Po Valley Campaign - Late April and May 1742 - the Road to Piacenza

I played out several more weeks of map turns after the Battle of Parma. Not much happened for a few weeks. The Infante (Sp) and Conti  (Fr) remained a march from Ivrea on the edge of the Alps, blocked by an equally strong Piedmontese army under the guns of the fortress. Outside Parma the rival forces (Austrians on one side and Spanish-Neapolitan-Modenese on the other) stood warily watching each other, gathering in supplies from the countryside and recovering their wounded from the battle.

With a stronger force than the Habsburgs opposite him, Traun sent his Austrian hussars (most likely Hungarians) off to raid Bourbon supply lines. After further time he despatched his 4 battalions of Croat Grenzers to garrison Cremona (nearest of the Austrian controlled fortresses in Lombardy). His opponents could not agree what to do: Montemar wanted to remain at Parma and King Carlos and d'Este voted to return to Modena. [I diced for the decision of each of the 3 commanders each turn and without unanimity they remained put. Each turn the odds of moving increased.]

Up in Piedmont, King Charles Emmanuel, sent his militia brigades to garrison Turin and Cuneo, whilst despatching his own light troops to raid the Gallispans' supply lines.  He felt strong enough in Ivrea to defend without the detached troops. Traun's and Charles Emmanuel's decisions to despatch raiders paid off very quickly. Both Bourbon armies' supply trains were badly hit by the Pandours/Partisans, reducing the strength of their forces.

[Surprisingly on the first Event check I rolled a double 6: a double meaning an event has occurred. I then diced for the type of Event and it was 'Supply Train Attacked' and 10% was deducted from both Bourbon armies.]

This encouraged both the Gallispans (Franco-Spanish) in the Alps and the combined Spanish-Italians at Parma to move, falling back to France and Modena respectively.  The Infante and Conti will decide which of the routes back into Italy they will take, but they will be off the map for a month (unless they come back the same way!). Charles Emmanuel (Piedmont) despatched 4 infantry brigades under Aspremont to aid Traun. Traun moved west to attack Piacenza (a city controlled by the Spanish-leaning Duchy of Parma). He had siege lines constructed - 3 of his brigades were committed to this. Montemar, King Carlos and d'Este all agreed to attack Traun before he could establish batteries at Piacenza. They arrived from the east as Aspremont arrived from the north. A second battle is in the offing not 2 months into the campaign. Aspremont's arrival was crucial as his force could make up the shortfall in Austrian troops due to them having to man the siege trenches.

General situation before the Battle of Piacenza. The larger beads are the garrison forces referred to above. 

The Battle of Piacenza - Deployment

The forces deployed are:

Austro-Piedmontese

Austrian brigades: 1 grenadier, 4 line infantry, 3 cuirassiers, 2 dragoon, 2 artillery

Piedmontese brigades: 4 infantry

Bourbon Forces

Spanish brigades: 2 Guard/grenadiers; 3 line infantry, 1 cavalry, 1 artillery

Neapolitan brigades: 3 line infantry

Modenese brigades: 2 line infantry

The city is off to the north east of this map. I opted to have the opposing sides enter in columns in a race to secure advantageous ground. I'd considered using the dispositions from the actual battle of Piacenza in 1746 but that did not make much sense as the Bourbons started in the city.

Here are a few photos of the table set-up.

As before, the table is 1.2 x 1 metre representing just shy of 4 by 3 miles.

The Piedmontese

The powerful Austrian cavalry wing. But will they be able to operate effectively in the terrain criss-crossed with streams and trees? As with the Parma game, roads will count as linear obstacles when traversing them.

The Bourbon forces looking north. The Modenese in the foreground are being represented by Saxons, as other than the Piedmontese, I don't have any models painted specifically as Italian armies. In practical terms the difference between them all are the flags.

The Bourbon northern flank, made up of King Carlos' Neapolitans. I'm 'proxying' the Reichsarmee for these.