Another Old Wargaming Video - Southern Television

 This seems to me to be the sort of video that everyone with any interest in the subject will have seen, but it's new to me, and I thought it might be worth an airing here.

This was posted on Youtube by Caliver Books a couple of years ago. It looks like a clip from the early 1980s, and it features a brief potted history of (local) Southampton manufacturer Miniature Figurines, followed by a "how to play wargames" section featuring a very young Iain Dickie.

Pick the bits you like; I was impressed by the very weird opening sequence, of lead castings being melted, run backwards (which is satisfyingly surreal, and will be a big hit with all entropy fans), and by the presenter in the end section, Fred Dinenage, whom I vaguely remember as the host of kids' science programmes, including an explain-everything show entitled How?, which ran in various manifestations from 1966 to recent times. Also, of course, Dave Higgs working on 15mm figure masters with a soldering iron is pretty compulsive viewing.

The Bold Fred visits wargaming matters such as "why?" (which is a relative of "How?"), the role of dice in the game and the important issue of how wargamers' wives are likely to be hostile to their hobby.  

Suppe und Blitzen - A Memorable Away Day

 This week I was very kindly invited to take part in another of Stryker's splendid Muskets & Marshals games, so I trundled Up North for a festival of Hinton Hunt wonders from Ian's collection.

My ally for the day was The Archduke, who had travelled rather further than I, and it was only proper that he should command the Austro-Russian force on our left, while I took charge of the Prussians on the right. The scenario set us the task of attacking Stryker's brave Frenchmen. The game was without any historical prototype, and our working title was The 3rd Battle of the Hut.  

I shall not attempt a full report here, since Stryker will certainly do an excellent job of that in his official Bulletin, and in any case his photos are always far better than mine. Let it suffice to say that the Allies won by a margin (which would have been larger if I had managed to avoid sacrificing most of the Prussian cavalry), that the hospitality and the rations were as excellent as usual, and a most enjoyable trip leaves me only the pleasant task of thanking Stryker and his good lady wife for their kindness and generosity.

I include a few of my own pictures, to give just a flavour of the action.

 

General view at the outset. from behind the Allies' left flank

 

The Prussians get rolling on the right flank, including an exciting flanking move by the light cavalry, over the top of the ridge on the extreme right; below you see the Archduke's more stately approach, though his cavalry attacked very effectively on our left

 

Apologies for including this shot, but there was no way I was going to miss it out! Here you see the debacle of the French Carabiniers à Cheval, who suffered badly from a (rather lucky) volley of canister shot...

 

My Prussian light cavalry had now outflanked the entire French army, but found themselves faced by the Guard Horse Grenadiers - it did not go well! 

 

 

Here the Russian Hussars set about some French line Chasseurs à Cheval - I must say that the Archduke's cavalry was more effective than mine throughout!

 

 

A general view from Allied left, as the Archduke's infantry moves into action towards the farm, and his cavalry is doing excellent work on the flank

 

 

Not only did I reduce the margin of our victory by losing cavalry, but a couple of general officers fell too - this is Gneisenau, but we also lost Blücher shortly afterwards. I'm confident that a brisk rubdown with gin and rhubarb will get them both back into action. Below you see the Austro-Russian lads looping around the French right flank, while their infantry attacks the farm

 

 

This is the bit of the French army we were at pains to avoid - a battalion of converged line grenadiers, backed up by two columns of the Old Guard

 

 

Situation late in the action, with the Prussians running out of steam on the Allied right, and the French reserve going on the offensive in the centre

 

Turn 8 is ended, the game is over and it is time for a totting-up of Victory Points. Points were gained for taking the farm and the ridge position, as well as for eliminating enemy units. The game was tremendous fun, though I am left to ponder the stats - the Archduke didn't lose a single unit - not even a skirmish group; my principal role was obviously to keep the French in with a chance!

Oh yes - Suppe und Blitzen is a reference to one of the visual entertainments of the day, as Stryker took on the task of blitzing the butternut soup with a formidable electric machine, displaying great courage and skill. I was deeply impressed by this - I would certainly have managed to decorate the kitchen with the soup.

 

Wargames which Turned Weird - (1) The Surprise Railway

 This follows from an email exchange with a friend - we have got into a discussion of the strangest wargames we've been involved in. His suggestions have been generally more entertaining than mine; most of my own involved grandiose projects - often with multiple participants - sometimes organised by established clubs - for which the average budgerigar could have accurately predicted disaster. Games which could never end, games which were scuppered by the non-arrival of a key participant, one game which was stopped by a burst water pipe in the flat above. You know the kind of thing - all this must be small beer to you veterans.

One game I still remember with trembling was my first attempt at staging a proper miniatures battle. In a big rush (I was looking for a new hobby), I read Featherstone's War Games from cover to cover, plus various magazine articles, and decided that Airfix-based ACW would be just the thing. I had no modelling skills, no knowledge, no idea. I bought the First Bull Run volume from the Knight's Wargame Series, and pored over every word [when you have a minute, count the ways in which this was a very silly approach].

Whatever, I was too busy to do much thinking - I spent about six weeks daubing paint on hacked Airfix troops - boxes of the beggars. In the pub, I spoke of my new project to my downstairs neighbour, Ken, who was very enthusiastic about the idea and offered to help me to get started. He seemed to be coming from the right sort of direction, since he had a large model railway stored away in his cellar, and also had an enormous dining table in his apartment.

Since my own model railway scenery was stored away in a box in a cupboard in my parents' house, in a distant city, I let him persuade me that he would be just the man to host a trial battle - he had plenty of HO-scale trees and stuff, even exotica such as papier-maché hills. If I just brought along my armies and a working knowledge of some rules or other, he would set up the field, and would stock up on beer.

We had some discussion about a suitable scenario. It was obvious that Bull Run itself was well out of scope, but I found a scenario in a magazine which involved a fight around a railway depot. Ken was very excited by this; we scribbled out a rough map, with a little railway and all that, and we arranged that I would bring my soldiers, rulers and dice down to his flat on Friday evening, and Ken would have the battlefield set up, ready.

When I arrived, on the Friday, I was dumbfounded to find that he had totally ignored our sketch-map and constructed a complete loop of railway, with a station and a tunnel, and a couple of little (modern) trains which were going round and round. Have you ever had a moment when the Universe slips a little? My armies were obviously irrelevant in this setting; I realised that this nice man who had invited me to look at his etchings had an evil plan.

I pointed out - diplomatically - that this was not at all what I had in mind, but it got rather nasty very quickly. He was obviously as disappointed as I was. Storming out was easy, but he was my neighbour, and he snubbed me for the next two years every time our paths crossed. Fair enough - I snubbed him too. In fact we got into a sort of running contest to see who could get his snub in first. Snub Wars.

My wife and I moved away to another house about 4 years later, and some time after that I bumped into him at a friend's wedding. He was quite affable, and asked me was I still doing the "toy soldier thing"; I admitted that I was, and he said he would like to come to one of my games sometime. Gave me his business card. I flushed it down the toilet approximately 15 minutes later. 

I never go out with men who do model railways on a first date.

I still laugh about this. The wargaming context is almost incidental, I suppose, but it rates as one of my classic Tricky Moments - I was young and awkward enough to be upset by it. Nowadays I'm just awkward, so such things don't bother me. 

Anyone like to offer any horror stories?

Kilsyth 1645: Battlefield Dry-Run

 Having spent a week or two deep in my books, sorting out the details of the Kilsyth battlefield, and a day of falling into ditches, plugging around the actual countryside, I've now assembled a tabletop version for the forthcoming game. From the sublime to the agricultural.

As mentioned previously, I've decided to turn the battlefield through 90 degrees, and start the action as the actual fighting started. It looks OK - the distances are about right - the next viewing will be in a couple of weeks, when there will be more soldiers and rather fewer dining chairs on show.

It's a very plain-looking field - rather a bleak piece of Scottish moorland. I had thoughts of adding streams to break up the ground a bit, but decided against it. The streams are all small, and they just disappear into the general idea that the ground is rough! The picture above shows the valley from the South - Montrose will be on the left side as we look at it, Baillie on the right. The hills and woods are unambiguous, the hills with rocks on top are impassable, the walled-off areas at Colzium Castle (left foreground) and Auchinvalley Farm (brown field, in centre of the table) are proper enclosures which may be defended; the other buildings are just scenery, with no cover or other function, to identify positions on the battlefield.

And now we are looking back the other way - Montrose will be on the right, in this view. Colzium Castle (far end) was the home of the Livingston family - strong Royalists, and Montrose's troops camped on their land the night before the battle. The castle was demolished in the 18th Century, and much of the estate is now under the modern reservoir.

My reference to a "dry run" is a sort of lame reference to constructing a battlefield with the reservoir removed. You can see how an idiot with too much caffeine might think this was amusing at 11pm.

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

Specially for WM and Stryker, here's a close up of Colzium Castle (aka Claypotts Castle, courtesy of Lilliput Lane)

 

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

Kilsyth 1645: Wargame Homework - Facts and Legends

 I am preparing for a Zoom wargame, to take place in a little over 2 weeks - I shall host it and I'll be the umpire, which is a situation I enjoy very much, though the experience of the remote generals is heavily dependant on the technology and the picture-quality at their end!

I once had a solo game which was (sort of) based on the Battle of Kilsyth, which in reality took place on 15th August 1645. The game was interesting and a great deal of fun, and I've had a hankering to try it again, with some changes based on things which I've read subsequently, and on aspects of that first attempt which I'd do slightly differently now.

Kilsyth? Well, you may know a great deal about the battle, maybe not. It took place in Lanarkshire, not far from Glasgow, during one of the Scottish bits of the ECW. It featured the Covenanter army, in which I am very interested, and (of course) James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose. Montrose is a fascinating character - to this day there is still an active society to preserve and enhance his legend; in its way, this is a warning sign - the central personality can get in the way of any kind of impartial study. Trying to get some facts about the campaigns of the Marquis is not unlike trying to find some factual history about Robin Hood. The ghost of Walt Disney never seems far away.

I'm having a great time preparing for my Zoom game - I have a lot of books here, most of them excellent, and there is some good stuff online, but there are some surprises for the amateur student. First of all, we have the first-hand narrative of the General in command of the Covenant troops, William Baillie, which - since he was badly beaten - is bound to be something of an exercise in self-justification, but overall it's not a terrible account. We also have the version of the tale which comes from George Wishart, who was Montrose's personal chaplain, and later his biographer - this is adulatory throughout. This theme goes through all the subsequent secondary works. 

Dame CV Wedgwood (Montrose - 1952) and Nigel Tranter (Montrose: The Captain-General - 1973) are both historical novels, really, written in homage to the handsome, brilliant, tragic hero. The good guys are perfect - brave, and breathtakingly wise and just - and the bad guys are - well, ugly, and evil. Boo. Tranter has Montrose and his chums speaking like the lads from a GA Henty novel, and there is much reference to keen eyes, and frowns upon noble brows.

Vol.2 of SR Gardiner's marvellous History of the Great Civil War is heavily pro-Royalist (which was seen as a patriotic position to take, it goes without saying). Again, the references to Montrose and his short career emphasise that he is a heroic character who can do little wrong, and the sizes of the forces involved are tweaked throughout to polish the legend - Gardiner's numbers for Kilsyth look very unlikely. His estimate of 6000 Foot for the Covenant forces seems far too high, and the statement that all but 100 of them were killed is preposterous.

John Buchan (Montrose - 1928) admits in his foreword that the book is really about his fascination with the central character - it is not primarily a historical record, it is the splendid tale of Montrose's adventures. I have no problem with this - it's an excellent read, but it's as well to be aware of where it is coming from.

And so on. The big discord comes with the modern works of Stuart Reid, of which I am a big fan. Reid is a thorough, nuts and bolts military historian, but he, also, seems a bit partial. Stuart gives the impression of having been irritated by the traditional representation of Montrose as a god-like martyr, and strives to present the flaws as well - maybe he pushes too hard the other way - but this is a good starting place from which to construct my game.

A couple of trivia facts - you may disagree with them - if you do, then it's OK - I'm sure you are right.

* Montrose's campaigns of 1644-45, though regarded as part of the Civil War, were not primarily driven by support for King Charles. Charles eventually saw some advantages for his failing war effort in Montrose's success, but this was opportunist rather than planned. The main drivers were clan-based rivalries of great age - the MacDonalds, the Ogilvies, the Gordons and various others vs the Campbells and the Hamiltons and their allies. The Covenant (and, no doubt, the Presbyterian vs Catholic struggles) gave a context, but this was fundamentally older stuff 

* It is interesting to observe that in my reading of the last week or so I have seen both sides described as "rebels".  Royalists considered that Montrose was fighting against the Covenant "rebels", who were allied with the English Parliamentarian "rebels", but a more logical view is that Montrose was leading a rebellion against the armies of the Scottish Parliament. However you view this, the Campbells vs The Rest thing is always there.

* Montrose himself was a signatory to the Covenant, and fought against King Charles in the Bishops Wars of 1639 and 1640. His change of allegiance had a great deal to do with the fact that his personal standing in Scotland was leapfrogged by the rise of the Marquis of Argyll (Archibald Campbell) - there was ambition and a personal feud in here as well. When Montrose first went to join with the King, Charles was neither interested nor welcoming.

OK - this is rambling on a bit. I now have a decent grasp of the OOBs I'm going to use for my tabletop Kilsyth. These are, I hope, based on fact, but they are also drawn up to give a decent game. The next point of interest is the battlefield itself. There is a good overall description in the Battlefields Trust's section on Kilsyth, but there are a few big holes in our knowledge. Much of what the BT sets out is the reasons we know surprisingly little.

Again, Stuart Reid is a useful source, but there are many things which are not clear. Partly because the battlefield has never been properly examined, and partly because some of it has now been altered by coal and ironstone workings, and by the creation of a man-made lake, Banton Loch, which covers at least part of the centre of the fight. We know where the battle took place (roughly), and there are some definite identifiers in Baillie's account, for example, but there are still arguments about exactly where the armies were, and maybe even about which way they were facing. None of this is a problem, by the way, I will happily set out a battle on my table!

Here a few random photos of the Kilsyth battlefield - not mine, by the way.

I confess to something of a blind spot when it comes to looking at battlefields. I can read a map, I think, and I can understand a toy battle laid out on a table, but place me on the ground and I will struggle; for a start, I am very poor at judging distances! This was brought home to me very forcibly when I spent a day on a guided tour of Eggmühl, a few years ago. I had a great time, but spent the day nodding rather dumbly and trying to relate what I was seeing to the map! 

Having said which, I did get a lot of valuable understanding in preparation for another wargame, a few years ago, when I walked the full width of Marston Moor (in the pouring rain). I may use this approach again - if there's a suitable day next week, I live about 80 minutes' drive from Kilsyth. I could go and have a look at it. Rain is not essential.

Hmmm.

You will hear more of Kilsyth before long. This has just been a little explanation about why I am so busy (and enjoying myself very thoroughly) during the homework phase!

Trip to Stryker's, and Various Other Topics

 On Thursday I had an invitation to a wargame at Baron Stryker's country seat, rather north of here, so I packed up my lucky tree, tried to convince Siri the Navigator that Stryker does not, in fact, live at the pharmacy in my local High Street, and set off early to avoid the entitled children trying to kill each other on the Edinburgh Bypass.

It is maybe difficult to convey what an illustrious event this was for me. Since I have not been anywhere for 16 months which did not involve vaccinations or visiting my mother in her care home, it was a genuine treat. Ian had set up one of his excellent Old School games - proper wargaming! - an Allied force of about 1815 [I was the Duke of Wellington, though I am not a gentleman, and the Archduke, who had travelled further than I, was Blücher] was fighting against Ian's [Napoleon's] impressive looking French.

Ian, whose photos will inevitably do the event more justice than mine, will probably produce the official blog account in due course, so I shall merely set out here the best of my pictures, to give an idea of the action, with my usual propaganda-laden, biased captions. It was a most enjoyable day, with beautiful toys, an entertaining and absorbing game, great food and amusing company; I really had a marvellous time. My thanks to Stryker and the Baroness for their faultless hospitality, and to the Archduke for being an all-round good chap and a splendid ally.

Oh yes - the reason I still need navigation assistance to get to Stryker's, after a number of such trips, is because I can never, for the life of me, remember which exit from the M90 to take. It's always familiar when I get there, but you know how it is.

 

Turn 1 - Allies on the left (British this end, Prussians at the far end) and French opposite. I had all sorts of ideas about shifting some cavalry to my right flank, to cover the French lancers on that side, but the French immediately started bringing up their heavy cavalry reserve in the centre, so the Allies were prompted to react to this.

 

Thus the action began with a cavalry battle in the middle. I have no idea what odds Paddy Power had been offering against this possibility, but here we were again. The morning session was underway in frantic style, and Napoleon had brought along the Dice from Hell - here is an example of what the Allies were up against in this first session.

 

On the Allied left, some Prussian uhlans chased away a very attractive (though short-lived) regiment of Chasseurs à Cheval, but were obliged to follow-up, and suffered from musketry for their efforts. It took them a while to recover their composure.

 

The main cavalry action was not going well at all for the Allies - the Scots Greys have already routed (and took a long time to rally - they completely ignored all the fine words of Wellington, and only rallied when Stapleton Cotton joined them after lunch), some Prussian dragoons are falling back, while the Prussian cuirassiers and the battered Inniskillings are struggling against French cuirassiers and carabiniers respectively. Below you can see that the British right flank was now fixed, everyone in square, obsessed by the threat from a single unit of lancers.

At this point, we took a break for a splendid lunch, and the Allies were pretty much convinced that they would be beaten very quickly during the second session. However, something in the wind had changed. Given the choice, if there is a hill, the British infantry always prefer to march over the top. After lunch, the Cambridgeshires received a charge from the dreaded lancers in line, and drove them off with very heavy loss. That was the first encouraging sign for our side!

Allied cavalry still on the field, though the Prussian cuirassiers are about to disappear. The Blues have now taken on the fight against the French cuirassiers, and the Inniskillings are somehow gaining the upper hand against the carabiniers. This was the start of a very good spell for the Allies. [I have to observe that Blogger is a real pain in the neck this morning - uploading photos has been punctuated with a lot of failures and re-tries, and my usual treatment of caption text doesn't seem to be working now...]. Below you see the massed Prussian infantry working themselves up to fever pitch.

Napoleon sent forward his shiny new Grenadiers à Cheval, to support his stalling cavalry thrust, and they were promptly defeated by the Blues - the Curse of the Fresh Varnish strikes again. With the disappearance of the French lancers, Wellington's squares got themselves into column and started advancing on the Allied right.

On the Allied left, the Prussian uhlans keep an eye on a Swiss square (as one does), and the Prussian infantry are wearing down the Poles at the windmill. Below, you see the Cambridgeshires, with Rifles support, involved in a firefight with French infantry at the farmhouse. The last surviving gunner with the Guard Horse Artillery waves his linstock in defiance. I think it's a linstock.

On the central ridge, it's all happening - the Allied cavalry is now going very well indeed, putting the French line infantry to flight. Napoleon sends up the two battalions of his Guard to put things right...

...and ponders which of his axioms, appropriately delivered, might encourage the infantry, who can be seen heading back his way in disorder. Below are two general views of the table, coming into Turn 8 (the end of the day). The mighty Silesian Landwehr have chased away the Poles, while in the foreground the Hertfordshires (?) have decided that trying to form line to meet the oncoming French infantry is too risky, so they plough into them, still in column. I wanted to see what happened when two columns met head-on, so was delighted when the British boys managed to disorder the opposition on this occasion.

At the end of the game, the French were once again scoring a few successes, but the Allies had won on Victory Points by a decent margin. Napoleon could not get his Guard infantry onto the ridge in time to stop the rot, and the Allies were surprised and delighted to have won, considering the disastrous morning session. Stryker admitted afterwards that at lunch he had considered giving us some extra troops, to keep the game going in the afternoon. I've seen games turn around like this before, but I don't recall one turning in my favour for a very long time!

Here you go - you saw it here - British and French columns meeting head-on. Lovely toys, too.

 

Separate Topic #1 - WSS Rules

I'm very pleased to say that my enforced break from painting has allowed me to finish the playtesting I had planned, and I now have a working "First Edition" of my Prinz Eugen rules. I'm confident they will change some more, but at least I'll be editing something which exists rather than a cloud of scribbled notes! My thanks to Chris G, Stryker, Goya and the others who have helped me get this project shaped up. Another tick in the box, and a great deal of waste paper off to be recycled!

Separate Topic #2 - Troll-Stalking for Beginners

I mention this lightly, with no particular agenda. It would be inappropriate for someone with a blog as ill-disciplined and rambling as this one to have too thin a skin. I don't set out to upset anyone, but it is bound to happen. I don't worry about it - if someone disapproves of what I write, I assume they will move on and not waste their time on it. If they express their distaste then fair enough - words are cheap - in fact, some people's words are without any value at all.

Recently, an old friend of mine drew my attention to the fact that I was taking a bit of a panning on the pages of a hobby chat-forum, not from the point of disagreeing with what I had written, but from a stylistic point of view - in particular, phrases such as "incomprehensible" and "a mess" were in evidence when I had a look.

Well, I'm not really going to get too upset about this. I quite enjoyed most of the invective aimed in my general direction. I am aware that such fora have traditions of being unpleasant for its own sake, but one hero in particular - his ID may or may not be Frobisher, as it happens - went a bit far. His contribution, which was what had triggered the tip-off in the first place, was much too personal and unkind for my taste.

Why do people do this? I don't know, but I guess that one day it will kill off our access to social media as we know it, Jim, so I don't see it as trivial. To quote the uncredited soldier from the Waterloo movie, how can we kill one another? We've never even seen each other (etc). Where is the appeal in being hateful to a complete stranger, with no real motive? Is it just to amuse our friends, or do we actually feel better afterwards?

I have no idea. I thought for a while about why I should be a little upset about something so unimportant, and I decided that it is the "we've never even seen each other" bit. The anonymity. There's a definite threat in receiving hostility from a stranger who could be - well, anyone, really. So I contacted my old friend who had tipped me off in the first place. He, you see, is a member of the forum in question, and thus he has access to a few more details about the Cruel Frobisher. Armed with some simple facts, easily available to any member of the forum, I spent about 20 minutes, online, and poking about mainstream social media, without doing anything illegal, and I now know all about Frobisher. I know his name, I know where he lives, I know what he works at; I have, if I am interested, access to pictures of his friends and family. He is not very threatening at all, in fact he is rather a sad little creep. I have removed him from my consciousness.

Given this amount of extra information, I have reduced forum-member Frobisher from the status of Mysterious Warrior to something rather more entry-level. I have no idea what I could actually use my new knowledge for - almost certainly nothing at all - but it is astonishing how the implied threat disappears when people appear on public platforms as themselves, with their own identities. Maybe a change has to come, in which case MSFoy will have to come clean and admit that he is, after all, the Prince of Wales. Topic closed - if anyone on a forum somewhere takes exception to my views then I'm sure they're right. I could not care less. 

Battle of Santiago Martir, 11th April 1809

 Peninsular War Zoom game took place yesterday - I was the host and the French commander (Marshal Victor), trying to capture the crossings over the River Mezquino, defended by a force from the Spanish Army of the Centre, commanded by Stryker (Conde de Belvedere).

 

Gentusa - history makes little mention of this fellow, but he and his irregulars performed well at the Spanish defence of the Mezquino

The Spaniards had a hybrid force, including a contingent of irregulars under the command of the (little-known) Don Pedro de Gentusa. The French had Sebastiani's (French) Division and Leval's (German) Division, plus an attachment of cavalry from Latour Maubourg's reserve.

Commands & Colors rules, with my Ramekin modifications. I'll append the player instructions and scenario notes at the end of this post (if I remember). 10 Victory Points for victory - the French had bonus VPs available for capture of town hexes, bridge and fords at the town of Santiago.

 

Initial view from the French right flank. The French have the Confederation of the Rhine troops at this end, and the French troops at the far end. On the other side of the table, the Spanish left is rather improvised, with irregular troops supporting line and light infantry; at the far end, on the Spanish right, two battalions of Milicias Provinciales are tucked safely away behind the line.

 

First action (to everyone's surprise) was an opportunistic attack by the Spanish cavalry, on their right, which discomfited the French 15eme Chasseurs, but was driven off with heavy loss by the 4eme Dragons.

 

 

On the Spanish left, the guerilleros were brought forward early, to plug gaps in the line at the fords. At this point, a group of the irregulars is placed next to the elite Guardias Walones, which must have caused some disquiet to the guardsmen. Note that we used big red counters (for Zoom) to denote elite troops, black counters to denote the irregulars and the militia. Note also that the fords are a lovely shade of sky blue, as mentioned in Tripadvisor.

 

 

Back on the Spanish right, Colonel Ramos da Silva has brought his rather battered light cavalry back into the line.

 

The French cavalry, having won their first scrap (on points?), are now shaping up to have a second round.

 

On the French right, Leval's voltigeurs are not doing particularly well against the Spanish light regiments of Cataluña and Campo Mayor. The Spanish troops were shooting particularly well at this stage of the action...

 

 

Leval's line troops move up - Nassau troops to the fore (yellow flags), with Frankfurters (oh, how we laughed) and Hessians in support.

 

By some miscalculation, the 1st Battn of 2nd Nassau arrived at the fords all on their own...

 

They were duly pulled back a little, then suffered 3 retreat flags to enemy fire (no losses, just 3 retreat flags), so their retiral was increased to 4 hexes (that's 800 paces) in one turn, ending up behind a hill, very much out of breath. This, as far as I recall, is an all-comers' record for running away in my C&C games (that's for non-Spanish line troops, of course...) 

 

Here's a quick view of the town, which the French made a point of not attacking. In the town itself, you see the Regimiento Irlanda (light blue jackets) and a combined battalion of grenadiers. To the immediate left of the town you can see the Walloon Guards, who took some losses but were successfully rallied on two occasions, thanks to the presence of General Portago (a noted orator, apparently)

 

 

Now the Spanish left flank was re-organised, to prepare for a heavy attack from Leval's Germans, who were finally coming up to attack the fords

 

 

A drone shot of the 1/2nd Nassau, recovering their composure after their record retreat.

 

At this point, over on the French left, Latour Maubourg paid the Spanish cavalry a return visit, and eliminated them, and also forced the 1/Africa into square, but they were driven off by musket fire.

 

The French pulled back on the left flank, and did little further in this area - though a couple of battalions were sent to support Leval's men on the right.

 

It had taken him a while, but Leval now put together a co-ordinated attack on the Spanish left. By this time, the Walloon Guards had lost interest in General Portago's rallying speeches, and had left the field. The Spanish left was getting very stretched.

 

This little unit did a fine job on the Spanish left - the Lanceros de Carmona. Stryker made a series of little raids over the river (usually when the German advance had forgotten to keep back some spare Order Chips so that they could form square...). Like the guerrilleros, these lancers were a real nuisance, which is exactly what the Spanish commander was looking for. 

 

Here's a general view from behind the Spanish right flank at this stage of the action - at the far end, you can see the lancers being a nuisance, an activity in which they excelled.

 

...and now they've retreated again, behind the river.

 

Same moment, different view.

 

Now, as the guerrilleros do their best to cover the fords, the French bring forward some more cavalry - 26eme Dragons - to try to chase them away.

 

In the background, the dragoons have taken one of the fords. More of the irregulars prepare to meet them (note that the guerrilla units include priests, bagpipers, women, all sorts!) [Assortment of Qualiticast, SHQ, Falcata and HaT figures]

 

This is desperate defending now.

 

From the Spanish right, you can see the action is all at the far end...(!)

 

The dragoons now chased away the lancers, and the French had won the day.

 

Leval worked hard to keep bringing fresh units into the attack, but this final view shows how much punishment the Confederation boys had suffered (each white counter is 1/4 of the unit eliminated).

 

11.5 VPs to 4 sounds like a more comfortable victory than it felt like at the time! My compliments to Stryker and his army for putting up a gallant defence. An interesting game. It was an educational reminder of what the guerrillas are good at (being a nuisance, sniping at people, moving about quickly in difficult terrain) and what they are less good at (frontal combat with regulars, and sustaining heavy loss).

My sincere thanks to Stryker for an enjoyable game. I said I'd include part of the scenario notes, so here they are:

French Force (Marshal Victor)

 

From IV Corps

Division Leval

2e Nassau (2 bns), Régt de Frankfort (1), 4e Badois (2), 4e Hessois "Gross und Erbprinz" (2), 2 bns converged voltigeurs

Division Sebastiani

15e Ligne (2 bns), 66e Ligne (2), 70e Ligne (1), 82e Ligne (2), 86e Ligne (2), 2 bns converged voltigeurs

 

2 cos Art à Pied

 

Cavalry

From Division La Tour-Maubourg (from Reserve)

4e Dragons, 26e Dragons + 15 Chasseurs à Cheval (attached)

 

Total: 16 line bns [LN], 4 light bns [LT], 2 dragoons [HC], 1 light cavalry [LC], 2 foot batteries [FA]. (approx 15000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, 16 guns)

 

 

Spanish Army (advance guard under MdC Belvedere)

 

Division Del Parque

Africa (2 bns), Reina (2), combined grenadiers (1 - Africa, Reina), Ligero de Barbastro (1), Provinciales de Cordoba (1), Provinciales de Granada (1)

 

Division Portago

Burgos (2 bns), Irlanda (1), Guardias Wallonas (1), Ligero de Cataluña (1), Ligero de Campo Mayor (1)

 

2 foot batteries

 

Cavalry (Col Ramos da Silva)

Husares de Maria Luisa, Voluntarios de España, Lanceros de Carmona

 

Attached irregulars (Don Pedro de Gentusa)

4 "battalions" of irregular infantry raised by the Junta de Aragon.

 

Total: 7 line bns [LN], 1 bn grenadiers [GR], 1 bn foot guards [FG], 3 light bns [LT], 2 bns Provincial Militia [MI], 2 light cavalry {LC], 1 lancers [LA], 2 foot batteries [FA], 4 small units of irregulars [GU].

(approx 10400 infantry, 1000 cavalry, 12 guns + 1600 irregulars)

 

 

Scenario Narrative

It is April 1809. A number of well-known events from the Peninsular War have not happened, and as a result a French army is advancing from Madrid towards the Spanish Army of the Centre, which is commanded by Marcial de Campo Gregorio Garcia de Cuesta, and is camped in the region around Cuenca. Cuesta is 68 years old, and in poor health, and is in any case well-known for his difficulty in making decisions, and for concocting grandiose strategies which waste time and achieve little.

 

His army is in good shape, but his senior officers are mostly inexperienced and lacking in talent. The army is brave and well equipped, but many of the troops are new recruits, understanding of battlefield drill is generally weak. The particular weakness of this army is an inability to manoeuvre in action. Thus they will fight well enough in a defensive position, but are at a disadvantage if they are required to attack, or maintain any kind of effective fire while advancing. The Provincial Militia units are the worst, and the irregular "guerrilleros" provide by the local Junta are unreliable and usually incapable of any action more formal than a simple ambush.

 

[One odd quality that the Spanish soldiers have is that they do not expect to be victorious, but if defeated they will retreat from the field and be ready to fight again within a week or so. The French will constantly be embarrassed by this resilience. They are used to defeated enemies committing to a formal surrender, not dusting themselves off for the next round.]

 

The French army is under the command of Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin. On  the road to Cuenca, there is a crossing over the Rio Mezquino at the small town of Santiago Martir. The river is, for the most part, deep with steep banks, but at Santiago the road to Cuenca crosses the river over a good stone bridge - the only one for some leagues in either direction - and a couple of fords, and the river may be crossed for a mile or so on either side of the town (though not by artillery or wagons). The French are capable of constructing temporary bridges, but it will save them time if they can secure the crossings at Santiago.

 

Keen to secure the bridge before the Spaniards can destroy it, Marshal Victor himself leads an advanced guard - he has good quality German troops from the Confederation of the Rhine and veteran French troops of Sebastiani's IV Corps, and he has a small contingent of cavalry. His army is confident, since they are superior in most respects to the Spaniards, and their commanders are incomparably better. [The French despise the Spaniards, the Spaniards hate the French.]

 

Acting with uncharacteristic haste, Cuesta sends the Conde de Belvedere with a vanguard to seize Santiago before the French can get there, and to protect the river crossing, and so, when Victor arrives, he is surprised to find the little town and the hills beside it are already occupied by the enemy. Belvedere's force has been augmented by the addition of about 1600 irregular troops under the command of the little-known Don Pedro de Gentusa, a local land-owner - these irregular soldiers are fiercely patriotic, but erratic in performance - many of the "officers" being priests or community leaders.