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Thursday, October 20, 2022

Solferino: First Contact

The battle begins.

For a refresher on initial army dispositions, please visit, Solferino: Setting the Stage.

While the battle rages around them, the Austrian Corps positioned in between the two conflagrations wait in silence as the first reports of a French advance upon their positions drift in.  Stankovic's Division is situated on the high ground around San Cassiano.  Montenuovo's Division supports Stankovic with his division deployed around Cavriana.  Out on the Medole Plain stands Mensdorff's Cavalry division and I Corps' Reserve.

Austrian positions looking from the west.
Austrian positions looking from the southeast.

Montenuovo in support of Stankovic.
Across the plain, elements of MacMahon's French 2nd Corps can be seen approaching.  Behind these lead elements, masses of infantry can be seen marching to battle.
French advance begins.
Never-ending masses of French file toward the front.
French march across the Medole Plain.
Seeing the enemy's approach, alarms are sounded.  Jaegers quickly move forward to occupy the small farms covering the Austrian right.  They await the attacks they know will be coming as skirmish fire erupts.  Stankovic's lead brigade under Hoditz, positioned around San Cassiano, is increasingly coming under fire from musketry from Gault's Brigade.  French guns quickly begin to deploy.
Jaegers move up to occupy the farms.
Skirmish fire intensifies
as the French close on San Cassiano.
On the French right, Castagny's Brigade screens the French advance as Desvaux's Cavalry Division moves up to counter the Austrian cavalry division.  With Austrian guns already in place on the plain and firing, Castagny's Zouaves and Foreign Legion battalions receive long range artillery fire from the numerous Austrian smoothbores.

LaMotterouge's Division reaches the Medole Plain and marches behind the densely packed cavalry screen.
The French move due east along the main road.
Back on the French left, the 11th Chasseurs eject elements of the 14th Jaegers from the farm and occupy the high ground.  As the 11th takes the farm on the right, the close presence of Manegue's guardsmen forces the remainder of the 14th Jaegers to retire from the adjacent farm.
11th Chasseurs in action.
French guard forces Jaegers to retire.
On the French far left, Villiane's French light cavalry struggle to scale the heights.  Successful in overcoming the rough ground, the French horsemen reach the plateau.  In repeated charges, the Jaegers are driven off with heavy loss.  Unfortunately for Villiane, pursuit is stopped by devastating volleys from the densely packed Austrian line infantry.  Half of Villiane's Brigade is scattered not to be seen again on this day.
Jaegers driven back
but with heavy casualties to Villaine's cavalry.
Back to the French attack on the right, LaMotterouge is having difficulty sorting out his command as both Castagny and Desvaux come under increasingly heavy artillery bombardments.  Austrian artillery continues coming on line from the Reserve, Mensdorff's Cavalry Division, and the batteries of Montenuovo.  The French face a strong headwind in advancing along this axis.
Deploying is difficult in tight spaces. 
More Austrian batteries unlimber and begin to fire.
With the fight for the heights around San Cassiano seesawing back and forth in attacks and counterattacks, the French Reserve artillery begins to deploy.  The presence of the French 12-pounders is begining to cause damage to the Austrian positions on the heights.  The accuracy of the French 4-pound rifled artillery is adding to this mayhem.

All is not well for the French, however.  On the right, Castagny's Brigade is taking punishing blows from massed enemy artillery.  In the open, with no cover, Castagny's Brigade wavers under the weight of losses.    
French artillery open up on the heights.
French progress on the left.
A difficult task on the right.
Castagny's Brigade waivers
(yellow ball denotes broken brigade)
Despite increasing fire from the French attackers, the defenders around San Cassiano stand firm.  Losses are mounting.  The concern for holding these positions grows.  I Corps commander, Clam-Gallas sees the danger and orders Montenuovo to move his division forward.  Montenuovo puts his command in motion as it moves forward to occupy the second string of hills behind San Cassiano.  
Austrian positions look formidable
as the French close in.
Montenuovo moves up to form a second line.
This is where we called it a day after about five hours of play.  The seven players agreed that they would enjoy continuing the game where we left off in one week.

Casualty counts in the rosters below show where the fighting has been heaviest.  Villaine's cavalry attacking along the spine of the heights suffered greatly.  Decaen's division also saw heavy casualties. Casualties suffered not from close combat but from artillery fire.  In opening hours of battle Castagny's Brigade was wrecked.  Against San Cassiano, Gault's Brigade has seen heavy losses too.

For the Austrians, Hoditz' Brigade, the defenders of San Cassiano and the Austrian front line, suffered greatly but gave more than they took.  Hoditz's command took heavy fire on the heights but the line infantry stood firm under repeated heavy bombardments.  If the French want these positions, they will need to take them by force.  
Given the situation at present, what would your next moves be?

Next time we revisit Solferino, we explore The Assault.

47 comments:

  1. Excellent review of the opening moves. From the Austrian side I was convinced the French had taken more damage in that opening game. I was right in that impression, but not as much as I had thought.

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    1. Thank you, Lee!

      The French took more punishment than they could afford in the opening stages of battle. Some of those losses could have been avoided.

      The French were certainly gnashing teeth as you repeatedly passed morale checks during the heavy bombardments on your San Cassiano positions.

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  2. Superb opening moves. Looking forward to part 2

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    1. Glad you like it, Neil! Part 2? Part 1 just barely left the gatehouse!

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  3. Another fantastic looking game on a beautiful table Jon. It's looking quite tough for the French at the moment...looking forward to the next instalment!

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    1. Thanks, Keith! The situation may look tough for the French but there are options available and lots of time.

      As I wrote this installment, I thought back to our discussions on writing battle reports, reading battle reports, commenting on battle reports, and the cost/benefit analysis.

      Stay tuned for Part 2. Other topics may intervene as I am building up a nice stock of painted figures and a different game to report out.

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  4. Excellent account Jonathan, and written in your superb narrative style. This was a very hard first day which with hindsight would see a couple of things done differently. I think that it is fair to say that having played the attacker twice with these rules, I am now beginning to understand how to get the best out of them. Super stuff and look forward to part two.

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    1. Thanks so much, Richard! Your praise is flattering.

      This was a hard first session for the French. Had Lee not been so stubborn in his defense by passing morale checks like eating popcorn, the French positions at the end of this session may have been quite different. Don't you agree?

      You know, it is really encouraging to read your comment about your tactics developing as you become more familiar with the rules with repeated trials. I am an advocate of taking the time and effort to learn a set of rules so that tactics and players have time to develop and adjust. I can hardly wait to see you in action in the next 1859 battle whatever it may be. I am thinking of a more mobile battle next time if the Rejects want to stick to this period (and rules).

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    2. Lee's dice rolling was off this planet, and certainly tilted the session in favour of the Austrian.
      I would certainly stick with the period and rules for our next game. I imagine that we might game faster with greater experience and insight... but I may be an little optimistic there.

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    3. Richard, this is a large battle with more 50 units per side. With seven players and playing remotely (where everything must pass through the umpire), pace is not something that concerns me unless the players get bored with nothing to do for long periods of time. Our multi-session battle worked well, I thought, allowing strategies to develop and plans to evolve between sessions. I though it great fun.

      Are you familiar with 1859 battle of Montebello?

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    4. It was great fun. What I meant is that as we move away from concerns about what rules do what, we move onto more intuitively fighting the battle. In that way the pace quickens. It is then 90% command decision rather than rule comprehension.
      If my memory serves me well, Montebello would be a different sort of battle. Sounds great to me.

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    5. I too am a great advocate of getting to know a set of rules well, as this then allows you to focus on command decisions, the bigger picture etc, rather than the nitty gritty of the rules per se. This is the main reason that I have been focussing on a few core sets these past few years.

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    6. Richard, letting the players focus on strategies and tactics rather than rules does come with practice but the umpire's job is to help offload that work too.

      Yes, Montebello will be a much different game with more of a meeting engagement situation. I will need to figure out how to make the situation handle seen players since formations arrive throughout the battle.

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    7. Steve, we are in agreement! Learning a few rules well helps to improve play and discover nuance in the tactics and unit capabilities. While I still play a huge number of rules, my hosting tends to distill down to a few that I know well.

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  5. A great first installment. There did seem to be a bit of a French traffic jam as they advanced which couldn't have helped their cause. Unavoidable given the battle plan and the terrain, which is an interesting layout and makes me wonder what I would do each time I have seen it.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! There was a traffic jam on the French right. They may have lost at least one turn's effort better employed elsewhere.

      So, as MacMahon at the head of this Corps, how would you have attacked?

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  6. That does look magnificent, I think it is the birds eye view that adds so much to the 'battlefield look'. The casualty rosters tell their own tale, pretty much full burn-out where units have got involved in intense fighting. Is artillery overly effective compared to some rule sets?

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    1. Thanks, Norm!

      The rosters certainly pinpoint who has seen the brunt of fighting. As for artillery effectiveness, I say it is just right. At rifle range, a battery of smooth bore cannons are slightly less effective than a battalion of rifle-armed infantry. The problem was that the French were having a devil of a time passing morale checks from fire.

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  7. That looks epic! 50+ units a side is a lot to cycle through. And it must require a lot of stamina on your part Jon.
    Hat tip to you sir!
    Chris/Nundanket

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    1. Chris, this was a large battle taking us three sessions to fight to a conclusion. After doing this many times, one gets into “fighting” shape so it seems commonplace to host a four or five hour session.

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  8. A great wrote up Jonathan, of what was an excellent game. I still can't get over Lee's dice rolls, they were inhuman!

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    1. Thank you, Ray! If you wanted to witness truly inhuman dice rolling, you should have attended my Impetvs Reconquista game on Tuesday. I will write that one up sometime but one player’s die rolling was other worldly. Optimal die rolling the entire game. Darn near ruined the game.

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  9. An exceptional game and report, well done.

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  10. Fab report. The pics of all those gorgeous minis look epic!

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    1. Glad you like the report, Simon! Thanks for stopping in to read and leave a comment.

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  11. A great opening salvo on the initial phases of the game Jon. I loved the shot of the massed French columns approaching their targets, which was great to see. The rosters tell a lot too and nice to see what units have taken heavy losses etc.

    This does make me want to get some Bloody Big Battles games in to get that feel of a very large engagement, but in a relatively small space of 6' x 4'. Something to try and sort out soon.

    The French advance seemed to bottleneck, which is always hard to avoid in big games I find. The remote gaming helps give that distance issue that commanders must have faced in terms of managing the timed arrival of units etc.

    As for the cavalry based upon previous BBB games, they are best kep back to exploit broken unit/brigades as they did little in this period compared to Napoleonics for example.

    Regarding the artillery, it's fairly even stevens at this period, certainly compared to say the FPW when those krupp guns just dominate the battlefield if massed in battery's as I found out to my cost in the past!

    Looking forward to the assault as and when you are ready:).

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    1. Thank you, Steve! The French advance on the right did wind up in a pinch with little room to deploy their guns early. French generals quickly saw this and corrected.

      On cavalry, I agree, they are best left for scouting skirmishing and running, down wavering enemy.

      On artillery, yes, it is fairly even. The main difference is that the French field a nice little 4-lb rifled gun.

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  12. My that is one grand instalment, it looks to be a real humdinger of a battle ahead.

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    1. The battle was real humdinger, Phil! The next installment may be shorter…

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  13. Very interesting game, leaving the narrative "until next time" is great tension building. The 50 unit per side puts this battle beyond all but a few I have played. Your table and troop quality are first rate. What stands out is the explanation of the tactical perspective of the players in the report body and the technical issues in the comments section. Thank you for all your work in putting this together.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! This was a big undertaking with so many units and seven players and done remotely.

      I am pleased to see that you continue to enjoy these battle reports. I will keep your useful observations in mind.

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  14. Splendid looking game and the French having a hard time of it, still time to turn it around in the second half no doubt!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain! Still time to turn the outcome around, for sure. Given the stubborn defense of the Austrians around San Cassiano, the French may find themselves behind on the timetable.

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  15. Looks great and reads like a hard fought battle thus far.

    That's more or less what an ideal 15mm wargame looked like in our heads in the 1990's when we were playing Fire & Fury! (followed by our own Napoleonic version). Mind you, the bigger the scenarios got, the less likely we were to ever finish a game!

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    1. Ross, this has been a hard-fought battle. French have not made as much progress as they would have liked but they are pressing on.

      Throwback to the 1990s? Yikes! We have made no progress in 30 years? Perhaps, wargaming is like fashion and large 15mm battles are coming back into vogue. Large 15mm battles have always been in fashion on my table.

      Oh, I finish my battles...

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  16. That was a great account Jon! Judging by the rosters of this first game on three, it is clear that a lot of b-lead will be spilled before game’s end. The French attack is clearly at a disadvantage being funneled on such a narrow front and maybe their artillery could have been deployed earlier and concerted its fire on specific points of the Austrian line to soften up the defenders. It was clear from the outset that Villaine’s cavalry would struggle given the terrain.
    The Austrians seem well entrenched and given that they seem to have opted for a static defence, there isn’t much to analyse as yet. They are definitely doing very well but it is still too early to say as French superiority in numbers will probably weigh in at some point.
    Congratulations on your courageous organisation of such a large game!

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    1. Thank you, Mike!

      You have a good eye for ground and tactics. In hindsight, I think the French may consider softening up the Austrian positions with heavy artillery fire before marching off to storm the heights.

      I was surprised to see Villaine stick to the left and attack up onto the heights rather than maneuver to the plain to screen LaMotterouge's infantry division from artillery bombardment. Using villaine to screen would have allowed LaMotterouge to move more quickly into position.

      The Austrians are in good ground and Hoditz' defense of San Cassiano and the heights has seen remarkable good fortune.

      Still plenty for which to fight.

      I appreciate your thoughtful assessment of the situation.

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  17. Excellent repute Jonathan. Sure was a hard slog for the French. Which work are you using as your primary reference?

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    1. Thanks, Mark! Very hard slog, indeed. The Austrian defenders near San Cassiano have been fortunate thus far. That may change in the next episode. I drew inspiration for this battle from Bossoli, Whylly, Tuel, duc d’Almazan, and Brookes.

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  18. Great to see your fabulous looking games again, Jonathan! Hope you're not having too much smoke in your area. We've had a week of bad air quality here in the Puget Sound area.

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    1. Good to see you back, Dean! While a little hazy the last few days, weather on balance has been superb on this side of the state.

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  19. Fantastic looking battle Jon but I’m feeling tired ! 5 hours and six players you must have been exhausted.

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    1. Thanks! Time passes quickly and I feel no fatigue until the next day.

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