Plans for 2018

With 2017 coming to a close, it is now time to look at what I intend to do in 2018. 'Intention' of course is not necessarily what I achieve and it will be interesting to see at the end of next year precisely what I have completed! I will break it down into 'Battles', 'Campaigns' and 'Painting'.

Nap Campaign: The Battle of Rock Valley (Spain)

Lobau was concerned that Spanish forces from the north of the country could cut off his supply lines as he advanced into Spain and Portugal. Intelligence had informed him that those forces that did exist in the north were relatively small but could still prove to be a nuisance. Therefore, he detached a smaller force from the 6th Corps and placed it under the 19th Divisional commander, Lt Gen Simmer. His intructions were to eliminate any possible threat in northern Spain and then join Lobau for his invasion of Portugal.

Simmer crossed the border and made for the only crossing of a river that ran from the mountains to Lake Zeebaden. Scouts reported that a Spanish force was defending the crossing. (Simmer was not aware of the presence of Spanish guerrillas in the mountains to their north).

Nap Campaign: The Battle of Brandenlea (Spain)

At dawn on 8th March 1808 Lobau crossed the border into Spain with his main force directly headed for the capital Brandenlea. He has with him 2 brigades of infantry and 2 brigades of cavalry with more following up behind him. He is hoping for a swift victory and with more units joining him from the 6th Corps this would be followed up by a quick advance into Portugal. With the Portuguese capital, Youngsport, captured quickly it would prevent British reinforcements from landing.

As word reaches the Spanish commander, Morillo, that Lobau has crossed the border, he moved out of Brandenlea with the bulk of the Spanish army to intercept them. Even though he has only 2 small infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade, most of which are inexperienced, he is confident that they will prevail in defence of their homeland. 

Nap Campaign: The Battle of High Otway

For this particular battle I dusted off my 15mm figures as I felt it would be better represented at this scale. The only problem I had was that all my 15mm figures were for the Peninsular War. Therefore, I had to take some liberties. For this battle my Peninsular War British stood in for the Hanoverians and my Spanish took the part of the Dutch/Belgians. On to the battle:

THE BATTLE OF HIGH OTWAY - HOLLAND/BELGIUM

French v Hanoverians & Dutch/Belgians

Total French = 204

CinC Lt Gen Marcognet

Total Allied = 177

CinC Col Best

Figure Scale = 15mm

7th March 1808

1300 hrs (max 16 moves)

Nap Campaign: Map Moves 7th March 1808

The first thing to note about the maps are that the numbers listed in the movement tiles are now the numbers of figures rather than the number of men. Here is the overall situation by the end of the day 7th March 1808:

Napoleonic Campaign Early Map Moves

As a reminder, this is the situation at the start of the campaign with a date of 1st March 1808. 

Napoleon starts to move his forces towards the French borders. He has split his army into 3 commands:

Army of the East (or the Grande Armee):

CinC Napoleon - Old and Middle Guards, Heavy Cav of Guard, Guard Arty, 2nd Corps minus 7th Div and 3rd Cav Corps.

Army of the West:

CinC Marshall Grouchy - 1st Corps, 4th Cav Corps, 7th Div, Young Guard, Guard Light Cav.

Army of the South:

CinC Marshall Soult - 6th Corps, 3rd Cav Div, 5th Cav Div

Napoleonic Campaign

I have said that I would probably not add this to my blog due to the time involved, but then I thought what the heck! So here goes for my Napoleonic Campaign:

I have always enjoyed playing out campaigns which add a whole new dynamic to fighting battles on the tabletop. An important consideration is losses which can have serious implications for future battles if a commander is reckless. When amassing my figures for my Waterloo project I decided to create a campaign which would provide encouragement to get figures painted. This also extended to a Peninsular war project. By using the 100 days campaign orbats in my campaign it meant that all those units could be used outside the limitations of the former. There was not much need for Dutch/Belgians, Nassauers etc. in my Peninsular War project for example. I started this campaign in March 2015. So far there have been 17 battles of various sizes including two naval actions. A couple were fought in 15mm as they were smaller actions but the rest was in 6mm. This campaign has barely started and in reality I am not sure that it will ever finish. It is my little indulgence and mostly fought solo although my sons occasionally dip in.