Busaco 27th September 1810: Turns 17 - Conclusion

 

The situation at the end of turn 16.

JUNOT'S ASSAULT

Turn 17

Junot's Corps begins to climb the ridge and several charges were made. 

I should add here for those not familiar with the rules, each average brigade commander can order up to 2 battalion charges (an exceptional commander 3, poor 1). It is possible to add further charges on battalion initiative. They must roll a 5 or 6 on a D6 dice.

Volleys of musketry opened up across the entire ridge. The allies took the decision not to wait to see the "whites of their eyes" but blaze away intending to inflict the maximum damage on the slow moving columns.

Continued -

Busaco 27th September 1810: Turns 9 - 16

JUNOT'S ASSAULT

Turn 9

Massena decides it is now time to commit Junot's Corps to the assault. As much of the allied army remains out of view on the reverse slope, a dice roll determined where Junot commits his assault. The result was the northern end of the ridge to the right of Ney. All orders are passed successfully and the Corps begins its move.

Turn 10

As Junot's Corps closes the gap they begin to come under fire from 2 allied batteries on the ridge.

Turn 11

Junot's mass of skirmishers begin to engage with their opposite numbers with neither side coming out on top. 

Continued -

Busaco 27th September 1810: Turns 1 - 8

NEY'S ASSAULT

 Turn 1

Ney's advance begins with Marchand's Division ascending 'The Spur' and Loison's heading towards Sula. A swarm of Voltigeurs engage primarily the rifles of the 60th and 95th regiments along with Cacadores deployed as skirmishers. Both sides take early losses but an early stroke of luck lands with the British when a double '6' is rolled upon Lawson's 6pdr foot battery (far lower right) engaging in counter-battery fire with a newly deployed French foot battery (just below the advancing columns).

The French lose one of its 4 guns and will have to withdraw.

Mermet's Division is in a supporting role as the entire corps advances towards the ridge. At the bottom of the photo, Junot's Corps is held in reserve.

Continued -

Busaco 27th September 1810 - Introduction

The next game in my Peninsular War project is Busaco. Napoleon ordered Massena to drive the British from Portugal and during his move south he met Wellington positioned on the 9 mile long ridge at Busaco. It was Wellington's aim to delay the French advance long enough for the defensive Lines of Torres Vedras to be completed to the north of Lisbon.

My game represents the area where the main action occurred. That is the central and northern end of the ridge.

Table Size: 6'9" x 4'6"
Figures: Baccus 6mm
Rules: General de Brigade

Continued -

Battle of Tamames - 18th October 1809

Following on from Talavera, this is the next battle in my Peninsular War project which roughly plays through actions in a chronological order.

In September 1809, the Spanish Duke del Parque assumed command of the old army of Galicia, his native force, which had been recruiting and training in Leon. By 25th September, del Parque had concentrated 25,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry and was awaiting the arrival of the other formation of the Army of the West under Ballesteros. It was his job to pull the French reserves away from Madrid with the expectation that the Army of La Mancha would take advantage of this and advance on the capital.

Facing him were the French 6th Corps commanded by Marchand, centred on Salamanca and numbering just over 14,000. The division of Kellerman added another 5,000. By 5th October, del Parque had advanced from Ciudad Rodrigo to Tamames. As soon as news of this Spanish advance reached Marchand he resolved to attack. On 17th October Marchand departed Salamanca with his entire Corps except for 2 battalions of the 50th Line who were left to hold the city. 

He arrived north of Tamames the following day where he was delighted to see the Spanish deployed to his front and ready for battle.

The initial deployments and first few moves will follow those along historical lines. Thereafter I shall seek to restore French pride or confirm Marchand's over-confidence.

 4'6" x 3' board

General de Brigade rules
All figures Baccus 6mm.

Terrain -
Open wood
Hill - difficult terrain across the whole of the raised area. Amendments to rules - Cavalry formed when stood but unformed as soon as moves. May charge unformed. Artillery may deploy. 

Tamames capacity 120
Chapel (to south of Tamames) capacity 40
Church (to east) capacity 25.

Continued -

Battle of Talavera - Turns 25 - Conclusion

As the French columns began to ascend the steep slopes of the Medellin, the British began to open fire as they came into effective range.

On the northern slope the British look on as Ruffin's division begins to approach. The last British artillery battery opens fire plunging shot into the dense columns.

Continued - 

Battle of Talavera - Turns 17 - 24

 

On the French right, Maubourg's dragoon division, lead by Cavrois' brigade, receive their orders to attack.

As the French dragoons advance, the 4th Dragoons on the middle left of the photo becomes unformed crossing the defile. Fane (bottom left) sees his chance and orders the 3rd Dragoon Guards to charge.

Continued -

Battle of Talavera - Turns 11 - 16

 

Having stated that the French should secure their right flank barring any major setbacks by their cavalry, that setback appears to have arrived! On the right of the photo the French 2nd Hussars charged the Spanish levy dragoons. Halfway into the charge, the morale of the 2nd Hussars evaporated and they halted. The Spanish had no such qualms and counter-charged into the static French light cavalry. In the ensuing melee they defeated the French causing them to retreat.

The French cavalry problems mounted as the rampaging British 3rd Dragoon Guards, pursuing the Hanoverian Chasseurs (on the left), came face to face with the reforming Vistula Legion. Being outpaced by the French light cavalry they ploughed into the Polish cavalry instead comprehensively routing them (I was a little hasty and removed the Poles before taking the photo!).

This also resulted in the demise of the Hanoverians being unable to rally with the British cavalry continue to pursue anything in sight! 

Continued -

Battle of Talavera - Turns 1 - 10

The French plan of attack differed from the original in that they aimed to turn both flanks with less emphasis on the allied centre at least in the initial stages.

On the French right, the attack on the Medellin would be delayed. Ruffin would be tasked with clearing the Spanish infantry from the Segurilla hills while Merlin and Beaumont's cavalry supported by a brigade of dragoons from Maubourg's division would see off the allied cavalry. While this is underway, the grand battery on the Cerro de Cascajal along with skirmishers would clear the western slopes of the Medellin of any British forces.

A combined attack from Ruffin and Vilatte would then descend on the Medellin and hopefully overwhelm it.

On the French left, Leval will aim to capture Talavera with Liger-Belair angling to assault the Pajar redoubt and the junction between the Spanish and British troops. All being well they will rout the Spanish allowing them to turn on the British right flank. Lapisse will keep the British occupied in the centre while both flanks are rolled up.

The first turn consisted of a purely artillery barrage with both sides targeting infantry formations.

Continued -

Battle of Talavera - Introduction

I shall be taking up the action on day 2 of the battle with initial historical deployments. So with that straight onto the AAR:

Scale - 6mm

Figures - Baccus

Rules - General de Brigade

Table size - 6' x 3'9"

Figure ratio - 1:20

Number of turns - 32 (representing a full day's action)

The deployment is after Bassecourt and Alburquerque have reinforced the allied left flank.

Terrain

Medellin - North and East slopes are steep. South slope is good terrain but cavalry and artillery move at half speed.

Cascajal and Segurilla slopes are gentle and good terrain.

Olive Groves - All classed as difficult terrain but only apply a -1 target fire modifier (-2 if behind wall in enclosure). Artillery may only pass through on roads or gaps. Cavalry may operate but only at half speed. May charge but must take a formation test. If unformed they can still charge. Visibility - 10cms.

Pajar Redoubt - Only partially completed. Max 30 figures or 5 gun models. Classed as cover but no morale modifier.

Portina Stream - Good terrain and no obstacle.

Hidden Ravine - Any cavalry crossing must take a formation test. If charging may complete charge even if unformed.

Continued -

The 2nd Battle of Oporto

For details regarding the scenario, orbats etc. see 'The 2nd Battle of Oporto - An Introduction'. https://grymauch.blogspot.com/2018/11/2nd-battle-of-oporto-introduction.html A note about the figures: You will notice many of the British in particular are in later war uniforms. Over time I will be painting more units specifically for the Peninsular but I decided life was too short to paint a whole load more when I already had a significant number, albeit for Waterloo. Not too obvious in 6mm though.

Foy's Brigade deployed within the eastern half of Oporto. (Western half - off table)

Continued -

2nd Battle of Oporto - An introduction

The next battle in my Peninsular War project is the 2nd Battle of Oporto, or the crossing of the Douro, 12th May 1809. 

I have several books that include the battle but do not cover it in any great detail. After hunting around the internet I stumbled across JJ's Wargames blog who had created a scenario for this battle. It seemed ideal and only needed a little tweaking for the different scale and rule system. The full scenario can be found here -

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2018/01/over-hills-play-test-oporto.html

Once again I am going to highlight the versatility of 6mm, especially when space is at a premium. JJ's original scenario, which included a representation of the Douro that I intend to replicate, was played out on a 9' x 5' table. My game will be on a 4'6" x 3' table!

I will again be using a modified version of General de Brigade rules. For this game skirmishing will be introduced. It will be done in an abstract way without actually deploying skirmish figures, a very fiddly proposition in this scale. I will be using the GdB mechanism with a touch of Grande Armee by Sam Mustafa and some of my own tweaks.

Briefly: I will be allocating an SK (skirmisher) value to each unit which collectively forms a Brigade skirmish screen when not acting independently. This will be based on GdB's system of 1D6 for 6 first rate skirmishers, 1D6 for 8 second rate and 1D6 for 4 chosen men of the 95th Rifles. So a French infantry battalion of 36 figures will have one light company of 6 = SK1 or 1D6. A British line battalion of 30 will have one light company of 3 = SK1/2 and so on. 

It will be assumed skirmishers are thrown out ahead of an advance to screen the main body of troops. When in range dice are rolled as per GdB with a '6' scoring a hit. When the main body moves within 6cms of the enemy the skirmishers are automatically recalled. They cannot be deployed if enemy cavalry are within 9cms of the parent or target unit. 

There is more detail to it than this but gives you an idea of how it is going to, hopefully, work. This particular battle should be a decent test bed not being too large that it could get bogged down.

Continued -

The Battle of Vimeiro 21 Aug 1808

Fairly soon I intend to game the Battle of Oporto in my Peninsular War project. This project involves fighting the battles of the Peninsular in chronological order. Initially this will be the battles involving the British forces but in time I intend to add those fought by the Spanish.

For the sake of completeness, I am posting this After Action Report on the Battle of Vimeiro which I played 3 years ago! I had not realised it was so long. This was played solo in my garage before moving to my now permanent wargames room in the house. Lighting was poor so some of the photos are not as clear as I would have liked. I had less 6mm terrain than I have now, particularly with regard to hills. I made do with my existing collection which were designed more for 15mm + figures.

I kept few notes so the detail will be less than usual but I will hopefully be able to convey the progress of the battle that will enable the reader to understand and enjoy the action on the tabletop.

THE BATTLE OF VIMEIRO

21st August 1808

Rules = General de Brigade
Scale = 6mm

Figures = Baccus

Table size = 6'9" x 4'6" 

Continued -

Napoleonic 6mm: Battle of Rolica

ROLICA, PORTUGAL

17th August 1808

6mm Napoleonic Peninsular War

4'6" x 3' Table

This was a battle fought a couple of years ago and the first of what is intended to be a comprehensive refight of as many battles of the Peninsular War as possible in chronological order.

This was also the first test of using General de Brigade rules for 6mm. At the time I used skirmishers but it quickly became apparent that for larger actions it was not practical in this scale. It was simply too fiddly. This game was also played using the Command and Control system in the GdeB rules. Most British units have been painted up for Waterloo so wrong shako, grey trousers and the Dragoons also have wrong shako. Other units had to be used for Portuguese cavalry.

Battle of Corunna 1809

Battle of Corunna 

16 Jan 1809

6mm

Sir John Moore's tomb in San Carlos Gardens, Corunna.
Visited 24th October 2017

Working through the Peninsular war it was time to have a go at Corunna. Using slightly modified General de Brigade rules and Baccus figures on a figure ratio of 1:20. The rules modifications are still a work in progress chief of which is a command and control system imported from Sam Mustafa's Grande Armee rules which have been altered slightly. I have removed skirmishers in their entirety which will not please purists, but in this scale I have found them too fiddly and slow the game down. The game was played solo with die roles and the combat and control system providing the surprises!

British commanded by General Sir John Moore.

French by Marshal Soult.

Continued -