Po Valley Campaign - From June to September

Twists and turns followed the retreat of the Gallispans outside Cuneo in late June. The defeat was by no means a rout and with a siege force as strong as the field army there were enough troops available to give the tired Piedmontese pause for thought.

King Charles Emanuel and his army remained outside the Gallispan camp for four weeks and recalled the militia brigades he'd sent to garrison Ivrea and Turin. His presence in the immediate aftermath of the battle caused the besieging army under Ponti to pause its digging and allowed the Piedmontese to send supplies into the city. Whilst Charles Emanuel waited the Gallispans dug in outside the siege works.

Whilst the two sides eyed each other at Cuneo, Traun with his Austrians prosecuted his siege of Piacenza. Aspremont with his Piedmontese detachment helped provide cover for Traun. Two weeks after the Battle of Cuneo, Piacenza capitulated. Then Traun headed east towards Guastalla to put that city under siege. The Bourbons (Spanish, Neapolitans and Modenese) in the Parma region forestalled Traun by packing Guastalla with a strong reinforcement, and then sent the remainder of their army to threaten Piacenza. The plan worked and Traun beetled back to Piacenza abandoning the attack on Guastalla.

Aspremont was recalled by Charles Emmanuel and the Piedmontese concentrated at Novara. The Gallispans under the Infante Felipe and the Prince of Conti marched to Alba in a move that threatened Alessandria whilst remaining within reach of Cuneo and Turin. July had turned to August and the  Piedmontese King realised that he could not leave Cuneo in the hands of the Gallispans. This would give them a secure base on the Italian side of the Alps over winter and a base of operations for the Spring.  Charles Emmanuel was not strong enough to face the Gallispan army so he cooked up a plan with Traun to combine their forces.  Receiving word of the Austrians march westwards the Gallispans read the runes and retired to Salazzo where they began to dig in.

Meanwhile, in Traun's absence the Bourbon's pounced on Piacenza again and re-opened their lines outside the city.

Then in early September news arrived that Felipe V, King of Spain, had finally died. The Spanish and their allies waited for news of which way policy under the new monarch would go. [I rolled a double 5 on the monthly Events check. I then rolled a 7 on the Events table: death of Felipe: the Spanish and Neapolitans prevented from offensive action for 3 months. I decided 3 months was too harsh and reduced it to 6 weeks.] The siege of Piacenza was paused and the Gallispans at Alba decided to retreat to Cuneo with the enemy close behind.

The Gallispans aim to cross the Stura and re-occupy their old camp outside the city. The river would be a formidable obstacle to the enemy. The question is, would they have time to cross? 

At this point there are a few options:

• The Gallispans get across in time
• They get caught crossing
• There is a rearguard action

I will ponder this some more and roll a dice to decide. The second option isn't attractive from a game point of view. Not because it's one-sided, but because it risks effectively ending the campaign quickly. A rearguard action appeals as a game.

Panning out a bit, I've got through 23 map turns and 3 battles in 2 weeks. There are 12 map turns left for 1742 after this. 8 if Winter comes early (on a dice roll).  I don't think I will keep up the momentum at this pace indefinitely. So at the moment I'm tempted to pause the campaign after completing this 'year' and come back to it (for 1743) at a later date.