Albuera #2 - Game Report

Quite so - Ian Fletcher's book was available - we had the cheap, ex car-boot sale version, without pictures or maps...

Well, the game was duly played yesterday, and it was a belter. A lot of the fun, of course, comes from the excellent company, but a lot of things worked out really well. I was much happier with the amended rules, the game was very exciting and really could have gone either way - there was a lot of counter-attacking and a determined late attempt by the Allies to lose when it seemed certain they would win.

We considered a couple of alternative line-ups, but eventually decided to do without an umpire, and Goya and I jointly commanded the Allies (who won, in case I omit to mention it, though the committee approach to leadership is something I may come back to in the afterthoughts); Stryker played the part of Marshal Soult, with characteristic flair though, it has to be said, possibly with less than his usual streaky good fortune with the combat dice.

We used the latest update to my Ramekin modified version of C&CN. All worked well - we fought a battle involving something like 60 units to completion in about 4 hours - again, a large part of this is due to the enthusiasm and good humour of my guests (for which thanks, gentlemen).

As in the previous attempt at this battle in November, the armies were not far off the historical strength, though I'd set it up so that the number of actual units was understated - i.e. we fought the game with a slightly reduced number of overstrength units, which works better with the rules and the space available on the table.

We decided that 12 Victory Points would win the game. The scenario is not the official commandsandcolors.net one - it is similar, but is changed quite a bit to try to get closer to the original battle. There were bonus VPs available for possession of each of the two hexes of the town of Albuera itself - since the opening position has Karl Alten's KGL light brigade firmly installed in the town, that gets the Allies off to a flying start - 2-nil just for turning up!

The French have rather outsmarted Beresford at the start - Beresford has set his army up (mostly the day before) to defend the town and the river crossing. Many of his Spanish troops are elsewhere (as are most of his Portuguese - it's very complicated...), but he has Zayas' Spanish infantry stuck out on the right flank. Soult duly turns up and attacks the town with Godinot's independent brigade, as expected, but the bulk of the army crosses the river some distance from the town and swings left to attack the Spanish infantry. The game starts as Beresford has started to shift Stewart's and Cole's British Divisions to his right to support Zayas.

I hope that some sort of narrative can be pieced together from the captions to the photos. A quick summary (spoiler?) to start off? All right then.

Soult began with an attack on the Spanish line, using Girard's Division, supported by Gazan's - both of these divisions were smaller than the independent brigades of Godinot and Werle, which were on the right and in the centre respectively.  The Spaniards fought well enough, but as casualties mounted the inevitable came about, and the double-retreat rule for Spanish regulars did a lot of damage. The Allied line was pushed back, but the British infantry plugged the gaps, and eventually Girard ran out of steam.

Later in the day, Soult directed Godinot to attack the town, and it was partly taken - it was a struggle, and the KGL boys did not have a particularly good day. This became particularly tense - as the portion of the town next to the bridge changed hands, the VP tally swung back and forward. At one point the Allies were leading 8-4, then it came back to 10-9, then 10 all and eventually the Allies won 13-10, but it really could have gone either way.

Another sub-plot emerged towards the end, when the French (in a desperate attempt to sneak a few VP's!) brought up their cavalry on their left flank. They quickly disposed of the Spanish light cavalry (I apologise to any Spanish sympathists for this evident theme of the day - just the way the game worked out) but then were very badly handled by the British horse. I still don't understand this - the French should have won the cavalry action very easily - they had more units (5 vs the Allies' 4) and they were stronger (each unit 4 bases cf the Allies' 3). I guess the dice decided the day. Standout performance in this area came from the British 5th Dragoon Guards, who distinguished themselves, with support from the 11th Lt Dgns, who were (very surprisingly) temporarily led into action by the Spanish General Zayas, who, having run out of infantry of his own, had to fall back on friends, and obviously decided that this was the day he was going to get his wish to command some cavalry. Quite what the British light dragoons made of this foreign chap getting involved is not recorded.

View from the Allies' left, at the start, with the town in the foreground - Karl Alten's KGL lights are in the town, with the Portuguese of Harvey in support. You can see Zayas' boys in line in the centre of the table, some distance away, facing the main French attack

Harvey sends some of his infantry off to help oppose Werle, in the centre - Arriaga's battery seem to be armed with howitzers, but they were classified as plain Foot Artillery for the day

British infantry moving up to relieve the hard-pressed Spaniards

Hoorah! Just about the oldest man in both armies - the chef de bataillon of the 2/27eme is the last of my original Airfix soldiers from 1971 - I keep him as a reminder of those ecstatic, fevered days, and as an inspiration to his metal men - I always try to capture his rare appearances! 

Godinot's chaps standing by, just in case anyone really wants them to take the town - they were very busy later on! Note that Godinot, who is only a General de Brigade, has the regulation brown border to his base, appropriate to his rank

Zayas' boys taking some heavy punishment from Girard's men - Zayas (of whom more later) is in the foreground with white border, trying to encourage the Guardias Espanolas

The Spanish line is rapidly disappearing - eventually they were left with the remains of two light battalions - those of Campo Mayor and Barbastro - and they were in poor shape. The Brits are coming up behind.

The French have now advanced to the original position of Zayas' line - note that Zayas himself is now in the foreground, having been forced to take shelter with the British 11th Lt Dgns...

View from the Allied right flank at this stage shows that Girard's attack has pushed back the Allied line, but he is running out of men

...and that's another unit gone...

Just an instant captured for posterity - photographing dice rolls is up there with sending someone a selfie of your breakfast, but this is a goodie - this was a volley that one of Girard's fresh infantry battalions received from Stewart's lads - no-one was hurt, but they got a REALLY big fright - enough to send them back 800 paces... 

Not a great picture (bad nervous tremor), but here is a view of the French light cavalry on their left, having just chased away the Spanish light horse. General Latour-Maubourg, with the white border, was the only senior officer casualty by the end of the battle

Zayas (remarkably) brings up the 11th LD to oppose Latour-Maubourg and one of his chasseur regiments...

..on this occasion, the French cavalry had the better of the exchange - the 11LD have withdrawn to get their breath back, while the chasseurs are joined by the Vistula Lancers - the situation of the RHA battery on the hill looks desperate, but miraculously they were rescued, and survived!

Meanwhile, on the other flank, Godinot's boys have broken into the town - more Poles - 4eme Vistule - have taken part of it - the VP scoreboard is starting to swing about!

Back to the horses - with a lot of help from the impressive (and fortunate) 5th Dragoon Guards, Zayas and his chums are now wiping the floor with the remains of the French cavalry - this is where Latour-Maubourg was wounded

Significant moment - with the KGL chaps driven out, a Portuguese battalion hold part of Albuera. At this point, at the start of a turn, the Portuguese only have to march to the far end of the town, leaving behind a "Garrison" marker to claim the 12th VP and win the day - euphoria time...! However, Soult promptly wins the activation roll, and marches his own light infantry back in, which puts paid to the immediate VP objective, and - also - light infantry can fight as soon as they arrive in a town (which line troops can't), and - also - the Portuguese battalion was so battered that it was incapable of doing much about the new arrivals!

Now there's a gap between the armies in the centre - the British line looks firm enough, but the French are very depleted

More expansive view of the same thing

They also serve who only stand around and get wet. After waiting all day for a little action, the Portuguese 11th cavalry (centre foreground) eventually get an order, which is to get out of the way while some manoeuvring goes on to get fresh infantry up to fight for the town. In fact, just to keep them humble, they are required to go and stand in the river, as you see. The struggle for the town was still going on when word came from the cavalry action on the other flank that the Allies had gained a 12th VP, and the game was over.

General Stewart, who is a very old Minifigs chap, gives an inspirational word to some even older Lamming British infantry

And the RHA troop, after a miraculous escape, are still in action at the end

Afterthoughts

My compliments and sincere thanks, once again, go to Messrs Stryker and Goya for making the trip and contributing so generously to such a splendid day. This was certainly the most entertaining and exciting game I've had here for a while, and there have been some good ones. In passing, there was a noteworthy moment when Goya struck terror into the French commander at lunch, by nonchalantly pouring himself a glass of onion gravy - some kind of warrior tradition, apparently. Scary.

The game went well - very well. I am happy that the revised combat rules now provide a much better balance between the effect of ranged musketry and of melees. I believe that we still need some very minor tweaks to the properties of various unit types and "national characteristics" - in particular, French legere battalions have extra advantages and abilities which are almost certainly not justified for the Peninsular War. I'll have another look at that.

During the game I had occasional concerns that the 2-v-1 line up sometimes meant that Stryker placed his order counters and moved his troops in a businesslike manner, and then had to wait through an extended debate while the Allied command scrabbled for ideas. He was very brave and cheerful about it, and it really isn't a problem, but we should maybe give some gentle thought to re-introducing the timer to put a limit on turn time - we can discuss it, anyway (maybe). Stryker was badly let down by his cavalry - a brave effort to turn the day on both flanks might well have succeeded otherwise. Crap dice will out.

Thanks yet again, chaps!

Albuera #2 - Set Up, with a Light Interlude

I've now set up the table for tomorrow's Albuera game. Since the last time I played this (in November) was mostly intended as a test for the rules revisions, I seem to have managed to lose most of the notes I made at the time. As I recall, I produced my own C&CN style scenario, since I had a few issues with the one on the user site. I've now laid out the table by dint of much study of the photos from my blog post in November - plenty of zooming-in and "aha...!". That's a strange thing to do, with hindsight - it's like forensics, with added OCD. I took a lot of trouble to use the same generals and units, but - presumably to keep out the Evil Eye - this time I set out the table rotated 180 degrees. No reason, really.

With everything set up ready, we should get off to a flying start around 11:00 tomorrow, assuming my guests have no adventures with the trains.

These are either Osram bulbs, rated at 2135 lumens, or else they are Phillips bulbs, rated at 1800 or so. Roll the dice, place your bets.

I recently invested in some rather hotter light-bulbs for the overhead lamps for the battlefield [= dining table - Ed]. These are rated at 2135 lumens each, which is about 18% better than our usual bulbs, so two of these about 80cm above the table have helped improve the light levels for photos. As part of the battlefield set-up, I carefully swapped the bulbs, putting in the brighter ones, but when I came to take a picture, I was rather disappointed with the results. Hmmm - could this be simply because there was fairly bright sunlight outside the window, which was confusing the camera? - could it be that these bulbs really aren't as bright as I had thought? - are my eyes getting worse more quickly than I'd hoped? - it couldn't be, I suppose, that bulbs somehow get tired when they've been used a few times?

You will be ahead of me, I'm sure...

I had a sudden thought, and checked the lamps I had removed during the set-up - yes, you're correct. It seems that last time I had a wargame on this table I forgot to change the bulbs back to the standard issue, so when I carefully swapped them yesterday I was putting the dimmer ones in. Fortunately they have the manufacturers' names stencilled on them, so it is an easy thing to check. Idiot.

I am delighted to have another excuse to consult Mike Oliver and Richard Partridge's fine little book about Albuera. A nice piece of work - probably underrated. I got to know Mike a bit when he was bravely trying to be the UK distributor for Falcata Miniaturas, with no help at all from the manufacturers. Nice man - one of the hobby's gentlemen.

C&CN "Garrison" Markers - the Miniatures Version

One of the additional rules which came out of the Generals, Marshals & Tacticians Expansion #5 to the GMT base game of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics was the concept of "Garrison" markers.

I've started using these fairly recently - for battles here we call them "Detachments" which is maybe a more logical name for them, but for the purposes of this note I shall call them Garrisons, to conform to the original rules.

The original rules section from Expansion #5 - there were some extra rules and afterthoughts added later by Richard Borg, and I've added some house clarifications of my own

It's a useful idea - to restate the key features, an infantry unit which has at least 2 blocks/bases remaining can leave behind one of these markers when it is ordered to move out of a BUA hex. The unit does not have to reduce its strength to do so - the detachments left behind are very small, so a unit can in theory leave behind a series of these. The marker can be ordered to fire or melee (though it may not move to do so), it can defend itself if attacked in melee - it has an allocation of 1 battle die. The Garrison does not have any of the characteristics of the unit which generated it, so it can't be classified as Old Guard, and it will always have muskets. It cannot move, cannot be joined by a Leader, does not count as support for friendly units. Since it cannot move, a retreat eliminates it, as does a single hit in combat. It cannot ignore a retreat flag for any reason. If it is joined by a friendly unit, or dislodged/defeated by the enemy it is removed from the table - no Victory Banners are associated with a Garrison or its demise. In melee, in addition to infantry and flag symbols, a Garrison is eliminated by a crossed-sabres symbol, even if it is fighting some unit type which normally does not get to count sabres (British Rifles being an example, or militia).

It goes without saying that a Garrison cannot form square, does not exist outside BUAs or similar hexes, cannot be rallied, cannot take ground if it manages to win a melee - there is almost no limit to the things a Garrison cannot do, since it is a marker and not a proper unit, but it is a useful little chap. It is a good way of avoiding that situation which happens in a lot of games where one side has vacated a village (say) but the enemy has not entered it or captured it yet - if a Garrison marker is left behind then there is no doubt who owns the village, if only until the next thing happens, and it does have some combat capability. If a Garrison is left in a BUA, the enemy can't just walk into it unopposed. The markers can be re-used indefinitely, but to keep the game sensible I am restricting supply to 3 such counters for each nation, so you can only have a maximum of 3 in play at one time - I am going to produce miniatures versions of these for France, Britain, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Bavaria, but scheduling will probably be driven by upcoming battles. The current plan here is to refight Albuera the first weekend in March. This action involves BUAs (the village of Albuera) and those BUAs can change hands during the conflict, so it would be nice to have the French and British marker sets available - if the Spaniards or Portuguese need to leave a marker on that day, they can borrow the British ones.

The new French markers: ex-Eric Knowles voltigeurs on their special grey (BUA-coloured!) bases

I haven't been doing any painting for a couple of weeks, but I've now produced the French Garrison set. The British one should follow next week sometime. The figures in the picture may be of some interest - especially to older wargamers; these are Hinton Hunt French Elite Voltigeurs, in 3 different poses, and they were among some of the odds and ends from the collection of the late Eric Knowles. I only have a few of these, so it was pleasing to be able to give them a useful job. Eric had them rather nicely painted, so out of respect I've pretty much left them alone - a little touch-up on the worn bits and some fresh varnish and that's it. They may have quite a stressful future, but they look to be up for it!

You will not be surprised to learn that I have fitted the MDF bases with discs of magnetic sheet, so they can be stored and transported as necessary in the French artillery boxes. OCD never sleeps. I would worry about them if they were free to rattle about loose somewhere...

Battle of Aspern-Essling (Day 1) - 21 May 1809

Wargaming yesterday - early start to get to Schloss Goya for 10am kick-off. My idea that it would be amusing to arrive with fresh custard tarts was stillborn, since I couldn't obtain any. No matter, in fact, since our host laid on the customary excellent food and refreshments.

View over the battlefield, early on, from behind the Austrian left flank

Our game was the Commands & Colors: Napoleonics official scenario for Day 1 of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, which I guess is just the Battle of Aspern, when Massena attempted to hang on to the town, waiting for the bulk of Napoleon's army to hurry up and cross the Danube; thus the French have IV Corps plus some of the reserve cavalry. Lannes and all that stuff belongs to the second day. One big advantage of Day 1 is that it is small enough to make a good-sized game, though the number of built-up areas promised to give the beta-test Ramekin rules [I'm up to version 1.7] a decent workout and sanity-check.

I was Massena, while Goya and Stryker shared the Austrian forces, their overall commander being Archduke Charles. I took along my own French troops, and the Austrian forces were Goya's. We followed the published scenario very closely - the only (insignificant) amendment was that we replaced the mystery French "Guard Heavy Cavalry" unit with a third Cuirassier regiment - it has been suggested to me that whoever designed the scenario identified the Carabiniers as a guard unit - no matter.

Because we stuck to the published set-up, my artillery was mostly stuck in the wrong places. What I should have done was get busy right away with the double-moves which Ramekin allows, to get my artillery better placed. Didn't happen, of course, because I was immediately up to my neck in muck and bullets as the Kaiserliks set about the village.

The big Austrian line units have a scary amount of firepower, and they performed well - their only disadvantages are that they are slow, and are not allowed double moves, though they can certainly get a shift on when they are retiring, since they get double retreats for the C&CN flag symbol rolls. Their distinctive battaillon-masse tactic also proved to be a major discouragement to my late cavalry attack - without horse artillery (or aerial support) there was not much I could do against them.

The Austrians made excellent use, throughout, of the Combined Arms Attack rule, using artillery (including one particularly effective Grand Battery on the little hill north of the village) very effectively to support infantry attacks on the various bits of the town. I took heavy casualties very quickly, and was steadily pushed out of the town - I hung on to the extreme east end of the place, and I held the church for a while, until, again, the Austrians brought up a foot battery and blew me out of there.

So the French were very quickly well behind on Victory Points, including extra ones for possession of the majority of the town, and I only made the margin of defeat anything like respectable with a grand charge of cavalry (historically authentic, by the way) which took out the pesky Grand Battery and wrecked the Austrian cavalry. With everyone beginning to show signs of fatigue, Bellegarde's troops eventually claimed the necessary 12th VP, and the French were beaten [but only until the following day!].

Yes, it was pretty decisive. Once again, my sincere thanks to my colleagues/opponents for their company and good humour, and to Goya for all his hard work organising and setting up, and for slaving in the galley.

Austrian High Command caught in the act of setting up the Grand Battery on the ridge. On the left edge of the photo is visible Massena [that's me] in a rather snazzy little [S-Range] carriage - yes, that's only correct for Wagram, but the thing would never get a run out at all if it weren't for a little historical licence...

Already some casualties, but the Archduke isn't hanging about here

The French left was protected by the church and some woods, and some impassable marshes. I put some crack light infantry in there - the boys in the church seem to have lit enough candles to hold out for a while, but the fellows in the wood were shot to bits very quickly

Grenzer troops and Jaegers - good shooting...

Discouraged French troops falling back after being routed from the first bit of the town; the strange circular base is my version of one of C&CN's new-fangled "Garrison Counters" which we re-named "Detachments" since it seemed more appropriate. These are a useful little addition to the game, and I might say some more about these some time. Yesterday we used unpainted MDF, with the soldiers attached with BluTack,  but they are to be smartened up a bit. They are a most excellent way of finding a job for some of your substandard figures - give me your battle-worn, your bayonetless, your OOP misfits, your oddments from the Spares Box, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... 

Austrians well-established in Aspern

French cavalry getting moving on the right flank

General Legrand brings up some fresh troops from his division (not easy to find) to try to take back part of the village; they failed, and he himself became a casualty in the attempt

Massena still hasn't moved, but he can see that the village is a lost cause - he gets the cavalry advancing on his right flank (far right of the table)

Looking from the Austrian right, round about the same stage of the battle

D'Espagne mops up the rest of the Grand Battery (half of it has already gone) with the 2nd Cuirassiers. Archduke Charles looks a bit close to the action in the background. Note the impressive row of white VP counters...

But the heavy cavalry had no answer to the battaillon-masse tactics of the Austrian line infantry, so concentrated their attention on the cavalry - this went far better...

As D'Espagne's French cuirassiers attack the mounted Austrians, Marulaz brings up the French light cavalry to attack the uhlans on the hill

Some things can just be relied on - like death and taxes, the 15eme Chasseurs are always around somewhere

The battle is more or less lost, but Molitor attempts to take back part of the village - borrowing the successful Austrian tactic of supporting the infantry with artillery in a Combined Arms attack

Situation at the end - the French cavalry have pulled back to avoid the fire of the Austrian infantry. Massena is running out of friends, but he knows Lannes is coming to sort things out tomorrow!

Special mention - Goya's new Landwehr unit are plastic (gasp) - very nice too - they did well. Goya is reluctant to spend too much on figures for the Landwehr or militia, since he is uneasy about making much of an effort to arm the masses.

***** Late Edit *****

Since the only reaction to this post thus far today has been a couple of emails which indicated that at least two of my readers are confused, I must offer my apologies for a very poor bit of editorial work here. Having thought further about the matter, I confess that I am now a bit confused myself. 

To clarify: this is not a description of the first day of a 2-day wargame (I wish it was!), it is a description of a wargame based on the first day of Aspern-Essling, which was a real battle which lasted two days, and my suggestion here that the French might go on to win after two days is not based on history, it merely expresses the French commander's expectation after wargaming the first day's action. After all, the French would probably not have chosen to fight on if they had expected to lose, I guess.

Which brings me to the second point. Was Essling actually a French defeat? I have always believed it to be so - famously so, in fact. Yet Prof De Vries points out (correctly) that Essling was a battle-honour on French Napoleonic battle flags - the 1812 issue of flags showed this honour for a great many regiments. The Professor reckons that the French (like everyone else, he says) only awarded battle honours for victories - the later example of La Moskowa (Borodino) being explained since the French regard it as a victory. Thus, says he, Essling must be another disputed result.

I confess I have always been sort of aware of this apparent paradox, but had managed to avoid thinking it through. I did a quick bit of reading today, and it seems that battle honours were awarded to regiments which performed well at battles commanded by Napoleon himself (which is why you will not find Tarragona, for example). The small matter of whether or not he won was not normally an issue, as we know.

All fine - looks like I learned something I should already have known, and if it turns out that the Professor is mistaken (an event rarer than a Napoleonic defeat) then that is indeed icing on the cake.

*******************


 

Hielan' Coos - and the Ramekin

Moo!

First off, I must wish everyone a happy and comfortable Christmas - all the very best to you and yours. Here's a suitably frozen picture of some Scottish cattle. Tourist stuff, but cute.

I also thought I'd take the opportunity to put out the current draft of my Ramekin add-on for Commands & Colors: Napoleonics. In truth, "add-on" is not ideal phrasing, since the Ramekin game is a simplification. As I attempt to explain in the note, this is not intended to replace C&CN, it is merely a variation to cope with games where the left/centre/right section cards are not appropriate, or where the battle requires a lot of preliminary movement to develop the armies, or where the game is so large that some streamlining of the activation system helps to push it along. What I have is still a working draft, so it will certainly change further, but a number of people have asked me about it.

Replacement of the Command Cards with a dice-based activation system feels a bit like a sell-out, and I had all sorts of ideas for making the dice system very scientific, possibly utilising the army structure - the Tempo Points system from Polemos' General de Division was a likely candidate (I've always liked that) - but in the end I decided simple is good, at least for starting with, so the system at present may be described as crude-but-fast. This may get improved a bit as I build some more experience, but it gets me up and running.

The scaling-back of the effect of ranged musketry is an experiment. I am keen not to destroy the balance of the game, but, as published in C&CN, musket fire at 2-hex range is about as effective as melee combat, which has always bothered me rather. Let's see how we get on with this. I've had a great many games where attacks get shot to pieces before the attackers can even get to close range - that doesn't seem to correspond completely with history. Anyway, let's see how I get on with the tweak. If I can get the changed version of Google Drive to work, you should find the note here.

If you'd like to discuss the Ramekin, or make suggestions, or share you own experiences with it, please get in touch, but if you think it sucks then please keep it to yourself! Also, before anyone asks, I have no intention of publishing or maintaining a set of scenarios for Ramekin!

Have an excellent holiday, everyone.

Rules Testing - Battle of Albuera (16th May 1811)

Godinot's brigade have a think about their diversionary attack on the village - Von Alten with the KGL light infantry are in residence...

One of my projects at present is to develop a tweaked version of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics for in-house use. This game is intended to work (quickly, and simply, and without ambiguity) for very large battles, for battles which require large, grand-tactical movement of troops (such as off-table reserves), and for games which for other reasons do not lay out logically in the conventional C&CN, across the table, left/centre/right configuration - end-to-end-of-the-table battles, or oddities like the tactical bits of sieges are examples.

The tweaked rules are currently still in a state of flux - the main features are that they do not use the C&CN cards (they use a dice-based activation/initiative system), and they do not enforce strict alternation of moves, but they do use (most of) the main C&CN movement and combat systems. Until they are more stable, I don't really want to say too much about the rules themselves, though I will make some observations of a general nature at the end of this post. The important thing I wish to make clear at the moment is that the tweaked version is not intended as an improvement on original C&CN, nor a correction; it is merely a modified cousin of the game to suit specific kinds of wargames that I seem to be very interested in, so there is no need for anyone to rush to defend the original game, nor to pitch in from the other side, to write it off. Oh yes - my working title for the modified game is "Ramekin". This has no special significance or merit apart from the fact that it amuses me, and it stops me calling it "Vive l'Empereur" or "The Vivandiere's Moustache" or similar.

These rules, in their evolving form, were recently used for the Eggmuhl game here, and for the demo game I set up for my aunt (yes, all right, all right).

This midweek I had planned to set up a solitaire playtest game to do some more refinement (or, as is often the case, to abandon some of the most recent brilliant innovations, since they might simply be a waste of time!). Playtesting is a necessary investment of effort, of course, but playtesting on a solo basis has hazards of its own, since the writer knows what he intended the rules to mean, and how they were supposed to work, and will tend to fail to spot the big holes in them during solo play. Thus I was doubly delighted to have a collaborator yesterday - Count Goya came to help out.

I set up a biggish game based on Albuera, which is a battle of which I had limited understanding previously, and one which is noted for the intensity of the fighting, and the fact that it could have worked out in a number of ways - in fact you might say that it was several different battles, fought successively, in different directions.

I did a lot of reading (so did Goya), and set up a game on my bigger (10'4" x 5', 17 hexes x 9) tabletop. I did some work to sort out which bits of the complex OOBs actually appeared in the field, and - though the numbers of units I fielded didn't match the original battle, the implied numbers of troops were pretty close. [Thus, for example, Girard's Division in my game was 5 battalions, which is about 4000 men, which is correct, though in the original battle these men were spread over 9 battalions.]

I read over, but did not use, the published C&CN Albuera scenario. My game was somewhat larger, and my map was rather more closely based on fact (again, this is not a criticism of anything). We started the game at the point where Beresford (or someone on Beresford's staff) notices that the French are not really serious about attacking the town of Albuera itself - this is a diversion, and the main part of Soult's army has performed a smart left hook, so the principal attack is on the Spanish troops on the Allied right. Thus Stewart's 2nd Division, with Colborne's brigade in front, are sent marching to the right, to cover the Spaniards' exposed flank.

Albuera is renowned for having some key incidents which may not fit with normal wargame rules. Most famously, the French light cavalry - notably the Vistula Lancers - wrecked Colborne's troops, who failed to form square (because Stewart and/or Beresford ordered them to stay in line to maximise firepower, or because there may or may not have been a violent rainstorm which obscured their view and damped their powder, or because they didn't expect the cavalry to be out there on the flank, or for some other reason). It is possible to incorporate some chance card type decision point - I confess I don't care for rigging a game in that way. As a gesture towards history, we adopted a simple dice-test for any infantry wishing to form square - just for the day.

I'm not going to step through the AAR in more detail than comes from the photos - we were not attempting to re-enact anything - Albuera served primarily as an entertaining context for some playtesting. There were some interesting historical parallels in the game - some worked the opposite way to the real battle, of course, and some worked the "correct" way, if in a slightly different manner. We ran out of time, though the French appeared to be winning when it was time for dinner. Whether or not the Allies realised they were beaten, of course, is the critical issue...

Overall view from behind the French left flank at the start of the game. In the foreground is the left hook - La Tour-Maubourg with the cavalry, the divisions of Girard (in front) and Gazan (behind), then Werle's brigade in the centre and, at the far end, Godinot's diversionary assault on the village

View from behind the French right flank - on the Allied side, Karl Von Alten has a KGL brigade in the village, and behind him are Portuguese troops (Otway's cavalry and Harvey's large infantry brigade from 6th Divn); I'll describe the other end of the Allied set-up in a moment...

...and here you are - Zayas' Spaniards in line in the centre of the table, with Stewart's 2nd Division marching to their right behind the Spaniards, to cover the flank. On my game system of replicating the numbers of troops rather than the number of units, Stewart's command comprises Colborne's Brigade (in front, 3 battalions), then Hoghton's (2 bns), then Abercrombie's (2 bns). In rear of them is the 1st brigade (Myers) of Cole's 6th Divn, and beyond them we are back to Harvey's Portuguese (who received no orders throughout the day!)

Pin-up unit - the dreaded Vistula Lancers. In fact they had a remarkably bad day, and were eliminated very quickly. So much for history.

The French cavalry - Vistula boys at the front, then 2 units of chasseurs, then 2 of dragoons - at this point, they were opposed only by a weak brigade of Spanish light cavalry, so they chanced their arm...

... one of the chasseur units and the lancers moved forward to deal with the Spanish horse, and as a result of some of the most outrageous dice-rolling seen for a while the French were repulsed heavily, and the headlining lancers were eliminated, and thus would not get to meet the Buffs later.

Over on the Allied left, and in the centre, the Portuguese still haven't moved, neither have Myers' brigade from Cole's force, and Stewart's boys are making very slow progress towards the right.

Apparently not convinced about the benefits of hanging round demonstrating, Godinot's force gained a foothold in the village  - these are more Poles, the 4eme Vistule - but took a bit of a hammering for their trouble, and gave up on the idea thereafter. In theory there was a Victory Point available for occupation of the village, but after this early effort the KGL were left in peace.

Meanwhile, on the right, Colborne's brigade gets moving. On the tabletop, Colborne's boys were 3 battalions of old (proper 20mm) Lammings, and pretty shiny, too. Since my collection doesn't include the correct units for Albuera, there was some role-playing - notably our "Buffs" were actually a battalion of the 61st Foot (South Gloucestershire), but at least their flag was the right colour.

The firefight - Colborne's chaps appear on the right flank - not quite in the historic manner, and free from cavalry interruptions for the moment. In fact they didn't do very well when they got there - it was a nasty exchange though.

Early stages - Allies slightly ahead - 1 VP for holding the village, and one of the others must be for whacking the lancers. 11 VPs for the win was the order of the day.

Allied right flank isn't looking very clever, and Cole and the Portuguese are still mostly rooted to the spot on the far side. After a slow start, Girard is pressing the Spanish infantry.

Gazan's Division, behind Girard's, watches the attack develop in front. Both Girard and Gazan are prominent hat-wavers. Famous for it.

Back at the village, Godinot's demonstration is over; the combined battalion of grenadiers is sulking after suffering 3 bases-worth of casualties, the light infantry is in the wood, and the battered Poles are in another wood to the left, out of picture. The artillery can't see much point in carrying on wasting orders by firing, so they all hope their job is done and that Soult will win the day elsewhere.

Eventually, of course, the Spanish cavalry on the Allied right got their come-uppance, and were sent packing, and here General Loy, the brigadier, has a Ponsonby moment, as the French dragoons pursue him. Amazingly, they failed to kill or capture him (i.e. they couldn't roll a single crossed-sabres symbol on a total of 8 dice) and thus he escaped, choosing to leave the table just to deny the French the VP they would get if they did for him.

Better fortune for the Allies in the centre - combined-arms attack by one of Hoghton's battalions and Miranda's Spanish battery does some fearsome damage to one of Girard's regiments. All a bit late, really.

Late view from the Allied right shows that their right wing has mostly disappeared, and the left wing has hardly moved. This was just about dinner-time - the scoreboard showed the French leading by 10 points to 6, so they had more or less won.

Final view across towards what was, in fact, Beresford's position from the day before the battle. Beresford is going to get a dreadful roasting from Wellington, who even loaned him The Tree to  stand next to, as you see. On the far left you can see one of the ramekins (to hold initiative dice and order chips) from which the game gets its working title.

 Many thanks to Goya for his company and enthusiasm, and for helping out with the analysis. The game is shaping up nicely, and is a lot of fun, but we need some more work on getting the effect of musketry in balance with history, and to refine the use of the Order Chips (thanks to Tesco for the chips, by the way).

That's enough about that, I think - you'll hear more of the Ramekin soon, I'm sure.