Spanish Army - a Note from Mike Oliver

I received a comment to an older post from Mike Oliver, former UK distributor of Falcata, co-author (with Richard Partridge) of a number of excellent Napoleonic historical/wargaming publications, and all-round good egg. I've published Mike's comment in the appropriate place, but thought it was worth putting it in a little post of its own:

Hi:

I used to sell Falcata figures in the UK when they first came on the market but the two guys who originated the range vanished from the scene and I was unable to contact them. I still owe them a few Euros if they want to get in touch. I still have some of the old boxes of 34 Spanish infantry but, sadly, could never obtain any cavalry.

I am a member of FEHME (Fora para el estudio del historia militaria de España) and have access to their database cataloguing the history of Spanish units (including those of new creation). I have made a study of the Spanish Army in the War of Inependence and have a large library of references, including uniform data.

Spanish uniforms after 1809 are not the easiest thing to determine; in fact, "uniform" is probably a misnomer. They were obtained from Britain, plundered French supply trains and local manufacture. Bueno's books are probably the best source material but are out of print and now cost a fortune.

If anyone would like assistance, please let me know at info@warmodelling.co.uk (I currently sell the Fantassin Warmodelling range of metal figures) and I'll try to help.

Cheers,

Mike Oliver

www.warmodelling.co.uk

The Second Spanish Foot Battery

I'm very pleased to have a second regular foot battery for the Spanish Nationalist army, very kindly - and delightfully - painted for me by Lee, in return for introducing him to Commands & Colors and providing some uniform info. I think I came out of that exchange handsomely ahead - thank you, Lee, once again.

These guys have been sitting around in my spares box for a while, and they are now ready to join Morillo's new 2nd Divn of the Spanish army. Excellent - a real bonus.

Thus my Spanish army is complete now, apart from a few generals. Well, actually, apart from a few generals and some more cavalry. All right - a few generals, some more cavalry and a couple of limber crews.

And maybe a couple more units of voluntarios. You can never have too many voluntarios.

The castings are of Frenchmen, tweaked and modded a little here and there. The guns and the crews are by NapoleoN Miniatures, the officer with the telescope is yet another of Art Miniaturen's little gems. The Gribeauval system 8pdrs are completely authentic - Spain was a Bourbon kingdom before Napoleon, and all Bourbon kingdoms used the Gribeauval system. Spanish guns were either grey or - as in this case - stained timber with black ironwork.

Solo Campaign - Week 19

If You Can't Fight, Wear a Big Hat

Well, much to my surprise, the poll returned General Banastre Tarleton as the replacement for the unfortunate Earl Wellington. My personal vote was for Sir David Baird, but it became obvious very early that he was not in the running, and I became so convinced that Rowland Hill (the conservative historian's choice) would get the nod that I have prepared and undercoated a 20mm Minifigs OPC mounted Hill ready for the job.

I then took my eye off the ball for a few days and - crikey - Tarleton it is. Righto - I'm happy to go with that. If we are to invent our own history, then it might as well be fun. As part of my preparation for the handover, I also blew the dust off my unread copy of Wellington's Right Hand, the bio of Hill, and remembered why I had shelved it last time. A good general, Hill, a worthy, God-fearing man and concerned for the well-being of his men, but boring. Really not the sort of cartoon character I need to excite the campaign a bit.

Which leaves me with a slight problem supplying a figure for Tarleton. I could just use the Rowland Hill figure, but I would always know who it was really. Of course, it is more than likely that General Tarleton would make a high-profile return to active command in a smart regulation uniform, but that would also be boring, and fans of his eponymous helmet (I always wanted to use that word in a blog post) would be (literally) crestfallen. I had some wild ideas about getting hold of an AWI British Legion figure, but can't find anything the right size. So I am now thinking that Bloody Ban will wear some appropriate variant on his official uniform as colonel-in-chief of the 21st Light Dragoons - watch for developments...

Very many thanks to everyone who voted - I've never tried a poll before, and it introduced another dimension of variable into the game, for which I am very grateful.

Wellington, of course, doesn't know he's a goner yet, and is likely to go out with a bang, since there are two battles lined up for this campaign week. Just when I am going to get to fight these is uncertain, with holidays looming and a couple of other Real Life issues bubbling away, so the campaign will probably slip a bit further. Hopefully next week - I'll make a note to get them fought next week.

Unless there is a change in fortunes, Tarleton may have no army to command!

The Tarleton helmet, of course, has a great appeal, not least because it was just about impossible to obtain 20mm light dragoons wearing such a thing for a great many years. Elegant, it was (sadly) unpopular with the troops, it was expensive to manufacture, deteriorated in the field, and weighed about half a ton when wet. Smart, though, eh? Here's the nuts-&-bolts report - returns and maps will follow once the battles are done and written up.

Week 19

Random Events

After the British parliament’s decision to remove Wellington from the command of the Anglo-Portuguese forces in the Peninsula, it has been decided to appoint Sir Banastre Tarleton to succeed him.

A veteran of the American War of Independence, now 58, Tarleton is a controversial figure, and a surprise choice. With the rank of full General, he outranks all officers in the Peninsula and is expected to arrive to take up his appointment sometime in June. The powers-that-be [i.e. me] were so confident that Rowland Hill would get the vote that something of a scramble has started to get everything ready. To celebrate his new role – his first field command for over 20 years – Tarleton has also been created Earl of Aigburth by special order of the Prince Regent, a title which comes with an estimated income from the Aigburth and Grassendale estates totalling some 85 pounds per annum.

Wellington is not yet aware of the decision to remove him, so continues to command in the field.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 7, French 6 – Allies elect to move first.

Moves

Allies (7 allowed)

1 – Sp C (Morillo) march from Alcaniz into Zaragoza

2 – Sp E (newly defined group of approx 5000 irregular troops under local leader Saturnino Mira) move from Cuenca to Alarcon

3 – E (Clinton) march from Porto to Coimbra

4 – A (Wellington) splits off Graham with the 1^st Division (as new Anglo-Portuguese Group B), and leaves this group at Braga with Sp B (De Espana).

5 – The reduced A then marches to Almeida – since this is a difficult road, the customary test is required:

2D3 = 4 +3 (Wellington’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 6   - march is completed with no problems

...and he moves to attack Clauzel’s force (French O), which is blockading Almeida.

6 – C (Von Alten, at Abrantes) is also ordered to Almeida to support this attack

 [Intelligence step –

• no scouting orders]

French (6 allowed)

1 – E (Abbé, at Lodosa) marches to Tudela

2 – G (Lacharrue, with the rest of Abbé’s Divn at Roncal) marches to Sadaba – both these moves being to meet the threat of Morillo at Zaragoza

3 – N (Marmont, at Orense) marches over the mountain roads into Portugal, to attack Graham and De Espana at Braga. This march requires a test:

2D3 = 6 +3 (Marmont’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 8   - no problems at all

4 – K (Jourdan, at Ciudad Rodrigo), splits off two new Groups...

5 – H (Chassé’s brigade of Darmagnac’s Divn) is installed as garrison of Ciudad Rodrigo, where they commence work on the repair of the defences, and

6 – I (Maucune, with his own division plus Treillard’s cavalry) marches to Almeida to support Clauzel.

 [Intelligence step -

• no scouting orders]

Supplies and Demoralisation

All units are in supply. No-one is Demoralised.

Contacts

(1) On Thursday 28^th May, Clauzel, whose force is blockading the border fortress of Almeida, is surprised to be attacked from the north by Wellington himself. Clauzel, who has 7500 men, is driven into a position which is within range of some of the guns on the walls of Almeida itself. He has Wellington (12300 men) to the North, Almeida itself to the East, and Karl von Alten (with 4900 men of the Allied Light Division) marching towards him from the South West. Maucune, with a further 7500 men, has been sent to reinforce Clauzel, but will not arrive until a dice roll of 6 on or after turn 5,  at which point the reinforcements will be called onto the field as the Command Cards permit, with Leaders attached to units. This action is to be known to history as the Battle of Almeida.

 (2) Marmont, with a force of approx 17000 men, attacks the combined forces of Graham (with 7500 men) and De Espana (with what is believed to be 5900 regular Spanish troops) on the Northern border of Portugal, south of Orense. The Allies have a strong position in rugged country surrounding the hamlet of Balsa, near Vilaverde. The French advanced guard are in contact with Allied pickets early in the morning of Saturday 30^th May. [The required dice roll for co-operation level allows the Spanish troops to integrate fully with Graham’s men]

Engineering at Ciudad Rodrigo

Each battalion present with the garrison roll 1D6 each week, giving 4D6 – every 6 rolled adds 1 to the Fortress Value, which has been reduced from an initial 6 to 1 by the siege.  This week, the dice come up 6 5 4 2, so the Fortress Value becomes 2. Keep digging, messieurs!

Home Brewed Flags - More Spanish Units

Here's another of my occasional posts featuring home-made flags produced with PaintShop Pro - as ever, it's stuff I've been working on for myself. If these are any use to you, please be my guest. Right click on the image - open the link (bigger version) in a separate window and save.

If you print the entire image so that it is 120mm high, the flags will be the correct size for 1/72 or 20mm. These are deliberately far lower resolution than, and therefore inferior quality to, my previous efforts, but I found that at 20mm scale you can hardly tell the difference, so these are from Cheap'n'Nasty Productions Inc - not recommended for 54mm armies.

A few of these are specific units, as identified, some are pleasing generic things I borrowed and tweaked, some may even be from the wrong century - it's OK - Cheap'n'Nasty have a certain standard to maintain...

If you like them, you're welcome to use them. As ever, the tasteful green background is just to make it easier to cut them out!

Spanish Army - Getting There

Since I made a decision to finish off my Peninsular War armies (or at least give them a finite scope), and start on the ECW before I disappear down the microscope, the effort to get things tidied up has kept spawning new subprojects and the flow of finished Napoleonic soldiers has actually increased. Strange but true.


There's always this faint anxiety that figures which are available at this moment will soon cease to be so, and thus a lot of feverish haste to get stuff finished off while the chance is there.


My Spanish army has always been something of a poor relation, not least because of the traditional lack of 1812-period figures on the market, and I have been working of late to get it up to a useful size. I'm very pleased to have a new division of line infantry ready. They will have to wait a day or two to get their flags, but otherwise they are finished and on the new-issue magnetised bases. Here are 4 line regiments - those of Leon, Bailen, 2nd Mallorca and La Union - and 2 light units - Voluntarios de la Victoria and Legion Extremena.


They also have an artillery battery in the pipeline, and I have some generals and ADCs on order from Falcata (just can't get the Staff these days) - things are shaping up nicely. My original plan for a Spanish force was just a wishful fancy, given the lack of suitable figures, and it's a real satisfaction to see the guys varnished and based and ready.


Since you can never have enough of a good thing, I've also ordered up some more voluntarios/milicias from Falcata's extending range, but the real shortage is cavalry - I have to get some cavalry. There was always a shortage of horses, so the cavalry brigades were small, but I do need more.


Falcata make some very nice 1808-period cavalry in bicornes, and I would love to have some yellow-coated dragoons on my tabletop, but they are not really correct for the later PW. Most of the units around by then seem to have been composites - squadrons from here and there, mostly provincial, variously called grenadiers, cazadores, perseguidores and mostly with shabby hussar-style affectations, as far as I can see.


Research isn't easy - until JM Bueno's lovely Uniformes Espanoles de la Guerra de Independencia, most reference works on the Spanish army took the easy option, and trotted out the 1806 regulations, with contemporary prints of Romana's Division and the works of Dighton and a few others. Things are a lot better now for the infantry of 1811-14, but the cavalry from that period is still pretty poorly understood.

 

Anyway - this is my version of Pablo Morillo's Division of 1812-13. A few educated guesses (or half-educated), and a pinch of wargamer's licence where it suits, but I'm pleased with them. The rank-and-file are Minifigs S-Range SN1s, the command figures are conversions from Art Miniaturen Belgians, and from Portuguese castings by NapoleoN and Kennington.

Viva Villaran - we need more heroes

Castillo las Cuevas, Cebolleros

As it happens, this is all Vive l'Empereur's fault. He suggested that I get some convincing photos of me doing a real siege in the back yard, to satisfy the non-believers and the realism prophets out there of my credentials and great wisdom. I thought it would be a great joke, ho-ho, to fake some pictures of something like the earthworks at Vicksburg and claim it was me.

The intended joke, and anything else I can think up, vanishes without trace - pales into invisibilty - compared with this, which I just came across by accident. If you haven't seen it before, I recommend you have a look. This is the solitary work of one Serafin Villaran, a welder from Burgos, who decided in 1977 to build a castle for himself, at Cebolleros, near Burgos. He died in 1998, before it was complete, but his family worked to finish it, and it has become a major tourist attraction locally.

What a monument. What an outrageous, heroic, bloody wonderful monstrosity. Apart from the size, the labour, the humbling devotion, the in-your-face refusal to conform to any known style of historical architecture, the whole thing has a delightfully unhinged quality which I just love.

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

(1) Wow.

(2) I want one.

(3) How did he get planning permission to build it?

(4) What are archeologists two thousand years from now going to make of it? 

Solo Campaign - Week 16 - CRUNCH!

Well, Sod's Law raises its ugly head yet again. Just when I'm a bit short of time, this week in the campaign throws up two battles, one divisional-sized one at Malpartida, near Almeida, and one of rather more than twice that size at Allariz, south of Orense. Not sure just when I'll get these games played, but it should be within a week or two - I'll publish the updated army returns and a new map when the battles are done.

In the meantime, the Mathematical Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo has undergone its second week, and the French are making a real mess of the fortress. It proves, once again, that all the science in the world is not as useful as lucky dice. 

I haven't written up a narrative summary of Week 16, since it just means writing everything twice (not to mention reading it twice). Here's the nuts-&-bolts report, in exactly the form that I promised not to publish them. 

Old Bridge at Allariz

Week 16

Random Events

None.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 5, French 4 – Allies elect to move first.

As a result of Br.Gen Silveira being sent with the Brunswick hussars to Almeida, temporary command of the fortress garrison at Elvas devolves to Col. De Souza of the Abrantes militia (rating 0).  

Moves

Allies (5 allowed)

1 – Sp D (Maceta, at Talavera) marches to Toledo.

2 – A (Wellington, at Braga) rests his force after the march from Orense.

3 – F (Framlingham, at Elvas) detaches a new force, H, consisting of the Brunswick Hussars under the command of Br.Gen Silveira (rating 1) of the Portuguese service ...

4 – ...and sends them to join Von Alten at Almeida. The first leg of this journey is over a difficult road to Abrantes, the march therefore requires a test:

2D3 = 4 +1 (Silveira’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 4   - the march is completed, but the force arrives tired in Almeida (which means they will suffer a deduction of 1 die in any combat).

Church Parade - the militia at Almeida - not a good turnout

5 – The Tomar battalion of Portuguese militia, plus a regular Portuguese Artillery howitzer battery are detached from the garrison of Almeida (Group F), and join Von Alten’s Group C, in the countryside near Almeida.

You mean go out there and face the French?
(Gunner - 4th Portuguese Artillery)

[Intelligence step –

• no scouting orders]

French (4 allowed)

1 – O (Clauzel) advances into Portugal, from Ciudad Rodrigo (which he may pass through, since the fort is under siege) to Almeida, where he attacks the Anglo-Portuguese Groups C and H (Karl Von Alten)

2 – N (Marmont) marches 1 step from Lugo to Orense. Since this is a difficult road (they are all difficult around here), a test is required:

2D3 = 4 +3 (Marmont’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 6   - the march is completed without problems.

Marmont then attacks Graham’s force (B, and possibly Sp B).

3 – C (D’Orsay’s bde of Bonet’s Divn, Armee du Nord), march from Valladolid to Salamanca.

[Intelligence step -

• no scouting orders]

Supplies and Demoralisation

All units are in supply. No-one is Demoralised.

Contacts

(1) The siege of Ciudad Rodrigo enters its second week.

The medieval chapel on the Malpartida battlefield

(2) Karl Von Alten, with the Anglo-Portuguese Light Division and the 1^st Hussars of the KGL, and now augmented by the Brunswick-Oels Hussars (under Col. Ernst von Schrader – this unit is classed as Tired), the Tomar battalion of Portuguese militia and a Portuguese howitzer battery (these last two units seconded from the Almeida garrison), defends a position on the Almeida road, south of the settlement of Malpartida, within a mile or two of the Portuguese border, but inside Portugal. This position is chosen primarily for political reasons (since he can call on Portuguese militia support, though in the event the dice decree that he receives only a single battalion). The region is high, virtually treeless, and he has a position on a ridge overlooking a small river – so small that it will not appear on the battlefield. A large quarry, dating back to Roman times, is a feature of the field. Von Alten has a total of about 5000 infantry (including 3 battalions of riflemen), 600 cavalry and 12 guns available.

The quarry where they got the stone for the old chapel - might

just get to use CCN's rules for a quarry - always wondered why they were there

He is opposed by Bertrand Clauzel’s Division of the Armee de Portugal, supported by Picquet’s dragoon brigade and two batteries from the reserve artillery of the Armee de Portugal. Altogether 10 battalions of infantry and some 5 squadrons of dragoons (including the formidable 6eme, who recently wrecked Le Marchant’s British heavy brigade), but some of these are understrength, and his force is estimated at 6200 infantry, 400 cavalry and 24 guns, all of heavier calibre than the Allied artillery.

The advanced guards are in contact at dawn on Saturday 9^th May – the Battle of Malpartida, as it will become known, is critically important – if Von Alten loses, Almeida is immediately vulnerable and the road to Lisbon is threatened. Clauzel has the chance to place his army between the besieged town of Ciudad Rodrigo and any relieving force sent by Wellington from Braga.

(3) Marmont’s northern force, advancing from Lugo, is in contact with Graham near Orense. The original agreement between Wellington and the Spanish army was that the town of Orense was to be defended, but Graham has abandoned Orense to the French and adopted a defensive position closer to the Portuguese border, near the village of Allariz.

In this campaign, whenever a Spanish force is required to support an Anglo-Portuguese one, a dice is rolled to check the level of co-ordination. The rule is:

4+           No problems – full co-ordination

3              Spanish force arrives late – 1D6 each turn – 5 or 6 they arrive

2              Spanish force arrives late – 1D6 each turn – 6 they arrive

1              Spanish force does not arrive

In this case the dice came up 2, so the Conde de Espana’s little army, which was quartered around Arabaldo on the River Minho, expecting to be ordered to defend Orense, will take a little while to reach the field. One imagines a little tension between Graham and the Conde, since Graham has retreated almost to the border – I had considered making the Spanish force demoralised, with some deduction from their combat effectiveness, but decided against it on the grounds that an outnumbered Graham has little enough going for him already – I may change my mind again, of course.

Marmont’s army consists of Foy’s Divn and about ¾ of the cavalry of the Armee de Portugal, Guye’s Divn of the Armee du Centre (King Joseph’s Guard and a brigade of Joseph’s Spanish line troops), plus the entire cavalry of the Armee du Nord – about 5 regiments including the 13e Cuirassiers. His total force is estimated at about 17850 men with 24 guns. He has a considerable superiority in cavalry.

Graham, without De Espana, has the Allied First and Seventh Divns, plus the cavalry brigades of Von Bock (KGL dragoons) and Otway (Portuguese). Total is about 11500 men with 12 guns.

De Espana has about 6000 men, of whom a proportion are voluntarios (classed as militia), and 2 batteries, which between them have 10 guns.

The battle of Allariz takes place on Friday 8^th May.

Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (Week 2)

Bombardment phase: Spanish now have a Garrison Value (GV) of 4, thus roll 4D6 - they come up 6 3 2 1 – the 6 reduces the attackers' Battering Value (BV) by 1, but there are no 5s, so no losses from the besiegers’ Assault Value (AV).

Simultaneously, the French battering guns (BV = 5) roll 5D6 – 6 6 5 3 3 (once again, the French siege batteries are good/lucky) – each 6 deducts one from the defenders’ Fortress Value (FV, the strength of the place itself), and the 5 deducts one from their Garrison Value (GV).

Removing the losses, next week’s figures will be FV = 2, GV = 3 (total = 5) for the Spanish, while AV = 7, BV = 4 for the French. The walls are not looking good – a storm is becoming a distinct possibility, but the French – confident that they have another week before the Allies can interrupt them with any kind of relieving effort – decide to continue bombardment for a further week. They do, however, summon the fortress to surrender. One of Marshal Jourdan’s aides, Col. Alfonse-Maurice-Louis Merveilleux, is sent on 10^th May under a flag of truce with a letter from Jourdan for the governor, General Hermogenes Reixas, requesting that he lower the Spanish flag within one hour. Merveilleux is returned, unharmed, but trussed up with rope, with a dead chicken hanging around his neck. Despite this additional provocation, no storm is attempted.

Casualties for the week: Spanish defenders have lost 1/4 of their GV, so have lost 1/10 x 1/4 of the remaining 2320 men engaged, which is 58 men killed and wounded. Again, loss in combat effectiveness is proportionately far higher, and the walls of the town are in a sorry state. French besiegers suffered no deduction from their AV, so their strength is unchanged at 16330. This does not mean, of course, that no-one was hurt – it simply means that returns from hospital and so forth cancel out any new losses.

Solo Campaign - Weeks 14 & 15

Ciudad Rodrigo

Week 14

Random Events

Everything calm in the British Parliament this week.

Maj Gen RB Long has arrived to take command of the heavy cavalry brigade previously commanded by Le Marchant.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 6, French 6 – since they moved first last week, French elect to do so again.

Moves

French (6 allowed)

1 – Group H (Clauzel, with 6700 men of AdP) to march from Zamora to Salamanca

2 – Group M (D’Armagnac, with 6400 of AdC) to do the same

3 – Group K (Marshal Jourdan, with 11200 from AdP and AdC) to march from Avila to Salamanca

4 – Group K to scout into Ciudad Rodrigo area

5 – Groups H & M to merge with K, all under command of Jourdan.

[Intelligence step -

• Jourdan learns only that there are Allied forces in the area around Ciudad Rodrigo, and the gunners at Rodrigo itself fired at his cavalry patrol!]

Allies (6 allowed)

1 – C (Von Alten, at Ciudad Rodrigo) retreats into Portugal, at Almeida.

2 – Sp D (Maceta, at Ciudad Rodrigo) must dice to see if he will enter Portugal with Von Alten, in contradiction of his orders from the Junta de Castilla. In fact, he rolls a 2, which means he will follow his orders (Maceta is rated 2), so his force separates from the British and marches south to Caceres.

3 – A (Wellington, at Lugo) orders a march to join Cotton at Orense. This involves a difficult (brown) road, so requires a test

2D3 = 4 +3 (Wellington’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 6   - the march is completed without problems.

4 – Group E (Cotton) now merges with A.

[Intelligence step –

• no scouting orders]

 

Supplies and Demoralisation

All units are in supply. No-one is Demoralised.

Contacts

None.

Narrative

Joined by the forces from Zamora under Clauzel and D’Armagnac, Jourdan enters Salamanca, his total strength now being 25300 men, including the siege train and engineers of the Armee de Portugal.

Karl Von Alten, with the Anglo-Portuguese Light Division, retires into Portugal – to Almeida – to avoid confrontation with this much larger force. Maceta, with the Spanish force from the Junta de Castilla attached to Von Alten, is prevented from entering Portugal by his orders, and thus separates from the British, in spite of their requests that he should not do so, and retires southwards to Caceres.

The Spanish garrison at Rodrigo, under General Hermogenes Reixas, are now unprotected, and expect to be attacked very soon.

Wellington, with the Anglo-Portuguese main army marches south over difficult roads without problem, joining Cotton’s troops at Orense.

Maj.Gen Long has now arrived to take over Le Marchant’s heavy brigade. 

Week 15

Random Events

Change in rule – test will be made on British Parliament around 15^th of each month, rather than weekly as at present.

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 5, French 7 –French elect to move first.

Moves

French (7 allowed)

1 – K (Jourdan, at Salamanca) advances to Ciudad Rodrigo...

2 – ...where a new Group O is split off, consisting of Clauzel’s Divn of the Armee de Portugal, with Picquet’s dragoon brigade and 2 batteries from the reserve artillery, a total of 6600 men with 24 guns

3 – K commences siege operations against Rodrigo

4 – N (Marmont) marches 1 step from Leon to Lugo. Since this is a difficult road, a test is required

2D3 = 5 +3 (Marmont’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 7   - the march is completed without problems.

5 – C (D’Orsay’s bde of Bonet’s Divn, Armee du Nord), march from Sahagun to Valladolid.

[Intelligence step -

• no scouting orders]

Allies (5 allowed)

1 – Sp D (Maceta, at Caceres) marches to Talavera.

2 – A (Wellington, at Orense) scouts into Braga...

3 – ...and into Lugo.

4 – Finding a large French force at Lugo, he divides Group A, splitting off a new Group B, under Lt Gen Sir Thomas Graham, comprising the First & Seventh Divns, with Bock’s KGL dragoon bde and Otway’s Portuguese cavalry – a total of 11530 men with 12 guns. This force, together with Sp B (Espana) will remain at Orense...

5 – while the remainder of Wellington’s Group A march south into Braga. Again, this is a difficult road, so a test is needed:

2D3 = 2(!) +3 (Wellington’s rating) -1 (brown road) = 4   - the march is completed, but the army is Tired, and must rest at Braga.

[Intelligence step –

• A (Wellington) gets a Detailed Report on Marmont’s force at Lugo, helped by information from civilian spies – he is aware of both strength and composition]

Supplies and Demoralisation

Note: By abandoning Sahagun, the French give up the right to route supplies from France through that Area, so all such supplies now come through Burgos. All units are in supply. No-one is Demoralised.

Contacts

The French force under Marshal Jourdan commences siege operations against Ciudad Rodrigo.

Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (Week 1)

Initial Fortress Value (FV) is 6 – which is also the max size of the garrison. Reixas (commander, rating 2) has 1 line battalion plus 2 of militia, plus 3 batteries of 8 guns each, one of these batteries being of militia calibre. Counting ½ each for the militia – Garrison Value (GV) is 4½ - say 5 - and since Reixas is officially rated as 2 (Good), add 1, giving 6.

Attackers – Jourdan’s force consists of 34 combat units, of which 4 are cavalry and count ½ each; this gives a total of 32. Dividing by 4 gives Jourdan an Assault Value (AV) of 8, plus 1 since Jourdan rates as 2 (Good). The French siege train has 5 batteries of heavy guns, so the Battering Value (BV) = 5.

So, at the outset, Spanish defenders have FV = 6, GV = 6, French besiegers have AV = 9, BV = 5.

Bombardment phase: Spanish have GV of 6, thus roll 6D6 - they come up 5 5 4 3 2 1 – no 6s, so no damage is done to the attackers' BV, but the two 5s cause a deduction of 2 from the attacking troops’ AV

Simultaneously, the French battering guns (BV = 5) roll 5D6 – 6 6 5 5 2 (remarkable shooting) – each 6 deducts one from the fortress (FV), and each 5 deducts one from the garrison (GV).

Removing the losses, next week’s figures will be FV = 4, GV = 4 (total = 8) for the Spanish, while AV = 7, BV = 5 for the French. The French do not bother asking the fortress to surrender, since their AV of 7 is not promising for a storm against the defenders’ (FV + GV) = 8. No storm.

Casualties for the week: Spanish defenders have lost 2/6 of their GV, so have lost 1/10 x 1/3 of the 2400 men engaged, which is 80 men. Loss in combat effectiveness is proportionately much higher. French besiegers have lost 2/9 of their AV, so have lost 1/10 x 2/9 of the 16700 men engaged, which is 370 killed/wounded.

Narrative

Jourdan has divided his army – Clauzel has a covering force, while the remainder have now started the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. Brisk fire from the garrison coupled with the unhygienic conditions in the trenches have caused the French fairly high casualties, but the French siege guns have performed extremely well, doing much damage to the fortress and the morale of the garrison.

Marmont has moved his army to Lugo, where he can now threaten Wellington from the north, with the option of marching to La Coruna and threatening the Allied supply base at Vigo. Wellington has a very accurate idea of Marmont’s strength and movements, and has detached Thomas Graham with the Anglo-Portuguese First and Seventh Divisions, with the cavalry brigades of Otway and Von Bock. Graham is to hold position at Orense, with support from the Conde de Espana’s Spanish army.

Wellington marched the rest of his force south to Braga. Once again, the roads were difficult, but the army did not fare well [awful dice] – the march was completed in good enough order, but Wellington’s force are tired and must rest for a week.

Col D’Orsay, with a brigade from Bonet’s Division of the Armee du Nord, has moved from Sahagun to Valladolid. This has implications for the routing of French supplies from Bayonne, which must now all come through Burgos.

Maceta’s Castillan army has orders to return to Toledo, and has reached Talavera.

More New Troops - More Spanish Officers

The recipe is as before, except these fellows are mounted on what in Scotland are traditionally known as "cuddies". The recipe? - something like 80% Jorg Schmaeling, 1% superglue, 19% coffee. If they'd all been destined for the same unit I would have varied the horse colours a bit, but it's not worth the bother at one horse per regiment - no-one will notice. It just means that, in addition to the officers clearly all being brothers, their horses are brothers too.

New Falcatas for June include these

My plans for completing my Spanish army may be about to change again, since Falcata have announced some new General Staff figures for June, plus an assortment of new Peninsular War offerings - including light infantry in bicornes and marching militia in round hats. Oh, well.

New Troops - Spanish Officers

To celebrate my release from eBay packing duties, I got the first six of my converted Spanish infantry officers finished while listening to the Champions League Final this evening. There are four mounted colleagues for them which are about half done, but all the rank & file of the six new units are still to come back from the painter, so I have a couple of days to get them done.

The chaps in the picture were originally Art Miniaturen Dutch-Belgians, and they now have various new hats and heads attached. I'm pleased with them - something very satisfying about non-catalogue figures in your army.

Solo Campaign - Combat at Ancenigo, Navarra – Saturday 4th April 1812

General view of the battlefield at midday - the French are on the right

Later in the same week, but further north, a punitive expedition from the garrison of Jaca came into contact with guerrilleros from the Huesca area, near the hamlet of Ancenigo. The French had a brigade of 4 battalions of experienced infantry, plus the usual additional small battalion of combined light troops, together with a company of foot artillery borrowed from the fort at Jaca. The whole was commanded by Chef de Bataillon Fantaise, seconded from the 118e Ligne. His infantry included 1 provisional bataillon d’élite of line grenadiers and 2 of foot dragoons – again, picked men from a number of regiments. [Each of these units counted as “grenadiers” in the CCN rules, which gives advantages in melee and in morale tests]. His other battalion was Polish - from the 4th Regt of the Vistula Legion – more tough veterans.

He was opposed by a force of around 3000 guerrilla troops commanded by the sinister Gomez brothers. [The Spanish force had been expected to be rather larger than this, but some of the troops failed to arrive – for the purposes of this campaign, bodies of Spanish irregulars can be greater or less than estimated, depending on dice rolls – the Hermanos Gomez were not lucky in this respect].

This was a much more conventional set-up battle than that at Olias earlier in the week – the French took position on two low hills, artillery in the centre, the Poles and the light troops on the right. Pedro Gomez, the elder of the brothers, had difficulty restraining his troops, who were worked up into a frenzy by a number of priests serving in the ranks. He directed his first attack against the more lightly manned hill on the French right. The two leading bands of irregulars did not even reach the foot of the hill before they were broken by musket fire and disintegrated. Around the same time, roundshot from the French artillery caused another band to break up in the centre.

Rapidly running out of men, momentum and ideas, Gomez threw another two units against the hills on the French right, and sent in his cavalry in a looping, uphill charge against the French left flank. Both of these attacks failed and broke up into crowds of fugitives. The Spanish force retreated in disorder into the hills around the Rio Gallego. The fighting had lasted exactly 22 minutes. If proof were needed, the day demonstrated that irregular troops are not best suited to this kind of warfare.

OOBs

French Force – from the garrison of Jaca, Navarra (Ch/Bn Fantaise) – approx 3500 men, 6 guns
Grenadiers Provisoirs (1 Bn)
Dragons (a Pied) Provisoirs (2 Bns)
1/4e Vistule
Part of 14/3e Artillerie a Pied (Capt. Plantaine)

Loss – 30 men

Spanish Force – Junta de Navarra, commanded by Pedro and Jose Gomez – approx 3000 men

Loss – 1840 men

The big attack on the French right...

...didn't go well at all

The situation after about 20 minutes - the Spanish forces (on the right) have mostly disappeared 

Poles and skirmishers on the French right, who took most of the weight of the attack - all the French casualties were sustained in this area

This and the remaining pictures were taken by my young son, who is very interested in close-ups - here's some foot dragoons, with Ch/Bn Fantaise close at hand

It's a hard life in the artillery

Guerrilleros retreating through the village

Irregular cavalry

Solo Campaign - Ambuscade near Olias - 31st March 1812

The larger-than-life Ximenez brings his loyal troops to meet the accursed French - my thanks to Iain, who did the super paint job on the leader 

The scenario is the most basic imaginable - a French force in column of march has to pass through a defile in a forest. Spanish irregular forces are concealed in the trees, and their presence is unknown until they choose to attack. Maucune's column marched onto the table in an organised manner, light infantry followed by artillery followed by the line battalions, with light infantry bringing up the rear.

I used Commands & Colors:Napoleonics rules, as usual, but - since all the action was to take place in the centre of the field - I abandoned the use of the Command Cards. I had considered just retaining the Tactical (as opposed to Field Sector) Cards, but felt this might give an unbalanced game. My solution was to require each side to roll 2D3 at the start of each turn - that gave the number of units they could give orders to this turn. Since there was virtually no cavalry involved, squares were not really a consideration, but the idea was that forming square would require that side to give up one of their activation dice - yes, this is excessive - deducting one from the total might have been better. Whatever, this battle involved a great many Spanish guerrilleros, who are not allowed to do anything as formal as deploying into square.

The Spanish irregulars are handled by my own tweaks to CCN - guerrilla infantry may move 2 hexes and battle, and built-up or forest hexes have no effect on their movement. They may move into a forest hex and battle immediately. They do not count crossed sabres in melee, and they are deployed in small units of 2 blocks/stands each. A single uncancelled retreat will eliminate a unit at any time - this is critical - so it is important to keep them well supported, keep generals with them, move them out of the firing line as soon as they take losses and become marginal.

Maucune's column, headed for Aranjuez, was attacked by a force of irregulars under Don Antonio Ximenez, "El Gigante", the clothes-horse of the Junta de Castilla. The Spaniards probably opened fire too early, but Ximenez was keen to get the action under way while the bulk of the French force were still some distance away. The French artillery caused some panic among the leading units on the Spanish left, even though they did not cause a great many casualties, and a couple of these units were eliminated straight away, Don Jorge Maxwell, one of the leaders, being killed in these first exchanges.

It cost the French a great many killed and wounded - the 15e Ligne being particularly badly damaged - but eventually they managed to penetrate into the woods on both sides of the road, and after that it was merely a matter of time before the Spanish force gave way. Handling the guerrilla bands is interesting - they are very mobile, and have a big advantage in rough terrain, but are also very brittle. A single hit will reduce such a unit to a state in which they cannot harm anyone in a wood (for example), because the terrain effect cancels out the only remaining combat dice, and a further hit to themselves will eliminate them and gain another Victory Banner for the enemy. Thus it was constantly necessary to retire worn units and bring up fresh ones. Six Victory Banners were required for a win, and the French had an extra one available if they pushed through the defile to the far end. In the event they didn't need to push that far - they won 6-2 on eliminated units after about an hour, and Ximenez withdrew, his little army melting away into the forest.

OOBs

French Force - Gen de Divn Baron Maucune's division, Armee de Portugal - approx 7800 men - 8 guns
Brigade d'Arnauld - 15e & 66e Ligne (5 Bns) + combined tirailleur bn
Brigade Montfort - 82e & 86e Ligne (4 Bns) + combined tirailleur bn
11/8e Artillerie a Pied (Capt Genta)

Loss - approx 2600

Spanish Force - Don Antonio Ximenez, army of the Junta de Castilla - approx 4350 men - 3 guns
10 small "battalions" of irregular infantry, brigaded under Don Jorge Maxwell (k) and Don Xavier Gento
Small irregular cavalry unit
Volunteer artillery battery of 3 x 4pdr guns

Loss - approx 3200 - mostly missing

Maucune's column marches serenely into the woods

It's amazing what you don't see when you aren't looking for it...

What lies in wait on one side of the road

...and there's more of the beggars in reserve

After heavy loss to musketry, the French set about clearing the woods

Almost the end - by this stage, most of the guerrilleros had thought of somewhere else they would rather be

Nationality Transplants

Yesterday I got a package from Art Miniaturen - always a pleasant experience. There were various items in the pack, including some of Herr Schmaeling's excellent French Line Artillery limber horses and drivers, which I have finally got around to ordering and which will no doubt make an appearance here in the fullness of days.

The things I was most anxious to get hold of were a couple of packets of set no JS 72/0224, the (Waterloo period) Dutch-Belgian Command set - five officers on foot plus two mounted. I've used these before, with head or hat transplants, to provide 1812-style Spanish infantry officers. Conversions are a strange area of activity for me - I do not rate my talents very highly in this area, and yet I've had surprisingly few disasters over the years. There is something very pleasing about creating a unique figure - especially if it is something which I could not have got elsewhere. It feels, admittedly, like something of a cheat - superglueing together bits of someone else's art is an easy way to get good results, and Schmaeling's figures are particularly fine. Now that I have a little more confidence I find it a little easier, but it still requires a very deep breath to bring a razor saw into contact with one of these little jewels.

The picture shows the contents of one of the Dutch-Belgian packs, ready for the surgeon. On the right you see a Minifigs S-Range SN1s (top), whch figures provide all my Spanish rank-&-file, and a Les Higgins British light infantryman (bottom), which makes an excellent hat/head donor with appropriate mods. When the bandages come off - assuming the results are presentable - the world will hear of these guys again.

A Bit of Previous - here's one I did earlier (1st Sevilla) - colonel is one of these same Art Miniaturen Belgians, with a Les Higgins head

That's Enough Guerrilleros for Now

This post follows an email from Ludovico, who wanted to see what I was doing about flags for the Spanish irregulars. The first thing to note about these flags is that they are a complete fabrication - some are derived from a mish-mash of historical examples or depictions, or parts of such - especially of outdated types, some are adapted from reconstructions I found on the Internet, and at least one is just pinched from elsewhere, though whether a guerrilla unit would carry any one of these flags I really don't know. The main motivators were

(1) I had a bunch of irregular standard bearers with nothing to carry, and

(2) flags are fun to design and print (if gluing them into place is rather more fraught...)

Here, in a single jpg, are the fictional flags I put together for the 6 latest units - if they are of some use or interest, please feel free to copy them, or adapt them, or whatever. If you print the big version of this image so that it prints 62mm high, the flags will be at my intended size for 1/72 scale. Also, please note that, as always, the green rectangles are not part of the flags - these are added so that you can cut out a white flag from a white sheet of paper. Also, please note that they have no historical merit or relevance at all...

Ludovico also wanted to see a picture of all the guerrilleros together, so here they are. The 4 "battalions" at the front are mostly a mixture of Qualiticast and Kennington, the remainder are the ones I pictured yesterday (though they now have flags and sabots), and they are almost all Falcata. There is also a mounted unit, but I forgot to include them [sorry, Ludovico]. The Falcata figures, being just a little taller, are on 2mm plywood bases, while the others are on 3mm MDF. This is what passes for house standards here.

The Matchstick Cathedral

When I was a kid I read a short story - it may be well-known, I can't remember much about it. A mysterious man takes a room in an apartment block in Paris, and keeps very much to himself. The concierge, true to her trade, lets herself into his room on one of his rare days out, and finds that he is building a colossal matchstick model of Notre Dame cathedral - in the most astounding detail. She becomes fascinated, and keeps checking on its progress when he is away. She wonders what he will do when it is complete.

Eventually, of course, it is complete and the man disappears, and in a week or two the police are called in. They never find him. As the detective is locking up for the last time, he has a final, long look at the model - through the tracery windows he looks at the tiny pews, rows and rows of them, the statuary, the shrines. If it were not impossible, he could swear that he can see a tiny figure walking about in the dark interior. Shaking his head, the policeman turns out the light and locks the door as he leaves.

That story always bothered me a bit. When I was eleven or so I used to lie next to my model railway and imagine whiat it would be like to live in the little houses next to the line. One thing is for sure - the standard of factory painting on Hornby Dublo passengers and railway personnel would have made them pretty nightmarish companions! The whole idea of literally disappearing into one's obsession is interesting, I guess.

This morning, apart from the sounds of triumph as my young son gradually found the hidden chocolate Easter eggs around the house, there was a sudden roar of laughter from me as I printed off a correctly-sized flag for one of my new Spanish guerrilla units.

There was a posting here some weeks ago in which I was experimenting with antique fonts to get flags like this exactly right. I produced one such this morning, loosely based on some known real examples, gave it a tasty little skull-&-crossbones device and a textured overspray to make it look a bit mucky. Here is a large view of it - the green border, as ever with my flags, is not part of the design - it is simply added to make it possible to cut out a white flag from white paper!

I was really pleased with the effect, and I printed off a 1/72 scale copy to see how it looked. If I print the whole image so it is 13mm high, it trims down to about 10mm high, which is what I wanted. It was probably obvious all along, gentlemen, but of course you cannot read the flag at this size - almost any font at all would have done. No-one will ever be able to tell how good it might be.

Except the little man inside the matchstick cathedral, of course.

I have now completed another 6 little units of guerrilleros - they do not have their flags yet, or their proper battlefield sabots, but they turned out fine. There are a couple of interlopers from HaT and Kennington, to make up the numbers, but otherwise these are all the reissued Falcata figures. The mixture I have here probably is an impossible amalgam of different regional types who would never have spoken to each other, never mind fought together, but they look suitably rough and tough. The leader illustrated below has a certain humorous quality - come to think of it, that is not a common feature of my armies. You may spot some chaps above who are wearing regular army style uniforms - according to Charles Esdaile's Fighting Napoleon, it was commonplace for men to desert from the regulars or militia to join the partidas - the pay was frequently better, and the looting was definitely better!

More Creeping Elegance - 2o Jaen

"If you can't say anything nice," my grandmother used to say, "then just button it."

Let's get back to safe ground - pictures of toy soldiers should be pretty uncontroversial. Creeping Elegance is my euphemism for that process whereby figures that I don't like very much get gradually replaced. In this particular instance, I had a Spanish Line Infantry unit for which the other ranks were Warrior figures and - while there is nothing instrinsically wrong with Warrior, I hasten to add - I've never been completely happy with them. By some combination of pose and size they don't quite fit in with the rest of my troops, and I've always intended to replace them with the Minifig S-Range SN1s I use for all my Spanish line when I got some.

I've now done it. This is the first part of another push to get the Spanish Army finished. This is the 2nd Regiment of Jaen - formerly a provincial militia unit, but promoted to the Line in 1810. The other ranks are, as mentioned, now SN1s, though the command figures include Kennington Portuguese and the mounted officer is an Art Miniaturen Belgian officer with a new hat (borrowed, I think, from a Minifigs Old Guard bandsman). Yes, their facings are brown - Bueno says so.

The Warrior soldiers have gone away to a new home, where I believe they will serve their new owner well. I am currently basing and finishing off a big batch of Falcata guerrilleros, who will appear here sometime, and there are some 5 or 6 more Line battalions in various stages of preparation. I also have castings set aside for a second foot battery for the Spaniards, and am looking around for more cavalry for them.

Hussars are a no-brainer, so I could certainly add a unit of hussars (any nationality, really), and I really fancy the new Falcata cavalry figures which can be Line Cavalry or Dragoons, though they are maybe a bit 1808 for me - I'm working on that. Once again, I am surprised how little information there is around for what Spanish cavalry looked like in 1810-12.

In the meantime, here are the corrected version of the Segundo Jaen. Fine big bayonets, eh?

This is a later addition to the posting – on the subject of the real Segundo Jaen, here is a tiny piece taken from the Base de Datos sobre las Unidades Militares en la Guerra de la Independencia Española, edited by Col J J Sañudo and published by the Ministerio de Defensa. Here you see what this particular unit is known to have done in 1812 – all the marches, their strength on various dates, their presence at the Battle of Salamanca, the fact that their colonel was Don Francisco Ignacio Cepeda...

A very useful resource indeed.

Accuracy Drift - The Spanish Army

Since I am now closing down the Peninsular War Unlimited Expansion Project, I am trying to get things finished off fairly quickly, thus the flow of figures to and from the painter is faster than ever, which seems a bit strange, but no matter. Next batches will be 60 Falcata guerrilleros, which I hope to clean up and send off by Tuesday if possible, and 6 battalions of Spanish line infantry, for which I'll need to do some conversions for command figures, so they'll be a few weeks in preparation. [One of the line infantry units is to replace a Warrior battalion that I've always been uncomfortable about. I think Warrior are fine if your whole army is Warrior, but I find they don't fit in well with my armies, either for size or animation. A pity, really, because they are absolutely lovely people to deal with - and they are in Glasgow, of course, so they deserve all the support they can get.]

And in odd moments I'm picking away at limbers, carts, generals and similar - I still enjoy painting single items or very small groups, but nowadays I can't be bothered with a row of 24 identical infantrymen - my eyesight isn't terrible, but it isn't as good as it was. A daylight hobby lamp and a jeweller's optical loop have been a big help (the jeweller was furious, of course), but I have to make sure I only take on painting that I want to do.

The extra Spanish line units are planned to become Morillo's Division from Pedro Agostin Giron's "4th Army" around 1812-13 - the only detailed OOB I know of is in Nafziger's treasured collection and - as usual for Spanish records - it is full of typos and misunderstandings. Part of this is because there is always a little loss of accuracy in translation, but it's also because his sources were slightly careless army archives compiled from handwritten returns 200 years ago, and some of these returns must be a record of what somebody thought somebody else said. The scary bit is that, since information is scarce, this stuff gets recycled and requoted, and fresh typos get inserted as time goes on, and we get Accuracy Drift. I've spent a fascinating couple of days cross-checking lists in Nafziger, JM Bueno, Oman, Esdaile's book on the Spanish army, the Spanish notes in Mike Oliver's Napoleonic Army Handbook and some typed stuff I got from a friend in Madrid some years ago. This is not straightforward, since many of these sources quote each other, but I think I have now pretty much identified all the infantry units in the 4th Army. I haven't started on the cavalry yet, but the infantry is pretty tight, and I even have a good idea of the uniforms. I am so enraptured with my own cleverness that I shall have to go and lie down for a while.

I fear I may have passed the limit of your interest in this subject some lines ago, but it is easy to see why duff info gets passed on and why so many wargames armies are a bit unhistorical (is there such a word?). The said Morillo's Divn, for example, contains the line regiments of Leon, La Union (Morillo's own regt) and Bailen - that's all easy, and Nafziger gets that spot on. The roughnesses sneak in for some of the less regular, newer units. Nafziger's "Regimiento de Legion" turns out to be a light unit called the Legion Extremena, which was formed in 1811 - I know who was the colonel and have a good idea of their uniform - and his "Regimiento de Vitoria" (i.e. regiment from the city of Vitoria) turns out to be the Voluntarios de la Victoria (Volunteers of Victory), another light unit raised in Galicia in 1809. And so on.

If I get a suitable burst of enthusiasm, maybe I should stick my updated OOB in a future post. If, like me, there is anyone reading this who gets a bit frustrated by the lack of quality information about the Spanish army in the Guerra de Independencia, please make yourself known!

Solo Campaign - Week 5 & part of Week 6

Two weeks' manoeuvring and I have two battles to fight - one big'un, one tiddler. I'll insert the batreps when I've fought them. This post has now been edited to include a photo of the map - the map shows the position around 27th of the month - before resolution of combats.

Week 05

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 4, French 3(!), so Allies have initiative. From this week, modification to rules requires a specific Order for scouting of adjacent Areas to take place, apart from Spanish irregulars, who will always scout without orders.

Moves

Allies (4 allowed)

1 – A (Wellington) at Salamanca divides to split off new Group E (Cotton – with Sixth Division and Le Marchant’s and Otway’s (Ptgse) cavalry bdes)

2 – A (Wellington) marches 1 step from Salamanca to Zamora...

3 – ...and forced-marches from Zamora to Leon, which requires a test:

2D3 = 6 +3 (Wellington’s rating) -1 (forced march) -1 (winter conditions) = 7     which is OK – great marching!

4 – Sp B (Espana) marches from Zamora to Salamanca, to reinforce E

 [Intelligence step –

• Nothing – no scouting orders]

French (3 allowed)

1 – N (Marmont) holds position at Valladolid – order to hold position allows tired troops in Foy’s Divn to recover

2 – N (Marmont) sends scouting patrols from Valladolid into Leon

3 – S (Joseph/Jourdan) at Madrid scout area of Avila

 [Intelligence step -

• Br A (Wellington) and Fr N (Marmont) both have cavalry – thus Marmont receives Fragmentary Report – he is aware that there are now enemy forces at Leon, but has few details
• Fr S (Joseph/Jourdan) at Madrid has no cavalry – Sp D at Avila has irregular infantry and some cavalry, so French have No Information about forces in Avila, other than the fact that Spanish mounted guerrilleros have been seen there]

Supplies

No supply problems, all LoC open and defended.

Contacts

None.

Random Events

None.

Narrative

Detaching Cotton with a division of infantry and two cavalry brigades to cover the Duero crossings, and reinforcing them with Espana’s Spanish force, Wellington force-marches the remainder of his army through Zamora to Leon, threatening Marmont’s right flank and (by a potential move through Sahagun) his rear and his line of supply through Burgos.

Joseph is concerned that sending so many troops to reinforce Marmont at Valladolid has left the Madrid area vulnerable to attacks by the irregular troops of the Junta de Castilla, who have forces at both Avila and Ocana. He is short of cavalry, and spies sent into Avila have not reported back – perhaps they are roasting over a fire somewhere. The separate irregular Spanish forces may not join together, but will share intelligence, and all Spanish irregulars always have good information about neigbouring areas.

Foy’s infantry (with Marmont at Valladolid) have recovered from their fast tour of Central Spain.

You want the artillery up where?

Week 06

Random Events

French again get interference from Paris – once again an instruction that the army needs to be more aggressive, this applying to the most obvious critical area (“dice if in doubt which one” – can’t believe the Emperor really said stuff like that?). Marmont’s situation in Valladolid is pretty much self-evidently the hot spot. Since he is not sure what force is in Leon, he would prefer not to attack at present, but needs a test to ignore the instruction. The test requires him to add his rating (3) to 2D3. A total of 7 or better and he can choose to ignore the instruction – 6 or less and he has to comply.

In fact he throws 3, so the total of 6 means he has to attack if he can.   

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 5, French 7, so French have initiative and choose to move first.

Moves

French (7 allowed)

1 – N (Marmont) splits off new Group H (Clauzel – with his own division, Picquet’s dragoon bde and the reserve arty) – this group is to hold the bridges on the Duero at Toro (Valladolid)

2 – N (Marmont) takes the rest of his army from Valladolid to attack the allied force in Leon. [Intelligence step -

• Marmont is aware that there is a major Allied force at Leon, but underestimates strength]

Allies (5 allowed)

1 – A (Wellington) at Leon also underestimates opposing force, so opts to stand firm – specific Order allows selection of ground

2 – Sp D (mixed irregular force under Don Alfonso Maceta – “El Achaparrado) moves from Avila into Madrid Area to attack French Group S

[Intelligence step –

• Nothing new – no scouting orders]

Supplies

No supply problems, all LoC open and defended.

Contacts

Two.

(1) French Group N (Marmont), with a total of 28240 men, marches along the only good road from Valladolid to Leon, passing through Benavente. On the night of Thursday 27^th February the French army camps around Benavente, while Wellington, with 23300 men, is camped in the area around Villamandos, with his advanced outposts at Villaquejida. Shortly after daybeak, the Allied army takes a defensive position in an area of rolling hills to the south-east of the little village of Villaquejida. Their left flank is on thick woods on the bank of the River Esla, which is not fordable. The so-called Battle of Benavente takes place on Friday 28^th, the weather is cold but dry and there is a slight mist, which disappears as the sun comes up.

(2) Spanish Group D (Maceta) have established themselves in the mountains near Guadarrama, where they are causing havoc for French communications and supply trains. Marshal Jourdan sends the Badener, General Von Neuenstein, up into the mountains to deal with this problem. Neuenstein’s brigade is all German – the 2^nd Nassau, Regt de Frankfort and the 4^th Baden – a total of 5 battalions plus a small unit of the converged voltigeur companies. He also has a battery of French horse artillery from the Madrid reserve – all told, some 4300 men with 6 guns. Maceta has around 4700 – including a few cavalry – plus a volunteer company of foot artillery. The Spanish troops are well suited to the rocky terrain, but they include a number of units of infantry supplied by the local partidas who have little experience of formal combat.

The troops meet in very hilly ground near San Rafael around midday on Thursday 27^th. There is some snow, but not enough to hinder movement.

Narrative

Reports for the actions at Benavente and San Rafael will appear as soon as they have been fought. The Benavente combat appears to be too large for normal CCN rules, so will use the Grand Tactical variant.