The losses go some way to show the hard fought nature of the battle, especially for the French who found themselves having to attack an opponent who had managed to early on capture the tactically important heights.

The main clash throughout the conflict was in the centre across the Central and Eastern Heights.  In this the Austrians were able to reach and deploy first.  The holding of these positions seemed to be central to Lee’s battle plan from the first and he did not deviate from it throughout. 

By and large the Austrians had a plan of forestalling any French cavalry attempt to turn his eastern flank, whilst at the same time diverting the attention of the French 3^rd Brigade in the west with his own dragoons.

In both these Lee seemed to gain some measure of success.  Whilst Ray had numerical superiority in infantry (in both number of units and overall men), having to divert a unit into Sociale and one onto the western farm for most of the battle stretched his line and his command radius. 

More importantly, French concentration of power was problematic.  It made it more difficult for Ray to coordinate and sustain an assault on the Central Heights once his grenadiers were thrown back, even though Lee’s Austrian 1^st Brigade was reeling under the pressure.  Potentially supporting units from Ray’s 3^rd Brigade were either in Sociale or the wrong side of the river.

However, when Ray and the French were able to coordinate and support an attack it worked.  As seen on his capture of the Eastern Heights.  Unfortunately, as the lines fragmented command and control, and therefore coordination, became increasingly difficult for the French.  Lee also suffered but holding a central and defensive position made it relatively easier to patch the gaps.

Both generals played a superb game.  They had to take decisions and produce orders with the fog of war denying them a knowledge of the exact number of losses to units (friend and foe), the state of morale of the units nor the usual physical cues given by an opponent facing you on the other side of a table. 

Each phase was a series of game turns.  Completely different to the act and react of a normal tabletop encounter.  In these senses it placed Lee and Ray far more in the position of real generals who have to rely on the equivalent of couriers and adjutants relaying information after periods of time and events.  Hats off to them. 

As the umpire and mover of metal men, I had a great wargame without the stress of having to make decisions or worry about making stupid blunders – for which the Rejects are known to mercilessly mock very loudly!

Those are my thoughts.  I’m sure Lee and Ray probably have their own opinions and versions of the how the battle went.

Thank you Ray for allowing me to guest blog.  All this is too time consuming for me to ever consider doing my own blog.  Now I will get back to some painting!

Adieu

Richard

“ A big thanks you has got to go to Richard for running this great campaign, its been a titanic tussle all the way through, I’m sure Lee enjoyed the game even more so, being that he won!
thanks Rich“

Ray