Reflections of the Mondovi Operation

Once agin I am indebted to Nicholas Murray and Chris Pringle for their 'Bloody Big Battles' scenario of this operation.

Playing the campaign made me appreciate just how finely nuanced the scenario is and how much research and scholarship has gone into its design.

Secondly, I can see that despite the French advantages afforded by their superior command and mobility the Piedmontese could have achieved a strategic win in the face of tactical defeats.

Had they avoided battle at Ceva and Padagiera then Vitali and Brempt may have been able to fall back to Lesegano and engage the French in a delaying action there. Bellegarde could have remained in reserve or counterattacked if Lesegano fell.

With the defeat of Vitali and Brempt the Piedmontese were compelled to either abandon Lesegano or try and hold the French there with Bellegard's divsion. The former course of action left the road to Carru open whilst the latter risked the majority of the Piedmontese's troops in a battle they had to fight at at disadvantage. The fact was that after the defeats at Ceva and Pedagiera the Peidmontese had lost much of their comabt power. Their objectives of delaying the French whilst maintaining an force in being were now much harder to achieve.

The first operation I gamed, that of Dego, resulted in a draw despite the French winning every engagement on the tabletop. This operation was no different in that the French won every tabletop battle but the Piedmontese were unsuccessful in achieving a draw or a win, which they may have been able to do, despite their lack of tactical success, had they been more strategically astute. Using the Black Powder Command system introduced enough friction for me to play a satisfying solo game.

In terms of practicalities I am pleased I didn't let the fact I possessed no Piedmontese figures stop me playing the campaign. In these times we must improvise and improvisation meant I got to do something very enjoyable I would not have otherwise done. The Austrian proxies worked just fine.

I am also pleased I learned how to use the military mapping application at map.army It's a really good app and whilst the maps are modern the mountains haven't moved since 1796!

I'm going to take a rest from the French Revolutionary Wars for a couple of weeks and head forward in time to the 1980s and south in space to the Angolan-Nambian Border to try an AK47 rules based campaign there. Head over to War for Slow Readers if you're interested.