Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros - the Game

Yesterday evening the Espinosa game was duly played out here. I was umpire (I feel that I was somehow born to be an umpire - it's a role I enjoy greatly), and the visiting generals for the occasion were Dave and - erm - Dave. Dave took the role of Joachim Blake, in command of the Spanish army, and Dave was Marshal Victor. Since this is all too much for a bear of little brain, I was pleased to adopt forms of address suggested by the visitors, derived from ancient British TV sitcoms - Marshal Victor (whose real name was Claude Perrin) became Reggie Perrin, of course (otherwise known as Vic of Belluno), and General Blake was "Blakey" - so that was much more comfortable all round.

Blakey

Perrin

The battle involved a minimal cavalry presence - both armies had just two light cavalry units tucked away at the back, but both the commanders threw their cavalry forward, which was a much more exciting start than I had expected.

The Spanish position on their right looked a bit suspect, having a river at their backs, but the ground was quite favourable, with hills and woods offering some advantages in defence, and this was where all the Spanish artillery was placed. Victor duly left this flank alone, and sent in Lapisse's division, to attack the Spanish left, which had no artillery and included a contingent of rather suspect milicias provinciales. The militia boys did rather well, considering, and after some early reverses they managed to drive Lapisse's force back, but it was only a temporary breather.

The narrative should become sort of apparent from the photos, I hope. One important theme was the heroism of General Blake, who seemed to be determined to die in action, but somehow survived. Another theme was that the Spanish artillery was ineffective throughout - that load of cheap gunpowder they got from the Gomez brothers was probably not a good idea. The Spaniards, under the house rules, are in real trouble if they attempt to move and fight at the same time, and the weak cavalry units are a problem.

Having said all of which, both generals conducted themselves very well, the battle was interesting (at least the umpire found it so!), and, though the final score in Victory Points was 8-2 to the French, General Blake comes out of the episode with some personal credit, certainly for his skill at getting in the press coverage. Marshal Victor, of course, won, which is what it's all about in Napoleon's army.

My thanks to my visiting generals for their good humour and enthusiasm, and for surviving an embarrasing collapse of our rural broadband which knocked Zoom out for 5 minutes or so!

Early view from behind the Spanish left and centre - the fighting on the ridge on the left is in a bit of a lull, but - yes - that's General Blake on the right edge of the picture, taking personal command of the cavalry. His staff were overcome with horror. The black square marker next to a French regiment indicates that they are in square (good eh?).

Again, from behind the Spanish lines - this time just to the right of centre - here you see the Spanish artillery, whose performance was - how do you say? - disappointing. The French were very circumspect about attacking this part of the line.

General Blake again, posing for the camera with the Cazadores de Olivenza. This figure, by the way, is an OOP Falcata, and was (whisper it) actually painted by Hermogenes, the man who founded Falcata. There are few known examples of evidence of Hermogenes having actually done something, so this is a rarity indeed. Yes, General Blake does look like Brendan Rodgers - in which role he is almost certainly proud of the spirit and character of his team, who were thrashed again...

More of the same - the French cavalry in the background are obviously intending to do something about this, and this area of the battlefield became a little hectic for a while.

The Spanish cavalry, rather reduced in numbers, pull back for a rest.

At this stage, the French are leading 4-1 - there is a lot of space between the Spanish left and centre, and Victor's men are coming forward.

From the French view - town of Espinosa in the background. Having been forced to give up his spell as a cavalry commander, Blake has now taken command of a battalion of line infantry.

From above the Spanish centre, looking left - yes, Blake is at it again, this time leading the infantry forward.

Still the Spanish artillery have only scored a single hit on the infantry opposite, but the grenadiers in the wood, with a stunning volley of musketry, have done some damage to the French battery on the road.

General view, looking toward the Spanish left flank. By this stage, the game was almost over - the Spanish had lost enough infantry on their left flank, plus their cavalry, to get the score up to 7-2. Then, a final attack on the right by some Spanish light infantry ran into very heavy opposition, and the battle was over - 8-2 to Victor.

This is what remained of the Spanish left at the end - view from behind Lapisse's position.

Coup de grace (French for "lawn-mower") - The Freitag battalion (1/26eme - centre foreground) emerged from the woods at the end to rout the Spanish lights and clinch the victory. Job done.

Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros (10-11 Nov 1808) - Set-Up

There'll be a wargame here during this week - to keep myself entertained I set up the battlefield yesterday. Looks OK - I am using a slightly expanded version of the official Commands & Colors: Napoleonics scenario, the table is 17 hexes by 9, so there are a few extra units, and the terrain is corrected very slightly.

I may produce a write-up sometime - a lot depends on whether or not I remember to take photos!

General view, from the French left flank - yes, the Spaniards will be defending with an unfordable river behind their right - it's OK - that's how they like it

And from the other flank - the Spanish position on the ridge in the right foreground looks promising, but there are a lot of Provinciales up there (and we are talking triple retreats...)

Marshal Victor, the French commander, gets some reports - we should always remember that Victor's real name was Claude Perrin, so leaves on the line may be a hazard to be watched out for. Those dreadful chairs will be tidied away before any action

Hooptedoodle #374 - Tales of Shopping during Lockdown

(1) The international parcel saga - as mentioned a few days ago, I made an online purchase in the USA, and it took 12 days for the parcel to travel from somewhere in Massachusetts to the Global Shipping Center at Erlanger KY. I am astounded to relate that, though the scope for detailed tracking rather dropped out of sight thereafter, the package duly arrived on my doorstep in South-East Scotland bang on the promised date, so the international part of the trip took only 5 days, despite the involvement of Pitney-Bowes [who?] and Hermes at this end.

So, as promised, I have to admit that I am very favourably impressed. Credit where credit is due. Well done, everyone.

(2) A happy coincidence - I was pleased to manage to obtain a pre-owned copy of David Chandler's Marlborough as Military Commander online for only £6 plus P&P, and it duly arrived, promptly and tidily, from a bookshop in Bradford. I was very pleased to find that the book was clean and tight, but was especially happy to find a label on the inner cover revealing that it was previously owned by Charlie Wesencraft, no less. Since I read somewhere that Charlie was a close friend of Dr Chandler, I had a mad idea that I might have got an author's signature for my £6 as well, but alas, no!

I now have a number of books which were previously owned by celebs, as it happens - a set of The Dickson Manuscripts and a set of Sauzey's volumes on French Napoleonic allies, both formerly owned by George Nafziger, and a couple of ECW books once owned by Peter Young. These were all just flukes - there are a couple more, but at present I can't remember what they are, or who they came from. I did once buy a book on eBay which had previously been owned by me, but that is another tale, and rather embarrassing.

(3) An unusually fortunate purchase on eBay [UK]. Someone tipped me off that there was an item which looked like the sort of thing I might be interested in (old toy soldiers of an old-fashioned size). I checked it out and, yes, I was interested. The seller was someone I've dealt with before, and he comes up with some very nice old stuff from time to time. Starting bid was £12. The seller was also open to offers - based on past experience of what these figures typically go for, I made an offer of £16. Rejected.

OK - I upped my offer to £21. Also rejected. This was getting a bit steep for me, so I just placed a normal auction bid of £16 - there were 6 days to go. I reckoned I would be happy if I got them for that, and I would have been fairly priced out of the market if I didn't.

I was out this evening, but got home to find that I had won the item for the £12 starting price. No other bids, no other interest. Obviously we win a few and we lose a few, but it demonstrates the risks of making (or not accepting) offers on an auction item - risks both ways, of course, but I'd have happily paid the £21...

Featherstonia: Tony Bath's Medieval Rules

Another packet of gold dust from the Mighty Albannach. Have a look at this lot, then! Originally published by Don Featherstone's Wargamer's Newsletter.

Please enjoy - thanks again, Iain - you're a hero.

WSS - King Louis' Footbath

Time to get back to the WSS refurb work, so I'm starting with some easy stuff - let's soak the old bases off some ex-Eric Knowles French infantry, and clean them up, ready for retouching. In fact these guys look pretty good - there are a few bent muskets to sort out (and associated flaked paint) but by and large these look mostly like a wash and varnish job. [If I had a pound for every time I've thought this, I would have - ooh - several pounds, I would think]

First WSS job in the queue, strictly speaking, is an Austrian regiment, IR Haßlingen (2 battalions), which is hanging over from Phase 1, so I'll get started with them. These French chaps, once I have counted them and sorted out what's what, can get boxed up as potential battalions, then the next footbath load will be some more French, from elsewhere. After that I'm looking at British and Dutch, and goodness knows where we get to from there, but first off I need to work out a supply of cavalry - I have a load of cavalry figures, but they are all strip-and-start-again stuff. There will be a shortage of vintage figures for cavalry and artillery, so I'll also check out what I need to get in from Irregular. I'm also thinking seriously of having two standards per battalion for both French and British, just for the look of the thing, so I'll have a look at that. I also rather fancy getting some mounted officers from Irregular to provide French colonels, since the no-cuirass look is better for them

So - one step at a time - these French chappies can be soaking for a few days while I get set up to paint Haßlingen. Once they are clean and I have played around at organising them into units I can decide what else I need to get in. Busy busy. Idle hands are the Devil's fake news.


Footnote: today I have switched back to the "legacy" version of Blogger, since the new one will not allow me to set up a new post. The new one also will not let me collect a folder of images, to be inserted one at a time as I require them. With New Blogger, as far as I can see, you have to upload your images as you need them - if you don't insert them immediately, in a single lot, you will lose the folder and have to upload them again. Oh well. The new version has been going fairly well, and offers some facilities the old one didn't have - no doubt I'll like it again in a week or two, but at the moment it is a pain in the erse.

Hooptedoodle #373 - Annie Ross

Sad to learn that the death has occurred of Annie Ross, the singer - mostly known in Scotland as Jimmy Logan's sister, and mostly not known very much at all elsewhere. Annie was a class act - she joined the prestigious American vocal act Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, a move which was almost unknown for a British artist in those days.

Here's a link to (probably) their most famous record - Centrepiece, from 1958. Quality. Love this stuff. The trumpeter, by the way [nerd section], is probably the great Harry Edison, since he is credited as co-composer on the recording. [If the link doesn't play - which is happening to me a lot lately - just click on "Play in Youtube"]

Hooptedoodle #372 - A Modern Epic - Heroism in Very Small Steps

Morning run - the brave boys from USPS set off with another day's deliveries

Recently, I was brave enough to purchase something online from the United States. I used to do this from time to time in the past, but have sort of got out of the habit. Shipping prices and other overheads have become more problematic (various reasons), and I have a faint concern that the handlers will realise that the package is intended for the hostile liberals overseas, and may drive a fork-lift over it, or urinate on it, or similar (call me nervously imaginative if you will).

At the time I made the purchase, a delivery date of 28th-29th July was estimated, which seemed very optimistic, but no matter - I am not in a particular rush, and I am in any case now a veteran of a recent post-lockdown postal experience of air-freight from New Zealand which took a few months, so I have the calm which comes from experience. It's OK - these are tricky times - the brave chaps on the high seas will do their best for me. Whatever. We have to be grateful.

So I was pretty relaxed about my parcel - it will get here, but it might not make it by 28th July. Hey, there are lots of people in the world with real problems, so I can stand to wait a week or two. This morning I received an email message to say that my package had arrived at the courier, and was out for delivery.

Fantastic! - in a state of some excitement, I followed the links to get some tracking details of this miracle of space-age logistics.

Hmmm. What has happened is that it has arrived at the start of the international bit of its journey. All the previous toil and endeavour appears to have been local bits of USPS handing it on to each other - or maybe putting it back in the bin for tomorrow - or maybe rubber-stamping something [come on - I can't be expected to understand how these things work]. What seems to me like the hard bit has not begun yet, and I have not even mentioned import tax and all the glumph at this end. So I've gone back to my previous assumption that it will not make it by 28th. We have not yet got to tales of aeroplanes flying over the ocean, or Big Tam with the size 12 boots at the depot in Edinburgh.

Mind you, there's still 5 days to go. If it makes it, I promise I shall sing their praises on this very blog. I'm not too worried, to be honest - if it's late it serves me right for being rash - but this view of the innards of the gig economy at work doesn't impress me as much as I had hoped.

***** Late Digression *****

Nothing to do with the above (apart from implications of international shipping, I guess), but I've just got word from Allan at Lancashire Games that they will be stocking Vauban's Wars when it is printed and released. Just thought I should mention it...

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