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



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction

Image
This blog has been started in haste during the global COVID 19 crisis. At the time of writing I am beginning my tenth day of self isolation, working from home, and this is an attempt to divert myself and have some fun playing wargames. Colonel Rampon Defending Monte Legino Redoubt To begin with I'll be using a combination of Black Powder rules and scenarios from Bloody Big Battles and Wargame Rabbit  to fight the actions of Bonaparte's legendary 1796 Italian Campaign.
Read more

Battle of Arcole Day One

Image
This is a report on the playtest of a scenario I knocked up for Black Powder. The scenario involves nine French battalions in two brigades attempting to seize the bridge across the Alpone and the town of Arcole in order to allow Bonaparte's Army of Italy to execute a flanking manoeuvre to cut the line of communication of an Austrian army attempting to relieve Mantua. In reality the battle, although it has become part of the foundation myth of the French Republic as a great victory, was only a partial success for the French. The Austrian relief attempt was defeated but the Austrian army managed to extricate itself from the trap Bonaparte laid for it and was back for another go a couple of months later. In this scenario the length of the game is variable. At the end of each turn a D6 is rolled and the result deducted from a starting number of 33. This will, on average, give a game of eleven turns but this isn't certain. I elected to do this to reflect the difficulty of moving wid
Read more

Operational Situation Morning 20 April

Image
The situation at dawn on 20 April was: Augereau's division is north of the Tarrano river  with four understrength demi-brigades Bonaparte is at Lesagno with Massena and Serieur's divisions, both of which are understrength, and with and one battery of horse artillery under his direct command.  In total the French have 12 battalions north of the river and 20 to the south, plus an artillery battery. Bellegarde has deployed six battalions under Vitali defending the line of the Tarrano. A further 10 battalions are drawn up defending Lesagno from the east, these are supported by a battery of foot artillery. Two battalions of grenadiers are in reserve. The challenge for the French is coordinate Augereau attack on the Tarrano river line with Bonaparte's main assault. If both occur simultaneously Bellegarde will not be able to transfer troops from one front to the other and his reserves will be stretched. If the attacks are not coordinated he may be able to move units t
Read more