SYW Global Campaign - 1757, France vs Austria

 France attacks Venice

FR Ferdinand 480 pts VS AU Serbelloni 400 pts

Battle Summary:

After a great deal of command confusion among the Austrians, and the last minute dismissal of the lead commander in the theater, the forces of the Holy Roman Empire chose to fight a scorched earth campaign across northern Italy before scattering the French some miles west of Venice.

Though they had succeeded in surprising the French enough to secure a strong defensive position and forcing them to attack it, the wily Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, in charge of the French allied expedition in Italy, was not fully lured into the trap. 

Thus, the French were able to coordinate their bulk relatively well and respond to the Austrian maneuvering with an overwhelming hammer blow that has scattered the Austrian forces to the wind.

Not expecting such a quick and coordinated response, the new imperial general in command, von Serbelloni, failed to rally his forces and use the terrain effectively, having developed a mutinous relationship with the famed Austrian light troops in a way that proved disastrous on the field.

Conversely, Ferdinand cleverly led the charge with the excellent Piedmont expeditionary troops, and though both French-led flanks became confused and wavered during the battle, the Italians were able to keep up the advance and ultimately capture the key positions that led to the Austrian rout.

Due to heavy casualties and desertion among the Austrian light troops, the Austrians were uncharacteristically not able to cover their retreat properly, and the resulting casualties may prove dire for the defense of Vienna...

All hope now rests with the esteemed Charles of Lorraine. If he can blunt the Prussian advance in Bohemia, the Austrians can rally with a single large field army -- but if his force suffers a similar or worse fate than those to the south, there may not be much of an army left to defend the capital.

Play-by-play:

The French planned to eat away at the wings of the strong Austrian positions around the central objective. However the Austrians won the initiative and surged forward, reinforcing the central fortified town and seizing the central hill as well, intending to delay the French center (mostly composed of Italians) with their heavy cavalry.

Few of the light troops on the Austrian side activated on the first turn, leading to a fairly disjointed line

on the bottom of round 1,  Ferdinand exerts heavy effort to have the French right surge forward, with the leading cavalry threatening to surprise and overrun the Austrians deploying on the other side of the stream.

Although it seemed likely that the Austrian right would be caught by these French cavalry, the Austrians use one of their scarce command dice on a last ditch reroll to regain the initiative on a 6 - and succeed.

However, the lack of Austrian command coordination shows in other areas, and the forward Austrian left's Grenzer's fail their discipline test and charge forward to cross the river and meet the advancing French, leaving their strong positions in the process.

At the same time, the other corps of Hussars and Grenzers remain frozen , leaving the forward Austrians unsupported. Disappointed with losing the initiative, the French try to consolidate and pick off the unsupported Austrian corps.

French cavalry succeed in knocking out two full brigades in the subsequent combats.

Meanwhile on the French left, the advancing French infantry are forced to deploy by the unruly Grenzers.

In the center the French-allied Italians advance with caution, seeing the cavalry, ready to charge them.

At the start of turn 2, the French quickly clear the exposed Grenzers.

The center develops into a cavalry skirmish, with infantry on both sides waiting on.

On the French right, the cavalry are withdrawn to allow strong infantry lines to develop and continue to pressure the disoriented Austrians.

The Austrians have trouble activating again, with their left failing to align to the French across the stream, and their right failing a discipline test again charging suicidal-y into French line.

By round 3, the French have stabilized their positions across the stream, and appear to be effectively chipping away at the fortified Austrians with their cannons skirmish line.

Meanwhile on their left, the French engage the Austrians across the stream with a devastating opening volley. At the same time, the French guards try to flank around the far left but suffer from poor command coordination, with another corps having been left behind completely.

The musketry finally starts turning around for the Austrians in round 4 on both flanks, and a subsequent charge cripples the lead French brigades on the Austrian left.

Sensing weakness, Ferdinand sends in French cavalry to clear out the Austrian infantry left of the objective and relieve the weakened infantry.

In the center, the Austrian cavalry succeed in driving off the Italian cavalry, but then peter out in a confused skirmish with the infantry behind. They are able to delay the Italian infantry but take heavy casualties.

On the Austrian right, the situation begins to stabilize, with Grenzers heroically charging the French lights and pushing them back, while the rightmost Austrian infantry corps holds out admirably.

The Austrian cavalry attempt to withdraw from the center, but command problems leave 1 of the corps milling in the front to be wiped out.

Things continue to go poorly for the French infantry on their right, so the French cavalry go in for another charge.

The next round, another strong volley for the French left leaves the Austrian right flank in danger of collapsing. The French right units on both sides start to disintegrate.

Sensing weakness, the French guard turn to flank the Austrian right while the Austrian hussars rush to block them. At the start of turn 4, both the Austrians and French send new units to the meat grinder as they try to control the right side of the town.

On the Austrian right, the key corps defending the flanks is punctured from multiple sides

Knowing that the 4th turn is the last one they need to hold out for, the Austrians send their venetian allies to plug holes developing around the town. However both venetian corps prove too enthusiastic, with the venetian advance on the right failing discipline and leading a disastrous charge across the stream and up the hill directly into the elite piedmont troops.

Meanwhile the venetians charge in to blunt the French on their left, but the lead commander is shot down in the first advance, leaving them in disarray.

On the Austrian right, the remaining corps charge desperately to slow down the advancing French from cutting off their supply lines, and ultimately succeed in stopping them before the end of the game -- at great cost.

On the bottom of turn 4 round 1, the French and Italians unleash devastating volleys on the remaining units guarding the town, but do not succeed on taking it on the first attempt.

With both units guarding the town completely on the ropes, the French win initiative on round 2 and charge all across the line. The Austrian units remaining are so depleted they cannot hope to resist, and so the elite piedmont grenadiers succeed in taking the town on the 2nd attempt.

With this, and a count of well past 1/3 brigade casualties for the Austrians, their morale shatters. Due to heavy losses taken by the Austrian hussars in the last turns of the game, they are also unable to cover their retreat properly. As units trickle back Vienna, the casualty count for the Austrians stands well over 50%.