David R. Moody  - Jul 7, 2005 1:46 pm (#10313 Total: 10319)  
Last played: Lobositz, Old Contemptibles, Wings of War, Risorgimento 
(campaign game), Pirates of the Spanish Main, War of the Ring, 
Stalingrad Pocket II, Ambush, B-17, ASL, Down in Flames. 
Reading: Eisenhower's Lieutenants (Russell Weigley). 	 

Last night at Endgame, had a glorious struggle for Italian independence
against the white-coated minions of the mouthbreathing Hapsburgs, former
rulers of the native land of our Austrian Overlord. 

At any rate, it was a rematch of the campaign game from Risorgimento,
now that we knew the rules and (roughly) what to do. Once again, I took
the French and Sardinians against Joe's Austrians. In a change from last
game, Joe decided to take no offensive action at all (thus, although we
didn't play with the optional 'Gyulai is a fartknocker' rule, it sorta
amounted to it), but instead decided to make a stand behind the Ticino,
blowing bridges and arraying his army to cover the crossings. I
responded by moving up the Sardinians to the river line, massing them
into the Sardinian army (which is $*@$% slow) and trying to get
Garibaldi across the river to wreak havoc in the Austrian rear. The
French started massing around Vercelli and Novara, awaiting the arrival
of Boney III the Wussy Emperor of the French. 

Boney arrived, the French set up their depot at Vercelli, and began
attempting to turn the Ticino line. The French IV Corps crossed over the
railroad bridge at Magenta and stomped on the one unit of Urban's
division therein, permanently eliminating it. Doubly bad, Gyulai
happened to be there, so he was out of action until the following turn,
fleeing back to Milan. Nonetheless, the Austrians counterattacked,
driving IV Corps back across the river. In so doing, they contracted
their overstretched lines, leaving the bridge just to the north of
Magenta (which had been blown) unguarded. Garibaldi raced back across
it, repairing it and linking up with the French Imperial Guard, who,
along with the bulk of the rest of the Army of Italy, got across to the
Austrian side of the river. 

With this French breakthrough, and the Sardinians threatening Pavia, Joe
decided it was time to pull back to the Adda line. The French followed,
unable to cut off and destroy any parts of the Austrian army, though
they (and the Sardinians, once they reestablished their depot at Pavia)
gobbled up Austrian garrisons, including Milan, and closed up to the
Adda. IV Corps stopped in Milan to refit as the French halted to bring
up their depot. 

The rest of Italy remained quiet--as in our last game, no uprisings
anywhere in Italy as Garibaldi and the Sardinians gobbled up garrisons.
V Corps and the Tuscans showed up and began clearing the area south of
the Po. Meanwhile, Franz Josef, the last but one of the Hapsburg
emperors, arrived at Verona, sacked Gyulai for being a wuss who never
scored or fought a major battle, and decided to concentrate the armies
at Brescia. Garrisons were stripped to reinforce the two westernmost of
the Quadrilateral fortresses. 

So the final stage of the campaign began, with the French pushing across
the Adda and taking the fortified city of Bergamo, in the heat of late
June/early July in the Po river valley. The Sardinians, also with a
bridgehead across the Adda (nearer its confluence with the Po at one of
the cities where the river flows through the space--starts with a P),
shifted their depot forwards to join in the final drive, either for
Brescia (the last fortified city held by the Austrians in Lombardy) or
one of the Quadrilateral forts. And in Modena, the long-awaited popular
uprising began, now that the Austrian garrison had departed. 

Just outside of Brescia is the town of Rovato. There the Austrian IX
Corps was deployed as a rearguard while Franz Josef massed his forces to
defend Brescia and the Quadrilateral. Seeing a chance to squish an
isolated Austrian force, Boney the Wussy ordered the army to concentrate
at that point. But the Austrians held firm, bloodily repulsing the I
Corps and badly mangling the II Corps, reducing the latter to an
understrength division cowering in the newly-won citadel of Bergamo. The
IX Corps was bled white, though, finished as an effective force and
pulled from their positions to refit (both divisions eliminated, but not
permanently). The rest of the French army (Guard and III Corps, with IV
Corps still marching up from Milan) took the blood-soaked battlefield. 

And that was where it ended. Boney the Wussy, with two of his corps shot
up in the face of unexpected Austrian steadfastness, the heat and
overextended supply lines taking their toll, and the Prussians ready to
intervene, decided to come to terms, leaving the mightily pissed-off
Sardinians, all ready to drive east to Mantua, hung out to dry. In game
terms, with the French out of supply and no time to get their depot
moved before the end of the game (we were on turn 13 of 15, and it takes
two full turns to move a depot) and the resurgent Austrians massed at
Brescia, I decided to concede the political victory to Joe at that
point. We figured there would be a negotiated settlement between the
emperors, as happened historically, but with the Austrians getting
better terms in our game than they did in actuality. 

All in all, a great game, and a great system. It really gives a good
feel for operational warfare in this era, and you really work the
situation instead of the game. In retrospect, it might have been better
to have moved up the French depot to Bergamo at the same time I moved
the Sardinian depot, and maybe then use the last turn or two to screen
Brescia and make a run at Mantua. Probably would have led to a big
battle. We definitely want to try this one again sometime in the
not-too-distant future. 

No gaming for us next week, but the week after, possibly another look at
the French military machine of the mid-19th century, with the opening
scenario of Franco-Prussian War (S&T).. 

At home, soloing Lobositz on the flattened cardboard box. Cavalry fight
just beginning in the open floodplain of the Elbe--promises to be
bloody. Also still doing Mike Lam's PBEM B-17 game--I lost my second
bomber to flak over Klagenfurt, and the new one (Lousiana Pirate) bombed
Milan (ironically) in its first mission. The roads of war are strange
and winding . . . .