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Monday, March 29, 2021

Rivoli: An Executive Summary of Battle

Fierce fighting on the Rivoli Plateau
The sun sets on the Rivoli Plateau and the battlefield is shrouded in darkness.  With darkness covering the battlefield, fighting slackens as visibility decreases quickly.  As the wounded, lost, and bewildered turn toward self-preservation in the cold January night air, I call a cessation to hostilities.

The battle began in the morning with Austrian General Alvintzi attacking south toward Joubert's exposed division situated upon on the Rivoli Plateau.
Alvintzi attacks Joubert
The initial troop dispositions were situated as shown in the figure below:
Initial dispositions
The battle began at 0830 and ended at sunset at 1700. Seventeen turns were put into the logbook. After fighting throughout the day, most formations neared exhaustion and the 1630 turn saw particularly heavy casualties as commanders attempted one last decisive push before nightfall.  The day-long battle raged over the heights that overlooked the Adige River valley and on the plateau upon which the town of Rivoli sits. Like two prize fighters, the armies bludgeoned each other repeatedly but neither wanting to yield.

The two opposing generals opted for different approaches to victory.  The French chose to go for a knock-out punch and win by Sudden Death.  The Austrians chose a double envelopment to cut the French army in half.  The initial plans looked something like this:
Initial battle plans
Each combatant was issued a situation briefing.  These briefings are provided in detail below:

French Briefing:
The Austrians have launched another relief effort for Mantua. Three attempts have failed before. This one should be no different. Alvintzi needs to break out of the Adige Valley into order to bring his superior numbers to bear. The only way to break out of the valley is to attack on the Rivoli Plateau.

Joubert was posted to the north of Rivoli and while fighting hard, has been pushed back to Rivoli and takes up positions along the Trombolare Heights. Reinforcements are on the way and will continue arriving throughout the morning. Holding the Osteria Gorge is critical. If the Gorge can be held, the large Austrian columns confined to the valley will offer no assistance to the Austrians on the plateau. If the four Austrian columns on the heights can be defeated before reinforced from the valley below, the battle will be won. The goal is the destruction of the Austrian army before it can break out and relieve Mantua.

Napoleon faces several problems. They are:
  • Joubert’s position could be flanked on the west allowing the Austrians to break out towards Lake Garda.
  • Joubert is initially outnumbered and spread thinly across the front but his troops are hard fighters and he has support from artillery and cavalry.
  • If the Osteria Gorge can be forced then both flanks could be in jeopardy and the Rivoli position could become untenable.
  • While the Osteria Gorge position may hold, the Adige could be bridged in a few places below Rivoli.
Game length: 0830 to 1900 (actually ended at 1700)
French Command Rating: Efficient
French Maneuver Doctrine: Impulse
French Reinforcement Schedule:
0900 Massena, Brune, 32nd Line, 29th Line arrive on road from Verona to Rivoli.
1000 Massena’s two batteries arrive on road from Verona to Rivoli.
1030 Monnier, 18th Line, 75th Line arrive on road from Verona to Rivoli.
1400 Rey, 58th Line arrive on road from Verona to Rivoli.
1530 8th Dragoons, 15th Dragoons, Rey’s batteries arrive on road from Verona to Rivoli.

Austrian Briefing:
With plans to relieve Mantua (fourth time’s a charm!), Alvintzi has set off down the Adige Valley with thoughts of breaking out into the more open territory in which his superiority in numbers can weigh heavily against the weaker French.

Alvintzi faces several problems. Almost too many obstacles, really. They are:
  • To break out toward Verona and Mantua, his army must overcome Joubert’s division blocking his approach.
  • The Adige River is unfordable and the nearest crossing is several miles to the north.
  • Climbing out of the Adige Valley in order to make an attack against Joubert in the mountains requires that his cavalry and artillery be left behind.
  • To access the Rivoli Plateau directly from the Adige Valley requires his army to pass through the Osteria Gorge. This is a narrow defile and easily defended. Reuss must overcome this obstacle to unleash his large column out onto the plateau.
  • Until the Osteria Gorge can be taken, communication between Alvintzi on the plateau and his troops in the valley is nearly impossible. Therefore taking the gorge defile is key to the entire operation.
  • His four columns on the plateau have been moving and fighting through most of the night and early morning. Austrian punches have not been as nimble as French counter-punches.
  • Vukassovich’s column on the east bank of the Adige River is prevented from moving south through another defile by French troops. No possibility of overcoming the defenders guarding this defile. Vukassovich does carry along a pontoon train that can be used to bridge the Adige in a few places.
Game length: 0830 to 1900 
 (actually ended at 1700)
Austrian Command Rating: Functional
Austrian Maneuver Doctrine: Linear
Austrian Reinforcement Schedule: None

Victory Conditions:
Sudden Death (Assessed at end of each turn):
  • Austrians win the battle and play stops immediately if all units from two columns have exited the southern board via either Rivoli-to-Verona or Affi-to-Verona roads. To count, each column must still maintain half of its units neither eliminated nor Demoralized.
  • French win the battle and play stops immediately if at least three Austrian columns have been destroyed. To count as destroyed, all of the column’s units must be either eliminated, Shaken, or Demoralized.
If no sudden Death then points will be awarded.
Winning on Points (Assessed at end of game):
2 VPs for each enemy unit eliminated.
1 VP for each enemy unit demoralized.
3 VPs (Austria only) for controlling Rivoli-Verona road exit.
3 VPs (Austria only) for controlling Rivoli.
5 VPs (Austria only) for controlling Affi.
5 VPs (Austria only) for controlling Zuanne.

At the end of fighting, the situation looked like,
Situation 1700

As seen in the battle photo above, the French nearly destroyed two Austrian columns in the north while the Austrians nearly completed their double envelopment of the French.  The Austrians had a chance at snagging a Sudden Death victory by exiting Lusignan and Liptay off-table at Affi but chose to maintain their double envelopment and help spring Reuss from the gorge bottleneck.   

The Austrian column under Reuss, having battled hard all day to break through the Rivoli Gorge, finally succeeded.  The arrival of fresh troops for the French saw these Austrian gains onto the Rivoli plateau short-lived.  As daylight faded, Reuss' Austrians suffered reverses and their foothold upon the plateau became untenable.

In the north around Lubiana, the end of the day saw Koblos and Oksay retreating in disarray.  Based upon Alvintzi's earlier instructions and plan of battle, Koblos and Oksay withdrew back to the north to preserve the army.  Much of Lebley and Vial's commands were equally battered and in no condition to pursue vigorously (or effectively!).

The Austrians performed better than their historical counterparts but based on casualties suffered, I lean toward declaring a minor French tactical victory since the Austrians were unable to successfully break out onto the plain below Rivoli.  My long term plan is to collate all of the correspondence and combat results into a more detailed battle report at some point.  Perhaps this will include a series of posts highlighting portions of the battle?  The mounds of dispatches to sift through are daunting and much of the action will need to be condensed unless I plan on writing a book on this battle.  By the time I re-examine all of the data and tally casualty returns, the final result may edge back toward a draw.  It really is that close.

I know I asked a lot from the players in this venture and appreciate their diligence in feeding in their orders and dispatches. This battle has waged for over two months now and I am very grateful to all whom participated. The decisions made by the generals produced much enjoyment for me and generated an interesting narrative.  Not something I could have experienced on my own.  I was surprised many times and tried to follow the intent and spirit of each order.  It is fair to say that this undertaking would not have been the same without their generous and helpful contributions. Some of the dispatches were very entertaining. Some were very methodical. All were greatly appreciated as the players' participation added greatly to the battle refight.

I sincerely thank all participants for making this a very enjoyable game. I hope players found this enjoyable as well and this exercise provided some insight into the historical battle, itself.  All are worthy commanders.  Each turn, with limited information, they assessed the situation and made some profound and insightful inferences. Chapeau to you all!

Should they so choose, I would enjoy reading the thoughts, impressions, and perspectives of commanders whether as a reply here or on your own blog.

64 comments:

  1. Good to see your toys out on the table and being played with. I note you are a "one size down" guy with respect to buildings. I think that works really well in a game of this scale.

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    1. Yes, good to get the toys out, for sure. I try to have the buildings fit the ground scale rather than the figure scale. For large battles, this works well in tricking the eye.

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  2. Sounds like an epic game, in time and effort and on the table. It looks good having all that space. Too many games have crowded tables with no manoeuvre space.

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    1. This was a long game that took a lot of time and effort. Coordinating all of the player dispatches and carrying out those instructions on the gaming table required an enjoyable effort. Lots of room for maneuver, for sure.

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  3. Looks good Jonathan! Would like to read more once you've had the time (and patience) to sift through all the despatches.

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    1. Thank you, Mike! There was some interesting stuff going on at ground level. Some of those actions will provide interesting battle accounts. The fighting in the gorge was vicious with the redoubt changing hands more than once. One French general met his maker there...

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  4. Jonathan, as one of the participants, thanks for all the time and effort you put into this and for allowing your table to be ‘locked up’ for a couple of months. The e-mail trail must have been huge.

    These sort if games always bring a perspective that is impossible to appreciate by other means.

    I will try and record just a couple of paragraphs of memoirs at some point and add to your post. Cheers.

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    1. Thank you, Norm! Having you in command of the Austrian army made for a solid foundation to the game.

      Having remote commanders issuing orders certainly opens up new possibilities and challenges for gaming.

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  5. Memoirs of General Jozsef Alvinczi, concerning the Battle of Rivoli.

    My orders had been to move south with 5 columns and relieve the seige of Mantua. The terrain was harsh and two of my brigades (Reuss and Vukassovich) were isolated in the Adige River valley, with the strategically important Osteria Gorge the only rout for their forces to break out into the Rivoli Plateau and join us. Vukassovich in fact had been ordered to march further south and try to use his pontoon to cross the river and fall on the French rear at Rivoli.

    Our plan relied fully on Reuss breaking through the Gorge and joining us with his powerful column, but that attack would take time to develop. So we spent the morning with Köblös, Liptay and Lusignan trying to envelop the French on the Trombalore Heights before the French could either reinforce or retire.

    For his part, Oksay was to attack on our side of the Gorge to help Reuss get through. These distractions did work for a time, but ultimately, powerful French formations pushed Köblös and Oksay back north, to defend a line based on the village of Lubiana.

    Liptay and Lusignan to the west were held in position by the French. It was now increasingly critical that Reuss should break through.

    And then perhaps a pivotal moment. Liptay sent a request in dispatches that he and Lusignan should disengage and march south to Affi (the direction of the besieged Mantua). The request had merit.

    However, I decided against it on the grounds that while Lusignan could likely disengage, Liptay would find that harder and there were enemy cavalry roaming which meant the objective was at least and hour and a half away, during which time, those two brigades would not be attacking the French. Also, the move would abandon the remaining three columns to their fate, likely they would be destroyed and an intact french force would then pursue Liptay / Lusignan. This was likely a pivotal decision that could have changed the battle, but we will never know. By inclination, I put saving the army above boldness.

    By early afternoon Reuss was still on the other side of the Gorge and I was becoming concerned that we might need to withdraw, so all columns were ordered to ensure that their lines of communication be kept open for possible withdrawal from battle.

    Köblös and Oksay were under extreme pressure at Lubiana and I was close to calling for a general retreat, when news came that Reuss had broken through the Gorge and that Vukossivich had crossed the river. With renewed hope, I pressed on.

    I became certain that the French were getting exhausted in places and so with daylight about to be lost final orders were issued. In the North Köblös and Oksay were allowed to conduct a fighting withdrawal, abandoning Lubiana. Liptay and Lusignan were to fight whatever was in front of them and prevent their escape. Reuss was to take Zuanne on the Rivoli Heights and Vukossovich was to take Rivoli.

    As chance would have it, Vukassovich contacted French reinforcements and his attacked pinned them in place.

    With light fading, I received news that across the field, our prospects in the last 30 minutes had taken a turn for the worse and that our losses were growing and several formations were becoming disordered.

    In truth the darkness saved us. Though we failed to lift the siege, we did give the French a bloody nose and were able to leave the field safely, with the French too exhausted to pursue.

    It remains to be said that all 5 Austrian columns performed valiantly and with great sacrifice, held Napoleon in check!

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    1. Outstanding battle recap of the Austrian battle plan, Norm! You devised a plan early on and stuck to the plan throughout. I imagine the dash toward Affi was a tempting option (I know it was for Lusignan and Liptay) but you stayed the course. Both commanders had the option of acting on their own initiative to push on to Affi but decided to remain under your capable guidance.

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  6. Looks like a real winner so far Jonathan!

    Christopher

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    1. I thought the game was a real winner, Christopher. I had planned refighting Rivoli for a few years and finally made the effort.

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  7. Great storytelling! I would love to see the photographs of the course of the confrontation.

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    1. Thanks, Valentin! Expect to see more snippets from the battle over time.

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  8. Wow that is some battle, I get exhausted moving troops on a 4x4.

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    1. The game was out on the table for two months with roughly one week between moving troops around. I had plenty of time to rest...

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  9. Thoroughly enjoyed reading through this. I too would love to read some of the dispatches - did some of the players get into character at all with flavour and text in their missives?

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    1. Good to see that you enjoyed this! Yes, most of the players got into character and some of the dispatches would be considered notable literary pieces. A few rousing speeches to the troops were included too! It was great fun.

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  10. Wow! 2 months is a long time but I’m glad it was a rewarding experience. How many players did you end up with?
    These type of internet games have mainly come from COVID I think but I hope they stick around afterwards as it’s such a unique way of gaming and so much better at providing for fig of war. 😀

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    1. Two months is a long time to fight out a battle but the time flew by with a steady stream of dispatches arriving constantly. Nine players participated.

      I did something like this several years ago before the COVID days. I only had two commanders, though, and not nine. Perhaps, there was more interest this time since COVID has locked out better gaming opportunities? See my Raab reports if you are curious of seeing this in an earlier iteration.

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  11. I didn't realise that it has taken 2 months to complete this, so 'hats off' to all involved for this mammoth undertaking. The broad overview of the action is great, with Norm's thoughts as the Austrian commander very enlightening. I think some more detailed reports on key points of action, of which I'm sure there are many, would be a nice treat, if you are able to this.

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    1. Yes. Two months. It passed by so quickly and I was quite busy during these last two months with dispatches traveling hither and yon.

      Norm's "memoir" is perfect and enlightening to the considerations of command. I think detailed reports on parts of the action are a very good idea. The heavy fighting on the ridge at the San Marco Chapel early in the morning may make a perfect candidate.

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  12. As one of the participants I can say that it was great fun, and I very much appreciated being involved and all your efforts in keeping the dispatches and action rolling.

    It was great reading Norm's reports and from my perspective as Sandos, Monnier and the dear departed Brune on the French side there were a few occasions when I thought all had been lost.

    The feature I most enjoyed was the fog of war aspect and the uncertainty attending that. Probably the most humorous part for me was when Sandos received orders that Joubert's division was to withdraw and duly issued orders to that effect, only to find that his brigade was in fact the only one that actually withdrew as the rest of the division pushed forward, leaving him looking like a shag on a rock.

    I remember feeling slightly miffed by this at the time as the Trombalore Heights looked like a good position to continue defending, but in retrospect the push forward by the remainder of the Joubert division probably threw the Austrians sufficiently off balance to blunt their overall attack. Sandos was able to hold his line on the Rivoli plateau with some very able support from Massena and LeClerc anyway, although I resolved to ignore any further orders to withdraw again.

    The Osteria Gorge was nerve-wracking and the amount of Austrian opposition lining up to break through there was quite daunting, even more so when I realised there was room for only one battalion in the redoubt. The trick was in trying to ensure there were enough fresh battalions to rotate into the redoubt when the previous defenders were spent, and I think the French had a fair bit of luck in being able to pull this off as many times as they managed to. The Austrian artillery that deployed later in the game to bombard the redoubt did so with great effect and prepared the way for their eventual breakthrough. I was very glad they hadn't done that earlier, although things were very bunched for them in the Osteria Gorge and it probably would not have been an easy task for them to bring the artillery to bear any sooner.

    When General Brune got killed in the redoubt it gave me some pause about attaching generals to units, but it appeared that the overall benefits outweighed the risks so I continued with the practice, albeit a little more judiciously. If we had lost Sandos in similar fashion things may have been much more difficult.

    Great fun as I say and I think a draw would be a fair result, but if it stays as a minor French tactical victory I'll make sure I remind Norm in future comments.

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    1. Thank you, Lawrence, for the vote of encouragement!

      Your commands, by a twist of fate, occupied both shoulders of the double envelopment. Therefore, you saw much of the heavy fighting and you were under pressure most of the day.

      The fighting at the gorge was especially trying and as you say, it was touch-and-go more than once. Reuss never gave up trying to breach the gorge and finally after repeated attacks cracked the defenses. Brune went down early in the defense of the redoubt but your cycling of reinforcements kept the defense viable.

      After falling back for more than a mile, Sandos solidified a defense and held the line against repeated attacks from the west.

      Watching how you handled your troops was great fun.

      Thank you!

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    2. Good to make your acquaintance General Sandos , I have noted your comments on disobeying my orders and will pass this through to general Bonaparte. Despite your heroic efforts to hold our flank you can expect a severe reprimand. I am sure there is a prison ship or some such you can be found to command for the next few years. Yours General Joubert

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    3. Good one! Let's see who gets to Napoleon's ear first!

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    4. "Is he lucky?" :-)

      It is notable that Brune and Massena lived to become Marshals of France, whilst Joubert and Sandos were both dead before 1800. Joubert was a particularly serious loss for the French army, and would likely have become a Marshal himself had he lived.

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  13. I've been meaning to write you a massive thank you for undertaking this game Jonathan. It was immensely fun and I know at times I felt tired writing more dispatches but the thought of your chasing many players inspired me to try and be timely (try!).

    I'm with Lawrence, there were times I was sure the French were doomed. Notably around 1430 when Osteria Gorge burst open and Austrian cavalry emerged I figured it was game over. I suppose we were very fortunate that Brune and Monnier were able to hurt Rheuss enough that it was a blunted attack.

    Massena/myself felt very much like a fire brigade, constantly running around parcelling out his forces to stabilize and support other commands. Fun stuff. It felt like we were always on the edge of knocking off an Austrian column but it never quite happened. I suspect if we had bagged one then others would have rapidly fallen in quite succession.

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    1. Thank YOU, David! I know you had challenges at times but am very glad you stuck with it.

      You are so right in that Massena took on the role of Fire Brigadier moving from one hotspot to another, stabilizing each before moving on to the next challenge. Even though wounded on the San Marco Heights, you returned to the Rivoli Plateau to lead charges against Lusignan before taking command of LeClerc's late arriving dragoons. Your leadership at the head of these dragoons in attacks near Zuanne likely saved the day for Napoleon. You really were the Duke of Rivoli!

      Thank you for your participation!

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  14. I had the nail-biting honor of playing General Bonaparte in this epic event. In truth, I have always marveled at how Napoleon managed to pull of something like a victory at Rivoli! The briefing sets the scene for the French very well.

    It was obvious that keeping the Osteria Gorge tightly sealed was critical if the French were to have any chance of victory, and that was the focus of the early turns, where the French were heavily outnumbered North of the Gorge. This proved to be somewhat more difficulty than I had anticipated, consuming troops that I woukld have liked to have committed elsewhere, but could not. The early and partially successful attack by Ocksay and Koblos on San Marco threated to uncork the Gorge from the North, and was eventually repulsed only after much conflict.

    I was quite pleased when Lusignan and Liptay made their wide swing attempting to envelop Sandos. This kept them from fighting much for several turns, and quite frankly, had they turned to march off South via Affi, I would have been delighted to let one of the columns exit, as I was pretty sure we could prevent the second from doing so in sufficient force to count as required in the scenario terms for sudden victory.

    Also, at that point, it seemed to me that our best hope was to defeat the Northern columns of Ocksay and Koblos. If that could be accomplished, then the remaining French forces could turn on either Lusignan or Liptay and hopefully destroy one before nightfall.

    One big fly in the ointment was that it became clear that Vukassovich's column advancing down the East bank of the Adige would be able to cross the river near Rivoli considerably earlier than I had hoped. I decided the best policy was to observe that crossing rather than attempt to oppose it too vigorously, which the Austrian artillery deployed across the river made too dangerous.

    The schedule of French reinforcements over time seemed such that they would probably arrive in just about the nick of time to stave off successive crises. In the actual battle, this proved to be more or less the case. There was enough each time to pull the French feet from the fire, but never enough to concentrate fresh troops in a decisive attack (against Koblos and Ocksay). One large advantage the French held was that the first 4 columns of Austrians contained neither artillery nor cavalry, the alpine passages that they had traversed being to rugged to allow the passage of anything but infantry. This allowed the opportunity to employ combined arms tactics with the French Cavalry and Artillery supporting our infantry against the first 4 columns.

    My subordinates, Massena, Sandos, and Joubert all fought with outstanding tactical skill and insight, maneuvering the French cavalry to threaten the rear of all 4 columns, and executing a number of glorious charges, and seizing the initiative locally when orders from above didn't quite make sense on the ground! :-)

    Still, when Reuss' cavalry burst through the Osteria gorge late in the game, I thought that Rivoli was about to become famous as a crushing defeat for the French. Once again, with some luck, there were just enough troops in the right place at the right time to stave off disaster, and the arrival of the last reinforcements of the day, the Artillery and Dragoons of Rey's command, made it possible to hold off Vukassovich in the South until night fall, and seal the Osteria Gorge shut once again.

    Vive l'France! Vive la Republique!


    - and hooray for our staunch Austrian opponents, and our tireless umpire/GM! As Old Nosey said of another battle 2 decades later, "It was a near run thing!"

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    1. Rivoli was a real nail-biter, for sure! I had hoped the battle recreation would pose challenges and opportunities for all. I think it did that. The fight in the gorge was unbelievably savage and the redoubt changed hands more times than you know. Actually, the fighting on all fronts was bitter and casualties were no higher than they were in the north around Lubiana. That was an exhausting day.

      By luck, the French reinforcement schedule was timed very well to stem each crisis as it arose. When Vukassovich made it across the Adige and up onto the plateau, his actions really hindered sending French reinforcements to the front.

      All commanders from both sides fought valiantly with great foresight and skill. Everyone managed to rotate spend troops out of the front line to recover before sending them back into the fray. It was a pleasure to watch unfold.

      There were many times throughout the day that both sides thought they was done for. with that ebb and flow of both ground gained and lost and the rise and fall of emotions, I think this was a balanced contest.

      Congratulations to all whom participated and a special congratulations to you, Peter, in your commanding role of Napoleon. You and Norm were both perfectly suited to take on the roles of guiding Hands for each army.

      Well done and thank you!

      Oh, don't forget to elevate Andre Massena to Duke of Rivoli!

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    2. Yes, Andre earned his Dukedom... but that is a treaty or two, an Egyptian adventure, a Coup d' Etat, a daring Alpine crossing, and a coronation away!

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    3. It was my honour General to serve you today, thank you for your support and clarity although it would perhaps have been better to send me those reinforcements earlier, we will regroup and crush the dogs next time.
      General Joubert 😀

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  15. What an outstanding undertaking Jon....sure all the participants had a great experience and you have obviously put a huge amount of time and effort into organising and running this enormous game!

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    1. The game was a big task but enjoyable and allowed a look at a historical battle from a different perspective. Refighting Rivoli has been on my To Do list and now it is done.

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  16. Hi Jonathan
    Having taken part in Norman's game and then heard about yours from him, it's great to read your overall summation and then participants' additional perspectives. Congratulations on running such a dedicated event - I know just how much time and effort you'll have put in and it's great that you share this with everyone afterwards.

    Should you be looking for future warriors, you know where to come knocking on my door! A willing volunteer is worth two pressed men.

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    1. What command did you have in Germantown?

      I am glad you enjoyed this look at Rivoli. If I tackle another battle in the future, I will be sure to send our a Call to Arms again. Are you interested in participating in all periods or primarily Napoleonics only?

      Thank you for your interest and comments!

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    2. I'm generally willing to give anything a go and would certainly enjoy Ancients, ACW and WWII as much as Napoleonics.

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    3. General Howe! Excellent! Recreating an ACW battle with my 10mm collection would provide another fun project. Having fought the full battle of Second Manassas years ago in 10mm, perhaps that would be of interest?

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    4. It certainly would. I’d also add that 1st Manassas/ Bull Run is a favourite for both me and Norman, though we’ve only fought it in a number of board wargames including 3Ws Forward to Richmond and Avalon Hill’s Bull Run.

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  17. An epic event! I'm sure it will be long remembered by those who took part.

    Always interesting to hear the General’s thoughts afterwards.

    Kudos for carrying this off!

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    1. The game will certainly be remembered by me! I must have close to 500 emails with dispatches.

      Thank you, Ross!

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  18. The battlefield and the preperations are looking very impressive.

    Initially I was a commander but had not the impression that my orders would have any impact on the actions of my divisions. I just don't understand why there were subcommanders if they were only to repeat the orders of their high command. It's obvious that it didn't changed something when I left the game. I would recommend to use more of the fog of war. The high command should not know more then what the subcommanders are reporting to them and should give only generally orders and not detailed (although in rare cases historical commanders did so). It's tricky - but in the first turns I just did not have the historical flavour (although maybe that's my fault because I'm in the living history hobby).

    I want to thank all participants for their work.

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    1. Thank you, Andrè!

      I was sorry to see you relinquish your command but understand. The command structure may not have been to your liking but I wanted to give commanders the latitude to make orders as detailed or as vague as desired. The role of subcommanders was to translated whatever orders were provided from above into tactical orders to which I could clearly translate onto the table. I wanted a few personal interpretations as possible from me. I was acting as puppeteer only by moving units around the board as desired from the players.

      Perhaps, having only two players participate would be more satisfying for some but I wanted all whom were interested in participating to have a command. If I do this again, I may take a different approach.

      I appreciate your insights.

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  19. Great gaming and impressive battle report as always, Jonathan!

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  20. Where to start where to start. Firstly thank you Jonathan for a most entertaining, engrossing, frustrating and enjoyable game. I can’t remember waiting with such anticipation for an email to come through. Now i don’t envy you writing the battle up, perhaps in fact this might be too much for those that took part it will stay in my memory for a long time. So I can reveal I had the honour to play as General Joubert. So perhaps few words from his perspective. Firstly his position at the start feels scarily dire, yes I know the french troops are generally better than those Austrians but this didn’t reveal itself until well into the afternoon, they were way tougher and tenacious than expected. The battle around San Marco as historically was really tough I had hoped Vial would be able to break through early but from what I remember some Austrian grenadiers got into the village and then simply wouldn’t leave. Lebley fought with tremendous vigour but was outnumbered from the start. General Sandos I assume his is still out there fighting did a heroic job defending the left flank but again was simply outnumbered nearly 2 to 1.

    As others have mentioned I simply don’t know how Napoleon pulled it off he we weren’t facing the same Austrians ! Hindsight a wonderful thing as we have discussed I feel we (the french) made a huge tactical mistake right at the start by seeking to defend, luckily Bonaparte can take the blame for that, and of course it would have been a very brave general to go on the attack when faced with such numbers and the gorge to plug as well. The challenge as I see it was at no point, geographically or in time, were we able to achieve numerical superiority. We were spread to thin....in a different world I do wonder if knowing that the plug in the gorge will hold for a long time that an immediate sweeping assault might simply knock the stuffing out of the Austrians early on. But this would have been a high risk strategy.

    I think perhaps mention should be made of Vial who died for the Republic and whose troops then went on to fight heroically without him for the rest of the day.....I did fear they would suddenly break and then we were done for !

    Once again thank you Jon and all the other players, even those dastardly Austrians who put up a good fight. As the GM you will know I asked several times where are the french reinforcements ! I hope my slightly random orders and instructions were up to scratch. I would of course be extremely happy to partake in further games 😀

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    1. Thank you, Matt, for the encouragement! I may try something similar again, some time. On orders, I always knew your intentions and carried them out to the best of my ability. You were a perfect choice for Joubert.

      A vigorous attack by Joubert early on may have paid dividends but who knows? Joubert's command outclassed the Austrian column in quality although when facing superior numbers is hard to realize that fact. When Vial fell early in the battle, his brigade carried the after shock of his death throughout the battle. The strongest brigade in the French army was hobbled early on.

      This was a hard fight for the Napoleon. How did he pull it off? Well he WAS Napoleon and he maintained interior lines and could shift forces when needed. With the Austrian plan of double envelope, the French could not be strong everywhere. I sensed this concern from all of the French generals up and down the chain of command throughout the day.

      Historically, Reuss never breached the gorge and gave up trying by about noon. The Austrians were quite fatigued having marched and fought throughout the prior 24 hours.

      There were several times when Austrian columns were on the verge of breaking. Each time, orders were issued to rally and regroup so they could continue the attacks. Sandos was on a similar brink more than once too. French cavalry and the availability of artillery made a difference, no doubt. Had the Austrians brought cavalry and guns up on the heights with Alvintzi's columns, the battle may have been very different.

      As Polydor above noted, he would enjoy participating in something like this. Perhaps an ACW battle such as Second Manassas, Chickamauga, or Gettysburg would provide an appropriate setting for a multiplayer contest? A large AWI battle such as Brandywine would make a good candidate as well.

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    2. I think an early attack by the French would likely have been suicidal; we could ill afford any losses until at least Massena's infantry and Artillery arrived, and had the Gorge defenders been stripped, an early breakthrough by Reuss would have been curtains for the French. In addition, the good defensive position ion the plateau for the first few turns was definitely to the French advantage in maximizing Austrian losses Had we started with the full complement of troops available but the end of the game, that would have been another matter. We were unlucky in losing a few really good infantry units early in the game. Ibn addition, had we shifted too many troops against Ocksay and Koblos (and I dearly wanted to send more!), there was the real threat that Lusingan and Liptay would just march South through Affi and trigger a sudden death Austrian win.

      I think that Reuss was successful at the Gorge when he got his 4 batteries in position to batter the redoubt. Historically, I doubt that more than one battery could actually have been made to bear on the position. Mostly, it felt like fighting the Austrians of Wagram much more than the Austrians of 1796! I attribute that in no small amount to higher echelon leadership much better than the actual Generals were! :-)

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    3. That’s why you were Napoleon and making the decisions! Reuss had two batteries and didn’t get them into position until early afternoon. It took him a long time to get them into firing posts. The gorge was really congested, for sure, and retreating units kept disordering unit as they passed through.

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    4. Hard not to agree with your analysis which goes to show how tight the battle was 🙂

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  21. What a fabulous post Jonathan. It is interesting to read your analysis and then the reports and recaps by the players.

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    1. Thank you, Mark! This is a brief overview only. The commentary has been fascinating.

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  22. Splendid and epic sounding game with some nice insights from Norm and Peter!
    Best Iain

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    1. There are good insights from everyone who participated. The battle was an enjoyable exercise for me.

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  23. Great post Jonathan, and a great game it was too. As Vukassovich and, latterly, also Koblos I found it a tense fight all the way through. The situation seemed to swing like a pendulum, one moment it looked like the French were breaking and the next it seemed that we were on the ropes.

    As Vukassovich the main frustration was the glacial slowness with which I was able to get involved. I got the guns opening up on the gorge reasonably early but bridging the river and getting my men on the Rivoli heights took most of the day. I was naïve enough to think that my intervention would be decisive and a quick occupation of Rivoli, combined with Reuss managing to force the gorge to my right, would result in a French collapse, but I reckoned without all those scary French reinforcements!

    As Koblos I found keeping Lebley and elements of Vial and Leclerc at bay all afternoon extremely taxing. For one brief moment I seemed to have just a squadron of cavalry in front of me as the French redeployed, and in a most un-Austrian fashion I asked General Alvintzi if I could go scampering across the valley to take Zuanne but fortunately he reined me in.

    Really enjoyed taking the role of a Napoleonic commander and took the opportunity to ham it up mightily and practice my declamations. I may be a rubbish commander but I talk a good battle I think!

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    1. Thank you, David, for your participation in the game as well as your thoughts on the venture. Much appreciated.

      Your role as Vukassovich was a difficult one for a player since Vuk. did not get into the action until later in the battle. As you say, your battalion guns were involved early on in supporting the gorge but your bridging operation took time to develop. I originally had Vukassovich's command shared with another player but when you volunteered to take a column, I thought, why not? You would still have possibilities and would provide a distraction for the French command. Given Vuk's position, I was really pleased when Koblos' command was vacated. Now, you had a chance to participate on both sides of the gorge. Alvintzi credits you will holding a pivotal role in the battle by tying down almost all of the French reinforcements. That was no small task!

      On dispatch writing and rousing speeches, yours were always the most entertaining. I really enjoyed receiving your dispatches and addresses to your troops. Great stuff!

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  24. A splendid read Jonathan, very interesting.

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  25. Reading your report and all the comments this sounds like a truly epic event! Great to see it done like this to keep everyone involved over the Covid time too!

    I will have to spend more time learning about this earlier period too :)

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    1. Thank you, Mark! This was much fun for me. Participants seemed to enjoy it too. They are all a very kind bunch, so I doubt I would hear complaints anyway. There were hundreds of email exchanges.

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