A baptism of fire: options

Hoping you've all been having a grand old time, and you and your loved ones are not all ready to brain each other. Over here, I always thought that the institution of the Boxing Day match fulfils a valuable social function in that regard. Anyway, enough of the small talk. I've been thinking about how to 'Christen' my new armies. Two main options occur:

(1)    A straightforward 're-fight';

(2)    Run a new mini-campaign along the same sort of lines I did last year, but limited to Italy.

Being a methodical sort, I drew up a table of battles in Italy in the 1740s (see below). 1744 looks very busy. I don't know if I missed any. This is a relatively new theatre to me. I just relied on Wiki*, and the appendix to The Art of War in the Age of Marlborough, which ends in 1745.  But I quite fancy doing the campaign. I could dust off the old rules, tweak them a bit to reflect the constrained geography. And Italy lends itself better to a long thin table.

Battle	Year	Date	Bourbon contestants	Bourbon number	Habsburg-Savoy contestants	Habsburg-Savoy number
Campo Santo	1743	8 Feb	Spain, Naples	11,400 infantry, 2,600 cavalry, 12 guns	Austria	9,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 25 guns
Casteldelfino	1744	18 Jul	France	5,000	Piedmont	2,000
Velletri I	1744	17 Jun	Spain	5,000	Austria	1,000
Bellino	1744	17-19 Jul	France, Spain	24,000	Piedmont	6,000
Velletri II	1744	11 Aug	Spain, Naples	24,000	Austria	16,000
Villafranca	1744	14-27 Apr	France, Spain	30,000	Piedmont, Britain	8,000
Casteldelfino	1744	18 Jul	France	5,000	Piedmont	2,000
Madonna Dell’Olmo	1744	30 Sep	France, Spain	33,700	Piedmont, Austria	28-36,000
Bassignana	1745	27 Sep	France, Spain, Genoa	70,000	Piedmont, Austria	55,000
Piacenza	1746	16 Jun	Spain, France	25,000 Sp, 15,000 Fr	Austria	45,000
Rottofreddo	1746	10 Aug	France, Spain	25,000	Austria	30,000
Assietta	1747	19 Jul	France	25,000	Piedmont	15,000

Apologies for the formatting of this table. I had everything neatly aligned in the document I created it in, but Blogger seems to be throwing a spanner in the works.

I might have to invent some rules to reflect events outside the theatre which impinge on it. E.G. Frederick's invasion of Bohemia in 1744, kicking off the Second Silesian War, might cause the Austrians to pull back some troops from Italy.  Something to ponder during Escape to Victory, or whichever classic film is put on the telly, if I'm not reading this:

I ordered a print on demand paperback copy from an Indian company on the Abe Books platform. It's an old tome but very interesting reading. Being a facsimile, some of the maps are a bit poor on definition, but the text is fine.

One thing that the little exercise of pulling together this table did do, is remind me that there were several factions involved. On the 'Bourbon' side was the Kingdom of Naples (aka the Kingdom of Sicily*), ruled at this time by a son of the Spanish King Philip V, so an actual Bourbon, and the Republic of Genoa. Genoa, a regional rival of Piedmont, joined the Bourbon alliance part way through the war. In addition, I think the Duchy of Modena also provided troops for the Spanish side at some point. And the Royal Navy provided 1,000 marines for the fence of Villafranca/Villefranche (a port just east of Nice).

* I must do an explanation of the names at some point. Piedmont/Sardinia/(House of)Savoy is another one.