Talavera - 27/28 July 1809 - refight 11 & 18 Oct 2023

 Fans of the "Sharpe" novels will know that Sharpe's Eagle is set at the battle of Talavera, where Richard Sharpe and his handful of 95th Rifles stop the French.  How did historical fiction play out on the table?  read on...

Mike chose Talavera as our next BBB battle and picked the British army.  This left Ned to take the French and I picked the Italians....  my favourite small French ally.

Our initial deployment was hampered by the club AGM but we got on with turns 1-4, with the Italians taking the left flank towards Talavera town and it's river crossing, Ned decided to go for centre & right.  The British army has a commanding position on a hill, with a nice flat plain for the Franco/Italians to march across.  The Spanish are then using the cover of woods to link the Brits with the Talavera river crossing.  The Brits get a right shift for devastating volleys, balanced by the Spanish being motivated to mainly stand still/run away....

Pics are not comprehensive, just taken when I had a break....

Early on:

British on the hills, Spanish in the woods.  Italians advancing.

French Dragoons & Carabiniers poised (or just making sure the Italian General feels supported?)

Italians moving into the woods, French light Cav lurking on Spanish far right, using woods as cover.   

One of my early moves was to push a 2 base unit of French light Cav to the far right flank of Mike's Spanish.  They did a little bit of manoeuvring to ensure no Spanish came near, neatly tying up the Spanish right as they were outflanked and the Cav COULD sweep down - so they deployed in line and did not move all game (apart from one foray into the wood - the light cav evaded, rallied & returned).

More towards the middle of the game:

The Italians move on Talavera, driving the Spanish before them.  I've ringed the scary two base French cavalry unit as it continues to restrict the Spanish right.

French Hussars & Chasseurs - not only flamboyant but highly effective....  see later.

Italians braving dug-in guns hiding in a wood to take on shaky Spanish 

A little later - Mike shores up his centre and retakes the gun pit objective, but 4 Brit bases now face off 8 French, 3 Italians & 2 Aggressive French Heavy Cav....  On the hill to the left, the French assault the Brit defenders.

Final moves:

Italians and French push into British middle.  The Brits are those above, now backed up by Cav & deployed in line....

French & Italians push the line back...

A little further back...

Meanwhile, on the hill, the Brits get pushed off by hordes of French...  so they rally and counterattack!

The final result of the counter attack - Brits lose 6, French 7, but French retain hill!  British/Spanish light Cav pivot to their right....

Arty takes out British light Cav.  Spanish light Cav has those Hussar/Chasseurs in front, French arty on a far away hill, Veteran Frogs to the right and rear....     ...meanwhile Wellington (bottom of pic) muses if there is a career in India for him, if he ever makes it out alive....

Conclusion

Ned and I did better than expected, with Mike's devastating volleys causing halts and casualties, but no French/Italian units got destroyed.  Mike's Brits performed well, but the Spanish refused to move, shot poorly and in some cases ran away at the sound of battle.  

It was a fun two evenings gaming and it was nice to get the Italians out of their box.  It has inspired me to make some more - if you look carefully you might see some rogue Bavarians as I didn't have enough Italian flag bases.

BBB made it an enjoyable and entertaining game - it was still in balance to the very last move, it could have ended as a draw or Brit win, if they had managed to retake/keep their objectives.

It was also nice to see Mike's Brits & Spanish grace the table - I'm looking forward to some more games soon.

Finally, sadly, in this game, Sharpe did not get his eagle, fame, glory and a promotion...