Game 123 : Battle of Caldiero 1805

 This battle was fought in Northern Italy. I was a battlefield that had more than one engagement over the wars. Both sides are evenly matched. The French have a slightly higher average morale, the Austrians have numbers. We are also using variable morale.

The above is a shot from the French Left. It shows vineyards in front of a protected position of earthworks. Turn 1 saw the French (me) lose a full Light Btn in open order to the dreaded bad dice! Making progress here, for either side, was difficult.

Nearer the centre, Caldiero is in shot, The French secured the fron part of the village relatively easily. Dragoons are advancing to try and pin down Austrian forces being fed into the village area

On the other side of Caldiero, French heavy cavalry, including Cuirassiers, made good progress. Some Austrians were caught out of square and suffered appropriately from the Cuirassiers. This also led to the French being able to assault the second part of Caldiero (there were 3 village sections).

Further to the right, the French Light cavalry also advanced to engage the enemy cavalry. I was lucky in that the lead unit was Elite, it ensured that the Austrian cavalry was driven back..

This is Caldiero seen from the Austrian lines. French Cuirassiers have broken through. I recalled them as they would otherwise get embroiled with squares and they had done their job by allowing my infantry to engage the second part of Caldiero.

At this point, the Austrian centre retired, there was a danger they would get beaten piecemeal if they remained in place. A very interesting battle, it was designed by Graham. We will be playing it again with more players and likely we will reverse sides.

French Formations	Losses %			Austrian Formations	Losses%
	Infantry	Cavalry	Artillery		Infantry	Cavalry	Artillery
Massena	3	10	-	Archduke Charkes	-	-	0
Gardenne	23	0	16	Bellegarde	-	10	-
Molitor	0	0	0	Left Wing	-	-	0
Partonneaux	11	-	22	Lindenau	14	46	0
Verdier	0	0	0	Reuss-Plauen	1	0	31
Durutte	0	0	0	Simbschen	3	0	13
Moulin	16	-	-	Davidovich	0	0	-
Duhesme	0	8	0	Argentau	0	0	0
D’Espagne	-	15	38	Vogelsang	35	7	-
Mermet	-	13	25	Ballinlough	-	21	29
Palombine	-	0	0	Nordmann	2	6	0
				Somariva	0	0	-

Overall, it was quite a bloody affair. We'll see what the second engagement brings.