My army is as follows, all infantry are unreformed:
Skilled Corps Commander
1st Division
Competent division commander
Med foot arty- ave dr small
Line infantry 1st Kaiser Franz-Ave Vet small
Line Infantry 38th Von Wurttemburg- Ave Dr large rifle skirmish
Light Cavalry LIght Dragoons- Ave Dr small officer
Light Infantry with rifles Advanced Guard- Ave Dr small Cavalry and med artillery (list requirement if you want this unit)
2nd Division
Competent Division commander
Med foot artillery- Ave Dr small
Light Infantry Grenzers- Ave Irreg small
Line Infantry Hungarians- Ave Vet large rifle skirmish
Line Infantry 12 Liechtenstein- Ave Vet small cavalry and med artillery
Line Infantry 16 Erzherzog Rudolph- Ave Dr small
Light Cavalry Light Dragoons- Ave Dr small officer
Set up:
I took the first division on table and deployed them south of center with the Advanced guard most to the right, 38 next to them and the artillery beside the 38. The 1st and a unit of Light Dragoons started on the road, forgot to put the cav in column tough
The french had 1 large infantry unit in each of the North and center buildings, artillery between the two buildings and another artillery between the center building and the vineyard. Beside the northern building was a unit of line infantry. I believe there was a small light infantry unit held back in reserve on the road that ran between the tow buildings, out behind the buildings. All French troops are reformed and were average Drilled.
Turn 1
The 1st infantry used road move to get down the road and occupy the southern most building, first victory and things already looking up. Light Dragoons had to reform into column to use road movement to cross the river, manged to get second move on them so they raced up past the vineyard. At this point it was hoped to be able to reform and then move to the rear of the artillery that was just the other side of the vineyard.
Austria managed to prolong its southern most gun forward and got to within 6 Mu of the French artillery. All other troops moved up to within med range of the buildings.
Second Division entered the road, led by the Grenzers. Now that I think about it I made a mistake there as they are permanent skrimishers so even if in a column should still have moved as skirmishers not gotten double move on the road. Anyway they advanced up with the divisional commander attached and got a second move, changing into extended line, second mistake I made that day they should have gone into tactical first. Never use roads in our games, as the french normally grab them all and I normally end up with the center table one, so starting on roads is something new for me. Hungarians followed next and moved up right behind Grenzers, most of the division tailed in behind. I had to keep the cavalry and the 16 off table as I ran out of room on the road.
French turn 1 saw the entrance of their cavalry division, a unit of Cuirassier and Dragoons, that changed the whole lets threaten the enemy artillery with my light cavalry idea as falling back across the river was looking pretty good.
Turn 2
Got some lucky shots and dropped the French artillery to the south to disrupted, no effect on shooting at buildings as I had to keep splitting dice. Also found out that under the new building changes cav attachments would not reduce French shooting, so much for the advanced guard getting them to drop dice. 1st regt of foot changed from occupying to defending the southern building.
It would take until about turn 4 for the 12th foot, 16th foot and the light Dragoons to move off the road and be set up in position on the North edge of the table to start attacking the light infantry and infantry units beside Marengo.
The french cavalry moved up towards the Austrian light horse which sensibly fell back across the river, light horse vs Cuirassier and Dragoons, I am not that suicidal.
As I said it took about till turn 4 to get my troops lined up to attack the supporting infantry to the North of Marengo, my artillery set up beside the Hungarians and was starting to shell the building. The Grenzers even surprised me by not only passing their first CMT but also managed to hit the French defenders in the building. Although being large they dropped my 2 hits to 1 so were halted. During this time the french also got some lucky shots and had managed to drop the Grenzers to disordered. Deciding the meat shield had done its job the Hungarians advanced through the Grenzers but due to the river being rough could only go 3 MU. French marksmen managed to inflict 3 hits and drop my cohesion to disordered.
Next the French in a flurry of muskets and artillery managed to hit the Hungarians with 6 hits, reduced to 5, dropping their cohesion and sending them back through the Grenzers and wavering them as well as ending wavering out of range of the French.
Pretty much a similar situation was developing to the South of Marengo where the 38th and Advanced Guard were dropping cohesion but were able to rally back but were stopped were they were. The artillery had managed another prolong but was still at medium range.
The French cavalry had moved up towards the southern most village but stayed out of 6 MU while they waited for their artillery to arrive. It took a few more turns but it did eventually arrive, a horse battery. Also their Chasseurs eventually arrived and moved to behind marengo.
North of Marengo the Austrian lines had been set and finally they began to advance towards the supporting French troops. To start with the cavalry was behind the infantry but since the 16th was a large unit in deep formation I could not get the cav within 6 Mu of the French to drop their dice on the 16th.
The 12th regt having artillery attached was able to start shooting at med range but was disordered by French muskets and refused to rally, even though they were supposedly vets. I brought up the Light dragoons through the 16th foot and they and the 12th continued to advance towards the French lines.
Some time about now the last unit of French light infantry had shown up and was using road moves to run down road B and eventually moved south to take up positions in the vineyard in skirmish formation opposite the Austrian artillery.
The entire southern attack had been stalled and the 38th foot turned its front so it could face the French artillery instead of having to keep splitting dice with the building, the Austrian guns having to deal with the French skirmishers who had now moved into the vineyard. Eventually I would waver them, but I had no troops to try and charge into them with, so they just pulled back and rallied. Then turned their attention to the building.
The 1st foot had done nothing for the game other than sit there and defend the building and keep the French Cav at bay. Now the horse artillery had arrived and had managed to double move and unlimber and then prolong the next turn to within 6 MU of the 1st. An early exchange dropped the 1st to disordered while the Cuirassier slipped down the south edge of the building and crossed the river. The Dragoons had moved up to within 2 MU of the building, flank shot, in order to set up an intercept should my Light Dragoons attempt to flank charge the Cuirassier. And having veterans in the building meant absolutely nothing as they scored 1 hit each turn for 2 or 3 turns into the flanks of the Dragoons, halting them. Eventually they fell back.
Seeing the cuirassier setting up to do a sneak by my building the Austrian artillery had limbered up, intending to fall further back and then set up closer to my start edge. However the Cuirassier managed to sneak by sooner than I had thought so I was forced to unlimber in place but facing 90 degrees to my original facing. The cuirassier were at long range but it was a flank shot and I managed to halt and disorder them. Their commander being on the other side of the river they turned to face the artillery.
Nothing was happening against the buildings, the Austrian advance had been halted, the Grenzers having to sidestep to cover the advanced guard which kept dropping cohesion and rallying back occasionally. The Hungarians and the northern most artillery battery just kept on shooting at the building and the artillery in the center of Marengo and managed to finally waver it, but being 3 wide could not fit into the space between the buildings and could not charge it. It was likely out of range anyway as it had prolonged back a few turns. I as only ever able to score 2 hits on any building at any time and the French being large it meant no effect.
North of Marengo saw the only Austrian action as the Light Dragoons and the 12th foot moved up to within 2 MU of the French infantry unit which had been dropped to disordered. both my units had also been disordered and the 12th once again refused to rally, despite being vets
Next turn I declared a charge with both the 12th foot and the Light Dragoons. The Dragoons have an officer and the division commander had joined the 12th foot. Both units went in, the french dropped to wavering for being charged by cav in the open not in square, and passed their test to for being charged by cav in the open and not in square. So much for the easy battle, they opted to stay in tactical and shoot, being wavering I had my hopes up that my two units would prevail.Unfortunately the dice Gods were not smiling on Austria at all that day, and the Light Dragoons, who being tight up against the infantry who were right tight to the table edge were still within 2 MU of Marengo and took 4 shooting dice in the flank from the building. They took 2 hits total and were stopped wavering. The 12th went in alone. Now for some reason as I had moved up to within 2 MU of the French I had contemplated moving the 16th to a rear support position, but then for some reason did not do it in the end. I think it was because I wanted to be able to wheel towards the building and bring more fire on it and was worried the 12th would block me... mistake. As it turned out the French light infantry that was out back was partially behind the Line Infantry and the french got rear support, thus costing me one die. To add more embarrassment to what looked like a good thing I only scored 1 hit against the french from 5 dice, rolling lots of 2's so no rerolls even with the officer
. The French scored 2 hits and we ended both wavering the French getting to run away. This opened up a gap for the French Chasseurs who had been sitting behind the village of Marngo waiting for some room to come flying down on the Austrians. Next move I put the 12th and 16th infantry into square, the 12th foot and the dragoons having rallied but preparing for the worst on my right. I also decided that with the failure to break the French infantry and things just looking impossible I would have tried to break contact and fade away after dark. We called the game, the French winning by holding both villages.
