Operational Situation Morning 20 April

The situation at dawn on 20 April was:
  1. Augereau's division is north of the Tarrano river  with four understrength demi-brigades
  2. 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. 
  3. In total the French have 12 battalions north of the river and 20 to the south, plus an artillery battery.
  4. 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 to the most threatened sector and conduct a  successful defence.

This will be represented on the table by playing out Bonaparte's attack in the east and making the availability of Piedmontese reinforcements subject to the success of Augereau's assault.

Augereau is an aggressive commander and his force outnumbers Vitali by approximately 2:1. His men are confident while Vitali's are anything but. They do however, have the advantage of defending a river with only two identified crossing points. I think it's an even chance that the French assault will succeed.

Accordingly, Bellegarde has ten battalions and a foot artillery battery to take on Bonaparte. He defends a long table edge and deploys up to half way across it. From the beginning of his 4th turn he rolls a dice: on a roll of six two battalions of grenadiers enter as reinforcements on the Piedmontese  long table edge in either march or column of companies. This represents Vitali holding Augereau and Bellegarde being confident enough to commit his reserves against Bonaparte.

The French win if they break or shake more than half of the Piedmontese units on the table i.e (6 units at game start and 7 if the Grenadiers arrive) excluding the artillery. The Piedmontese have to break two of the four French brigades on the table. A brigade breaks if more than half its battalions are shaken or broken.

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