Still No Duke of Montebello!

As mentioned in the previous post, I met Richard on the Montebello field of battle for a rematch on Monday.  In this rematch, we swapped sides with Richard commanding the Austrians and I the French.  To rekindle the lay of the ground, the battlefield with Austrian deployment zones is illustrated in the photo below.

Battlefield with Austrian deployment zones

Vogelsang's command stacked up around Montebello

To read Richard's account of this battle, please visit Return to Montebello.  Great account.  Well worth the time to investigate Richard's reactions.

After Richard submitted his deployments for both O'Reilly and Vogelsang's command, I set to work to devise a plan of attack.  Plan A was to take a chance in attacking straight away into the Austrian gun and Grenz set up astride on the highway to the south of Rivalta.  It might be a bold choice but if successful, the result would cut the highway and possibly force O'Reilly's position to shift to the south to contain a possible breakthrough.  Then, Lannes cavalry might be able to sweep around the northern flank.  The odds favored the French in a quick supported attack down the highway as the remainder of Watrin's French Division entered the table.

O'Reilly's deployment and French Plan A.

Before the game began and as I was reviewing positioning with Richard, Richard noted the gun and grenzer were actually supposed to be situated one hex to the west astride the road.  Well!  With these Austrians placed back one hex, the lead elements of the French column could not reach their intended target on Turn 1! Besides that, the Austrian jaegers in Rivalta would stop any further movement, regardless, due to EZOC.  The game has not even started, and Plan A is already scuttled!  On to Plan B! 

With initiative in hand, French commander, Watrin,
 sees his division begin to arrive along the highway toward Rivalta.   

As volleys are exchanged at Rivalta,
 O'Reilly pulls some units back before French attacks can go in against them.
  One benefit of having the foresight to place much of his division on Reserve!

Weakened by the exchange of musketry,
the jaegers in Rivalta are put under pressure
 by Watrin's supported attack upon the village. 

In the heavy fighting in Rivalta, the jaegers are dispersed.
Before Watrin can take Rivalta, grenzers slip into
 the village to deny the French this important roadblock.
Another case of Richard using Reserve to interrupt the enemy!

With Rivalta still in Austrian hands,
Watrin redoubles his effort to take the village.
  Leading the attack, two battalions of French storm the BUA.
To the north and cavalry to their front, French advance
 but are forced into square before delivering their volleys.

This time, grenzers are ejected and the victors take the village. 
 A lot of precious time is lost dealing with this obstacle.
In the meantime, Watrin moves to lead an attack along the highway.

Before Watrin's attack goes in, grenzers fall back away
from danger leaving the guns unsupported. 
  Unsurprisingly, the guns are overrun.
Following up on their success, the grenzers are caught are beaten.
In the rye fields, a supported French attack is too much for the light infantry.
  They, too, are scattered.
In only minutes, O'Reilly's command is broken.

With O'Reilly now broken, defense falls upon Vogelsang
 who is beginning to arrive onto the scene.
Unlimbering guns astride the highway, Vogelsang prepares a defense.

Lannes arrives to take command of the action.
He orders most of the 12th Hussars to move off to the north
 in an attempt to turn the enemy Left.
Lannes, himself, leads the 28th Line forward along the highway.

Lannes takes command!

Seeing the destruction of O'Reilly to his front,
Vogelsang encourages his men to form up and take a stand.
O'Reilly uses his cavalry to protect the flanks.

Having cleared Rivalta, the French advance upon the next line of defense.
  That line of defense is Vogelsang.
With artillery in support, the French face another daunting challenge.

Lannes leads the 28th Line into the Austrian supported guns.

In heavy fighting, the enemy is destroyed and the guns overrun.
Success!
Advancing to take the ground,
Lannes crashes into a second supported battery. 
The enemy meets a similar fate.  Both Austrian units are destroyed!
Vogelsang's command wavers under the weight of its losses.
Can the French break Vogelsang and force the enemy to quit the field?

Before we can answer that question, O'Reilly leads his hussar
 in front of Cascina il Giardina down into the valley.
  Their target?
 An infantry battlaion that has already seen a pounding
 from artillery and barely clings to the field.
O'Reilly, at the head of the hussars, leads the attack
but miraculously the French hold on to repulse the enemy!
They must have formed a square before impact.  Huzzah!  

A minor miracle!
Wavering French need 9+ on each of the morale checks to survive.
Whew!

Having destroyed two batteries and two battalions,
Lannes finds himself over-extended and nowhere to hide. 
 Ott takes command of the Austrians and attacks!
  First pouring volleys into the dense target from the flank,
 Ott leads his men forward!
Lannes goes down and the 28th is destroyed! 
Oh, the humanity!

Both armies see reinforcements arrive onto the field.
For the Austrians, Schellenberg's Division arrives and reaches Casteggio.
For the French, Victor and Chamberlhac arrive with their division.
Lannes' hussars swing out to the right.

After some cat and mouse tactics, hussars collide in the valley.
While one of the Austrian hussar units is destroyed, the cost is high.
French hussars are destroyed as well.
To add insult to injury, this loss pushes Lannes' command
(well his ex-command!) over the breaking point.
Ouch!

Schellenberg reaches Casteggio.

Sensing that Vogelsang is under stress having lost four units, 
Watrin keeps the pressure on by attacking toward Casteggio.
The Austrians in the rye are scattered.
  The Austrians to its right are driven back. 

French High-Water mark?

Schellenberg erupts out of Casteggio to take the fight to Watrin.
Watrin's Division suffers huge losses.
Watrin, himself, goes down in the fighting.
These losses push Watrin's Division nearly to the breaking point.
Only one little nudge is needed to push him over this threshold.

The Austrians hope that nudge comes from a second attempt
 to break the French still in square to the south of the highway. 

In the hussars go!

With each unit only able to muster a single die in the attack, 
the hussars score a hit, but the infantry do not.
The French cannot pass their morale test either.
The square breaks and the infantry are crushed under 
the horses' hooves.

With the destruction of the square, Watrin's Division breaks.  Seeing two of the three formations broken, the French attack at Montebello is called off.

Victory to the Austrians!

The result was a close one, though.  Vogelsang was only a few hits from reaching his breaking point.  Had Vogelsang broken first then victory would have been the French's.  Close, yet again, but I manage to be outplayed by Richard, yet again!

Great job, Richard, and well played!

Watrin should have followed Vogelsang's lead and withdrawn when his division was in jeopardy.  Then, we could have seen Schellenberg and Chamberlhac fight it out to decide the battle.  That option would have required a second gaming session, for sure.  Instead, I thought that Vogelsang could be caught and destroyed.  Schellenberg, however, put a stop to that plan!  

As for the Butcher's Bill, the Austrian Army certainly suffered more but most of its losses came from O'Reilly's Advance Guard which was essentially annihilated.  Game duration was a little under four hours.

Butcher's Bill

With Lannes falling, yet again, there still is no Duke of Montebello!