007. The French Advance to Dego - WDS Campaign Marengo

14 April 1796 - Historical - Intended to be played Head to Head - After the action at Montenotte, Bonaparte dispatched Massena towards the west with the idea of defeating several of the Allied forces. A fight for the castle at Cosseria to the southwest held up his plans to advance and only after a hard two day fight caused the garrison to capitulate was he finally able to launch Massena at Dego, another of the stepping stones that would give him vital position in driving a wedge further between the forces of the Austrians and their allies, the Kingdom of Sardinia. Massena saw the signal fires to the southwest telling him that the castle had fallen and at 11am launched his attack. He split his forces into two columns while sending another force under La Harpe to the north around the Bormida river to fall on the flank of the garrison. The attack went well and the garrison had to fall back in some disorder. Meanwhile, Argenteau had been advancing from Pareto to the northeast after he heard the sound of the guns and ran headlong into the advance of Massena's right. His fatigued battalions were no match for the French and he retired from the field. The action ended with the French holding the important town and ready to begin their next phase of the advance. This scenario only deals with the attack on Dego and the Allied reinforcements are left out as they historically only reinforced defeat and could not have made a difference on whether Dego was held or lost. The variant scenario 009_Dego_V1_HTH.scn uses those forces and offers a more challenging situation for the French player. To dissuade the Allied player from exiting the map early in the action there are two exit hexes for the French player to use. This scenario heavily favors the French and is only included for those players that enjoy a tough challenge as the Allies.