Battle of Piacenza - Opposing Plans

Opposing Plans

Since the Austrian army outnumbered his own by some 15,000 men, De Gages worked out a plan which would make an Austrian assault costly and invite a Spanish counterstroke which would very well win the battle. Rejecting a stand in the crumbling town of Piacenza, Gages ordered ditches and artillery emplacements to be dug which would become a defensive line that the Austrians would have to attack. De Gages also ordered his troops to scout the areas to the north of Piacenza. Maillebois' arrival gave the Spanish general a combined strength of 40,000, but this had already began to put a severe strain on the food supplies in the area, and also approaching from the west was a Piedmontese army of 10,000 men, which would firmly tip the balance in numbers in favour of the Austrians.

Consequently, with the Piedmontese only a day's march away, the French marshal urged that an immediate attack should be launched against the Austrians. This of course meant a change in the original plan. Instead of the original plan the Spanish commander would now hold his centre lightly whilst concentrating on the flanks. The attack on the Austrian left would entail pushing it back towards the Austrian centre, and in an even more unorthodox move De Gages asked Maillebois to take his troops beyond the extreme right of the line, encircle the Austrian right flank and fall on its rear. The battle was set to begin at sunrise on the 16th.

The Austrians had spent the last few month's emplacing their artillery, seizing Bourbon outposts and gathering in food supplies. The increasing mood in the Austrian camp was one of confident victory. The Austrian plan was much more simple than the Bourbon plan. They would let Gages waste his troops against his positions before counter-attacking once the attack had run out of steam, and on the morning of the 15th they began to deploy their forces to the north of Piacenza. Unfortunately for the French, Count Browne realised what Maillebois was up to and moved his units to block the French advance. The Marquis of Botta d'Adorno commanded the Austrian right and simply went to the expedient of putting his troops on the alert on the evening of the 15th. The Austrians now only had to wait for the Franco-Spanish attack.