Po Valley Campaign - the Second Battle of Parma, 1742

The campaign finally kicked off today. The King of Sardinia with his Piedmontese army swiftly advanced on Ivrea to the north of Turin, on hearing of the combined Franco-Spanish army climbing the Alpine passes. Meanwhile the other Spanish army led by Montemar started crossing the Apennines on the route to Parma. The Bourbons (Spanish and allies) hoped to perform a two-pronged advance on Parma: Montemar from the south and the King of Naples and the small Modenese force under Francesco d'Este came from the east.

The cunning General Traun with his Austrian army based in Milan forestalled the Bourbons and arrived at Parma first. The Neapolitans and Modenese advanced slowly so as not to get caught by the stronger Austrian force. Montemar moved around Parma and attacked the Austrians from the north, hoping the King of Naples et al would arrive soon to back him up. The 30,000 Austrians turned to face Montemar (less than 23,000) who found he had to spend the first couple of hours on his own. [I diced to see whether the Italians would arrive for the start of the battle (no!) and then during the game from turn 7 on].

The situation after 2 map turns

I used the map for the actual Battle of Parma, 1734, where the Austrians faced the Franco-Piedmontese. The two opponents were placed roughly where the historical forces were (read Spanish for Franco-Piedmontese). Blogger is playing up and won't let me load the historic map for Parma, but the following are photos taken during the game played this evening.

Spanish to the north of the Piacenza road (E-W) and north east of the Cremona road (SE-NW). I've used 'earthworks' to denote the road is raised. 

The field is rather cramped with streams and rows of trees marking small tracks and field boundaries. No crops shown as it's early April. The Austrians outnumber the Spanish 6:1 in cavalry (all the Austrian cavalry are to the south east). The Spanish had a slight advantage in numbers of infantry and better quality with 12 battalions of guards. The Austrians had the upper hand in artillery.

The Austrians

The Spanish. Guards and cavalry on the right. The plan was to refuse this flank and attack in the centre through the farms and village of Crocetta (top left)

Battle is joined. The Spanish have seized Crocetta. The two sides would fight for hours around this area with musket and bayonet in a slow attritional struggle.

The city of Parma behind its walls to the east of the battlefield.

Finally the King of Naples arrives with his contingent in turn 10 (c 2 1/2 hours after the battle started). 

The King's arrival with 10,000 men evened up the numbers. Also marching to the sound of the guns is d'Este and the 5,000 Modenese. It would be a few more turns before they arrived, and tipped the numbers in favour of the Bourbon cause.

The end of a slow attritional battle. 

The Spanish in the Crocetta area had resisted manfully until the Austrians brought their heavy guns to bear and tipped the balance. Even then it was several turns before they were turfed out. On the left the Spanish almost turned the Habsburg position. Centre right saw a very lengthy firefight between the Spanish guards and the Austrian line infantry. Losses slowly mounted on both sides and the Spanish gradually retired to avoid being flanked by the Austrian cavalry. Talking of cavalry, other sides were underwhelming. The trees hindering movement and even then there were several refusals to charge by both sides. After 20 turns I called it a day. A slight advantage to the Austrians tactically and in terms of losses. But strategically they have failed to force the Habsburgs away from Parma. They cannot besiege the city under these circumstances. What will happen next?

Close up of the right centre at the end. Spanish nearer to the camera.

Post game thoughts.

Well that was quick to get to a battle! Which is what most wargamers want. I had to add a couple of rules to the campaign. I hadn't through the sequencing enough but that's the beauty of solo play. Gap plugged so that's an improvement!

During the battle I was highly conscious of the need to live to fight another day. Montemar had got himself in a bit of a pickle in the first place, but as this was almost exclusively an infantry battle things didn't work out too badly. I called it at 20 turns rather than wait to one side or the other to start to lose 'wings' in the normal Twilight of the Soldier Kings way. I thought it more realistic for the Spanish to disengage as they were closer to breaking. I also remembered I needed to add a rule for post-battle recovery of losses and imported one from another set. Basically because neither side had really chased the other from the field, and there was no pursuit, I gave each side an equal chance of recovering losses. The Habsburgs did better in this respect so the overall numbers left will be closer.

The next challenge is to decide who does what after the battle. There are no easy options for either side. And then there is the question of what the Gallispans coming from the Alps are to do faced with a Piedmontese army almost as big as theirs sitting under the guns of a fortress. Would a retreat back the way they came and debouch into Piedmont from one of the other passes be the best option?