Jon took us to the Peninsula in 1811 for an incident in Massena's retreat. This was the Battle of Foz D'Arouce on 15th March, where Picton's Division caught up with Ney and the rearguard who foolishly had disobeyed orders to cross the river.
I took on the mantle of Ney, supported by Ian and Phil. Chris was Picton, aided by Will and Richard.
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The French are near the camera. Phil is on the left, Ian on the right and I have the centre. Ian's job is to hold the bridge and white building. I want to engage the centre to fix it in place, whilst Phil hooks round their right flank.
The British have the initiative in turn one and get to move a brigade first. They push forwards on their left. After the first brigade move, other units are activated at random by pulling chits out of a bag.
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We got to move next, so Phil started off full speed up the left. We got the next move too, so Ian reconfigured his set up. I don't know why he didn't occupy the white compound on his side, seeing as it was one of the objectives. It would help if people read the briefing.
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Richard pressed forwards with the brigade in the centre. The failure to occupy the compound meant that the artillery placed in it was isolated. Richard charged the guns and one of my infantry battalions. I moved Ney up to provide some active leadership.
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Much to my surprise we repulsed the attack in the centre. I also volleyed the unit in the middle with the yellow flag...
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...and inflicted enough damage to drive them back out of bayonet range, which was a bit of a nuisance. In the centre right I charged again with my successful infantry. I swung my reserve battalion round to support the centre, where one of my battalions had been driven off.
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Richard's left hook is working effectively as the Portuguese arrive in the distance. Ian has realised he has some reserves on the other bank of the river, and decides he should bring one battalion up to reinforce the troops trying to hold the bridge. He has abandoned one of the objectives, by pulling out the artillery. On the left, Phil & Will are at each other in the distant wood and the compound.
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Richard charges the limbered artillery on the bridge, which flees. The sequence of chit drawing isn't helping us, and we are losing initiative rolls, so we are having to react after the fact. We are now constantly on the back foot by the bridge, and stuck in the headlights of the on rushing Portuguese.
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Ian has got a reserve battalion lined up at the end of the bridge, and deployed his artillery on the other bank of the river. Unfortunately he forgot to ask for it to be deployed at an angle so it could fire at the enemy.
On the left, Will is being driven back, and we are planning a pincer attack on that line regiment in the centre.
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Waves of British start the attack on the bridge. We hold on. Just.
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Volleys drive the British line in the centre back, but Ney is killed in the exchange of fire. Or was it in the melee? I can't recall. Meanwhile an entire Portuguese brigade is thrown at the French right centre.
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Phil finishes off the British line (you can see Jon removing it), and has driven another unit off the board, top left. Will's brigade has been completely destroyed. We're clinging on at the bridge.
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We drive off the British troops who were attacking us at the bridge, whilst we're lining up our left hook to overrun that Portuguese artillery coming onto the table.
We stopped the game there, having been on line for nearly four hours. Both sides were claiming their plans were working out well. Jon said he'd do a VP tot at this point to see what that tells us. I think that unless the end of the game comes soon that the Portuguese will possibly be able to take the bridge, although I fancy Phil's chances of taking them in the flank. Based on the VP list that Jon gave us at this point I think we were ahead about 20 points to 8. As we only need 7 points for as victory we're currently well ahead. I don't know how many moves were left in the game. However, as the battle was actually quite short - curtailed as it weas by starting late and bad weather - we should have been near the end.
At least that's what I think.
Another fine game write-up! The screen shots look pretty good. The larger figures help, I think. This was a hard fight and casualties were impressive. One difference I noticed when reviewing the table afterwards was that the British had more units destroyed outright while the French had fewer units destroyed and many units clinging to life with a Combat Effectiveness of one. The French seemed to protect their battalions more effectively. Leader casualties were very high but I guess one expects that lethality when always leading from the front.
ReplyDeleteThe sun had set by time we called the action so this was a reasonable place to stop.
Your assessment of victory point tally is correct. The French were well ahead.
While I managed a few screenshots, I took no in-game photos. You keep me too busy!
The picture was really clear last night on that camera. Not letting units be destroyed is a Phil trick from Armati - if it counts towards your breakpoint, get it out of the way if you can when it looks like it is going down. When I read the initial brief I thought that defending deep would be the answer, but when I saw the VPs I reckoned that hunting down units would both keep the British off the objectives, and give us VPs. That was why I was annoyed when I shot at that unit and it ran away before I could kill it completely. It was still there at the end of the game. Using the officers to fire then charge played a big role in keeping us moving forwards to break units.
DeleteI went back and looked up the battle afterwards. I don't do it beforehand to avoid hindsight. The description I have on my bookshelf says that the French were undone by the 95th sneaking round their right, which happened, but Ney saved the day by leading a gallant charge. Which he did as well, although in a different place.
You need some local stooges in your basement to help you moving the figures about, like I do in Shedquarters nowadays, although what they'd think of us as a group I shudder to think.
Looks like a case of the hunted/pursued turning the tables - a good strategy that seems to have paid off handsomely in VP's!
ReplyDeleteThe combination of French players we had has a tendency to want to attack, and it seemed to work in this game. I don't know if Jon will revisit the VP distribution if he runs the game again. I'm sure, knowing Jon, that he has put the various combinations through the analytical grinder before putting them out to us.
DeleteMy main approach in most games is to work on the basis that destroying the enemy is normally a good thing, and that holding objectives is secondary. If I can destroy the enemy field force, then any buildings/bridges etc can be occupied at leisure.
You know me well. VPs are set to drive a narrative and were given careful consideration and stuffed into the analytical grinder. I did not expect French maneuvers against the British right to yield such destruction.
DeleteOne change from the Maida game is that having CE=1 units on table were not counted as losses for victory point purposes. Grinding units down until combat ineffective without allowing for recovery was penalized at Maida but not here. I may reintroduce that penalty. Still, the French would have seen victory on this day.
Destroying the enemy is always a good choice especially when an enemy unit is allowed to slowly recover if given a breather. Much better to keep the pressure up without over-extending oneself. As you say, then you can take the objectives at your leisure.
"Never turn your back on a wounded man".
DeleteYour rule set needs a tweak. Ney can only be shot by his own side?
ReplyDeleteNot my rules but a hood suggestion.
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