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!