Nap Campaign: 2nd Battle of Youngsport - Part 2 of 5, Turns 1 to 5

 

A reminder of initial deployments.

Turns 1 to 2

The first two turns consisted of artillery bombardments. The French targeted the redoubt with the British and Portuguese concentrating on the infantry columns.

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Nap Campaign: 2nd Battle of Youngsport - Part 1 of 5 Introduction

This first part will cover the initial deployments of both sides before battle is joined.

Firstly a reminder of the circumstances leading to this battle:

Marshall Soult (blue 5) with the French Army of the South has advanced into Portugal with the aim of driving the British back to their ships and capturing the Portuguese capital of Youngsport (beneath the cluster of tiles topped by red N11). This is the main disembarkation port for the British in supporting Portugal. 

Wellington with an Anglo-Portuguese force (red 10 and brown 1) have deployed across high ground blocking Soult's route of march. 

A significant British transport fleet has docked but there is insufficient time for their embarked troops to take part in the battle. Morillo with his small Spanish army (grey 1) is likewise too far away to arrive in time. Only Picton with the 92nd Highlanders will arrive in the early afternoon during the action.

The scene is set for a rerun of the earlier battle where Lobau and the 6th Corps failed to break through to Youngsport.

Continued -

ACW Warplan Campaign: Map Moves 2 - 3

 A reminder of the Union plans:

Continued -

ACW Warplan Campaign: Cavalry Skirmish at Isserlohn

With the camera now back in operation normal service is resumed -

The opening moves of the campaign brought two cavalry skirmishes, this being the second. A reminder of the opening moves:

Buford's cavalry division are moving ahead of the main Union army scouting Confederate positions. Confederate cavalry outposts have partially pulled back but a couple decided to engage with the Union troops. This action involves Devin's brigade.

Most of Devin's brigade advanced unopposed with the exception of the 6th New York (bottom right). As they advanced towards Isserlohn they became aware of movement up ahead. The Confederate Hampton with Cobb's Cavalry Legion intended on giving them a bloody nose! 

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On The Workbench: ECW Bluecoat Regt

I finally received my repaired lens back today for the camera. That damned Covid has a lot to answer for! Tomorrow I will start the ACW campaign battle of Isserlohn but in the meantime a taster of what I have been up to in the absence of gaming. And also to try out my repaired lens!

This is one of a number of ECW units completed and the largest. A Parliamentarian bluecoat regiment. Although a generic unit it will represent Chomley's regiment at Edgehill.

There are 104 figures on the regiment, 40 Pike and 64 Musketeers. I will cover how I arrived at various sizes and quality of units in more detail when posting an AAR of Edgehill in due course. But briefly I used the army list guides contained within the Forlorn Hope rules dicing to determine the size, pike to musket ratio and troop quality of each regiment.

Broken Camera Update

With the frustrating 'hiatus' dragging on an update is overdue. I have been told today that my camera lens has been repaired and will be available for collection next Friday (26th Feb). Needless to say the pandemic has slowed the process down considerably. The cavalry skirmish at Isserlohn has been ready to play for the past few weeks and is gathering dust!

I have though been making inroads into my lead pile. So much so that re-supplies are needed from Baccus and it was welcome news indeed that their shopping cart re-opened today albeit for limited sized orders. My order as gone in which will bring me within touching distance of completing all the figures necessary for Talavera.

Another period receiving attention is the ECW. Aside from the existing project working my way through scenarios in the south west I have decided to add the Battle of Edgehill on the 'to do' list. To do it justice it will be played at a ratio of 1:10 requiring almost 3,000 figures. The obvious downside being that it will take time to paint this lot and although I have around 1,000 figures at present it is unlikely I will get it onto the tabletop this year. Painting of the largest foote regiment has been completed today and basing will commence tomorrow. This is 104 figures strong (40 pike and 64 musketeers). I can't wait to see the finished unit - it will in fact be the largest I have completed in any period!

All being well my next post will be Isserlohn followed by a rolling programme of after action reports.

A Slight Technical Hitch!

I was about half way through the Tourane game when a mishap occurred with the camera. During the process of remounting it on the tripod it slipped out of my hands and although I managed to break some of the camera's fall, it nevertheless landed lens first on the floor.

After launching a torrent of abuse at the ceiling and recovering some sense of decorum I tentatively tested the lens. Mercifully it was still working apart from the zoom function. It was partially jammed limiting my ability to get closeup shots.

I nursed it through the rest of Tourane and also the subsequent ACW skirmish at Rorketon but it was clearly in need of attention.  

The pandemic is not the best of times to organise a repair and have been informed it will be at least 2 - 3 weeks before it is returned. Rather than wait, I set up the table to play the next ACW campaign game with the intention of using my old camera.

Sadly the photographic results were generally poor with only 2 or 3 worthy of consideration. I have therefore decided to wait for the lens repair which will mean a hiatus before the next AAR is posted. 

On the plus side, I will be using the extra time to get more figures and terrain painted. I have 3 significant Napoleonic games lined up which I will hope will further advertise the benefits of 6mm. In order:

Campaign - French v Anglo-Portuguese force. Almost 2,000 figures and ready to play.

Battle of Talavera - 4,500 figures. Good progress on painting additional figures, mainly Spanish, with the end in sight. Now awaiting re-opening of the Baccus shopping cart.

Campaign - French v Prussian. 5,000 figures and my largest game since Waterloo. The Prussians are throwing everything they have (3,000 figures) in halting Napoleon. I need to paint over 600 additional Prussians and as with Talavera, I am now awaiting on Baccus.

I apologise for this quiet period but hopefully will have some goodies for the blog fairly soon.

ACW Warplan Campaign: Cavalry Skirmish at Rorketon

The ACW campaign commences. As with my Napoleonic campaign, I am using the Warplan 5/5 system but with railways added. Refer to my first blog which provides an introduction together with the first map moves.

To recap:

The lead cavalry elements of the Union army has advanced north to scout the Confederate positions. Several Confederate cavalry units have fallen back in the face of a more numerous enemy. A couple of Confederate cavalry regiments though took the opportunity to engage the Union forces with the intention of giving them a bloody nose. To the right, Phillips with his cavalry legion based at Rorketon is one such and his location becomes the scene for the first action of the campaign.

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Nap Campaign: Map Moves 31st March - 1st April 1808

With the campaign moving into a new month it is time to calculate the number of newly raised reinforcements for each army.

Each square on the map is allocated a value. This is based on what is contained within that square. e.g. a rural square with no inhabitants will have a minimum value recognising a purely agricultural contribution, whereas a heavily populated town with industrial units will have the opposite. A capital will contain a bonus so it is important that countries maintain possession of that.

Captured territory will deny that country of its Value Units (VU's) with the victor gaining 25% of those lost. 

At the start of play on the 1st of the month, calculations are made for each country who then spend their VU's on reinforcements replacing losses in existing units. All those relevant units are identified at this stage (much to the pleasure of their commanders!) and the number of new recruits allotted. 

All regular recruits are classed as 2nd Line. i.e. trained but inexperienced. Recruits to militia units are conscripts. Needless to say, 2nd Line troops are more expensive than conscripts. Artillery crews and cavalry also attract a premium. Too many new recruits joining a unit could downgrade its quality. e.g. a veteran battalion that receives 50% or more recruits are reduced to 'line' status.

When that has all been calculated it is time to determine when those recruits arrive at their respective units. To keep this simple, I roll one D6 for each force. A force being all those units represented by one counter on the map. Each pip on the dice represents one day after the 1st day of the month. So a '3' will mean they arrive on the 4th of the month.  

When they arrive they are simply added to the rosters. I appreciate that it would seem a little odd that all recruits from whichever nation all arrive within the first week of each month but to make it completely realistic would be a logistical nightmare.

To give some idea of the numbers involved, on this occasion the French, with by far the largest number of VU's at 735, are able to purchase around 300 replacements. They have lost far more (1,200 to be precise)! So this is not a game changer but allows some units to avoid extinction. The Prussians are down to 268 VU's purchasing a little over 100 figures having lost 2,210.

Turning now to the map moves for these 2 days -

Continued -

Nap Campaign: Battle of Tourane

 Before I start the AAR, a recap of events leading up to this battle:

The top of the map are the positions of the main French and allied forces. We are concerned about the situation in the bottom left. This represents the situation at the end of the previous day following the Battle of Tourane Peninsular (see previous AAR). The Dutch/Belgian brigade (orange 2) had been defeated and is now retreating towards the coastal village of Tourane (22A13). Col Best's Hanoverian brigade (yellow 4) managed to escape and now begins his trek to rejoin the main allied forces.

D'Erlon with 2 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division (blue 6) is determined to destroy the Dutch/Belgians who had been a threat to the French flank. The latter prepares a last stand at Tourane determined to see the French suffer badly.

Continued -