We played a draft scenario of the 1796 campaign of Mondovi.
This is the second scenario of a group designed to accompany the new English
translation of Clausewitz’s history on Bonaparte’s 1796 campaigns in Italy
Warning for button counters: most of the French are wearing the
correct uniforms but we had to add in some infantry and artillery from 1813 or
so. We don’t have any Sardinians for this period so our Seven Years War
Prussians are standing in.
Further disclosures: I neglected to place any model houses on
the villages (the orange circles on the map). Mea culpa. The map also has two different
colors of paper. I ran out of the darker green, started the map anyway and
found the new roll of paper was distinctly more yellow. Rest assured that the
color you buy will look different than it does on your monitor. Perhaps the
yellow part of the map shows a different time zone in Italy
The yellow discs in the photos show disrupted units, the red
are half-strength artillery (how they start the game in this scenario) and .22
cartridges denote units low on ammo. Sardinian units and the leader Colli are
printed in italics in the photos.
The first game saw me, Bill and Ken play as
Bonaparte/Augereau, Massena and Serurier. Jay and Rick played the Sardinians. I
opted to deploy Augereau’s leading units against Ceva, tasking Massena with
reducing the Pedagiera redoubt.
Hot dice saw us carry Ceva on the second turn.
We were on a roll! And then we hit a wall.
Around this time the French attack overran Colli’s
headquarters. He wasn’t seen for the rest of the battle.
The game ended in a tie, though I thought it a Sardinian
victory until checking the victory conditions with the designer. It took us
just under two and a half hours to play 8 turns, about 18 minutes per turn.
French losses were 5 infantry stands lost and 1 run away. The Sardinians lost
16 stands of infantry with 3 run away. Colli was hit; our house rules
determined that he was wounded and out of action for a week. San Michele, one tough position (-4 terrain
factors against assault) never fell and both Mondovi and Carru were never in
the slightest danger.
We broke for dinner and conversation over some excellent
wine. This would have some effect on our next game. We switched sides, with me
and Bill playing the Sardinians while Jay, Andrew and Rick played
Bonaparte/Serurier, Massena and Augereau respectively. Ken watched for a bit
and then left early, as is his habit.
Augereau was sent against Pedagiera, scoring an early success.
We were not to get any points on turn 3. Something was wrong
with our bloody dice today.
The French forgot to bring on Augereau’s last two
demi-brigades on the fourth turn. The wine struck again. But it was good.
A French attack seen off with losses.
Jay decided against making an attack on the last turn since
he didn’t see how it would gain a victory.
We played 8 turns in an hour and 48 minutes, a little over
13 minutes per turn. But we didn’t have as many epic assaults this time. French
losses were 3 stands of infantry with 1 run off and the Sardinians lost 11
stands of infantry with 4 run off. Colli was hit again, out of action for 2 weeks
this time. That fellow doesn’t seem to know how to duck.
Again, all enjoyed the game and we managed to play it twice
in an evening. Both sides forgot to use the scenario rule giving the Sardinians
+1 on movement when falling back. Both games saw the Sardinian army torn apart.
And both games saw the French unable to capture San Michele (as noted
previously, a strong position), not to mention getting anywhere near Mondovi.
Since the real French cavalry commander Stengel was killed fighting on the objective just
outside Mondovi, I think the scenario needs some more work. But it is
still fun and we look forward to the Lodi
And here it is.
And here it is.
2 comments:
It's always a good thing to take a break with wine (French, of course) ... and it's always a good thing to read such a beautiful report during this period...
Best regards!
Merci, Phil.
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