Bailen, 19 July 1808, refought 25th November 2024

 A last minute trip to Oxford enabled me to visit the OWS club and take part in one of Dr Mark Smith's BBB Peninsular games.  I had played this before, about 4-5 years ago, but Mark had tweaked the scenario and it needed play testing!

The scenario is that the French army, under Dupont, is moving towards supporting forces whilst ensuring that it's baggage train, laden with Spanish treasure, makes it back to the Louvre...

The Spanish are not in favour of this, so have blocked the way forward and are coming up on the French rear as well.  

For the game, Crispin and I were the French, Dave W & Phil were the Spanish.

Here's the map.

The French are heading north, with their 2nd wave coming on in turn 2 and the Spanish followers arriving turn 5 or 6.  In my previous game, I elected for a left hook, got bogged down in the forest and chopped to bits.  This time I decided to just punch through, keeping the baggage as near, but not too near, to the front line as possible.  

Initial deployment - the wagons are on the road, The French are lined up to the right.  The green cube denotes Guard Marines - aggressive, veteran, skirmishers - but only two stands.  The pink cube units are Swiss, having recently swapped from fighting for the Spanish against the French and of doubtful loyalty.  In the real battle they swapped sides again! 

Move 2 - French push North - the baggage train and my advance guard heads north into the Spanish troops defending the valley.  Crispin's rear guard makes it across the bridge and his cavalry + horse artillery are on the French right.

Move 4 - the French advance slows as David and Phil send the Spaniards in to slow the French down.  

Move 6 - the French made progress through the valley (of death) but at the cost of units going fragile.  Meanwhile the southern Spaniards caught up with Crispin and started to erode the rearguard.

Move 6 - other view.  The Spanish are sitting in Bailen, but the French third wave has arrived from the North, so it's not over yet!

Final position - the French did assault Bailen but failed to breakthrough.  The Spaniards caught the baggage train.   Whilst the French had a number of good combats it took too long to break the Spanish and cost too many Frenchmen doing so.  It was, in the end, a draw.

Reflections - once again BBB delivered the HQGE fix we wanted for the evening - all four players were in action most of the time and it was a lot of fun!  

Mark's scenario makes life difficult for both sides - baggage trains to guard, uncertain re-inforcement arrival times, flaky troops that are liable to scarper!

My thanks go to Mark for laying on the game at short notice and to Crispin, Dave W and Phil for being excellent colleagues/opponents!

French Artillery for Fleurus

 Another part of my collection got an upgrade - French revolutionary artillery.  

Foot artillery - I wanted a "ragged" look, so this was done in two ways:

1. I bought Spanish artillery with French guns - the individual figures were mixed in with the standard Baccus French figures - the Spanish don't have backpacks or great coats.

2. I gave some gunners overall trousers in grey or brown to break up the uniformity.

Here are the results

I also needed horse artillery.  As far as I can tell French Horse Artillery wore the Bicorne, the Mirliton or the Tarleton Helmet.  Yup - Tarleton helmet - pretty close to British Horse Artillery.  So I made two bases of French Horse Artillery, basically just British Horse Artillery with a paint job .  The leftover British guns will be going to the Spanish.

So, with a bit of mix and match and a paint job, I've got FRW Foot & Horse Artillery in the right uniforms.

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..... 

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...