This is an approximate kick-off position for Saturday's game. The French are on the right hand side, marching on to the field at 8am - Marshal Victor will probably wish to adjust his positions a bit, and he still has another division to appear on his left sometime later. From left to right on the French side you see Latour-Maubourg's dragoon division, and Pacthod's and Puthod's brigades of Villatte's division. The backward-facing artillery are on the march (I may sneak a limber team on there, for appearances).
The Spanish army has an advanced detachment in and around the small village of Tribaldos (historically they fell back on to the main position pretty smartly once the French appeared - they may well do the same again). The deployment on the ridge line is a reasonable representation of where they were - Laporte has their right flank, Senra the left and the commander, Venegas, the centre. The odd positioning of the cavalry is authentic, though Venegas might reconsider it this time.
So this is a tweakable approximation to our starting situation on Saturday.
The white plastic ruler on the far side of the table is an accidental attempt to pacify proper wargamers, to distract the eye from all those dreadful hexes. Just count your beads, sisters.
Where-as, I can't see any hexes, just a dreadful ruler :-)
ReplyDeletenice set-up, look forward to seeing how the game opens up.
All in the eye of the beholder! - thank you sir. One of my occasional correspondents has been banging on about how much he hates hexes for about 7 years now, so I've pressed the mute button - much more relaxing all round!
DeleteCheers - Tony
Looking forward to the AAR.
ReplyDeleteAllez les bleu!
Good to hear from you, JBM! One of my guests tomorrow is new to Commands & Colors, so he will assist me (or I shall assist him, we'll see how it goes!) with the bold Spaniards. I think it would require some remarkable dice to win this one, but stranger things have happened.
DeleteWhat? No tape measure? ;-)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the batrep.
Cheers M. Rosbif - in fact, it is possible to use a tape measure during these games. Viz:
Delete"Gosh, look at that - the hexes are STILL 7 inches across"
"So a light cavalry move is 3 hexes - that's (hang on a minute) - I make that 21 inches, allowing for the turn..."
"And musket range is - what? - 14 inches - so that's about two of these pointed thingies - I'll check..."
"Sorry - I didn't hear what you said there - I was busy clicking the button on my tape measure and knocking the soldiers over..."
"Do you know, my coffee cup is 3 inches across - that is interesting."
Etc.