Ok lets get the apologies out of the way first - there are SIXTY THREE pictures to follow and I am not going to edit half of them out but do feel free to scroll quickly through them! I will try not to add comments to every image - but knowing me, I will put some comment on the majority of them....here we go.
The Portuguese were joined by the Spanish and British for this game - the Spaniards had nine battalions of variable quality, plus a couple of batteries of guns and two cavalry units. The British and Portuguese had six battalions each, plus a battery of guns (small, because they are British ....ggggrrrr!) I also had a small cavalry unit, and the Brits had a full strength one.
Ranged against us were 21 battalions of French infantry, four full regiments of cavalry and significantly more guns, although we had two reserve batteries arriving as the game commenced.
The Allied army was drawn up on reverse slopes (weren't they always!) and could deploy up to halfway across the table, including in a village in the left centre of our position. The British were on the right - the position of honour, dontcha know - the Portuguese in the centre and the more numerous Spaniards were our left flank, The French had two cavalry regiments on each flank and the centre was all infantry and guns. The French were the attackers. After a brief conflab, we came up with a cunning plan - see here for more details https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGCzWtiiLRg.
The Portuguese force
The French left flank, with a brigade of Dragoons
French right flank before deployment - these are venerable old true 25mm figures that were designed and produced in New Zealand back in the eighties.
The village, comprising several of Marks stunning scratch-built terrain pieces.
The British force before deployment
Portuguese deployed in and around the village.
The Thin Red Line to the right of the village
The Spaniards to the left
The French come on in the same old way - a mega column of attack approaches the village.
Here they come - "Meninos firmes, firmes!"
French catch one of my battalions from an awkward angle - they didn't last long!
Off in the far distance, the French left flank has LOTS of empty space to maneuver in! (Just what their commander likes)
Oh look, I can just about see the enemy away over there.....
In the centre, the French come on in the same old way......
The British are still out of sight, behind the military crest
On the French right, the leading two battalions are stalled at the wall by stout defence from the Portuguese within.
The small Portuguese cavalry regiment made a valiant attempt to charge, but came up short (in our rules, you can get a time and a half move if you role well for activation, but you have to declare charges before you activate, and if you are over 400mm away and need the time and a half move, and don't get it - you have to move the 400mm !) I only had the one small unit and thought it worth a punt, but they failed to contact the flank of the assault force.
As the French broach the crest of the hills...
The British variously volley fire or fix bayonets and charge!
Miraculously, my cavalry survived the attentions of French gunners and were able to complete their charge in the next turn,
In combat, cavalry hit on a 4 5 or 6, infantry on a 5 or 6 - here are my six dice - no prizes for guessing the result of that combat!
The cavalry had the opportunity to break through onto a square - not a great choice but if they didn't continue the melee, they would just be sitting next to a square and in close range of two French batteries and as they had already taken out one French battalion, I decided just to go ahead - I now had three dice to the defenders nine!!
And here is my score - the French rolled two hits and the square was pushed back! A pyrrhic victory perhaps, but certainly a moral one! After their heroics, the cavalry retired, and suffered the indignity of picking up a couple of casualties as the unchivalrous French gunners hit them with a parting shot - they regrouped in the village however and survived the game intact!
The Spanish forces were marching around the flank of the French right.
Meanwhile, the isolated French unit that had taken my battalion in the flank charged against a small unit of riflemen, and so began a titanic struggle that lasted four or five turns and resulted in the riflemen being destroyed but the French so battered they took no further part in the action.
It's all getting a bit serious on the Allied right flank, as the British lines charge the French, in several cases resulting in a two to one advantage for the defenders.
Slowly, slowly, the Spanish troops move further and further around the French flank.
Things are very tight on the Allied right; the melees could easily go either way....
Over the hills and far away, the French left flank marches to the sound of the guns....
On the French right, the assault has stalled and been abandoned, The infantry brigades shake out into line as the threat of envelopment by the Spanish flanking force becomes very apparent. The Portuguese, meanwhile, pour close order volleys and grapeshot into Les Grognards.
To the right, the stoic Brits are still hanging on to the high ground, frustrating the French centre, which came tantalizingly close to breaking through.
The Iberian allies move in for the kill on the French right flank.
Having rebuffed the French centre, the canny Brits now have the late arriving French left flank to contend with.
"Steady boys, steady"
The French right flank have adopted a kind of large open square defensive formation...
,,,as Portuguese....
.... and Spanish battalions pour lead into them.
After a couple of false starts, the Spanish cavalry drive off one of the French cavalry regiments and break through onto their supporting horse battery.
French forces are definitely thinning out.
Disaster for the French! Having suffered a mighty battering from the British for three quarters of the game, the French centre rolls a very low activation, and the remaining badly shaken battalions quit the field en masse!
The British troops, however, are a virtually spent force too - one poor activation role will see many if not all of their units follow the French example,
Mone Dieu, une autre catastrophe! The French right reprises the poor activation roll and follows the centre off the field!
The fresh French left flank should easily deal with the exhausted British - but is it too little, too late?
Bypassing the lines of red coated infantrymen, the dragoon brigade makes short work of the isolated supporting batteries. If the initiative had gone the other way, it might have been a different story, with two batteries firing into the cavalry - but why be churlish, the French had pretty poor luck for most of the game!
With no one left to fight, the Portuguese and Spanish commanders begin to redeploy their troops to meet the threat from the right.
But in one last hurrah, the British Light Dragoons, splitting into two smaller formations, charge the advancing French, destroying one shaky unit and causing two of the fresh units to rout!
Our umpire Mark, who also played the French centre commander, called the game at this point. Although Rick, commanding the French left wing pointed out he still had plenty of fresh troops and the British were in a state of near collapse, in reality, two thirds of the French army had fled. The real hero was Paul, commanding his own Front Rank British troops, who took on fourteen French battalions with six, and was still standing to tell the tale as the battle came to an end.
That was a great game for the allies - the Brits played a blinder but the Portuguese and Spaniards did pretty well too, particularly as half the Spanish were small units of doubtful resilience. I had some good dice roles, particularly with the cavalry, and Barry commanding the French had a lot of bad luck - losing a melee with a square against disordered cavalry, 9 dice to 3 was the worst of it, but he also had a couple of attempts to break into the defended building and failed the necessary roll, whilst on another occasion, wishing to do an emergency retreat, he rolled too high and the maneuver turned into an involuntary rout!
I was hoping to get along to the next game in a fortnight but realised when I got home that Sunday 14 May is bloody Mother's Day in New Zealand, so that's put an end to that idea :(
