Honours of War - Velletri 1744

We had a pop at refighting the "first" battle of Velletri on tues at the local club.

 

Drawing from both SW's "Defence of Piedmont" and Red Sash's "Queens Gambit" I made up a scenario which, if not actually historical, was designed to capture the flavour of the action.

 

The Austrian army had moved south from Rome and was sitting along several roads south, all of which led to Neapolitan territory. However Lobkowitz's 14000 or so men were effectively pinned in position by the Spanish-Neapolitan army of De Gages who mustered nearer 25,000. The latter force was made up of some 12000 Neapolitan troops whom at this stage in the campaign were perhaps not fully effective, but the numbers involved meant that the allies could cover any movement south and Lobkowitz seemed very reluctant to try his hand. 

 

The Austrians encamped at Nemi, north of Velletri, separated from that town by a steep volcanic ridge which was garrisoned, but apparently only lightly. The Bourbon allies camped around Velletri on the southern side of the ridge. Both armies sat for some time whilst detachments played cat and mouse elsewhere.  Eventually De Gage decided to act and set a force up the steep slopes to attack the troops ontop of the ridge. This attack was successful and the Austrians were soon driven off and back down into the valley. However the pursuit was recalled (- the objective had been achieved and support could not be brought up over the twisting tracks). This allowed Lobkowitz to reform and organise a counterattack which retook part of the ridge.

 

 

 

 

 

(Not the greatest pics, the green mat has absorbed the light and flattened image, the ridge was nearly 6in higher at the top than the actual table top. I should have dressed it more with bits of moss, floc, stones, etc, but we had little such stuff).

Looking at the OB's (Red Sash's booklet and Nafziger) I noted that Lobkowitz had 3 battalions of Croats present, so I made them the garrison of the ridge. I gave de Gage 6 battalions to achieve his objective (2:1 odds not overwhelming and hampered be a reduced movement for going uphill). To both sides I gave a further 6 battalions of reinforcements with 2 units of dragoons for the Austrians and a heavy gun to the Bourbons. These were drawn from the OB's again and the heavy gun added because the bourbons dragged one up the hill after the battle to bombard the position the Austrians retook. I set times for the reinforcements to arrive and constricted the freedom of movement of the Bourbons by making that brigadier "dithering".

 

All in all we had a decent game. The Croats crumbled rather quickly so I made an umpires decision to allow the Austrian reinforcements on. They made good headway against the Bourbons to the point where it looked like it had swung the other way completely. But the Neapolitan reinforcements had arrived at the ridge and I called time at 2200hrs, after 2 and a half hours play. 

 

Some piccies below. The Ridge was made from Hexon tiles covered with a cloth to get the steep sides. On reflection it should have been somewhat steeper and should have had more cover for the croats. The arrival times of both reserves was far too soon, but as umpire I changed these so the outcome of the scenario was more or less in line with the historical result. It looks a bit plain in the pics, clump foliage, trees and scrub would break it up better. Something for next time!!

 

However it was a good game and everyone enjoyed it, which is after all the whole point of it all!!

 

I'm looking to do Campo Santo in a few weeks time as a sunday game. This time I intend playing too!!!

 

The problem with all this is of course....I "need" Spanish now