All hope of this junction of forces was now at an end for this campaign.

The French saw themselves compelled to resume the defensive on the western frontier of Germany; and the army of Italy had to await the overwhelming war which seemed ready to pour down upon Lombardy from the passes of the Tyrol.
Wurmser, when he fixed his headquarters at Trent, mustered in all 80,000; while Buonaparte had but 30,000, to hold a wide country, in which abhorrence of the French cause was now prevalent, to keep up the blockade of Mantua, and to oppose this fearful odds of numbers in the field.

He was now, moreover, to act on the defensive, while his adversary assumed the more inspiriting character of invader.

He awaited the result with calmness.
Wurmser might have learned from the successes of Buonaparte the advantages of compact movement; yet he was unwise enough to divide his great force into three separate columns, and to place one of these upon a line of march which entirely separated it from the support of the others.

He himself, with his centre, came down on the left bank of the Lago di Guarda, with Mantua before him as his mark: his left wing, under Melas, was to descend the Adige, and drive the French from Verona; while the right wing, under Quasdonowich, were ordered to keep down the valley of the Chiese, in the direction of Brescia, and so to cut off the retreat of Buonaparte upon the Milanese;--in other words, to interpose the waters of the Lago di Guarda between themselves and the march of their friends--a blunder not likely to escape the eagle eye of Napoleon.
He immediately determined to march against Quasdonowich, and fight him where he could not be supported by the other two columns.