On what may well be our last game of the year (boo....hisss!) some of Posties Rejects met in at Reject HQ to play our first game in quite a while, (its all my fault? Don't ask?) Postie got the rarely seen British Napoleonic's out for a little bash in the Peninsular. This was a fictional battle set just after the Battle of Bussaco, in 1810 a French loss.
After their famous victory Wellington decided to retreat back to the Torres Vedras Lines, and in a change to history Junot has followed them and managed to hook around the allied forces and get behind them resulting in a harried defence with the troops at hand both British and Portuguese. Maj-Gen Cole the Allied commander aware of the French force chose the best defensible terrain, he can find and waits for the French.
You can see Lee's report of the game, here!
You can see Lee's report of the game, here!
Order of Battle
French c/o General Junot (Lee)
1st Division - c/o Clausel
1st Brigade - Monard
4/19th, 4/25th, 4/28th, 4/34th + Medium Gun Battery
2nd Brigade - Tavein
4/15th Legare, 4/46th, 4/75th + Light Gun Battery
3rd Brigade - Godart
22nd Line (4)
2nd Division - c/o Solgnae (Ray)
1st Brigade - Gratien
15th (3) & 86th (3) + Medium Gun Battery
2nd Brigade Tomieres
65th (4), Irlandais Rgt (1), Regt de Prusse (1)
Cavalry Division c/o Seinte-Croix
1st Brigade
1st Dragoons, 2nd Dragoons
2nd Brigade
4th Dragoons, 9th Dragoons
3rd Bridage
14th Dragoons, 26th Dragoons + Horse Artillery Battery
4th (Reserve) Brigade - Ornans
15th Dragoons, 25th Dragoons
British - c/o Maj-Gen Cole (Ian)
4th Division - Maj-Gen Cole
1st Brigade - Campbell
2/7th, 1/11th, 2/53rd, 5/69th (1 Company) + 1 Medium Gun Battery
2nd Brigade - Kemmis
2/27th, 1/40th, 1/97th, 5/60th (1 Comp)
3rd Brigade - Collin (Portuguese)
11th (2), 23rd (2) + Light Gun Battery
5th Division - Gen Leith (John)
1st Brigade - Barnes
3/1st, 1/9th, 2/38th + Light Gun Battery
2nd Brigade - Spry (Portuguese)
3rd (2), 15th (2), Tomar Militia
3rd Brigade - Eben (Portuguese)
8th (2), Loyal Lusitanian Legion (3)
Cavalry Division (Surj)
1st Brigade - De Grey
3rd Dragoon Guards, 4th Dragoons
2nd Brigade - Slade
1st Dragoons, 14th Light Dragoons
3rd Brigade - Anson
16th Light Dragoons, 1st Hussars KGL + Horse Artillery Battery
The French plan was simple, attack the Allied right flank in force and hold the centre and hopefully hold our left where both sides had most of their Horse.
Our left of the battlefield
It was pretty open?
The Allied centre was very strong. 3 units of British line and an artillery piece.
Trouble was there was lots of rough ground at the bottom of the hill, which would disordered any
formed unit that passed through it. So it would kinda funnel our attack, which obviously
wouldn't be good??
On our left were 4 regt of Dragoons and a Horse artillery.
Warning Dodgy photo alert!!
This is 1 of many blurry pics taken that day??
I moved, unlimbered an fired my Horse Artillery....
1 x D6 needing a 6
Bang a 6! I scored a hit with the first shot of the game, knocking a figure from Ian's artillery who were about to fire on my Dragoons, it fell back disordered!
Here come the boys!!
Blurry pic 2
T'was the first outing for the regt Irlandais and regt de Prusse
Surj was being very cagey with his Cavalry. He did have Hussars and some Light Dragoons.
And didn't want to tackle our Dragoons, which I can understand, but after all its all on the dice??
In the foreground is Ian's poor artillery piece that'll be heading back soon, in the morale phase.
He also started to come off the hill with some of the Brits.
We had some off board Dragoons, we could choose where they entered but not when.
Lee threw a 5, which meant they came on at the end of our first turn, which worked great for us.
And Not for the Allies!!
A broad pic of the mid left of the field.
Surj moved slowly forward with his Horse, while I jockeyed into position, I wasn't going forward....they could come to me.
Centre right, my troops on the left are just trying to stop the Brits from moving
to their left and help out the Portuguese on the other hill.
John very wisely moved the Lusitania Legion, down into the fields to harray Lee's
advancing columns.
Just to the right of the pic above, our plan was to attack the Portuguese flank on
the hill, Lee's troops on the road were our main battering ram, although we had to battle through
the Lusitania Legion and their attached artillery.
Dead in the centre...
It does look a great defensive doesn't it?
Helicopter view
Blurry pic 3
The Brits in the centre, start to move left to squeeze in another line unit,
They also start to move the Portuguese reserve troops off the hill in the top left of the pic.
So I moved forward with some troops and also went into line with others, to hopefully stop them moving more troops over.
Very Blurry pic 5
Lee charged the Lusitanian skirmishers that were in the field, they very wisely retreated.
While he moved the rest of his columns up into charge range.
And charge is what he did, apart from the column next to the field??
Last turn the Tit moved it right up to the edge of the hedge (ala Fran stylie)
Which meant any move forward would mean he'd be disordered.
BUT
1 column charged....the 1st & 2nd Batt 3rd Portuguese Line both fled!
Lee positioned his 2 columns to hit the Tomar Militia and the 1st 15th on the flank.
We pushed our 2 Dragoon units up the centre of the field.
All looks good...
And good it was.....for us anyway.
Lee charged across his lines, all John had to do was throw 4 or below on a D6
he then threw 5,6,5,6,5,6.
Which meant one by one the entire Portuguese Division retired of the hill disorganized!!
Amaazing!
Surj worked it out to be a 3 million/1 chance!
So this is how it ended that turn?
There's one Portuguese unit left on the hill, but even that one is disorganized.
And we have a lone column following up on its initial charge on the far hill.
A view from the Portuguese lines..
In utter disarray the Allies threw in the towel, much to Surj's disgust!
A baptism of fire for the Tomar Militia's first ever outing.
They only threw one dice the whole game, that resulted in them fleeing!
Our plan worked to the T, there were no hiccups and we only had a few minor changes along the way, which makes a change!! I was surprised that Surj didn't attack with his Horse, I know we had the Heavier Horse, but he could very well have swung the battle back in their hands. If it was me I'd have attacked, he must have known we weren't going to attack on on left, it just didn't make any sense?? But then again, we are playing with little lead figures aren't we?????
