Solo Campaign - Week 7

In short supply in Wellington's army

[Hard-tack biscuit, in Army (L) and Navy (R) styles]

After all the fighting last week, this has been mostly a week of rest for the French, and of marching on very short rations for Wellington's force heading towards Lugo.

Week 07

Random Events

Nothing new. There will be some mutterings in the British Parliament, but nothing official.  

Housekeeping

The 3D3 activation throws give Allies 7, French 7 – since French had initiative in last week, they continue to have it – they choose to allow Allies to move first.

Moves

Allies (7 allowed)

1 – A (Wellington) completes retreat over rough roads to Lugo after defeat at Benavente. This requires a test:

2D3 = 4 +3 (Wellington’s rating -1 (army is tired) -1 (winter conditions) -1 (brown road) = 4    - this result means that the army completes the march but is Tired  - since the Army is already Tired it becomes Demoralised (see below)...

2 – having marched away from his supply route through Zamora, Wellington is now Out of Supply. One Order this week is to arrange for the Navy to ship supplies to Vigo....

3 – ...and one is for a new Supply Base to be set up at Vigo. [It will be 2 weeks – Week 09 – before supplies start to arrive by this route. This means that Force A will be Out of Supply in Week 8 also, and since this is the second such week, the Group will be Demoralised again next week.

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

5 – Similarly Ang-Port E (Cotton) makes the same march

6 – Sp D (Maceta, at Avila) rests

 [Intelligence step –

• Nothing new – no scouting orders]

 

French (7 allowed)

1 – N (Marmont) holds position at Leon, allowing Tired troops to recover

2 – L (Montfort’s brigade, at Talavera) marches 1 step to Caceres...

3 – ...and Group L is joined to K, at Caceres, all under Maucune.

4 – S (Jourdan, at Madrid) rests – thus Neuenstein’s brigade recovers.

[Intelligence step -

• No scouting orders]

Supplies and Demoralisation

Anglo-Portuguese Group A (Wellington, at Lugo) is Out of Supply until Week 09. This will cause Demoralisation next week, but the force is Demoralised this week already because of rough retreat after Benavente.

Demoralisation tests result in a further block/base being lost to sickness and desertion for the following units:

1/Coldstream Gds, 1/79^th Ft, 1/88^th Ft, Combined Lt Coys of Wallace’s Bde, 2/83^rd Ft, 2/9^th Ptgse, 1/21^st Ptgse, 2/21^st Ptgse, 11^th LD, 14^th LD, 16^th LD, 1^st Dgns KGL, 2^nd Dgns KGL, and Gardiner’s battery RA abandoned their remaining guns.

Wellington’s force thus lost a further 1500 infantry, 550 cavalry and 2 guns on the retreat, and demoralisation will continue next week..

Contacts

None

Narrative

Wellington’s defeated force suffered further during the retreat over the poor roads to Lugo. The cavalry and the artillery did particularly badly – many horses lost – and desertion, sickness and men becoming separated from their units and falling behind resulted in a further 2050 men lost in total. Gardiner’s battery, attached to the First Divn, were already in poor shape after Benavente, and had to abandon their 2 remaining guns on the road. Third Divn is temporarily commanded by Col. Wallace of the 88^th Foot in Picton’s absence – Picton has a shell splinter in his shoulder, and is expected to be fit in a few weeks. Portuguese brigade in the Third Divn and KGL brigade in the First Divn are now very much reduced in strength.

The commands of Espana (Spanish troops) and Cotton (Anglo-Portuguese 6^th Divn + much of the cavalry) marched from Salamance to Zamora, the intention being to support Wellington at Lugo.

Wellington’s force is temporarily Out of Supply, and the Navy has been ordered to ship supplies to Vigo, which becomes new Supply Base. Wellington will not receive supplies by this new arrangement until Week 9, so will continue to be Demoralised next week.

French army mostly recovering from previous exertions, though Maucune’s Divn at Caceres has called in its detached brigade and is now combined to full strength.

Trouble Next Door

Tantallon Castle today

After Cromwell's victory at the Battle of Dunbar, in 1650, raiding groups of Scottish horsemen known as the Moss Troopers and the Desperado Gallants continued to operate against the English army, and they were based at the East Lothian castles of Innerwick, Dirleton and Tantallon. Innerwick was soon abandoned, but Dirleton and Tantallon required formal sieges before they were suppressed. Tantallon is of particular interest to me since it is near to my house - right next door in rural terms - and, while I know it well as a local ruin and tourist site, in the 12 years I have lived here I have never got round to finding out much about it, a situation which may seem as strange as it is lamentable.

I am currently reading a lot about the English Civil Wars, and, of course, I now have the opportunity to make good a little of my lack of knowledge. One valuable advantage of living in Scotland is that you can't move for history - it sort of drips off the walls. There are a great many fantastic sites worth visiting, and many of them are well-maintained and accessible - the National Trust for Scotland is a fine institution. Good so far - you can get there and you can look around - but the history itself is not so straightforward. It depends who you ask...

I am not a native of Scotland. I have lived here most of my life, but I did not have the advantage of learning the history and the traditions as part of my upbringing and education. I've made a couple of brave attempts to get to grips with the history, but I didn't do awfully well. I got halfway through Prof JD Mackie's standard work and realised I would have to start again - I had literally lost the plot. Second time through I was taking notes and everything, but it was still very heavy going, and I was very glad there was no exam at the end. Convoluted. Scotland has had periods when there were several kings on the go at the same time. Some of them were Danes, some were Picts, some of them may even have been Scots. The constant conflicts that went on are confused by the superimposition of family, religious and political divisions, and the fact that half of them seem to have been called David doesn't help. And then, of course, they intermarried, and murdered each other, and the French and the accursed English kept getting involved. Even when formal warfare was not current, something very like it would be carried on by the main families.

I apologise wholeheartedly if this seems dismissive or in any other way disrespectful - it is not intended to be so - it is just a summary of the struggle that I, as a relative outsider, have had to understand what went on here - and we are speaking of matters which people have lived and died and fought for over centuries, and from which many of the factions and the grievances are still around today, so I really do have to watch what I say.

Anyway - back to Tantallon. There have been a number of sieges there over the years, but the last was in 1651. It was severely damaged by General Monk's men, and I believe that the Desperado Gallants were granted surrender terms which were much more generous than they expected. Subsequently the castle was substantially demolished to prevent its future use as a military base. The account of the 1651 siege also relates that the walled community of Castletown adjacent to Tantallon had to be fought over first. These days Castleton is merely a farm, with a steading and a Victorian house and a line of 4 cottages - it doesn't look like a military objective. Obviously it was a thriving little town in the 17th Century.

There is some good material and some enthusiastic artwork on a website here. Mostly I am reminded that I am overdue another visit to the castle - it is one of my son's favourite days out, but you have to pick your day carefully. If the weather is not completely favourable, it is potentially the windiest, most wretched place you can find around here. Anyway, I have some more reading to do before I'm ready.

The Siege of Tantallon 1651

A more traditional moody view of the castle, this one painted by Thomas Moran about a hundred years ago. This picture is of personal interest to us since it is obviously viewed from a location we know as 'Our Secret Beach', which is only accessible at low tide - and it's hairy enough then. Either Moran was a quick painter or else he took sandwiches and blankets and toughed it out for the duration

Hooptedoodle #45 - Pragmatism, and the Marino Festival

This has the makings of one of my more pointless posts, so please move on if you're not in the mood. Recently I was involved in the pub in a good-going discussion about Europe, and we touched on reasons why Britain was never going to be a comfortable inner member of the EU (or whatever set of letters is now correct). For a start, Europe is just stuffed with foreigners, which is always going to be a problem. For another thing, the British instinct to obey regulations and then whinge about them makes us bad material for such a role. And then there's our attitude. Given that our preferred stance is to stand on the fringes and sneer, it would hardly be surprising if eventually someone were to ask us to go away.

Some years ago, the makers of a world-famous blue cheese in Yorkshire were obliged to clean up their act in accordance with EU regulations, and they did so, and whatever microbes were responsible for their famous blue cheese just curled up and died. The cheese is no more. Oh my God - another terrible affront from the faceless bureaucrats in Brussels. Harrumph etc.

Round about the same time, a friend of mine who manufactures Camembert cheese in Normandy was given the same set of regulations. He is still in business. His cheese is, literally, alive and well. How can this be?

Well. to be frank about it, he did exactly what the bureaucrats expected him to do. Nothing. He ignored the regs. He said "Yes, sir, three bags full, sir." but realised that his livelihood depended on the bugs in his factory, so he did - well, sort of nothing. That's how proper Europe works. The regulators would have expected nothing else.

Also some years ago, I had a very lazy, overfed holiday in a rarified part of Tuscany, and got friendly with the Maitre D in the local restaurant (as one does). One day my wife-of-the-day and I ordered a Florentine steak, and I was astonished. The flavour was unmistakeable. I have eaten steak in the USA - I understand about maturing prime beef. I grabbed the Maitre D - "That is a wonderful steak," I said, "but I know perfectly well that it has been matured for far longer than is legal in Europe - can you talk me through this?" He laughed. "We are practical people in Italy - if we need to hang a steak for 36 or 40 days we'll do it. If we need to say something different on the certificate to keep the regulators happy, we'll do that too - why make them miserable?"

I love that. Someone might suggest that it is dishonest, but excellent steaks and excellent compliance can both exist in the same world if you work at it.

The Italians are wonderfully pragmatic people. I love Italy, and I greatly admire the Italians' ability to focus most of their attention on things that really matter - food, wine, music, sex, happiness. I'll end this post with a story which has no merit at all except that I like it as an example of exactly this sort of pragmatism. My friend Tom is half Italian - his mother was Italian, though he grew up in Scotland. When he finished his university degree, he went to live in Italy for a while, and worked as a teacher, teaching English as a foreign language in Rome. While he was there, he married a local girl, and brought her back to Scotland. So Tom has many relatives in Italy. On one of his first visits to meet his new extended family, he found that he was required to help at the wine festival in Marino, Lazio. A feature of this festival is that, every year on 1st October, there is a miracle - the fountains in the centre of the town suddenly stop producing water and start to produce the local white wine. Now I think you may admit that this is a very useful kind of miracle indeed. Tom realised very quickly that this supernatural event coincided with a tanker-lorry full of wine being connected to the fountain with plastic hoses, but the festival is still played out each year, with priests and townspeople openly celebrating the miracle, in full knowledge that it is, in fact, a sham. Tom spoke to the local priest - "How is this a miracle?". "But of course it's a miracle," came the answer, "the very fact that we are able to make wonderful wine here is a miracle - what more do you want?". Tom couldn't think of anything else, in fact.

Tom's recollection of his first Marino festival is hazy. At one point, since he was related to some local worthy, he was put in charge of the fountain for a few hours. He was armed with a large carton of paper cups, and was required to make sure that anyone who wanted a drink from the fountain could have one. For some reason he cannot recall, Tom became very tired after a while, and had to be relieved. He still hopes that the townspeople and the priests were not too disappointed in his lack of stamina.

What if.....?

Sir David Baird? - nah...

My previous post gives the details on a fairly substantial defeat for the Allied army in the Peninsula in my solo campaign, and Ross's appended comment to that post raises the question of comeback - poor old Arthur Wellesley, for all his changing titles and honours, lived constantly under the threat of being replaced if things went against him, or even if Parliament took a dislike to the manner in which they went in his favour.

I reproduce here a couple of relevant pages of the British Army List for January 1812. In all innocence, I ask the question - because I really have no idea - if Wellington had been pulled from the Peninsular in 1812 (or any time, really), who would have replaced him?

Most of his peers in the Army were geriatric and/or useless, his subordinates in Spain were maybe not the required material, either by talent or by seniority or by influence. Any suggestions? If Wellesley had been removed, who, of the available people, would have been

(1) a likely replacement, or

(2) a good replacement?

Just a bit of fun. I can't get past the David Bairds and the Dalrymples and the other aged good chaps, but there must have been someone. Graham was a good subordinate, but I'm not sure he could have handled the top job, and in any case his health was uncertain. Hill was healthier, but maybe typecast in the same way. Beresford was hated by most of the British General Staff (for whatever reason), and was basically an administrator. Cotton was strictly Wellington's second in command around this time, but he would have made an awkward supremo...

Any ideas? I was going to run a poll, but I thought that listing candidates would distort the results, and anyway I don't know how to do it! Here's the pages from the Army List for top guys in Jan 1812...

Solo Campaign - Battle of Benavente – 28th February 1812

It took a few days to get round to fighting this battle, so I've fallen behind the real-time calendar, not that it matters, and in any case I should be able to make up time during non-fighting weeks.

[Preamble – rules and suchlike. Even with detached forces, for this action the French army would require over 40 leaders and units in a conventional CCN game, and the Allies not much less. It is clear (to me, anyway) that such a game would be unplayable, so I used my own Grand Tactical tweaked version of CCN – first time in anger. It worked well enough, though initially it feels conceptually strange, and there are still points to be cleared up concerning the use of artillery batteries attached to infantry or cavalry brigades. Nothing arose which could not be decided as I went along, though I took a couple of notes for possible future changes – again, details only. In this amended form, the big differences in the game are that the “units” in the game become brigades, and there is no musketry fire – the game scale is reduced (increased?) to the point where musketry becomes part of melee combat. The only “ranged combat” is thus artillery fire, and the effect is greatly reduced, with batteries smaller and ranges reduced to fit the ground scale.

5 Command Cards each side, French move first throughout, 8 Victory Banners for the win.]

Narrative: Wellington, having left the Sixth Divn and much of his cavalry to cover the crossings on the Duero, marched the remainder of his army into the Leon area, to threaten Marmont’s flank and his communications through Burgos. Marmont, still with his hand forced by orders from Paris to take an aggressive stance rather than leave Castile, moved to intercept the Anglo-Portuguese army. He also left behind part of his force, under Clauzel, to cover the Duero. The pickets of the two armies made contact on the road from Salamanca to Leon, some miles north of Benavente, during the night of 27th February.

In the early morning of the 28th, Marmont found that the Allies had a fairly strong defensive position near the village of Villa Quejida, with their left flank in woods, on the bank of the (unfordable) River Esla.

Marmont had Foy’s Division from the Armee de Portugal, part of D’Armagnac’s Division from the Armee du Centre (comprising Chasse’s German brigade and St Paul’s Italians) and Guye’s Division, also from the Armee du Centre (comprising Merlin’s brigade of King Joseph’s Guard and Casapalacios’ brigade of King Joseph’s Spanish line troops). His cavalry was organised into 4 strong brigades under Montbrun, the heavy cavalry brigades commended by Pierre Boyer and Treillard, and the light by Maupoint and Curto.

Wellington, inferior in both cavalry and artillery, took a reverse slope position on the hill which dominated the area, with the Foot Guards brigade placed on an outlying hill on the right, with the artillery of the First Division. The centre was held by the brigades of Blantyre and Low from First Division, and by Halkett’s and Bernewitz’ brigades from Seventh Divn, these last two brigades being his only available designated light infantry. The lower ground near the river was held by Picton’s Third Division. The two small cavalry brigades were placed in the rear of the right flank (Anson’s light dragoons) and the centre (Bock’s KGL dragoons).

The fighting was hectic and possession of the ridge swung back and forth a few times, but the story of the battle is simply told; Marmont made early use of a Bayonet Charge Command card, and made a massive attack in the centre. The Italian brigade suffered severe losses and broke fairly quickly, but Foy’s two brigades forced their way onto the higher ground. General Picton himself brought Palmeirim’s Portuguese brigade up, after they had been delayed by Command card difficulties, and succeeded in pushing Foy’s troops back. At this point Foy received a bayonet wound in his thigh while leading the 6eme Leger, of Chemineau’s brigade, and was taken to the rear.

By this stage, the Allied infantry on the ridge were exhausted, and Foy’s men took a measure of revenge for the loss of their leader, rallying and regaining the ridge. A critical moment came when the valiant Portuguese finally gave way, Picton being seriously wounded as he attempted to rally them. On the Allied right, things were also going badly, as the Foot Guards, though in square, were broken by Treillard’s heavy cavalry, led with great courage and extraordinarily lucky dice rolls by Montbrun (in his new “Lasalle” guise). Treillard’s men, encouraged (not to say surprised) by this success, rushed on to press home a Bonus Combat (as defined in CCN), swept away Anson’s light dragoons and overran Gardiner’s foot battery. With the loss of Picton, the French now had a margin in Victory Banners of 9-4, and the day was won, the margin being officially Decisive.

OOBs

French Army – Marshal Auguste Marmont, Duc de Raguse

Gen de Divn MS Foy (w)
Brigade Chemineau – 6e leger & 69e ligne (5 bns in total)
Brigade Desgraviers – 39e & 76e Ligne (4 bns)
1 horse battery
1 foot battery

Gen de Divn D’Armagnac
Brigade Chasse – Regt de Prusse, 3e Berg, 4e Hesse-Darmstadt (4 bns)
Brigade St Paul (Italians) – 2e leger, 3e & 5e ligne (5 bns)
1 Italian foot battery

Gen de Divn N Guye
Brigade Merlin (King’s Guard) – Grenadiers, Fusiliers & Voltigeurs (5 bns)
Brigade Casapacios (Spanish) – Castilla, Toledo, Royal Etranger (4 bns)
1 horse battery (King’s Guard)

Gen de Divn Montbrun
Brigade Boyer – 15e & 25 Dragons
Brigade Curto – 3e Hussards, 13e, 22e & 26e Chasseurs a Cheval
Brigade Treillard – 13e Cuirassiers, 4e Dgns, Dragoni Napoleone, Vistula Lancers
Brigade Maupoint – 1st & 2nd Pommerian ChevauxLegers, 5e Chev-Lanciers
1 horse battery

Total 28240 men with 34 guns – loss approx 6040 men and 2 guns

Allied Army – Earl of Wellington

First Divn (Sir Thomas Graham)
Henry Campbell’s brigade – Coldstream & 3rd Foot Guards
Blantyre’s brigade – 2/24th, 1/42nd, 2/58th & 1/79th Foot
Von Low’s brigade – 1st, 2nd & 5th Bns KGL
1 foot battery

Third Divn (Sir Thomas Picton (w))
Wallace’s brigade – 1/45th, 74th & 88th Foot
John Campbell’s brigade – 2/5th, 2/83rd & 94th Foot
Palmeirim’s (Portuguese) bde – 9th & 21st Regts (2 bns each) & 11th Cacadores
1 foot battery

Seventh Divn (part) (Sir John Hope)
Halkett’s brigade – 1st & 2nd Light bns, KGL & Brunswick-Oels jaegers
Bernewitz’s brigade – 51st & 68th Foot & Chasseurs Britanniques
1 horse battery

Cavalry (George Anson)
Anson’s brigade – 11th, 14th & 16th Light Dgns
Von Bock’s brigade – 1st & 2nd dragoons, KGL

Total 23300 men with 18 guns – loss approx 7490 men and 4 guns

Both armies heavily disorganised by the action – Allies retreated towards Lugo (which is a rough road) – French remained on the field to look after their wounded and reorganise. The Allied retreat may give rise to Demoralisation, since the roads are bad, weather is still wintery, and the army is defeated and tired to start with. Will assess this in next week’s returns.

Allied position at the start, seen from their right

...and the French, from their left

Nicolas Guye, with King Joseph's Guard - the small brigades took a bit of getting used to 

Foy leads the main attack in the centre

The French attack, seen from behind the Allied position

The French move quickly to seize the initiative, thanks to favourable Command cards

Montbrun sets about the British Foot Guards on the hillock

The Allies' last hope - Picton brings in the Portuguese brigade (right side of picture)

Ouch! - MS Foy is wounded - still brings tears to my eyes thinking of it

New Celebrity Look-alike at Chateau Foy

Surely it can't be.... Lasalle?

Correct, it isn't. Since it is forever 1812 here, Lasalle has been dead for 3 years or so. Nice find on eBay - one of Jorg Schmaeling's little masterpieces for Art Miniaturen. In an ideal world, this would, in fact, be Lasalle, but I have tweaked him a bit, retouched the paint job to help disguise the handiwork of a pro painter and rebased to the house standard - in short, I've sort of coarsened the figure so he will fit in!

This is now an all-purpose flash French cavalry commander - in the current campaign he will be Montbrun, but he would also work as an over-the-top colonel of Chasseurs a Cheval looking after a brigade. Because the figure is to have a multi-purpose role, I've waived the usual coloured border round the base to denote rank.

This is as near as my collection gets to class...    Now - into The Cupboard with him.

FaceBook - Lifestyle Concept

I was amused by this, a portrayal of FaceBook-style behaviour out of context. By the way, I had a cup of coffee an hour ago, and it wasn't great.