Last night - Tuesday - Julian and I refought the action at Redinha TWICE in one evening, using the Commands and Colors hex based rule system.

This is a brief overview of the real life scenario:

"The combat of Redinha of 12 March 1811 was the second rearguard action fought during Masséna’s retreat from the Lines of Torres Vedras in the spring of 1811. Having held off the British at Pombal on 11 March, Marshal Ney and the French rearguard had retreated to Redinha. Here he took up an apparently vulnerable position, with Mermet’s division on a plateau south of the village, and Marchand’s division north of the village on the far side of the Ancos River, linked by a narrow bridge, but Wellington was aware that he was close to much larger French formations, and proceeded very carefully.


Only at two in the afternoon, when the Light Division, Pack’s Portuguese Division and Picton’s 3rd Division had been joined by the 4th Division, with the 1st and 6th Divisions close behind, did Wellington begin his attack. The 3rd Division attacked around the French left and the Light Division around their right. After twenty minutes Ney’s flanks were both threatened and he ordered Mermet to retreat back across the river. This order was given just in time, for the French suffered heavy casualties while crossing the bridge, but managed to escape in good order.

While the British were slowly crossing the stream, the two French divisions were able to form up in a new line two miles beyond the village. Once again Wellington attempted to turn both flanks, and once again Ney retreated once his flanks were in real danger, this time pulling back to the village of Condeixa.

Ney has been praised for his handling of the rearguard. For the loss of 229 men he had held Wellington up for an entire day, giving Masséna the time he needed to force his way across the Mondego River. Unfortunately for the French Masséna failed to take advantage of that chance. At the end of 12 March the French were still to the south of the river, and in danger of being trapped by Wellington. The only alternative route open to Masséna was to retreat east towards the Spanish border, and the only road available led east from Condeixa. With the British close to that village, on the morning of 13 March Masséna began the long costly retreat back into Spain which marked the complete failure of his great invasion of Portugal."

In the first game, I played the British, pursuing the French and being confronted by Ney's (Julian's) rear guard.

From my initial action cards, I had one called Bayonet Charge, which inexplicably led me to abandon my usual cautious approach, and launch an all out assault against the centre of Julian's line at the very outset of the game. This turned out to be a disaster and after a couple of moves, I was back to square one, having lost a third of my force - three Portuguese battalions and the Grenadier Guards (yes, I know!)

In the aftermath of this slaughter, Julian helpfully pointed out that the British fire much better than the French but that the French melee better than the British - so the obvious tactic for the British is to sit back and blow the shit out of les Froggies with their superior musketry!

So for the next few moves, I took Julian's advise and he was right, I had soon taken out three of his units and his centre was looking decidedly shaky. I then had some good cards that allowed me to redeploy my left wing to reinforce the centre and one of my light cavalry units charged through, wiping out a fourth French unit. The second cavalry unit did a similar job on another unit and all of a sudden, I was at 5 - 4 points, with the winner needing 6.

Unfortunately from this position, Julian's single large cavalry unit destroyed one of mine - 5 all, then had a card to charge an extra hex and still fight at the end of it, catching the second cavalry unit in the rear - game over, 6 - 5 to the French. I was not too upset considering after the first 4 moves it had been 4 - 0 to the French!

Some pics below - probably not the best as usual, due to average lighting in the venue! The figures are all Julian's - original Willie 30mm figures bought and painted 40+ years ago when the man himself was a mere teenaged youth

The Scenario page from Commands and Colors

 View behind the initial deployment of the British centre - black clad Brusnwickers deputizing for the Portuguese....

The British left flank - light dragoons, light infantry and horse artillery

 The French right flank in the woods opposite the British troops in the previous image

 The French centre, two battalions occupying a commanding height, with support behind and in the woods to their right

The British foot artillery were positioned in the centre to support the main attack

 The British light dragoons from Julian's collection of 30mm Willie figures

 View from the British right flank with the second light dragoon unit, two units of light infantry and a single Portuguese battalion.

A view down the length of the table from the British left in bottom right of the picture

 The heroic but stupid frontal assault on the strong French defensive position

 The results of the assault after one turn - the three four base Portuguese units have been reduced to 1 2 and 3 bases respectively, plus the British light infantry in the right have lost 2 if their initial 5 bases and been pushed back out of the woods!

 A card that looked good at the time - the Grenadier Guards were able to advance from the base line right up to a position on the heights, next to the defending French....

 ...but this was the result of the next round from the French - Julian's guns scored 4 hits on the guards, whilst the infantry wiped out what was left of the Portuguese - 4 - 0 in points at this stage!

 The British regroup in the centre and start doing what they should have done form the outset - using their large units and superior fire power to whittle down the defending French

 A view of the centre from the French side of the table

 The British light infantry move forward supported by the foot artillery

 Julian's "bag" of four colours from the four units he had destroyed

 The Brits have cleared the French defenders off the heights with blistering musket fire

 The redeployment to the centre - units from both the left and right flank converge to establish local supremacy

 One last roll of the dice - so to speak - as two unsullied French units emerge from the woods to engage the main British force

 Situation a couple of moves later - The British have occupied the hill in the centre and wiped out several French battalions. The two cavalry units can be seen engaging badly damaged French squares

 The British thought they had won...5 - 4 in points and the centre cleared of all French troops...but..

 ......there was still life in the Froggies, and.....

The final charge - the French cavalry defeated two separate British units in one move, to take the game 6 - 5

After a break of about 30 minutes to eat a very nice Japanese takeaway meal, we returned to the table, reset all the troops in the starting positions, and gave it another go from the other side. Having demonstrated exactly how NOT to do it, I was expecting Julian to give me a complete pasting, but that was not how it turned out.

There are less photos this time and the lighting is even stranger as we added a spot lamp at one end of the table...

 The view from the French left flank - the main defensive ridge is in the top centre

 The French right flank comprising a battalion of line infantry, the one cavalry unit and the horse artillery

 General view of the left centre of the French position, as the British advance

 The British force in the centre

 The British left flank advances to engage the line infantry in the woods

 A strange angle - must have seemed like a good idea at the time - of the action in the centre!

 The same view from a different angle - the French are holding their own and I think I was 3 - 1up in points at this stage

 View from the defensive position on the heights

 The British light infantry on their left have destroyed the line infantry in the woods but a "cavalry charge" card allowed me to move all cavalry OR horse artillery four hexes, so I was able to get them out of the way before the Brits could assault them!

 The end is nigh - the Brits have pushed the defending French off their main position in the centre...just like in the first game

 My cavalry attacked the light infantry but failed to make much of an impression and we called the game at this point as the French force was basically shot

Final view from behind the French horse artillery

What a good evening! I arrived at Julian's quite early - about 430 - and we probably started before 5pm. the first game was done and dusted by 7pm and we completed the second one by 9pm, and this included the meal break.

I was not too disappointed with the results - we agreed I had a moral victory in the first game - if we had not had a points system the British would almost certainly have gone on to win that game. 

The French did well in both games and even after the lessons of the first game, Julian had a hard job breaking through the French in game two and suffered very heavy casualties to achieve victory.