VAE VICTUS BOARD GAME # 25: Tourcoing 1794

1-914025G

Rules in English.

The battle of Tourcoing (17-18 May 1794) saw the failure of an over elaborate Allied plan designed by General Mack to annihilate the French Armee-du-Nord. At the start of the 1794 campaigning season the Allies had decided to besiege Landrecies, while the French decided to attack at both ends of the front line on the Franco-Belgian border. The attack on the left was the most successful. The Austrian General Clerfayt was defeated at Mouscron (29 April) and on the following day Menin was captured.

The Allies, then under the personal command of the Emperor Francis II of Austria, were forced to rush reinforcements west in an attempt to restore the situation. The French responded by attacking the Allied line twice in two days. The first attack (battle of Willems, 10 May 1794) ended in an Allied victory, but on the following day Clerfayt was forced to retreat north (battle of Courtrai, 11 May 1794), splitting the Allied army. The Duke of York, who had command of the Allied left, was forced to ask for reinforcements, and Francis and the Prince of Saxe-Coburg decided to concentrate their efforts in the west.