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Thursday, February 1, 2024

The Last Battle of Madonna dell’Olmo

In the fourth and final refighting of the Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo, the battle sees The Rejects face-off against one another for bragging rights.  Surjit and Richard take command of the Franco-Spanish Army while Steve and Lee take the reins of the Austro-Piedmontese Army.  Having presented three battle reports, I skip the usual background formalities as regular readers may know the situation by heart.  I dive straight into battle.

Battlefield

Initial deployments
While the French wait patiently in the center behind their earthworks, a rumble is heard in the distance toward Madonna dell'Olmo (Md'O).  The sound is much more than a rumble.  An assault upon the redoubt in front of Md'O is underway!

Now, The Rejects often prefer not to read any of the preceding battle reports beforehand so as not to be influenced by what has gone before.  They even do not want to see the enemy's OB!  In this case, the Piedmontese start off the battle with an assault against the Spanish defenders in the redoubt at Md'O.  Whether this decision was influenced by prior battles or study is not known.

Whatever the inspiration, General Corbeau leads the Sardinian Grenadiers with support from one of two grenz regiments in against the redoubt.  In a bloody exchange lasting multiple rounds, the Spanish are ejected from dell'Olmo as the Sardinian grenadiers take the ground. 

French wait patiently in the center.
General Corbeau prepares an assault upon the redoubt.
Sardinian grenadiers seize the church...
while Spanish grenadiers are thrown out with high casualties.
Flush with success of quickly throwing the Spanish out of Md'O, an unsupported attack by a regiment of Swiss goes in against the defenders of Cascina Pasquale.  This time, the defenders are prepared.  The French infantry let loose a volley and the attack stops in its tracks.  The Swiss are forced to retire to regroup.   
The Swiss attack and then retreat!
Watching the battered Swiss return to their lines, the King sets d'Aix's brigade in motion.  The whole brigade steps off toward the Gallispan defenses.  To add support, Guibert joins into the advance.  Not remaining idle, la Mina brings his Spanish brigade forward to ready for the attacks he expects to fall upon his position.  
Piedmontese Center steps forward.
Spanish counter by filling the gap between Pasquale and Md'O.
Spanish move up to threaten Md'O.
Having regrouped the Swiss, d'Aix orders a second attack upon Cascina Pasquale.  This time, the Swiss receive support.  While the French are content to ready themselves for what may come, the Piedmontese attack!  In a heated exchange, the French are thrown out and their guns are overrun.  Pasquale is in Piedmontese hands but for how long?

Not long!

Chevert rides over to the two, waiting dragoon regiments and leads them in against the "new" defenders of Pasquale.  Still in the process of reforming from their exertions moments ago, the Piedmontese are sent packing back toward their own lines as the dragoons scatter the remnants.  Cascina Pasquale is back in French hands!  These efforts have broken d'Aix's Brigade. 
A second attack against Pasquale...
sees success as the French are ejected!
French guns are lost!
The French retake Cascina Pasquale!
Battle overview from Gallispan lines.
French regain Pasquale.
Back at Md'O,  Spanish infantry continue hammering away at the Sardinian grenadiers in Md'O but the grenadiers do not budge.  The movement of Spanish sent up to reinforce Madonna dell'Ripa (hex behind Md'O) prompts Corbeau to attack in attempt to relieve this building pressure.  The first attack with the grenz is repulsed.  With the Sardinian Royal Cavalry leading the second attempt, the Spanish are pushed back.  There will be no more Spanish threat from that quarter especially since la Mina's Brigade is now broken. 
Spanish throw back the first attack.
Second attack sees the Royal Cavalry drive back the Spanish.
This flank is secure.
Seeing a stalemate developing at Md'O and Cascina Pasquale back in French hands, the Piedmontese King shifts focus to the Right and Center. After some difficulty and delay, von Baden's Guarde Brigade crosses the sunken road and advances upon the enemy positions.  French General Chevert moves his brigade out of the earthworks at Picca Pietra to greet the enemy in the open ground between the two battle lines.  Chevert shifts a battery and cavalry to the right to shore up la Mina's position around Md'O.  Seeing Chevert's infantry step forward, Camposanto puts his brigade into motion to support Chevert's Left.  

As the two lines close, fighting intensifies. French Regiment de Quercy is thrown out of Lupotto Farm as von Baden's Guardsmen continue forward.  Piedmontese guns are wrestled forward to support these attacks.  While casualties mount, the French line wavers.  The persistent attacks of von Baden are too much.  In one attack, Camposanto falls and his brigade breaks.   
The attack of von Baden.
French Center stands firm as d'Aix's attack is thwarted.
Action shifts to Piedmontese Right (in distance).
Von Baden's Guarde Brigade
bears down upon the French line.
Fighting is fierce as the two lines close!
French line wavers and the breaks as Camposanto falls.
What has the Piedmontese Right been doing all of this time?  Well, Cincan's guns have been content to pound away at long range upon the enemy positions.  When von Baden crossed the sunken road and marched upon the enemy, General Cincan's infantry and de la Ville's cavalry attempted to cross in support.  Unfortunately, both brigades experience great difficulty in crossing this barrier.  Finally, as von Baden is driving upon the enemy, these two formations get underway.  De la Ville wastes no time once set into motion.

Reforming after crossing the barrier, de la Ville's four cavalry regiments ride straight for the enemy cavalry.  As the Gallispans find themselves locally outnumbered, the Piedmontese are able to deal with each enemy formation as it comes up.  Soon, the Gallispan cavalry wing is in tatters and their brigadier is dead on the field.
The Piedmontese Far Right Wing
remains motionless off in the distance.
de la Ville's cavalry brigade attacks!
Enemy cavalry fall one after the other...
as the Gallispan Left is chewed up in furious clashes.
After nearly four hours of play and the hour getting late, players stopped to assess the situation.

The Piedmontese control Madonna dell'Olmo but d'Aix's Brigade is broken.  The Gallispans count both de Courrier and la Mina's Brigades as broken and both Camposanto and de Courrier are dead on the field.  De Courrier's Brigade is nearing the breaking point and with four regiments of de la Ville's cavalry breathing down its necks, the outcome is not much in question.  When the remnants of de Courrier's Brigade scatters, the entire Gallispan Left is shredded.
Situation at end of game.
After tallying victory points and discussing several "what ifs", we agree that awarding the Austro-Piedmontese with a Minor Victory seems appropriate.
Franco-Spanish Dead Pile
Austro-Piedmontese Dead Pile
Congratulations to all players for sticking it out through the four hours of play.  I thought the game brilliant.  I could have gone on for another hour or two but then I am in Pacific time zone and the Rejects are in GMT.

Thank you all for a very enjoyable and interesting contest.  Great fun!

After some thought, I may return to these four Madonna dell'Olmo games to assess the similarities, the differences, the strategy and tactics employed, and my general impressions of both scenario and play.

Be sure to visit Richard's account of the battle at The Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo.

46 comments:

  1. I read Richard's account the other day, so it was nice to gain the benefit of your perspective Jonathan. Unfortunately the left seemed to crumble away on him, which decided the battle. This really comes across as a good even scenario with some close games.

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    1. There is still more play in this scenario. I may pull it back out again one day. Having umpired the four games and played in one of them, I see things I would like to try on both sides of the battle.

      Although he is hesitant to admit it, Richard had some consistently bad rolls. On one roll, he would have seen success on anything but a ‘1’ on 1D10. You guessed it. He rolled a ‘1’. The Gallispans had little luck in seizing and holding initiative too. That is costly if you cannot flip initiative from time to time. Still, the Gallispans seemed mostly content to fight defensive battle.

      The scenario provides opportunities for victory to both or at least a draw.

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  2. Another closely fought battle there Jon and as mentioned before, great to see some to and fro contests for the BUA's. Catching up on Blog posts I will be sure to check out Richards AAR. If time permits, your thoughts on the four battles would be interesting to read for sure:).

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    1. Steve, this edition was close again although the Piedmontese managed to gain the upper hand and did not let up. While some BVUs changed hands in this game too, the real prize of Madonna dell'Olmo remained in Piedmontese hands once taken. I was surprised more effort was not made to take that real estate back but the Sardinian grenadiers were a very stubborn lot.

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  3. Agree, another fantastic game Jonathan!
    Best regards

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  4. I’d be interested to read an overall assessment of the four games - it’s a very nuanced scenario.

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    1. Seconded. I think you have done extremely well to host a game this long and be able to also so comprehensively take notes.

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    2. I may get around to a battle assessment and compilation. This is an interesting battle with (I think) challenges for both armies.

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    3. Norm, Notes? What are notes? The games are committed to memory during play and then conjured up from the mind with photos afterwards.

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    4. Then I upgrade ‘extremely well’ to ‘superb’ 🙂

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  5. It would certainly be a unique opportunity to go over the four outings in a comparative post. The excellent outline of each outing would make for a lot of work on your part, but to investigate trends or hidden gambits could be useful as indicators for meeting future opponents.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! I am not so sure a study in this direction would be interesting to most readers. For me (and perhaps a select few), a study may be of interest. I wager it a tough ask to actually get a battle report read unless you are participating in the game.

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  6. Congratulations to the Savoy commander! It's so difficult to win the battle against all those fortifications - even if the Austrians and Savoy troops are much better then ther opponents. Your report was excellent as always. I still need some time - a weekend without football etc. to use your great scenario. But it certainly will be a pleasure. I never was sure about the commanders in that battle because there are little information in the internet/books I know. Therefore I'm very happy with your brigadiers. I will try to find paintings of some of them. I hope to get the Austrians again even if it is unlikely to win with them - but I prefer such a challenge.

    Cheers,

    Damnitz

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    1. Thank you, André! If this scenario is a success, it is due to all of your inspiring work in bringing this battle to my attention. I hope you bring my version of this battle to your gaming table. I will be studying your Parma scenario soon.

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  7. Well done the Piedmontese! Not that I'm biased :-) Thanks for another great report. I very much agree that it's a great scenario: a difficult battlefield, a strategic need for the Piedmontese to attack but that a 'draw' will suffice. And the Spanish need to take the opportunity to destroy the Piedmontese to finally get a good word out of Elizabeth Farnese.
    As discussed, I'm working up Camposanto into a scenario though OB details aren't easy to come by beyond Browning, Spenser Wilkinson and Nafziger. Any further info anyone has would be much appreciated.

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    1. Brian, I am happy to see you enjoyed the battle report. When you were in command, you had de la Ville's cavalry in a very similar position as in this game. That is, they had crossed the sunken road and were in open ground. Had our game continued, I may have suffered the same fate and been ridden down as the Gallispans were in this game.

      I have some details on Camposanto. I will see if any would be of use and send it on.

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  8. A very entertaining and well illustrated game. Thank you.

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  9. Great report, Jon. Interesting - I think Richard thought his left flank went horribly wrong because of some terrible die rolls..I can understand that! But I was not quite sure why 'Gallispans' actually advanced out of their fortifications to meet the enemy in the open? hmm.. It will indeed be interesting to see your thoughts on the 4 versions of the game, they were all quite different!

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    1. Thank you!

      The Gallispan players will have to answer your question but I wonder if seeing d'Aix break, they advanced in an effort to relieve pressure on the Spanish with thoughts of retaking Md'O?

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  10. A very entertaining and fair report of proceedings Jonathan.
    Look forward to your overview.

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    1. "Entertaining and Fair." I will take that! Thanks for a very enjoyable game, Richard.

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  11. Another grand and closely fought outing there. A fairly balanced scenario, a win for each side and two draws if I recall correctly?

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    1. You keep good count, Phil! The score stands at 1-1-2.

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  12. Excellent report as always. Thank you for bringing these reports to us.

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  13. Jonathan - it's interesting seeing the same battle refought especially one I know precious little about (mea culpa). I for one would read your comparative analysis with interest.

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    1. Andrew, thank you for the encouragement! If you have followed the four BatReps, I imagine you may have learned a thing or two about the general progression of the battle and the situation faced by both commanders.

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  14. Another great report of this very interesting battle. Seems to me field fortifications were never much a determining factor either way. Would you agree?

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    1. Thank you, Mike! At Madonna dell'Olmo, the attackers simply overpowered the defenders despite the earthworks. At Cascina Pasquale, the attackers were repulsed twice before breaking through. As for the other earthworks, the French came out from behind their fortifications. Overall, I tend to agree with your assessment.

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  15. Another great game. This one looks like the best result yet for the Piedmontese.

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    1. I agree! This was the best result for the Piedmontese and their Minor Victory was well-earned.

      All of the four battles have been great fun.

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  16. Excellent report of a famous Austrian/Piedmontese Victory Jon! I have read Richards Mea Culpa but to be honest, I think he was being tough on himself - Steve and lee deserve the kudos for contriving a victory from a very hard position for their side - great stuff!

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    1. Thanks, Keith! Richard was hard on himself but his rolling could have been better. Steve and Lee had a good plan executed very well.

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  17. What I llke about your post is the fact a refight of the same battle often give a much more nuanced perspective of he historical event than doing it once every 20 or so years. Reading about a battle - and the critique of the commanders and their decisions on the day is one thing- but four consecutive games of the same battle gives a real glimpse ( I think anyway) into some of the issues. Good one! Thanks for sharing Jon.

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    1. I agree completely, John! You hit on one of the benefits of repeated playings. If the scenario is set properly, players have the potential to gain insight into the historical battle.

      Thanks for your comment and encouraging words!

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  18. Another good run out for the battle Jon 👍

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  19. Another great re-fight of this battle

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  20. A great review of the game, I'm surprise you had time to take any photos let alone commit the action to memory! When Steve and I discussed tactics before the game we agreed he would press the main attack and I will try and feed my troops around the sunken Road, which I managed to do eventually. Why was exceptionally wary of trying to cross the road at a critical moment especially with Richards cavalry poised to attack any attempt to cross it. Once he decided to support the attack against Van Baden that gave me a little bit of breathing room to bring across the road (on the second attempt!). In the end I was lucky with the dice and poor Richard was very unlucky.

    That was a challenging in scenario for us so I was very happy with a minor victory.

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    1. Lee, very good to see you are content with the battle account. You and Steve had a good battle plan and stuck to it. Steve clung to Md'O and it never really seemed under much threat. Without that piece of real estate in Piedmontese hands, the outcome would have shifted back to a draw. Even without Md'O, your pressure on the French Left would likely have been enough to break the enemy army.

      Well played by Steve and yourself!

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  21. You’ve certainly got a lot out of this scenario and people in the know of the history think it’s a great one. So kudos all around.
    😀

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    1. Once the scenario is developed and the armies and terrain laid out, might as well get my money's worth by playing the game multiple times.

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