1/32 Napoleonic Penisular Battle (Part 2)
Date: July 18, 2010.
Hi:
We played a Napoleonic wargame some weeks ago. A fictional battle of the Peninsular campaign.
As usual, the British - Spanish - Portuguese army had taken position on some hills, the highest in the middle, the other big one on the left flank. The Portuguese Spanish part took the left flank under Alex. The center and right flank was taken by Siegfried. On the French side, Ronny took the left, Geert the right flank, and I the center.
My battle plan was to bind as much troops as possible over the whole line, draining as the British reserves, and concentrate a heavy attack through the valley between the two major hills. Geert with his two veteran Swiss battalions, me with four battalions. The initial skirmishing went good against the Spanish-Portuguese, but not that good for my Wurtenberger jaegers, which were charged by an English battalion and halved.
On our left, the British light-ht dragoons charged forward, were countercharged by the french dragoons and chased from the field. Ronny pushed his luck by charging a English square and lost his dragoons also. With the remainder of his force started a firefight with the Scots. It was time for the major attack. I committed two battalions on the center hill and the strike force went into the valley, only a battalion of the middle guard remaining as a reserve. The attack on the center hill was faltering so I committed my guard unit to keep the pressure up. The Spanish -Portuguese gave way rather quickly, the plan worked, I lost one unit against three for Alex. Geert diverted one of his Swiss units as he feared to be pushed back on the extreme right. Alex had to commit his Spanish cuirrasiers as last reserve. Unexpectedly, he broke my first battalion, destroying a second one with the breakthrough charge, the third battalion being driven back.
The remaining cuirassiers charged Geert battery taking part of it, but stopped to be a fighting force afterwards. The momentum was gone. Despite the fact that Geert reached the enemy base line, the isolated Swiss unit was not strong enough to engage the lasting British reserve. Our other forces being to dispersed it would take to long to concentrate them. On the other hand, the Spanish-Portuguese army ceased to exist, the remaining British force being to weak to start a counter attack.
The result was a draw. Apart from the unexpected result of the Cuirassier charge, Ronny should have charged as mush as possible instead of going into a firefight. He failed to drain the British reserves. Diverting the 2nd Swiss unit from the charge was unnecessary for our right flank and turned out to have been vital for our attack.
English and Spanish-Portuguese figures are from Siegfried, Scots and French are my figures.
Dirk Donvil
Belgium
Many thanks to Mr. Donvil.