"Martin Soilleux-Cardwell" Writes: Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 01:01:17 GMT OOB FOR MONTEBELLO, 20TH MAY 1859, ITALIAN SECOND INDEPENDENCE WAR AUSTRIAN ARMY. 22,500 men, 36 guns. Feldmarschall Count Stadion (CC, 5th Korps - counts as AC) Division Prince Hesse (DC) (Exhaustion=4) 4th Kaiser Jager Bn 6 [ ] [ ] sk/sh/rm 3 Bns 31st I.R. Culoz 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] rm 1 Bn 31st I.R. Culoz, 1 Bn 61st I.R. Zobel 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] rm Konig Bei Sicilien Uhlans 6 [ ] sk Prince Hesse's Field Artillery Bn 6 [ ] [ ] sb Division Feldmarschall Baron Paumgarten (DC) (Exhaustion=8) 1st Bn Grenzer Licaner 5 [ ] [ ] sk/sbm 1 Bn 49th I.R. Hess, 1 Bn 3rd I.R. Herzog Karl 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] sbm 3 Bns 3rd I.R. Herzog Karl 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] sbm 2nd Bn Grenzer Oguliner 5 [ ] [ ] sk/sh/sbm Left Wing, 27th I.R. Kinsky 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] sbm Right Wing, 27th I.R. Kinsky 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] sbm Paumgarten's Field Artillery Bn 6 [ ] [ ] sb Division Feldmarschall Urban (DC) (Exhaustion=6) 3rd Jager Bn 6 [ ] [ ] sk/sh/rm Grenzer Sluiner Bn (part) 5 [ ] sk/rm 1 Bn 39th I.R. Don Miguel, Gren Bn 59th I.R. Raineri 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] rm Left Wing, 40th I.R. Rossbach 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] rm Right Wing, 40th I.R. Rossbach 5 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] rm Hussars Haller (part) 6 [ ] sk Urban's Field Artillery Bn 6 [ ] [ ] sb Austrian Army Notes 1) The Divisions of the Prince Hesse and Paumgarten are from 5th Korps. Urban's Division is a separate formation, attached for this advance. 2) All divisions have 40% exhaustion level. 3) Those Austrian brigades that have grenadier battalions in them DO NOT, for the purposes of this battle, count as having grenadiers present. 4) All artillery is smoothbore. 5) 60% of the Austrian army has been issued the new Lorenz rifle musket. It has a range of 5" (no short range). 40% of the army still use the smoothbore musket. In the game Division Paumgarten is all smoothbore musket armed. This division was chosen as it has just over 40% of the army's infantry units, is the only one without Jager (who were issued the Lorenz first) and to spread smoothbores out among divisions would be over-complicated. 6) Key to codes: rm = rifle musket armed infantry sb = smoothbore (artillery) sbm = smoothbore musket armed infamntry sh = sharpshooter sk = skirmisher 7) Prince Hesse's division begins the battle north and east (but not in) Calcababbio. Hesse may not manouver his units further than 12" west or south of Calcababbio for the first two turns of the game. Paumgarten's Division begins the game off map north east of Casa Di Chiouli. His division may enter turn 2 between Casa di Chiouli and Casatisima. Urban's Division begins the battle east of and no closer than 6" to Montebello, aligned on the Stradella road. Urban has no movement restrictions. 8) The Austrians are under orders to make a fighting reconnaissance towards Voghera and to bring back intelligence on the strength of enemy forces deployed there. Serious fighting is to be avoided. One or two divisions may be exhausted but if three are or if one collapses, the Austrians lose the game. 9) The Austrians win if every Allied unit makes an attack or the Austrians get within 6" of every Allied unit then withdraw without breaching the failure criteria stated in (8) above. ALLIED ARMY. 8,000 men, 12 guns. Genl Forey (DC - counts as AC) Brigade Blanchard (BC - counts as DC) (Exhaustion=5) 91st and 98th Regt de Ligne 6 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] st/rm Attached Piedmontese Cavalry Brigade 5 [ ] [ ] lt Blanchard's Field Artillery Bn 6 [ ] [ ] rml 2 Bns, 93rd Regt de Ligne (attached) 6 [ ] [ ] st/rm Brigade Beruet (BC - counts as DC) (Exhaustion=5) 17th Chasseurs 6 [ ] [ ] sk/sh/rm 74th Regt de Ligne 6 [ ] [ ] [ ] st/rm 84th Regt de Ligne 6 [ ] [ ] [ ] st/rm Allied Army Notes 1) The French 'army' is in fact only a division. The division comanders are in reality brigade commanders. 2) Both 'divisions' have 60% exhaustion level. 3) All infantry are armed with rifle muskets, range 4", no short range. 4) The Piedmontese light cavalry brigade may be split into 2x1-5 skirmishers. 5) Key to codes: rm = rifle musket armed infantry rml = rifled muzzle loading artillery sh = sharpshooter sk = skirmisher st = shock troops 6) The 84th Ligne begins the battle deployed astride the road north of Genestrello, facing east. It may be stationary. The Piedmontese cavalry begin the battle west of and within 18" of Calcababbio. The balance of the French enter within 6" of the road to Voghera on turn 1, except the 93rd Line which arrives west of Pizzale on turn 4. The 93rd is part of Division Autemme, detached to assist Forey. It has it's own integral commander and need not be within command radius of any of the three French commanders. 7) On turn 1 all French units are in command. 8) French orders are to prevent the enemy taking Voghera. The forward outposts this morning were east of Casteggio and if possible this position must be recovered. General Scenario Notes 1) The level terrain north of the E-W road is cluttered with minor farms, hedges, drainage channels, ditches and small vineyards. It counts as close terrain. A unit may move up to half it's movement allowance and remain ordered. If a unit moves over half it's movement allowance it becomes disordered. This does not apply to skirmishers or commanders. One change of facing is free, so a unit could change facing and move half it's move and remain ordered but if it were to change face, move half and change face again (a permited move on clear terrain) it would become disordered. Removing a disorder marker for the purposes of traversing the broken terrain does not count as a half move, i.e. if a unit moves full move & becomes disordered, next move it may remove the disorder marker and move half and change direction once and remain ordered. Moving a full move again once disordered *will* cause a strength point loss to straggling. 2) The Austrians are the attackers. 3) Turn 1 is 12:00 noon. The game lasts 7 turns. I just played this nice little game twice tonight. We got a six turn and a seven turn game in two and a half hours total. The French won both times. It is very deceiving, when the troops went down on the table I panicked and thought the game would be a one-sided Austrian walkover. Not a bit of it. They were completely stuffed first time (the Piedmontese cavalry collapsed Prince Hesse's division single handed). Second time the Austrians were more co-ordinated and managed to almost reach a line Genestrello-Pizzale before exhaustion overcame them. Giving a bunch of players orders to attack and not take casualties makes for a most entertaining game. In game 1 D'Urban occupied Montebello and just sat there hoping the French would attack him. Magnificent over cautious Austrian stuff! Of course as the French are shock troops they waited until they were organised and let him have it. Moral: Don't give shock troops time to attack you - attack them first! Absinthe press have the two commanders' after battle reports on their web site. They make interesting reading. The French CinC wrote his report at midnight the day of the battle and estimated the enemy to be 15,000-18,000 men. The Austrians who had been tasked with the recon sent their report in *8 days* after the battle and estimated they had faced 40,000 French... The writing was on the wall at this early stage. http://www.winternet.com/~absinthe/ Attachment Converted: C:\BP_SUB\MONTBELO.ZIP Martin Soilleux-Cardwell