Marengo, 14th June 1800 - AAR Part 1

"From the Jaws of Defeat"

(This game is played using the John Tiller game "Campaign Marengo")

With the Army of the Reserve he had brought across the Alps, First Consul Bonaparte was trying to discover the whereabouts of the main Austrian force under Melas. On the evening of the 13th June, Bonaparte new that Ott with his force was in front of him in Alessandria, and sent out forces to find Melas. Unknown to Bonaparte. Melas was in Alessandria with Ott, and the next morning they attacked the outposts of the weakened French forces. By 10am, the situation looked like this:

Situation at 1000

The plans are fairly obvious; for the Austrians, send Elsnitz and Ott to outflank the French via Castel Ceriolo, while hitting them from the front with Kaim, Hadik, St. Julien and Morzin, while O'Reilly makes a nuisance of himself on the French left. The plan for the Frecnch is even simpler: (a) hang on, and (b) keep your fingers crossed for Desaix.

Austrian deployment at 1000

French deployment at 1000

Turn 1

The Austrian assault kicks off, with the infantry of O'Reilly and Hadik's divisions advancing against Gardanne's right. O'Reilly's light cavalry charges Murat's heavies in order to keep them away from the Austrian infantry.

Austrian moves against the French left

Meanwhile on the Austrian far left, Elsnitz heads for Castel Ceriolo, for some reason taking the longer way round...

Still reading the manual for his GPS, Elsnitz misses the turn for Castel Ceriolo

Meanwhile, Morzin's grenadier brigades set off on a smaller-scale flanking manoeuvre.

Morzin takes aim at Chambarlhac's flank

For O'Reilly's cavalry, it's mission accomplished, they take a single hit from the combat with the French heavy cavalry, and both sides bounce disordered. The Austrians bounce back to their start point, to put the stream between them and the French, just in case.

O'Reilly's cavalry reorganises behind some protection

For the French, there isn't much to do in Turn #1 but bring up Lannes...

Lannes leads Watrin's division toward the sound of the guns

...and Marmont with his handful of heavy guns.

Marmont limbers up

The situation at the end of Turn 1:

Situation at 1030

Turn 2

Elsnitz reaches Castel Ceriolo.

Austrian cavalry in a position to threaten the French right

Ott sets out after Elsnitz to add infantry and some more cavalry to the move against the French right.

"Follow Elsnitz, he's got the GPS!"

Meanwhile, Mozin's grenadiers have crossed the Fontanone unchallenged.

Chambarlhac's flank is in the air

As if Chambarlhac didn't have enough to worry about, Frimont's fire disorders one of his infantry brigades, and Frimont's cavalry follows up...

Will the fact that the Austrian cavalry is fording compensate for disorder and not being in square?

...and inflicts 3 hits on the French, but fails to break them, so the cavalry bounces back, the French infantry saved by the steep riverbank.

Murat decides to put the brakes on the advance of Morzin's grenadiers, and charges with his light cavalry.

Murat's charges, but the grenadiers form square in time

The cavalry bounces disordered, but forcing the grenadiers into square will  slow up their advance. Meanwhile, Lannes is getting close and will soon be able to make a difference, but he has Austrian grenadiers ahead of him and Austrian cavalry approaching from behind. Not a good time to be in march column.

"Behiiiiiind youuu...!"

In Gardanne's sector, the French heavy cavalry, having recovered its good order after the fight with O'Reilly's horsemen, charge O'Reilly's grenzer brigade for the same reason Murat charged the grenadiers over on the right - they're getting uncomfortable close. The grenzers form square in time, and inflict 3 hits on the French thanks to a tied roll, and we have our first rout of the battle. The French cavalry retreats to the woods, with should be out of reach of the the Austrian cavalry on the other side of the stream.

"Run away! Run away!"

The situation at the end of Turn 2:

Situation at 1100

Turn 3

Another blow against the French as Morzin's grenadiers shake out of square into line and rout Chambarlhac's right-hand brigade.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

Notmuch else happened in Turn3. Morzin puched his larger grenadier brigade out in line towards Lannes, who is still in march column for some reason, but instead of charging at Lannes with his cavalry also in march column, Elsnitz decided to stop and change to column formation instead. A lost opportunity?

The situation at the end of Turn 3:

Situation at 1130

The story so far:

To be continued...

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