Sanity Check - The Case for a Little Diversification

Proverb: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”
Variation: “All play and no work makes Jack a rather confused boy”
Extension: “All the same kind of play is starting to make Jack a little weird”

Preamble 1 - Blogs in Winter

I've been aware for a little while that something in my life needs to change. Only a little, maybe, but it is certainly worth looking into. As I have said here before, this blog is invaluable to me - far more than I expected - partly because it has put me in touch with others with similar interests, and I can get insight from people who are kind enough to comment, but also because it gives me an opportunity to write down my own thoughts, which forces a structure and a level of cohesion on them (believe it or not) which might not normally be present. A chance, if you will, to get all my ducks in a row. So most of this is just self-indulgence. But you probably knew that.

There has never been any pretence that Prometheus is all about Napoleonic wargaming - that is just a front. For a start, I'd be very nervous about touting myself as an authority, and in any case I always intended to put out a few irrelevances - the odd blessed tangent. I am careful not to just unload a personal whinge diary on here - occasionally I do feel that something is so bloody awful that I have to add my small and rather squeaky voice to some imagined groundswell, but these outbursts ("ridiculous intemperance" - thanks, Graham, I still love that) are usually intended to be light-hearted. If I tell you about my dandelion extractor, or my fallen tree, or the circus car the garage lent me, it is only because I feel it might be amusing or otherwise faintly interesting. I started this thing off, secure in the knowledge that no-one gives a tinker's cuss what I think anyway, and find to my astonishment that there are 40-odd good people who are prepared to own up to the fact that they occasionally read my burblings. Whatever else that may do, it does remind me that I can't just publish any old dross that comes into my head.

Preamble 2 - The Hobby

I've collected soldiers and fought wargames for 40 years now - admittedly there was a long gap in the middle, when Real Life took a serious hold, but there are Napoleonic soldiers in The Cupboard which have been around since the beginning. My first ever Les Higgins unit is the 1st battalion of the 6e Leger, and they are still in there with all their accumulated mates, ready for action. I probably painted them about Christmas 1972.

The oldest of the Les Higgins Napoleonics - rebased and with new command figures, otherwise these date from 1972 or so

At various times I have also fought the American Civil War, the Roman difficulties in Britannia, and even some Wild West skirmish stuff. I stopped the ACW because the armies were badly done and gave me no satisfaction, and because I realised that the games had nothing to do with the actual ACW. Rather than start again, I passed the armies to my cousin on permanent loan – what you might call hedging my bets. When he died, many years later, his widow found them - the boxes had never been opened since he took them away. I agreed that she should just get rid of them - I am left with a lingering affection for the period, but I don't miss those armies at all.

My Ancients were Airfix and original Garrison 20mm - tidy little armies - by that time I was painting better, I had now dedicated my life to following the teachings of the WRG, and they were quite nicely organised. I never enjoyed the games as much as I would have liked. There is the fundamental difficulty of fighting an asymmetric war, of course - disciplined Empire troops against brave but disadvantaged hooligans. I recall that one of the more interesting phases of this came when I introduced unorthodox morale rules, which stated that Celtic units which fled the field might return, given suitable morale test results. So for a while the battles would reach a point where the Celtic commander would have very few warbands left in action, and a whole list of other units who had run away but might still return. This probably had some element of realism, but made for bewildering games, and we had to impose time limits! Another problem with the games was that they always seemed to develop into a huge grinding match - occasionally more than one such, but there was a lack of movement and/or variety in there which sometimes made the sessions seem like more labour than they were worth. I kept my armies for years, and occasionally dug them out for a battle, but 3 years ago I sold them to a nice chap in New Zealand to make more room for the Napoleonics. I haven't missed them, either, though I like to think they are happy.

The Western skirmish is a mystery - I can clearly remember painting up some rather nice 1/32 plastics, and I bought a set of rules, but I have no recollection of actually playing the game. I cannot even remember what happened to the figures. Ach, well.

So, in the end, I do the Peninsular War, and, because of the uniforms and the OOB of the troops I have available, I am committed to the 1811-1814 period of the PW. No problems with that - I still love the period, enjoy the games and the reading and the characters and the whole deal, and my armies are still getting bigger and bigger. My hobby, in part, has become dedicated to increasing the size of the armies, and thinking up new justifications for so doing. They are already several times bigger than I could fit onto the tabletop, so it's time for a sanity check.

I must mention that I have already had email exchanges on this subject with a few friends who have been very helpful, so if anyone recognises anything in this post which I have lifted straight out of one of those emails, you have my apologies and thanks in equal measure!

Preamble 3 - Life Changes

Though I seem to have difficulty coming to terms with the fact, I officially took early retirement some seven years ago. Now the context has changed again: I recently sold my little publishing business, and have greatly relished the increase in hobby time as a result. I've made good progress with organising my PW armies' infrastructure - transport and siege artillery - and some new supplies of Spaniards of various sorts and more time to get the lead mountain painted up all mean that my armies are growing even further. A very faint alarm bell. Where is this heading? At present I am working on the start of my new solo Peninsular campaign (which has taken a lot of time to get organised, but I am enjoying it), I am also still buying and cleaning-up and painting more of my PW soldiers, I am working somewhere in the background on my translation of Foy's "Vie Militaire", and for my bedtime reading I currently have Vol.1 (1809) of the Dickson Manuscripts. You know what? - I'm becoming weird. Somehow, when I was on holiday, I managed briefly to roam as far away as the 1809 unpleasantness in the Tyrol, but it's all a bit closed, isn’t it? I have a mass of books about the Wagram Campaign, the 1814 Campaign etc etc that I have been waiting to have time to read.

I feel I should get a change of scenery before I disappear up my own exhaust pipe. The removal of my part-time business has changed things - I now need a little diversification!

The Point of All This

I strongly fancy the English Civil War. I do not know a lot about it, but the spectacle, the geographical and cultural immediacy and the fact that it appears to be feasible with smallish armies are all appealing. But I have to do the groundwork properly, and go about it sensibly. A number of friends and confidantes have recommended books and rule sets, and given me their valuable thoughts on scales, figure ranges and general approaches to the subject, for which I am very grateful indeed. The books are arriving every day from AbeBooks and elsewhere, and I have a new ECW shelf in the upstairs bookcase. I have Terry Wise’s rules coming, and to date I have had a look at “Pike & Shot” (John Armatys), the “Perfect Captain” rules (which look fascinating, though it is almost impossible to find all the bits on the website), I have read Charlie Wesencraft’s “With Pike and Musket” (at last), I have the Airfix Guide, the Shire Publications “Discovering” booklet (which is largely a re-run of George Gush’s articles from Miniature Warfare in 1970), I have bought “Forlorn Hope”, which is a lavish production – I have all manner of rules here.

Rules Ancient & Modern

This obsession with rules before I understand the history looks a little like hitching up the horse behind the cart, but I have to get a feel for whether I would like the games, whether I could build up sensible small armies, whether they would be suitable to grow into bigger ones - all that. I also need to get an early feel for figure scales and BASING (oh Lord) – I do not wish to adopt a basing system which locks me into a rule set which is not going to work for me. I’ve done that before...

I have a gentle stream of general histories arriving. The ones I like best so far are by CV Wedgwood – she could actually write history as beautiful English, which is a trait which is less identifiable in some more recent work, I think. The history of the ECW, I regret to say, seems to have eluded me during both my education and my private study to date, so I have only a very casual grasp of it. Perhaps it clashed with double metalwork in the timetable? More likely I had my head jammed into some dark, obsessive place or other that prevented my taking note!

So I want to do this calmly and reasonably, and without derailing my Peninsular War activities or losing control of the rest of my life, but I do want to do it.

Availability of figures is critical - 15mm looked like an obvious choice, and figures are widely available on eBay, but the little guys lack personality for me – sorry about that. I have to actually care about the soldiers. I am pretty certain that 20mm is the way to go – my plan is to use Les Higgins' lovely 20mm, with Hinton Hunt and Kennington to plug gaps in the range and provide variety – I have been pleasantly surprised how compatible the figure sizes are.

I hope to get started in the Spring – to draw a line under the endless expansion of the Napoleonic armies and get started on a new area of interest. Thanks again to those who have helped me thus far – I believe the change will do me good, but one thing is for sure – if for some reason I never do get to fight ECW battles, it will still be a valuable addition to my education!

Solo Campaign - Week 3

Again, a week of marching and reorganising. It seems a good idea to bang a few of these weeks in quickly, before things get slowed down by more combats and maybe the odd siege.

Compromised by his "shameful" reverse at Corrales, Marmont has retreated along his supply line, back to Valladolid, aiming to consolidate with Montbrun's detached force (from his own army), plus various welcome reinforcements from the Armee du Centre.

French troops of Clauzel's Divn retreat through Salamanca - note early air-conditioning units in 1st floor windows...

As part of this regrouping, Montbrun's troops marched from Toledo to Aranda. This was no problem for the mounted troops or the horse artillery, but many of Foy's infantry completed the journey in poor shape. There is some suggestion that one night quartered in Madrid may have done little for the soldiers' stamina.

Wellington should still have a bit of a numerical advantage over Marmont's reinforced army, but he has remained at Ciudad Rodrigo, refusing to pursue the French army despite encouragement from his Spanish liaison officer to do so.

Marmont's miserable start to the campaign is not improved by the rumour that King Joseph himself may have decided to join him, to ensure that the troops seconded to him from the Armee du Centre are used to good effect.

Extract from the campaign diary follows:

Week 03

Contacts

None.

Narrative

Marmont, nervous of potentially superior Allied force at Ciudad Rodrigo, retires his own augmented force along his line of supply, back to Valladolid, where he is reinforced by the arrival of D’Armagnac, with Chassé’s German infantry. Casapalacios is marching up from Madrid, and has arrived at Segovia. Montbrun had a difficult forced march from Toledo, via Madrid to Aranda, which left the infantry very tired. Casapalacios and Montbrun have orders to head for Valladolid.

Wellington is aware that he has numerical advantage, but does not wish to move further into Spain while French hold Badajoz.

Allied siege train has arrived at Elvas.

[Chart was not available earlier - late edit]

Solo Campaign - Week 2

Just manoeuvring this week. Quick update.

Contacts

None.

Narrative

Marmont’s force at Salamanca resting after Battle of Corrales and subsequent retreat, now joined by St Paul’s Italian brigade (from Valladolid) and by Guye, with the King’s Guard and Treillard’s cavalry. Total strength around 16000. Guye’s force undertook hazardous forced march from Segovia to Salamanca – they were extremely lucky with the weather, and arrived in good order.

The dry weather also favoured the British army, advancing towards the Spanish border. In particular, Graham’s (1^st) and Clinton’s (6^th) Divisions marched from Abrantes to Ciudad Rodrigo – approx 135 miles – in 7 days, without significant problems.

Wellington, with his own and Hope’s contingents, now has some 34000 men at Ciudad Rodrigo – this is basically full Anglo-Portuguese army less Light Divn. Marmont knows he is there, but has few details. Because of civilian support, Wellington has a good knowledge of Marmont’s force, though he underestimates its strength somewhat.

Allied siege train continues its march inland, and has now reached Abrantes.

Marshal Soult has agreed to provide supplies to Badajoz from Sevilla, which will enable the Armee de Portugal to commit less troops to guarding the route from Madrid west along the Tagus.

Hooptedoodle #42 - Working Definition of a Crock

The plan for this evening is to get on with assembling some more siege guns, while listening to the Wolves vs Liverpool football match. Because of the very strange contractual arrangements which exist in England for the broadcasting of football, the only way I can achieve this tonight is to take my little netbook computer through to the living room, set it up next to my workdesk and listen to the live audio commentary provided by Liverpool FC's own website. I have my earphones ready, so as not to disturb my lady wife's viewing of more mainstream TV entertainment. Neat plan, eh?

Only in theory. My netbook is a humble little thing, and it only gets used a couple of times a month, which means that, when it gets switched on, the first thing that happens is that a fortnight's backlog of Windows updates and McAfee antivirus updates and Adobe updates and Java upgrades all get jammed in the revolving door. Given the sparse broadband service we get here, this is all enough to prevent anything sensible being available online for quite a long time - sometimes longer than the battery capacity of the computer. Yes, yes - you are right - I should have set everything up an hour or two earlier, but - you know what? - in this age of supposed digital convenience it's kind of infuriating that I should have to do that. Anyway, I attempt to get the commentary for the game, and wait a very, very long time. A quick squint at Windows Task Manager shows me that Internet Explorer is getting no processor time at all, because it's behind McAfee in the bloody queue - a situation which persists for another 10 minutes, at which point I shut the stupid thing down.

Death by security. Muttering gently, I give up on the siege guns for tonight, and retire to the trusty desktop computer in my office to listen to the match online. I wonder, in my unfocused way, what kind of a cataclysmic virus attack would be required to waste more time and cause more annoyance in total than McAfee does, drip by drip, every single day. Yes, I have to be grateful that my internet service provider gives me free use of McAfee's wonderful product, but sometimes it's hard to remember what a blessing this is. The one bright note is that at least I don't have Norton any more.

Like riding a bicycle through porridge.

Solo Campaign - Battle of Corrales - 24th Jan 1812

Cazadores de Castilla in the village - they did well until the ammunition ran out

Marshal Marmont sent General Clauzel ahead to engage the Conde de España’s little force. Clauzel had his own (Second) Divn of the Armée de Portugal (10 battalions of infantry and a battery of 8pdr guns) – and was supported by Cavrois’ Division of 4 regiments of dragoons plus 2 foot batteries from Tirlet’s reserve artillery (a total of 10360 men with 24 guns).

España had 5 line infantry regiments,  with 2 battalions of volontarios (militia), Sanchez’s 2 regiments of irregular lancers, and 2 field batteries (a total of 6140 men with 12 guns).

The Spanish troops took up position on a line of low hills behind the stream of Valparaiso,  which was fordable but difficult to negotiate because of its position in a gully. Clauzel set his artillery on the highest ground he had available, and sent Berlier’s brigade forward over the bridge which carries the Salamanca-Zamora road over the stream, close to the small hamlet of Peleas de Arriba. His second brigade, with Barbot commanding, were committed to a feint against the stream on the French right. The dragoons were held in reserve behind the flanks.

A theme for the day was the desultory performance of the French artillery. Clauzel’s intention was to demoralise the Spanish infantry by sustained fire from his batteries. Some blamed problems with the quality of the powder, but – whatever the cause – the French guns caused very little damage throughout the action. If the banjo had existed  in 1812, the French gunners could not have hit a cow on the backside with one on that day. The Spanish infantry kept up a surprisingly brisk and effective fire, especially around the bridge, and Berlier’s men were repeatedly driven back with heavy losses. Because the attack around the bridge gained so little ground, Barbot’s diversionary attack was switched to become the main assault, but with no better success. At one point the 2^nd Princesa and the 1^st Sevilla regiments made a bayonet charge – supported by the plucky volunteers of the Defensores de Fernando VII – and swept a large portion of Barbot’s command back into the arroyo in confusion. Eventually Clauzel broke off his attack and withdrew, but his losses were heavy, with many men missing or taken prisoner.

España won a remarkable and unexpected victory – his total loss by the end of the action was 1080 men, of whom many were expected to rejoin the colours, while the French lost over 4000, plus the eagle of the 2^nd Bn of the 25e Leger. The Junta de Castilla had been so pessimistic about España’s chances prior to the action that they had been very reluctant to attach a militia battery to his force, since that would simply be another 6 guns lost if the French prevailed.

Marmont’s Chief of Staff, La Martinière, was given the challenging job of writing up his report of the battle in terms which would avoid bringing the wrath of the Minister of War down on their heads.

The French fell back in good order, and with all their guns, towards Salamanca, since the Spanish cavalry were not in a position to do them further damage.

Orders of Battle

Spanish 3^rd Army (part) – Conde de España

2^nd Princesa, 1^st Sevilla, 2^nd Jaen, Tiradores de Castilla, Cazadores de Castilla

1^st & 2^nd Lanceros de Castilla

2^nd Loyales de Zamora, Defensores de Fernando VII

2 companies of foot artillery

French force (from Armée de Portugal ) – Gen de Divn Bertrand Clauzel

2^nd Divn:

Berlier’s Bde – 25e Leger (3 Bns), 27e Ligne (2)

Barbot’s Bde – 50e Ligne (3), 59e Ligne (2)

15/3e Art à Pied

Dragoon Divn (Cavrois)

Picquet’s Bde – 6e & 11e Dragons

Boudinhon-Valdec’s Bde – 15e & 25e Dragons

Reserve artillery (Tirlet)

10/3e & 19/3e Art à Pied

Spanish position at the start

French starting position, from their left flank

Some of Espana's volunteer troops

French right flank - the quiet side

Berlier's attack - all they have to do is cross that bridge and keep marching...

Growing concern on the French left

Clauzel wants to be alone for a while

Espana (right edge of picture) played a conspicuous part in pushing back Barbot's attack

Getting desperate - bring up another reserve unit...

Solo Peninsular Campaign - Week 1

All right, I know I said I wasn't going to do this, but here is a summary of activity during the first week of the campaign. I have no intention of doing this for each week – this is just to show how I’m going about it. This was an easy week, since there are no Demoralisation issues, no Replacements to worry about, no Sieges to progress and everyone is In Supply (since the LoCs are all open).

The Allies rolled better activation dice, so got first move.

We have a battle! The French have attacked the force of the Conde de Espana (who is unable to withdraw, since he has a severe cavalry disadvantage) in the area of Zamora, and the action is large enough to justify a proper tabletop battle with the CCN rules. I’ll have to fight this battle before I can complete the week’s returns (obviously). I will write up the battle in a posting in due course.

Elsewhere, the Allies are calling in outlying cavalry, and their siege train has begun the slow plod from Lisbon. Mostly this week I have been developing clerical procedures to keep tabs on everything. Thank goodness for Excel spreadsheets. What follows is copied and pasted directly from my own campaign notes, so it may lack something in style and readability...

It is probably obvious, but single capital letters refer to Combat Groups, which can just about be seen on the map photo in the previous post.

Week 01

Housekeeping

To help get things moving, both CinCs get a rating of 3. The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 7 Orders, French 4, so Allies move first. Because the armies have been sitting in Winter quarters for some months, it is assumed that they are pretty well aware of who is in adjacent Areas, so for the moment the optional Intelligence rule is suspended.

Moves

Allies

1 – D (Framlingham with Eng + Siege train + escorts) march 1 step from Lisbon to Peniche (expected to take about 3 weeks to get up to Elvas)

2 – Sp B (Espana with Spanish 3^rd Army) at Zamora concerned that they are about to be attacked from Salamanca, thus Sp C (Sanchez with 2^nd Lancers) move from Leon to support Sp B at Zamora

3 – F (11 Lt Dgns) move 2 steps from Porto via Coimbra to Abrantes...

4 – ...where they join A (Wellington), and are attached to Anson’s Bde

5 – E (Von Bock’s KGL heavy cavalry) move (along rough road) 1 step from Braga to Almeida to join B (Hope). This is conditional move, so must be tested
2D3 = 5 +2 (Bock’s rating) –1 (rough road) –1 (winter conditions) = 5   which is OK...

6 – ...and they are absorbed into Group B

 

French

1 – U (St Paul’s Italian bde) move 1 step from Segovia to Valladolid

2 – Split R (Guye at Madrid) – detach Merlin with the King’s Guard and Treillard’s cavalry, which become Q (Guye commands, Casapalacios assumes command of R)...

3 – ...and march the new Group Q 1 step from Madrid to Segovia

4 – N (Marmont, with Clauzel’s Divn + Cavrois’ dragoon divn + reserve art) march north 1 step from Salamanca into Zamora, where they attack Sp B + C (Espana)

Supplies

All Groups on both sides are In Supply – French keep Segovia open by moving Q (Guye) in to replace U (St Paul), so protecting supply route from Madrid north to Valladolid; French supply route from Bayonne is protected by troops stationed at Pamplona, San Sebastian, thence via Vitoria, and there is a garrison at Burgos, covering the routes south to Salamanca and Madrid. 

Contacts

Even with his extra lancers called in, Espana is outnumbered in cavalry by 2:1, so he is unable to withdraw. The Junta de Castilla is able to add 2 bns of volontarios to his force (they rank as militia). Espana takes a defensive position on the road from Salamanca to Zamora, on a low ridge runnig SW-NE behind the rugged little stream of Valparaiso, close to Peleas de Arriba, which is a few miles – about an hour’s march – south of the village of Corrales del Vino. The terrain is fairly open, rolling, lightly wooded – Espana is concerned that it will suit the French cavalry.

The so-called Battle of Corrales takes place on Friday 24^th January, on a cold, windy day.

Solo Campaign - Start-Up at 19th Jan 1812

A few days late for a strict 200th anniversary, but the armies are now on the map for the start of my solo Peninsular War (type) campaign. It is 19th January 1812, the armies are emerging from their Winter quarters, apart from Montbrun's force, which is returning from an extended forced march to assist Suchet in the East. The Allies have Ciudad Rodrigo, which has a Spanish garrison, but the French still hold Badajoz.

Galicia, Cataluna, Valencia and all of Andalucia apart from Badajoz, Zafra and Huelva are regarded as self-contained and off-limits. There is no way that Suchet or Soult are going to help anyone else, thank you. The supply depots are not yet marked on the map, but are, initially, French: Bayonne and Madrid - Allied: Lisbon and Porto. Spanish irregulars do not need supply depots.

Initial positions indicate that the cavalry needs to be spread out among the field armies, and the Allies had better start thinking about controlling Badajoz, so should get the siege train on the road.

Objectives? If the French capture Lisbon, they win. If the Allies control Castilla they win. Anything else is how you write it up.

I'll not bombard the blog with weekly reports - times will slip a bit anyway - this is a fairly relaxed campaign! The rules are sort of complete but do not exist in a form I would wish to publish yet. I'll put out an update occasionally if there is something to say - battles would be appropriate! If you wish to see detailed OOBs they are here and here, and there have been various posts discussing elements of the rules and philosophy. On the map, blue counters are French, white are Anglo-Portuguese, black are Spanish - the strengths and exact locations of partisan forces are deliberately a bit vague...