Battle of Trebbia 1799 - A Polemos Ruse de Guerre Refight

As part of the post-lockdown resumption of more normal like, The Napoleonic Miniatures Wargame Society of Toronto has resumed its gaming activities.  As an associate member at their kind invitation, I sometimes re-fight the same battle scenario as that society, using the Polemos Ruse de Guerre rules.  This month's battle was the Battle of Trebbia, fought in 1799 between a French Army under General MacDonald marching to relieve the siege of Mantua and an Austro-Russian army under Generals Suvorov and Melas attempting to stop him.

Suvorov at the Battle of Trebbia

The Scenario:

The Battle of Trebbia was fought over quite a large area (incidentally, it is my very unscientific impression that Napoleonic battles fought with one side defending a river line were over a much larger area on average than battles which weren't).  On my smaller table, there wasn't much hope of getting a battle the size of Trebbia in on the scale that the rules are designed with in mind.  The maximum base size envisioned by the rules is that one base will represent a battalion of c.800 soldiers, making one base occupy a width of at most 150-200m, giving a table width of c.4.5-5km, not really sufficient to cover the battle.  Luckily however MacDonald himself came to the rescue, since his attacks in real life were somewhat disjointed and scattered!  So in my scenario, I have covered the combat between the French and the Russians under Suvorov and the combats with Melas have been left 'off-table'.

The Forces:

 

The French:

C-in-C: MacDonald

Victor's Division: 9 bases Well-Trained Light Infantry, 1 base Well-Trained Infantry, 6 bases Trained Infantry, 2 bases Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained 8lb Foot Artillery

Rusca's Division: 3 bases Well-Trained Light Infantry, 1 base Well-Trained Infantry, 1 base Trained Infantry, 2 bases Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained 8lb Foot Artillery

Dabrowski's Division: 2 bases Well-Trained Light Infantry, 3 bases Trained Infantry, 1 base Well-Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained Cavalry, 1 base 8lb Foot Artillery

The Russians:

C-in-C: Suvorov

Bagration's Advance Guard: 3 bases Well-Trained Light Infantry, 5 bases Well-Trained Infantry, 5 bases Trained Cavalry, 4 bases Poor Cavalry, 1 base Trained 6lb Foot Artillery

Schveikovsky's Column: 3 bases Well-Trained Infantry, 3 bases Trained Infantry, 5 bases Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained 6lb Foot Artillery

Forster's Column: 7 bases Trained Infantry, 4 bases Trained Cavalry, 2 bases Poor Cavalry, 1 base Trained 6lb Foot Artillery

The River Trebbia is considered (in rules' terms) to be a very wide stream, taking a full-turn to cross from one bank to another.  The hill is considered to have a steep slope on facing the river, but gentle slopes facing the Allied lines.

The French objective is to defeat the Russian Army before it or to maintain a bridgehead on the far bank of the Trebbia.  The Russian objective is to defeat the French Army or to eliminate all French troops on the Allied bank.

Forster's column may not operate upstream of the split in the river.  Victor's Division many not operate upstream of where the central tributary on the French side enters the Trebbia.  These restrictions are to simulate the fighting taking place off-table towards the River Po (i.e off the right-hand side of the table) and neither commander could afford to leave a gap in their line that their enemy could easily exploit.

The Set-Up:

View from above and behind the French Army: Dobrowski is to the left, Rusca to the centre-left and Victor to the right.  Facing them are Bagration on the Russian Right (left) and Forster on the Russian Left (right), with Schveikovsky to the rear (top-centre)

A closer look at Dobrowksi and Rusca's Divisions, and Bagration's troops facing them.  The village on the far side of the river (left) is occupied by some of Dobrowski's troops.

Another view, this time looking off towards the French Right with Victor's troops facing Forster's column.

Rusca's Division is to the left of the stream, Victor's to the right, facing the flank of Bagration's Advance Guard troops.

The view from above and behind Victor's position.

The Battle:

The battle begins with a mutual exchange of artillery fire

The French gunners rapidly tear holes in Bagration's lines, routing a Russian Grenadier battalion.

The French try to make their artillery superiority in the centre tell.

Bagration, sword drawn amongst his Jaegers, leads an attack on the French elements outside the village on his right flank

They are successful, throwing the French back into the buildings themselves.

A wider view

French artillery and musketry causes more heavy casualties amongst Bagration's Grenadiers in the centre, and another battalion breaks.

Bagration's other Grenadier units are strongly resisting the pressure from the French, and one of the Polish battalions breaks (bottom-left), whilst another wavers (centre)

Some of Rusca's troops attack across the Trebbia, trying to exploit the damage done by the artillery and skirmish fire earlier.

The attack is highly successful, routing the remaining Grenadier battalion in the centre and discomfiting the supporting Allied cavalry.  Note that some of Schveikovsky's units are advancing to succour Bagration's hard-pressed flank, however (top).

A further Russian assault, led again by Bagration and his Jaegers, has thrown the French out of the village and disordered their supports.

However, the French infantry in the centre have routed a cavalry regiment with their accurate musketry

The fighting on the extreme French Right has been mainly desultory, although Russian numbers are beginning to tell in terms of gaining the advantage in the firefight

A wider view of the centre as the leading French troops push across the Trebbia...

However, the French Left is in some degree of trouble, with its leading units routed (left) and the Russians in firm control of the village.

Some of Victor's infantry (right) move across the Trebbia in support of Rusca's right-hand brigade (left)

Another Polish infantry unit breaks under pressure from the accurate musketry of the Russian Grenadiers

Allied cavalry suffers further losses in the centre

However, Dobrowski's troops are in full panicked flight now on the French Left!

A wider shot: the best French hope now lies in the centre, as the Left has caved in.

Dobrowski's men fleeing, as Bagration's light infantry begins to pursue them

Rusca's is forced to throw his reserves into an improvised new position on his his left to face the threat of the Russians on this flank

The second Russian line in the centre has wavered...but held, despite heavy losses.  One of the French battalions has been routed.

A wider shot

A lot going on in this shot: Ruscas leads his men in a renewed bayonet charge to overthrow the Russian musketeers (centre-left), whilst Suvorov himself directs the Allied cavalry to charge the other French infantry column (right); Victor's cavalry tries to get forward to assist (bottom-right)

Ruscas' charge has succeeded (left), but so has Suvorov's (centre); the latter charge has led to a lot of disorder on Victor's left flank

The Allied cavalry brigade in the centre has had more than it can take, and rides for the rear (top)

However, the French attack in the centre has run into equal trouble, with units retiring in sympathy with the broken and routed elements.

The Russian musketeers have held on...just!

Bagration throws more and more troops across the Trebbia (left)

Forster's demonstrations have proved useful in stopping Victor from allocating all his resources to the attack.

A wider shot of the centre and left of the battlefield (from the French point-of-view)

And an even wider shot, showing the same

(and one more); French army morale broke at this point, so MacDonald could not hold on to his tenuous bridgehead across the Trebbia.

Game Notes: A fun game which rattled along very quickly once I got it going.  A few things contributed to this pace: movement rates are a bit quicker in Ruse de guerre than in other Polemos rules; my small table forces the armies to start relatively closely; and the rules allow for the possibility of quite effective fire give the right circumstances and luck.  Units are more brittle in Ruse de Guerre, since they only have one stage of 'Shaken' compared to the two stages more typical in other rules.  Firing effect increases linearly with the number of units firing, whereas other Polemos rules and DBx rules will tend to give only a positive modifier to a 'lead' firing unit.  This really increases the importance of gang-ups, especially involving artillery.  Light infantry units look at first glance as if they are only a bit better than line infantry units but this is deceiving; their ability to reduce the effect of incoming fire is important and is synergistic with the 'steps' of fire effectiveness: roughly, an infantry unit has a 10% chance in the open of a 'quick-kill' on an enemy unit, but 0% against a light infantry unit.

In one respect, Ruse de Guerre does share much with the Napoleonic Polemos rules-sets: the formation morale rules and the army morale rules can be brutal and are by far the most important rolls in the game.  Unlike in many other rules, the amount of casualties an army can take and function really can vary wildly.  A random number is deducted from an army's morale every time a formation is broken, so depending upon the result of these dice rolls, an army can break very early or fight almost to the last man.  The former is more likely than the latter, and some middle point more likely than either, but a general/player just cannot tell which it will be on any given day.

I won't repeat the points I have made in earlier notes on Ruse de Guerre games, but I will repeat that this is much the quickest and simplest in the Polemos series. 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings by Baccus and Total Battle Miniatures.