarrano crossings to the north of Lesagno. Ten battalions are deployed facing Bonaparte who is attacking with Massena's and Serieur's disvions from the south (left side of the photo above). 

The French attack goes in at 1100. In game time there is therefore 9 turns each before nightfall when the fighting will stop. The Piedmontese have two battalions of Grenadiers who are their reserve and arrive on a roll of 6 at the start of any turn from turn 5. Their arrival simulates Augereau's attack running out of steam and the Piedmontese feeling confident enough to commit a reserve on this front.

Full battle report to follow