Marengo 2025 Again Part Three

Determined to get closure, Stefan (Austrians) and I (French) played on.

End of 1430 and Napoleon has returned.

The Austrians are now in Castel Ceriolo,

and it will not be long before Marengo is wiped clean

of its French defenders.

Austrian cavalry is rampaging across the countryside.

End of 1600 and Desaix has arrived.

The French are hunting down the marauding Austrian cavalry.

End of 1730 and the final French reinforcement has arrived.

Victor has been pulled back after the threatening Austrian cavalry has withdrawn.

His corps along with Murat are fatigued.

The Austrians also have a lot of fatigued troops, who have been left back at Marengo.

Castel Ceriolo has fallen to the Austrians and is being occupied by Zack's grenadiers.

As the French advance the Austrians launch a stalling attack.

This is followed up by yet another even more massive cavalry assault by the Austrians at 1900.

The Austrians follow up with an infantry assault, 

It fails badly and the Austrian morale is broken,

but not hopelessly.

The French just need to disperse one more Austrian unit to fully break their morale and win.

Desperate the French throw in the Consular Guard.

In future echoes of Waterloo,

the clash with the Austrian line goes horribly wrong and they are wiped out.

Hoping for a draw Napoleon commits his last unfatigued unit.

But the Austrians were ready and sweep down on the French cavalry.

There was still a slim chance of success, but it all spluttered out.

The French army was hopelessly broken.

Observations

4th Ed self-rally used (but I failed to remember that a 10 causes an additional rout) 10.3 page 79.

4th Ed self-command gives cavalry plenty of scope as even if they fail, they still have a half move 10.4 page 80.

Artillery is essential in clearing BUAs.  Perhaps range rules should be used, along with weight of shell for impact on BUA (as in close range shouldn't benefit from canister).  As it is the OOB for artillery is a bit problematic as is the treatment by Napoleon's Battles rules in only depicting horse artillery and corps level foot batteries. 

The small units are very brittle.

Using extra stands for maintaining track of casualties and command label is of mixed value.  I think best if part of the unit's bases and then using an extra maker to show formation if needed.

I think I might look at an OOB based on the 3rd Edition unit sizes.

Marengo 2025 Again Part Two

We pick up the game at the start of the Austrian 1230 turn.

The Austrians waste no time in launching an attack on Chambarlhac's Division

as well as a spoiling attack on the French heavy cavalry.

The attacks were very successful, and the Austrian cavalry seeks out fresh targets.

Without giving the French time to recover the Austrian cavalry again attack.

It looks dire, but Murat saves the day.

Around this stage both sides have exhausted all their free-rolls.

It is 1330.

The Austrians have an overwhelming amount of cavalry and run down Napoleon.

His horse is shot out from under him, but he struggled free, 

grabbed a riderless horse, remounted and will return to action...

Murat saves the day again!

After routing one unit of Austrian cavalry, he hits another.

And another, until the French cavalry are exhausted

and dissipated due to winner's losses.

Murat then joins his final brigade of cavalry that has just arrived.

The Austrian artillery has blasted the French defenders of Marengo into oblivion,

but there is still a battery to overcome. 

At Castel Ceriolo one half of the place has been vacated due to excessive French losses.

Murat has joined his final brigade of cavalry that has just arrived.

Monnier's Division has arrived and started to deploy along with the Guard

and Marmont has now got the reserve artillery in position.

Victor remains at the crossroads near Marengo. 

Play will resume with the Austrian 1430 turn (and Napoleon's return).

Marengo 2025 Again Part One

I am lucky to have a collection of players (collective noun needed) to play this game while it is all set up (the labels being the major chore after sorting out the figures).

For this round Stefan was the Austrians and Simon the French.  I umpired, interfered and also took over Lannes command.

Same set up, but this time I deployed the 1,800 men of the 24th Demi-brigade legere 

in Marengo as well as the artillery of Victor's corps.

The Austrians start off horribly congested.

1030 and Napoleon has arrived (top left-hand corner).

The Austrians have kept away from the centre, moving the bulk of their army towards Castel Ceriolo. 

This adds to the congestion as Otto is heading that way as well, but Lannes is almost ready for them.

The first clash has occurred with O'Reilly's cavalry charging the French (top right-hand corner).

Zack's Grenadiers go into action at Castel Ceriolo, trying to drive off the French

before they can have time to fully deploy.

O'Reilly's cavalry had bounced off the French square,

but his Grenzers are about to get revenge.

Until Napoleon arrives Victor and Murat have problems

getting their units in command.

Zack keeps pushing with his grenadiers at Castel Ceriolo,

But it all goes horribly wrong for him.

The Austrians cross the Fontanone and attack Chambarhac's troops.

The Austrians commit cavalry to the attack,

taking advantage of Murat's command difficulties

that have left the French cavalry unable to react.

But Napoleon gets Murat moving and a major cavalry melee develops.

However, it fails to produce any decisive results.

The end of the 1200 turn.

Ott is still deploying before Castel Ceriolo, now held by Lannes.

Zack's grenadiers have rallied, but are effectively hors de combat, being very close to dispersal.

Elsnitz's cavalry are across the Fontanone, with Melas bringing up infantry in support.

O'Reilly's formation is fatigued.

To be continued...

Marengo 2025 Part Two

Mark B (French) and I (Austrian) finished the game, picking up at 1400 Austrian turn.

By 1430 the Austrians were back in business, 

throwing in cavalry to remove a pesky French battery.

They followed up with more cavalry that cleared the way forward.

Ott had failed three command rolls in succession 

and the fighting was left up to Zack and his Grenadiers.

But it was a sideshow...

At 1500 the climax of the battle had arrived.

First the Austrian cavalry beat the newly arrived French cavalry,

despite Murat's best endeavours and the use of a free roll.

To top it off, Murat was taken prisoner.

The Austrian cavalry kept under control and went after their next target.

The French Consular Guard failed to form square,

despite use of a Free Roll.

Still retaining control, the Austrian cavalry had one last target...

The last thing Napoleon saw...

His aide was heard saying "That one's got his name on it."

Marengo 2025 - Part One

Having recently refought this battle using Shako I was keen to give it a go using Napoleon's Battles, particularly as I had been working on a revised Order of Battle using Nafziger and Osprey sources.

Previous posts on this battle:

With Richard January 2015 (Austrian win)

With Stephen and Mark B March 2015 (Draw)

With Shako October 2024 (French win)

This game featured Mark B from the March 2015 and Shako game, plus Mark W and Julian from the Shako game.  I was the umpire, Mark W the Austrian commander and Mark B and Julian the French (Julian taking Lannes command and overall command in Mark B's absence).

This game featured all my figures and also my new little houses that I had purchased during my holiday in Croatia in 2023.  Annoyingly I had lost them, but thankfully found them a few days before after having given up on ever finding them.

1000 and the Austrians are concentrated for their assault on Marengo.

Top-down view of the deployment.

It has been hard to fit all the Austrians in.

Note separate stands to mark casualties and hold unit label.

They also served to denote formation as some units had only two stands.

Ott is moving up on the left and Austrian cavalry has stormed across the Fontanone stream.

The French have formed squares,

but now find themselves under assault by Austrian infantry.

It's 1030 and Napoleon has arrived,

top right-hand corner on the road from San Giuliano. 

Ott's cavalry attack.

Lannes has secured Castel Ceriolo. 

Napoleon again visible top right-hand corner.

The French in squares are taking serious casualties from Austrian artillery.

Murat is everywhere with his cavalry.

The French cavalry try to hold back the white tide.

Austrian Grenadiers have now engaged Lannes' infantry.

The French defenders of Marengo are suffering under heavy bombardment,

as the rest on the Austrians do their best to push forward 

and keep up the pressure on the French.

Ott's infantry make a brave assault against Castel Ceriolo,

while the Grenadiers overwhelm what is left of Lanne's division.

Marengo has fallen and the Austrian surge forward 

hoping to wipe out the remaining French,

before their reinforcements arrive.

The situation on the Austrian left.

The little that is left of Lannes' command holds Castel Ceriolo.

The Austrians hold Marengo and have driven off the French.

All that can be seen is one French horse battery and their heavy cavalry.

But here come the reinforcements!

And this is where we had to end the session at the end of the 1330 turn.  Still another four turns to go until more French reinforcements arrive.  French have lost eight units.  Until reinforcements arrive, they will break if they lose another two units.  The Austrians are down three, plus one unit waiting to be rallied.  The Advance Guard and Hadik's formations are fatigued.  They still have plenty of fight.

Marengo Muster

I have been working on a revised scenario for the Battle of Marengo using Napoleon's Battles.  I am 99% of the way there.  Here are all the troops and their casualty stands.  The only short fall I had was with Austrian cavalry and I made it up using some white coated Prussians.

All that remains to do is make up some large print rosters and schedule the players.  The latter is the challenge, made doubly so because parking at my place is a bit of a mess due to building works.

The French

The Austrians