Custoza 1866 - A Bloody Big Battles AAR

Well a dose of man-flu prevented our planned game of a week ago, but a return to health meant that we were able to get in our planned Custozza game. Now this is a large battle so to try and fit it in with the time we have for our evening games, Dave 'bathtubbed' the units, the details of which can be seen below:

Italian Army: Lots of them, enthusiastic but badly led and not well trained or experienced – oh well!
1st Corps (Durando) 1st Div [4] Raw ML, Passive 1st Div RA [0.5] Passive 2nd Div [4] Raw ML NOT Passive 3rd Div [4] Trnd ML, Passive 5th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive Corps Troops Bersag [2] Trnd ML, S, Passive Corps Troops Cav [1], Raw,  Passive Corps Troops RA [0.5] Passive	Anywhere with his Corps SW of Oliosi at the start SW of Oliosi at the start Monzambo Bridge once 1st or 5th Div lose a base Vallegio at the start Olisio/Sta Lucia at the start Vallegio T2 Vallegio T2 Vallegio T2
3rd Corps (Della Rocca) 7th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive 8th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive 16th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive 9th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive Corps Troops Cav [1] Raw, F, Passive Corps Troops RA [0.5] Passive	Villafranca, T2 Villafranca, T2 Villafranca, T2 Villafranca, T2 Villafranca, T2 Table edge S Villafranca Villafranca, T2
2nd Corps (No commander) 19th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive 10th Div [4] Raw ML, Passive Corps Troops RA [0.5] Passive	S Edge, T6 S Edge, T7 S Edge, T7

Austrian Army: A better organised and motivated army than those in Bohemia
Cav Res [1] Vet, A	E Edge at the start
IX Korps (Hartung) Bock/Kirschberg [4] S,T, A Kirschberg [4] S,T, A Korps Art RA [0.5]	In woods N of Staffalo In woods N of Staffalo In woods N of Staffalo In woods N of Staffalo
VII Korps (Maroicic) Scudier [4] S,T, A Toply/Welsersheimb [4] S,T, A Korps Art RA [0.5]	NW of Staffalo NW of Staffalo NW of Sommacampagna, T3 NW of Sommacampagna, T3
V Korps (Rodich) Bauer/Moring [4] S,T, A Piret [4] S,T, A Korps Cav [1] A Korps Art RA [0.5]	6” N Edge Oliosi 6” N Edge Oliosi 6” N Edge Centre, T1 6” N Edge Centre, T1 6” N Edge Centre, T1
Reserve (Virtsolog) Benko/Weimar [4] S, T, A Res Art RA [0.5]	Within 6” of N Edge Within 6” of N Edge Within 6” of N Edge

The deployment and terrain was pretty much as per that laid out in the Bloody Big European Battles scenario book. So after Dave had deployed his Italians and I the Austrians, it was time to get down to action.

The initial deployment positions.

The Austrians in the woods by Staffalo, ready to suprise the Italians.

Both sides start to move in response to each other.

The Austrian V Korps and Reserves move towards Oliosi.

The Austrian IX Korps struggle to move out of the woods towards Custozza.

The Italian main force arrives, somewhat unaware of the Austrian threat on their right flank.

The Italians present a tempting target.

Battle erupts in and around Oliosi.

The Italians respond to the threat to their flank as the Austrians push forward.

Austrian Stosstaktik in action.

The fight continues to develop at Oliosi.

An Italian unit caught in march column pay the price.

The Austrians struggle to push past Staffalo.

By Oliosi the Austrians stosstaktik assault goes in, supported by cavalry on the flank...

... which sees the destruction of the Italian unit...

... and the Austrians exploit to threaten the Italian rear.

The Italians seize Custozza as the Austrians move into Santa Lucia.

The Austrians appear to be gaining the upper hand at Oliosi.

Battle lines are drawn around Custozza and Santa Lucia.

With the Italians in a strong position at Custozza, the Austrians ponder their options.

The Austrians start to move to the right to try and re-inforce Santa Lucia.

The Austrians posied to take complete control of Santa Lucia with a nominal threat to their flank from a lone Italian unit.

Italian re-inforcements arrive on the ridge above Oliosi but there gun line has limited range due to the nature of the terrain.

The Italians are under pressure in and around Oliosi but support is at hand. As the firefight develops, both sides start going low on ammo.

Stalemate starts to develop at Custozza and Santa Lucia.

The Austrians have a strong position but are not confident in attacking the Italians in Custozza.

The battle continues unabated at Oliosi.

Not much change except that the fight continues at Oliosi.

A series of assaults go in, but both sides bounce off each other, failing to deliver a telling blow.

The battles have taken their toll, leaving both sides exhausted.

So after over 3 hours of gaming, we called it a draw, as time was against us and the conflict at Oliosi was evenly posied.

Post Game Thoughts
Well that was an interesting game and one that felt somewhat different to the previous battles. Why? Well a few thoughts as always:

• The terrain made quite a difference as the Steep Hills, Woods and Streams really slowed movement down. To overcome this Dave had a unit move in march column, but this got caught before it could deploy and was detroyed by Austrian fire. Having seen this I chose to move my units in Line, which slowed them down but I did not want to risk them getting caught out like the Italians. With hindsight I could have moved the VII Korps in March Column to get them onto the table more quickly as they really added nothing to the battle, except look nice as they manouevered.
• The Italians put up a good fight, despite being both Fragile and Passive. However this did hamper them when it came to the Close Assault phase. In contrast the Austrian stosstaktik did work as the added In Depth bonus really helped them out.
• It was nice to play this phase of the war as both sides are relatively evenly matched and the battle was closely fought throughout. Having the Austrians as 'top dogs' felt funny, but the Italians are by no means an easy push over.
• We thought the 'bathtubbing' worked well and allowed us to play out a large battle in an evening.
• At the start I had too many troops to a unit, but luckily spotted it quite early on. To compensate for any added advantage that I may have gained, I removed Suppressed markers off the Italians that had received fire from said units. We also forgot to count the Austrians as Tactically Inept for a few Turns. So hopefully the lesson has been learnt to concentrate from the very start!

 

In the little time that we had post game to have a chat, we decided to re-fight part of Custozza next time we meet up, specifically the battle between the Austrian V Korps and Reserves and the Italian I Corps. This we found to be the most interesting part of the battle and so will basically split the table in half and use the OOBs as per the Bloody Big European Battles book.