As Mark has remarked over on his 1866 blog, this game have been postponed twice in the recent weeks, due to sudden adjustments to our local Covid 19 Alert Level settings. This time, however, the party was on!
The game saw eight players command forces from the First Carlist War, French Foreign Legion (FFL) and British Auxiliary Legion (BAL) plus Spanish forces of both the Carlist and Isabellina factions, four players on the former and three on the latter.
As I have a small BAL force, I brought my own figures along and added one infantry and one cavalry unit from Marks extensive collection. All other figures on the table were collected and painted by Mark, who of course also supplied the scenario we played.
This first image is just an attractive battle scene to appear on my post and tempt readers in!
The scenario was that the BAL and FFL were in a village with a river to their rear over which the bridge had been demolished. Closing in on the small force were three brigades of Carlists. A relief force of Isabellina forces were en route, but in what strength and from which directions, the stalwart Legionnaires knew not. I commanded the BAL, Nick the FFL and John, Rick and Paul our relief force. Attacking us with the Carlist forces were Chris, Barry, Julian and Adrian.
Looking down the table from the eastern end. The village held by Nick and I is in the centre left of the image, surrounded by Julian (nearest the camera) Barry (on heights in centre right) and Chris (in the distant top left.
Our initial deployment in the village - we expected the relief force to choose to arrive from the east (they were allowed to choose!) which was about one fifth of the distance from us as the entry point from the west....so the FFL were ready to advance rapidly to meet them, whilst the rather dodgy BAL hid in the houses and held the village.
Chris's Brigade of 8 battalions of Carlist infantry
The Carlist move in - what is that dust away off in the far distance to the west...?
Barry's infantry advance as his gun on the hill batters the defenders of the village
The Legion troops still looking hopefully towards the west for a relief column....
But Chris's Carlists are closing in fast from the West - the Legion redeploys to meet the threat, cavalry to the fore
Another view of the redeployment
The Carlist infantry let off a volley and the BAL cavalry beat a hasty retreat back into the village, which is a seething mass of BAL infantry
Somewhere far to the west, Rick and Paul advance with the bulk of the relief force
Meanwhile, to the east, where we expected them, John has arrived with one third of the relieving force. He is engaged by Julian and spent the remainder of the game in a firefight with the Carlist forces...so much for relieving us!
Some very nice looking Spanish cavalry - cant remember which side they were on!
Paul's infantry marching towards the rear of Chris's attacking force
The leading units of Ricks command made good use of the road to speed their advance
Rick and Adrian's cavalry face off - Rick had a great success here and after a couple of rounds of melee, the Carlist cavalry fled and subsequently failed an activation test and quit the field en masse!
The FFL cavalry attempt to get to grips with Julian's Carlists - it didn't go well!
One of my Spanish battalions looking very shaky carrying 6 hits and with Carlists on all sides...
Barry and Chris have combined and are poring musketry into the defended buildings - Barry had already wiped out two of my BAL units by this stage and the third unit occupying this corner position was a btn of Nicks FFL
But relief is in sight - the Carlists of Barry and Chris are now facing both ways as Paul and Rick close in on their rear!
All of a sudden, the threat from the west is much reduced
Chris presents a solid wall of bayonets to Paul's advancing Isabellina troops
A view from the north west as Ricks command by passes Chris and heads for Barry's rear
Ricks cavalry, having already dispatched one of Barry's infantry units, breaks through onto the flank of a second. The gun was not really there - its just represents fleeing gunners who had run there for shelter but now fell under the lances of the Isabellina cavalry
A rather less congested looking village, still held by the Legion and BAL But Julian's Carlists are closing in....
Having overwhelmed Johns command, Julian and Adrian combined to launch a new assault on the village from the east. Here, the leading Carlist cavalry unit head for the rear of the village
The Carlist cavalry charge the Legion in an attempt to snatch victory before Rick can destroy the rest of their army
But too little, too late - Ricks ever victorious cavalry charge the last remaining unit in Barry's command. Slightly earlier, both Paul, and then Chris, had their entire commands accumulate so many casualties that when they rolled a poor activation dice, their forces quit the field in their entirety!
A close up of one of the Carlist cavalry units to the rear of the village
The village at the end of the game - from around 22 btn plus 8 cavalry units per side, this is more or less all that remained to tell the tail - a very bloody encounter indeed
Following are a few pic John took of the action on his flank - which is just as well because I didnt take many for some reason!
Carlist infantry commanded by Julian
Mountain gunners line up a shot on Johns troops
Red lancers - Isabellina I think but could be wrong!
The beleagured village John was attempting to relieve
Carlist infantry emerge from the woods to attack Johns force
Foreign Legion gunners lend support
The end - John's last battalion (of five) faces three of Julian's. John did a good job with limited resources and held up twice his number for almost the entire game, preventing Julian from launching an assault on the village until it was already too late for the Carlist cause.
View of the western edge of the village as Barry and Julian close in - this was the high point of the attack, just prior to Ricks intervention that forced Barry to break off the assault to resist the attack from his rear
Final superfluous close up of the Foreign Legion cavalry passing one of my Spanish battalions...just because John likes doing close ups!
A great game, very tense at times, Nick and I could not really do much except sit in the village and try to hold on till the relief forces arrived. I thought they had made an error bringing two thirds of the forces on in the far distant west, but the strategy worked - although, if they had all come on behind Julian, they would have reached the village much more quickly and perhaps we would have held the position without sacrificing three quarters of the forces engaged?!
Till next time.....
