Battle of Vittoria - 21 June 1813 - refight 17 Feb 2024

 A trip to Oxford in February was the excuse Mark S needed to gather the players for Vittoria, 21st June 1813.  Mark and I took command of the French, Chris and Crispin took the Brits.  

The British objective was to take key villages and the heights of Puebla, several river crossings and stop the French evacuating their baggage.  The French had to hold on long enough for the baggage to get away and generally slow the Brits down.

Here's the map.  

I took the French at the top of the map against Chris' forces, Mark's forces were to take on Crispin's two columns coming from the North.  

This was the battlefield as set up - my job was to hold the heights of Pueblo and the hill top middle.  Mark was in charge of stopping the river crossings and guarding the baggage.

Here's our deployment:

French South - bit of a grainy photo

French South West - French my troops facing Chris's Brits in the foreground 

The French South west looking North - Mark is contemplating Crispin's Brits arrival on the board edge in front of him.

The French defending the North Middle - yup, I can't see them either - must be camouflaged!  Actually, I think that they were held till the approaching British trigger movement.

The French defending the North East

Turns 1 - 4 saw the British, Portuguese & Spaniards deploy more and more troops.  Move 5 pics - Chris (in the foreground) sent his light division (I think I saw Sharpe there) into the woods and started sniping.

Same part of the game, looking at 90 degrees to above pic - Chris pushes onto the hill.

One move later....

Chris forms a formidable line and grinds down my French

The battle on the hill goes slowly for Chris as I stubbornly resist, whilst going slowly backwards....

Crispin's advance goes well, with too few French to defend all the river crossings.  The French column in the foreground rushes to shore up the line.

Turn 7

My French continue to battle for the hill.

In the middle, Chris's Brits, loads of skirmishers and Heavy Cavalry support in attendance, charge me off the objective hill and then repel my attempts to retake it.

In the middle, the Brits cross the river and head for the baggage.

Turn 8

By turn 8 the French baggage train has left at high speed (with the payroll) and the British surge everywhere.

My northern French (or ate least the remnant) are now cut off, but continue to battle on.

As ever it was a great game.  In the end the British destroyed the French, but in game terms did not get enough objectives to win.  The French also managed to rescue the baggage and payroll, so the surviving French will all get a pay-rise.  

My thanks go to Mark for arranging the game and being an excellent comrade in arms, to Chris & Crispin for a fun day's fighting.

BBB, as ever, worked well in that we handled this big battle without too much brain strain!

Well worth a replay at some point..... 

French Revolutionary War - French infantry stands for BBB

A little while ago I got the idea that I could create French line infantry stands with flag for use with BBB rules.

I searched high and low on the internet but could not find any 1/300 French infantry in Tarleton helmets that I could use, so I repurposed Baccus Spanish skirmishers by creating drummers and flag bearers from the "loading" figures.  The front rank is firing and the second rank loading, drumming, flag waving or leading.  I have taken a British horse artillery officer (leader figure in Tarleton) as an officer on one stand.

I plan to add some figures in bicornes, as well as those in tarletan helmets, to mix it up a little on future bases.

I created the flags in excel and then printed my own sheet.  By choosing regiments that had easy to reproduce geometric shapes, these were easy to knock up (why make life harder??!).  

Here are the pics of the first two units:

The facing colour over white plumes really "pop"

Here are the units in the classic "ordre mixte"

Here is the top of the sheet I created for the flags:

Here is the master flag - the hoist part of the flag is sized to go round a 0.5mm pole in 6mm, which is why it's a bit wide...   This gives you an idea of the teeny tiny detail on there.

So, there's more of these bases in the pipeline - and I readily admit that I really like these colourful additions to my FRW French army.

Just in case this inspires you to have a go, the figures are Baccus NSP19 Skirmishers in Tarleton, with a RHA Officer thrown in.  

Contact me if you'd like a copy of the flag sheet as a word document.  I've done 2 flags x 3 sizes, enough to test fit on models and make the occasional mistake.

Enjoy!

Last game in 2023 - Mandara 13 March 1801 (part 2 of Aboukir & Mandara)

 I outlined the start of the British invasion of Egypt in 1801 in my previous post, which you can see here.

This post covers the battle of Mandara, as the British push on to the Egyptian capital of Alexandria.  

Firstly, here's the map again:

The game uses the top 4 rows of squares, with the British deployed in three columns, needing to cross the difficult terrain and drive the French from the ridge.  If the British took casualties at Aboukir (as I did) you can recover some of these (as I didn't) when you deploy your troops for the start.

Starting positions - the British all deploy in column.  Orange cubes = devastating volleys - some British troops were ex-militia, so not as great at firing as the regulars (thus don't get the devastating volley bonus). 

In the middle of the picture you can see the British guards (green cube = aggressive, blue cube = spent, orange cube = devastating volleys).  This unit had suffered in the landing and taken 66% casualties, this did affect the British in the second game as this was the best unit.

The British slowly move forward.  The disordering terrain meant that it took forever to close with the French and start to deploy into line.  The British only have 5 turns to take the objectives, 4 turns if they had taken an extra turn at Aboukir.

The battle was then in two halves.  The British left struggled to deploy and then assault the French right on the ridge.

The British right managed to close with the French left in the ruins, but the French inflicted enough shots to disrupt the British and slow the assault.

General view at turn three/four - British advances on the right not matched on the left.

A view of the British rear, showing units that had to retreat and recover from the left hand assault.

The battle ended in a draw, the British took the ruins, but failed to take the ridge or clear the road to Alexandria.  

Conclusion

This was a really fun game, two medium sized battles setting different problems for both sides.  The British out-number the French 2:1, but need to be aggressive if they are to take objectives in the given time.  The British keenly felt the losses taken by the Guards brigade, who were their biggest and best unit.

Highly recommended and many thanks to Mark for a diverting couple of hours!

Last game in 2023 - Aboukir 8 March 1801 (part 1 of Aboukir & Mandara)

 The last game of 2023 was put on by the excellent Mark Smith from his forthcoming Africa Scenario book - Aboukir & Mandara.  

These linked battles are the amphibious assault upon the French in Egypt and subsequent start of the march towards the Egyptian capital of Alexandria.  

The British forces were led by Sir Ralph Abercrombie and featured good inter-service co-operation on the British team between the Navy and the Army, meticulous planning and professionalism for one of the most complicated military operations that can be undertaken - invasion of an enemy occupied coast.

Firstly, here's the map - we used the bottom half for the Aboukir game.

On the day we used the bottom three rows for the Aboukir game, with the French lurking in the sand hills in the middle of the map, the Army assaulting from right to left, backed up by the British fleet firing over the top of the assault boats.  Very D-Day Normandy.....

Here's the set-up:

British boats lined up ready to start, the single 3 decker represents the Navy giving covering fire.

Row boys, row!  Boats could travel using the normal BBB rules - full move 9" and 6" half move, with a low risk of swamping and taking casualties.

The British have reached the shore and some units are already charging inland, whilst others are still arriving.

Once ashore, the British piled into the French.

The centre British unit took casualties on the way in and then got hammered by the French, so have retreated into the surf to recover.  More of this later.

The French retreating away from the beach.

This part of the game was completed in 4 turns and resulted in a British victory.  It was not one-sided, as the boats took casualties going in and once they had landed, especially as the French could avoid the Naval support by staying on the land side of the dunes.

It was a really fun game, with plenty of excitement and interest as the boats crossed the bay and the Brits stormed ashore.  Apart from the ships and small boats, all the troops were standard British and French models.

So - on to part 2 ....

Corunna - 16 Jan 1809 - refight 29 Nov & 6 Dec

After a long retreat in winter through the mountains of North West Spain, Sir John Moore reaches the port of Corunna and waits for the Royal Navy.  The two day delay allows Marshal Court to catch up with the retreating army and attack.  Moore successfully evacuates his army, but dies in the battle to hold off the French.  So much for history, how did we fare?

Mike chose to field his British army and I elected to give my French another outing.  The scenario is by Matt Bradley and has the British holding a ridge which the French must take for victory.  Here's the map:

I elected to use my main force to attack the objective villages of Piedralonga and Elvina (top two objectives) and pin the British at the bottom objective (on the San Christobal hill).

The start of the game - Elvina to the left and Piedralonga to the right.  Note the use of the hand-towel as the Atlantic - so glad it wasn't pink!

French columns going in - Elvina

Piedralonga

The scenario allowed the use of dragoons, as cavalry:

and dismounted, as infantry. The dismounted dragoons (red token) have really not got their act together, only one unit has charged home and the British infantry are benefitting from a massive injection of tea!

After two successful battles in recent weeks, I have to admit I got a bit cocky.  As ever, the BBB rules brought me back to the reality that the more units needing to co-ordinate, the more likely one or more is to go slow or just stop.  The British moved forward at Piedralonga and got driven back up the hill, but it was more of a planned retreat than the rout I'd been hoping for. 

French disorganised assault - not enough troops charging home.  The British "D" rating for devastating volleys added just enough to their firepower to ensure my charges stopped or took casualties on the way in.

A little later in the game - the French have Elvina, however Piedralonga holds on for the Brits...  just.

Next turn - the Brits have Elvina, but the Brits have pushed back into Piedralonga

Close up of French infantry, mostly warmly dressed in greatcoats to keep out the cold.

French 12pdrs - great until the Brits decided to keep the battle at just beyond long range!

To the left of Elvina - two evenly matched blocks of troops slug it out for this flank.

A little while later...

French final assault on Piedralonga - not starting in a good place, as all the French units are disrupted.

Massed French cavalry, waiting for the British to break...  waiting... waiting...

Not really clear from the photos, but the British lost Elvina and got pushed off that part of the ridge.  They did hang on to Piedralonga and stopped the French left hand move past Elvina.  The French dragoons on the extreme left got wiped out, but the time taken to do this meant these British were unable to rejoin the battle.

As so often happens with BBB, it came down to the last move.  The British retook Elvina and the French ended up at the bottom of the ridge.  So, we ended with a British win, the rest of the army can evacuate and Soult has run out of troops.

A really enjoyable game and a lot of fun to get my troops on the table.  The British held firm and managed to counter-attack in style.  The French just ran out of steam and failed to make their numbers count.  As expected, the Brits held the villages and that "D" rating gave them an edge.  It was nice to see Mike's troops - there was one more battle in 2023 and I think we'll be in Spain for a while yet in the 2024 gaming season.