Peninsula War Game

Today we had a large Napoleonic Peninsula War game at Barry's. The period was early - 1807/08 - when the Spaniards were still allied with the French. 

Several collections had their maiden outing in this game, including Paul's Peninsula British and Marks Spaniards.

Chris did the scenario and gave us large forces - each British player had two brigades of 5 battalions with a battery of guns per Brigade. The Spaniards were the same and the French had two brigades of 6 battalions plus artillery. Each side also had a small cavalry force.

The British were trying to force the road to Madrid. The Spanish force stood in their way, awaiting support on each flank from the French.

The game was an unmitigated disaster for the British - the only thing that went our way were the first few rounds of artillery fire, which did a lot of damage to their Spanish opposite numbers. Adrian then advanced in the centre but was soundly thrashed by the supposedly inferior Spanish troops. Barry's French force arrived in Paul's rear and smashed that wing of the British force into bite sized chunks, and on my flank, nothing much happened at all.

It was so one sided I really can't summon the energy to provide a blow by blow account - here are the pictures I took...

Paul's force on the British left flank advance across the river

 Mark's Spanish force blocking the route to Madrid

 Part of my Highland Brigade on the British right wing

 Portuguese component of my second brigade

 Barry's French force enters the field to Paul's rear

 Spanish guns in action against Paul

 The British deployment on the right wing - French cavalry scouts have just come into sight

 In the centre, Adrian's massed British infantry advances, supported by Paul and artillery on the high ground

 On the British left, Barry's French force pushes forward

More of Barry's force closing on Paul's exposed rear

  Whilst on the other flank, the first French brigade under Rick makes an appearance

 A view of the British assault in the centre - the three nearest units have routed from combat

 Paul and Barry come to grips

 Another French assault by Barry pushes Paul's Brits out of the woods

 With the arrival of the French, I decide a tactical redeployment to the rear was called for....

 Meanwhile in the centre, the struggle continues

 And on Paul's flank, the French juggernaut grinds steadily onwards

 View from the hill top church where Rick's first brigade arrived

  But wait, there's more! Rick brings on his second brigade to the left of Mark's Spaniards

 Action see saws to and fro in the centre

But the Spaniards held and forced the remainder of the attacking British to retire

Barry wiped out at least half of Paul's force and Rick and I never came to blows - a bad day at the office for John Moore...