Project Leipzig (1813): January 2011

Sunday 30 January 2011

Terrain and optional rules for Barrosa/Chiclana

There are many maps, English, French or Spanish, for the area were the battle of Chiclana/Barrosa was fought. The best maps I have found are the one included in Fortescue's 'A History of the British Army' (1917) available through Napoleon-Series, and the map of the Arteche's map included in the CD of the Cartografía de la Guerra de la Independencia, a fragment from which is presented below.

The next decision was the area to be depicted in the table. As I want to play the 'English battle' as apposed to the 'Spanish battle' fought near the Almansa creek (towards Cádiz), the chosen area was the surrounding Barrosa Hill (or Cerro de la Cabeza del Puerco), so the table will present the following aspect:
Optional rules
Added to add spice to the game and for fine-tuning the Lasalle rule book to the specific Scenario.

The wavering Lapeña (Scenario rule)
According to Oman, Lapeña did not support the British during the battle and only the Cruz Murgeon’s brigade, entrusted to Graham, fought along his allied. However, according other accounts (Fortescue, Arteche) the Begines’s brigade did participate in the fight against the Dermoncourt’s outflanking force, so that brigade is included as Reinforcements.
To simulate the Lapeña’s wavering efforts, the Reinforcement arrival test (p. 91) is carried out with an additional -1 modifier. The Reinforcements will arrive deployed at the C3 end road.

The irregular flankers (Scenario rule)
In the actual battle, part of the Barnard's flankers (4 coys. of 3/95th Rifles) and 2 coys. from the 20th Portuguese fought in skirmish order to cover the deployment of the Wheatley’s brigade, whereas the remaining Barnard elements (2 coys. of the 47th Foot) acted as supporters for the British artillery. To simulate this behaviour:
(a) All the light elements of the Wheatley brigade (Barnard's Flankers and the 2 coys. of the 20th Portuguese) have been amalgamated into a single large unit, made Irregular as per the 'Creating Irregular Units' Optional Rule (p 74), and whose statistics are V/I/SK3 (+)
(b) This unit will use the 'Half Battalion Deployed' Optional Rule (p 74) slightly modified: the unit may break off four (instead two) bases as SK bases, to enhance skirmishers for other friendly regular infantry, while retaining two (instead four) bases to function as a small unit.
(c) The four skirmish bases will be used as Irregulars fighting in line when necessary. However, a gap of until 1/2 BW will be allowed between adjacent bases to increase the front of the unit.
(d) The SK power of the Wheatley's brigade will be not marked with SK bases.

The last Optional rule is a sort of Lasalle heresy, because the ruleset does not allow for skirmishing activity. I hope that it will work!

P.S. As the bicentenary approaches, there is a growing interest in Barrosa/Chiclana. The English magazine Miniature Wargaming has started a series on the battle, to be published in several issues from 334 onwards.

Over the hills and far away

An inspiring song carrying us to the hell of the napoleonic battles. The video is heavily based upon the film Waterloo with some images of Sharpe's TV series. All in all, it seems a very adequate introduction for the battle of Chiclana/Barrosa.

The OOB for Barrosa/Chiclana (II)

I have followed Lasalle to the letter for the capacities of the units fighting in Barrosa/Chiclana, using the 'Peninsula' lists for all the contenders. My final proposal (until new amedments!) after taking into account all the considerations given in the previous post is:

Britsh Army (Moral 34; Break point 11)
13 Battalions/2 Regiments/3 Batteries
C-i-C Graham (-/*)

1st Brigade Dilkes (-1/¶)
2/1st Guards V/E/SK2/Gd
Combined Guards V/E/SK2/Gd
2/95th (2coys.) 2 SK bases
Browne Flankers R/E/SK2

Spanish Cruz Murgeon (-/-)
4/Guardias Walonas R/E/SK1
Ciudad Real S/A/SK1
Bateria (2 light guns) Foot/1 cannon/Light

2nd Brigade Wheatley (+1/*)
1/28th R/E/SK2
2/67th R/E/SK2
2/87th R/E/SK2
Barnard Flankers V/I/SK3 (+)

Battery 1 Foot/2 cannons/Medium
Battery 2 Foot/3 cannons/Medium

Cavalry Whittingham (+1/*)
Hussars KGL (2 sq) R/E/Pu
Granaderos a Caballo (3 sq) S/A

Spanish Reinforcements
Columna Begines (-1/-)
Cantabria Line Reg. U/A/SK1
Siguenza Militia S/A/SK1
Valencia Light Reg. U/A/SK2
Reina Line Reg. U/A/SK1

Note to British OOB. The actual cavalry units were weaker than the proposed in this OOB. The Cruz Murgeon's light guns have been considered as one battery.
French Army (Moral 28; Break point 9)
12 Battalions/1 Regiment/2 Batteries
C-i-C Victor (-/-)

1st Division Ruffin (-/¶)
1st Brigade Barrois (-1/-)
1/24th Line Reg R/E/SK2
2/24th Line Reg R/A/SK1
2nd Brigade Chaudron (-/-)
1/Grenadiers V/E/SK2
2/Grenadiers V/E/SK2
1/96th Line Reg R/A/SK1
2/6th Foot Artillery Foot/3 cannons/ Medium/ 1 How

2nd Division Leval (+1/-)
1st Brigade Meunier (+1/*)
1/54th Line Reg R/E/SK2
2/54th Line Reg R/A/SK1
3/Elite (Gren+Volt) V/E/SK2
2nd Brigade Laplane (-/-)
1/8th Line Reg R/E/SK2
2/8th Line Reg R/A/SK1
1/45th Line Reg R/A/SK1
2/8th Foot Artillery Foot/2 cannons/Medium

Dragoons Dermoncourt (+1/-)
1st Dragoon Reg R/E/Sh/Pu
2/9th Leg Reg R/E/SK2

In this OOB the Allied forces are stronger than the French ones, due to the inclusion of the Spanish reinforcements and also because in Lasalle the unit strengths are variable. In the actual battle and in the areas of the 'British' battle, the British and French forces were similar in numbers.
The next thing will be the terrain

The OOB for Barrosa/Chiclana (I)

I have collated the Lasalle OOB for the 'British' section of Barrosa/Chiclana by using several sources: Fortescue, Martínez Valverde, Oman and Sañudo (see the two previous posts). Generally speaking, the battle involved two British brigades, Wheatley and Dilkes, facing two French divisions, Leval and Ruffin respectively, with similar strengths. Whereas the 'official' allocation of units is easy to find, the actual OOB in the day of battle is somewhat complicated. The difficulties are:
(1) The existence of an outflanking French column formed by the 1e de Dragons and the 2/9e Legere.
(2) The role played by the Spanish troops: the Cruz Murgeon's brigade (attached to Graham) and the Begines's brigade facing the outflanking column cited in (1), and covering the Dilkes's right flank.
(3) The presence of another squadron of 1e Dragons along the Ruffin's column.
(4) The accidental exchange of units between the British brigades, originating that some units ended fighting the French in the 'wrong' brigade.
(5) The difficulty to represent in Lasalle the tactics used by the Barnard's Flankers battalion (Wheatley's brigade). Part of this unit (4 coys. of 3/95th Rifles) was ordered to skirmish along to 2 coys. of 20th Portuguese Regiment, forming a long skirmishing line to cover the deploymment of the rest of the brigade, whereas the rest (4 coys. of the 2/47th) was used as artillery supporters.
Anomalies (1) and (2) are easily resolved by transferring the 2/9e Legere to the outflanking column and by using the Begine's brigade as a reinforcement, respectively. On the other side, the lone squadron in (3) can be ignored, as well as the exchange of units between the British brigades described in (4).
The main difficulty lies on the skirmish line covering the deployment of the Wheatley brigade. Lasalle uses a symbol, SKx, to indicate the skirmish capacities of the units (SK0 to SK3) that can be, optionally, shown in the table by x skirmish bases to achieve a visually appealing aspect. Therefore, a skirmish tactics as the used by the British in Barrosa/Chiclana can not be represented in the table game when using Lasalle.
However, the view of a long line of green jackets is so atractive, that I have devised a sort of home-rule. My solution implies:
(a) To amalgamate all the 'light' elements of Wheatley's brigade, 4 coys. of 3/95th Rifles and 4 coys. of the 2/47th forming the Barnard's Flankers battalion, and the 2 coys. of 20th Portuguese in a single large unit, that is made Irregular (V/I/SK3 (+)) as per the 'Creating Irregular Units' Optional Rule (p 74)
(b) Allow this unit to use the 'Half Battalion Deployed' Optional Rule (p 74) but in an inverse way: the unit may break off four (instead two) bases as SK bases, to enhance skirmishers for other friendly regular infantry, while retaining two (instead four) bases to function as a small unit.
(c) The four skirmish bases are used as an Irregular unit, but a gap of until 1/2 BW (0.75 in in my case) is allowed between adjacent bases to increase the front of the unit. The SK bases of the Wheatley's brigade will be not indicated with SK bases.
Is a somewhat devious solution, but I hope it works!

More sources for Barrosa/Chiclana

There is no a full agreement amongst the different sources and authors I have looked upon to find an accurate OOB for the battle of Barrosa/Chiclana. In addition to the sources listed in the previous post, I have searched through the following ones:

- Fortescue, J.W. (1917) 'A History of the British Army', Volume 8 (a 'googled' book downloaded some years ago)
- Martínez Valverde, Carlos (1961) 'El movimiento envolvente contra la línea francesa frente a Cádiz en 1811 y la batalla de Chiclana', Revista de Historia Militar, nº 8, pp 65-112
- López Fernández, JA (2010)'Chiclana 1811. La defensa de Cádiz' Guerreros y Batallas nº 65, Almena Editorial

At last I have decided to wargame only the British battle, i.e. the attack of Graham against the Ruffin and Leval divisions near Barrosa hill. The fight between Villatte and Lardizábal was an independent combat that took place at a distance too large for Lasalle terrain scale.
I will also use the Spanish units present in that area of the battlefield, the Cruz Murgeon and Begines's brigades, whose participation is not habitually acknowledged when using only Oman or Napier sources. However, itheir presence was important to hold the Graham's right flank free of French interference.
A last detail. The hill known to English speaking world as Barrosa (Barossa, Barrossa or Barosa) was actually named 'Loma de la Cabeza del Puerco'. The English translation for this place name is 'Hill of the Boar's Head', so it is not strange that Graham would not accept the corresponding nobiliary title of 'Duque de la Loma de la Cabeza del Puerco' as offered to him by the Spanish Regency!

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Saturday 22 January 2011

Barrosa/Chiclana for Lasalle

The refighting of the Gévora has been a very rewarding issue, so I have decided to try another Peninsular battle to celebrate the bicenntenial, the battle of Chiclana, also knwon as Barrosa (Barrossa/Barossa) in the English-speaking world, that taken place the 5 March 1811.
Cádiz had been invested by the French in January 1810 by a 25,000-strong French army commanded by Victor, but in March of 1811 a reduction in the besieging army (caused by the march of almost a third of Victor's troops accompanying Soult in his assault on Badajoz) gave its garrison of Anglo-Spanish troops an opportunity to lift the siege. Their plan was to ship an expeditionary force 100 km south along the coast from Cádiz so as to launch an attack against Victor from inland.
The force comprised 4,000 men British under Graham, 8,000 men of two Spanish divisions led by Lardizabal and the Prince of Anglona, four squadrons of cavalry under Col. Samuel Ford Whittingham - an English officer serving with the Spanish army - 1,000 infantry from Gibraltar and 1,600 Spaniards from an irregular force led by Beguines. The overall command was given to Lapeña, the senior officer at Cádiz.
After several chaotic night marches, Lapeña diverted from his original intention deciding instead to march by the coast road towards Cádiz. Victor prepared a trap in the plain between the town of Chiclana and Barrosa Hill (known now as the Loma de Sancti-Petri). Using one division under Villatte to block the road into Cádiz, Victor kept two divisions under Leval and Ruffin out-of-sight in readiness to make a surprise flank attack that fell on the single Anglo-Portuguese rearguard division under the command of Sir Thomas Graham.
Following a fierce battle on two fronts, the British succeeded in routing the attacking French forces. Although some Spanish units also participated in the fight, Lapeña does not supported his ally and thus prevented a smashing French defeat.
The French were able to regroup and reoccupy their siege lines so the Graham's tactical victory proved to have little strategic effect and the siege remained until finally being lifted on 24 August 1812.

Bibliography
- Lipscombe Nick (2010), 'The Peninsular War Atlas', Osprey
- Napier, W.F.P. (1833) 'History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France, from the year 1807 to the year 1814', Volume 3
- Oman, Charles (1911), 'A History of the Peninsular War: Volume IV', Greenhill Books 2004
- Queipo de Llano y Ruiz de Saravia, José María, Conde de Toreno (1835), 'Historia del levantamiento, guerra y revolucion de España, Volumen 4
- Sañudo, J.J. 'Base de Datos sobre las Unidades Militares en la Guerra de la Independencia', Ministerio de defensa, Madrid, 2007

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Thursday 20 January 2011

Gévora: the AAR

The AAR and the pictures of the battle of Gévora (Spain, 1813) have been uploaded to the main web-site
Enjoy it!

Gévora for Lasalle. Some considerations

The battle of Gévora was a small affaire of the Peninsular War, involving 7,000French and 12,000 Spanish/Portuguese troops, so it is adequate for a tactical ruleset like Lasalle, being out of scope for grand-tactical rulesets like Napoleon's Battles.
The actual OOB's, as found in the bibliography, were easily translated in terms of Lasalle units, that reflect the differences between the two contender armies at the time of the conflict. All French units, taken directly from the Peninsula list, are Reliable or Valiant, whereas Spanish units have a large percentage of Unpredictable or Shaky units: 60% for the infantry and 100% for the cavalry (See this post).
With these abysmal differences, the final result of the game was very similar to the real one: a Decisive French Victory.
The Spanish losses were: Four broken infantry units (Unión / Batallón del General / Inmemorial del Rey/ León), two broken cavalry units (Algarve and Imperiales de Toledo) and two cavalry units that fled from the battlefield ( Carabineros and Reina). On the French side, only a batallion, 2/88me Ligne, was lost
Evidently, the reason behind the Spanish rout also included a faulty Spanish deployment: a long line of motionless infantry units deployed in the open on a long ridgeline with the cavalry behind the heights. However the main cause of the French success, both in the real world and on the tabletop, was the double encirclement attack used by Mortier. Like in the real world, on the tabletop the battles are half-losen or half-won before the actual fight start.
In addition, the house-rule for Spanish cavalry, penalizing the attempts to advance towards the French with a mandatory Discipline test and a -1 additional modifier, and helping the 'Fall Back' reaction with a +1 modifier, simulated very well the poor performance of the Spanish cavalry during the battle.

The next installment will be also another Peninsular War issue: the battle of Chiclana, best known as Barrosa for the English-speaking people.

Watch this space!

Gévora: the outcome

The battle of Gévora is near the end. One after another, like a house of cards, the Spanish batallions are being broken in the centre. See the Voluntarios de Navarra, taken in flank by the 2/134me de Ligne.

Meanwhile, the 10me de Ligne has taken a Spanish battery by means of a frontal assault.

The French dragoons have finished the encirclement of the Spanish army after breaking, or forcing to fall back, all the Spanish cavalry regiments.

Sálvese el que pueda!

Gévora: the debacle

The newly arrived French Dragoons are causing havoc amongst the Spanish cavalry located in the rearguard. The Reina Regiment has fallen back in front of the French dragoons, what are now menacing the flank of the Carabineros and the Algarve regiments.

The 100me de Ligne has broken through the Spanish battalions of the right flank. The Inmemorial and León infantry regiments have been broken, and the French battalions are now advancing against the Spanish rearguard.

At last Mortier has unleashed the Philippon's Brigade. The French battalions have climbed up the slope of the ridge, forcing the Spanish artillery to limber up and retire down the hill, whereas the Spanish battalions have deployed in line.

To be continued!

Gévora is running! (II)

The Spanish cavalry at last wakes up from its lethargy and the Regiment Imperiales de Toledo advances against the 10me d'Hussards, triggering a countercharge from the 21me de Chasseurs à Cheval. The combined French cavalry units are too much for the Spanish regiment that breaks!

The French reinforcements, the Bouvier des Eclats's Dragoon brigade (plus the 2me d'Hussards) arrive after its detour on the Spanish left flank. They have suffered some delays in route and the battle is almost decided in that sector.

The 100me de Ligne routs and breaks the most senior Spanish infantry regiment, Inmemorial del Rey (King's Immemorial Regiment) deployed in the extreme right of the Spanish line.

Meanwhile, Mortier has decided that the battle is ripe and has launched the bulk of his infantry, the Philippon's brigade, against sthe Spanish centre.

The time for decision is arrived!

A gift from the Three Wise Men

In Spain, not only Santa Claus (Papá Noel) but also the Three Wise Men (los tres Reyes Magos) bring gifts to the good children (and adults). This year I have received a very interesting one: the Database of Military Units during the Peninsular War (Base de Datos sobre las Unidades Militares en la Guerra de la Independencia) from J.J. Sañudo, Colonel in the Spanish Army and one of the main Spanish experts on the Peninsular.
The database, actually a CD, was edited by the Spanish Ministry of Defense in 2007 and I bought it by internet in Libros Reyes, a leading Spanish military bookstore. It contains data about units of Spanish, French and British armies inclding all nations participating in the conflict.

The first siege of Olivenza

The siege of Olivenza of 11-22 January 1811 was an early success for the French during Marshal Soult’s invasion of Extremadura.
Olivenza had been Portuguese until the war of 1801 (the War of the Oranges), when it had been taken by siege. The breach made during that siege had only been partly repaired by 1811 and the town city only contained eight serviceable guns during the siege, and the southern defences were dominated by a ruined lunette 300 yards south of the town. The city was protected by one battalion of infantry, under the command of the Swiss General Manuel Herck, and 2,400 infantry from the Mendizábal's Army of Extremadura.
Soult arrived outside Olivenza on 11 January at the head of Girard’s infantry division and one cavalry regiment. Initially he was lacking siege guns but he began the siege using the Girard’s divisional guns. One battery was placed in the southern lunette, while two more batteries were placed opposite the old breach in the north west corner of the city. The light guns in the southern battery opened first on 12 January, while to the north the French began to dig regular parallels.
The first heavy guns arrived on 19 January opening fire on 22 January. The earth banks, that had been used to block the old breach, collapsed almost immediately and the governor raised the white flag. On the next day 4,161 Spanish soldiers surrendered.The French lost 15 dead and 40 wounded, while the Spanish suffered 200 casualties during the siege. Olivenza would only remain in French hands for ten weeks, before falling to Beresford in a second short siege (9 April-15 April 1811).

Taken from Military History Encyclopedia on the Web

Incidentally, Olivenza was, along Almeida, the inspiration for my home-made Vauban fortress (see the corresponding page in the main web-site)

The French onslaught

Spanish units are standing against the French cavalry in the left flank. The 21me Chasseurs a Cheval has been rejected by the sqaure of the Spanish Regimento del Príncipe (Prince's Regiment) . The sabres of the French soldiers have been useless against the solid bayonet lines.

On the plateau, the Spanish artillerymen have endured a fierce flank attack of the 27me Chasseurs a Cheval, that have been unable to break their resitence and have been forced to retiring in disorder.

In the Spanish right flank, near the Guadiana River, the 100me de Ligne has finished its detour and its battalions have turned to right deploying to attack the Spaniards onto the hill. The Regimiento Inmemorial del Rey is the French target while the Regiment de Sevilla is running to help their comrades.

The situation is almost mature for the main French attack.

Gévora is running!

The battle of Gévora is running in an almost historical way. The 27me Chasseurs a Cheval from the Briche's French Light Cavalry Brigade has attacked the Spanish left flank, breaking the 2/Tiradores de Castilla caught in column formation. The rest of the Spanish battalions in the left flank has changed to square formation, and the French cavalry is wandering around searching a sign of weakness to attack.

Meanwhile, the detached 100me de Ligne is walking around the Spanish right flank in an attempt to outflank the long Spanish line.

The bulk of the French infantry, the Philippon's Brigade, has deployed in the center waiting for the development of the situation in the flanks, whereas the artillery of both sides is firing at canister range with small success.

Watch this space

The deployment at Gévora

The battle of Gévora is ready and both sides have finished their deployment.
Mendizábal, the Sapnish C-i-C has not entrenched his army and has occupied the ridge line with all the infantry, maintaining his unreliable cavalry in the second line near the encampments.

Meanwhile, Mortier is trying to fix the Spanish center with the Philippon's brigade, while sending the 100me de Ligne and all the cavalry to turn the Spanish flanks.

Alea iacta est!

Terrain and optional rules for Gévora

The terrain
The battle of Gévora is well documented so the drawing with Powerpoint was a easy task: a long ridge with the Guadiana River in a flank, leading to the following diagram:

To make the long ridge line I have used cork tiles cut acordingly, combined with my old sculpted tiles and some old hills made from expanded polyestyrene. A picture is worth a thousand words (and my english is very poor!) so look at the actual appearance of the battlefield:

Scenario rules
As I play solo, some ad-hoc rules have been designed in order to simulate some of the characteristics of the actual battle, as well as to add some spice to the play. These rules are (until now):

The morning fog
The Spaniards were surprised when the morning fog lifted and the French were seen very near their front line, so the Lasalle Home Field advantage is not used in this Scenario.

Entrenchments and the Wellington’s advice
Mendizábal did not follow the Wellington’s advice so the Spanish Army fought in open field without any entrenchment. Before the game, throw 1D10. On a 1 result, Mendizábal is allowed to entrench his army with ‘hasty entrenchments’ (p. 75 of the Rules book).

Viva España!
Spanish units add +1 to their Unpredictable rolls if the roll is taken while the unit is entrenched

They’ll be back
If a game ends in a draw, it is considered a Spanish marginal victory.

The wavering Allied cavalry
Spanish/Portuguese cavalry units do not fought well at Gevora. All Allied cavalry units must to pass a compulsory Discipline test to move towards the enemy, using the ‘Vigor of Superior’ and ‘Out of Command’ modifiers as applicable, as well as an additional -1 modifier. When testing to Fall Back from a combat, they get a +1 additional modifier in the required Discipline test (they were wishing to run away!)

Edited (06/01/2011) As Boutton (Spanish Cavalry sub-commander is -1 in Vigor, Spanish cavalry needs a 6 to advance againts the enemy!

The tent camps (Edited 07/01/2011)
~~Only infantry~~ All units can enter in a tent camp. They are always in limbered/march column formation. ~~, i.e. they can not deploy.~~

The flanking Dragoons (Entry point of the reinforcements)
The French reinforcements may enter at B1/C1/D1/D2 (5% / 45% / 45%/ 5%)

Now I must go to bed. The Three Wise Men are coming!

A hasty piece of scenery

Tent camps were universally used during the Napoleonic era, although they are not usually found in the wargaming battlefields. During the battle of Gévora, my next wargaming project, camps played a prominent role because of the lazyness of General Mendizábal, the Spanish C-i-C, which allowed himself to be surprised by the rapid approach of the French columns, while his soldiers were atill sleeping. This failure, in combination with his erroneous deployment (cavalry in the rear) was the key to the French resounding victory.
The chronicles of the day talked about French cavalry units entering into the Spanish camps, and these are usually depicted in the available maps of the battle, so Spanish camps were urgently needed. For it, I hastily designed templates for wedge and bell shaped tents in Powerpoint, and built several elements (13x13 square cm) to be placed in the Spanish rearguard.
See the building of these elements in the main web-site.

The OOB for Gévora

This is the OOB of the battle of Gévora (Gebora, Gebore, Xevora) for Lasalle. The sources are Oman, Sañdo and Thompson. Whereas the French units are easy to trace because they are cited in all the references, there is controversy and confusion about the Spanish ones. Another difficulty, this time on the wargaming side, is that all Spanish units were understrength, so some 'amalgamation' must be carried out in order to arrive to a playable Lasalle OOB.
The French units were taken from the Lasalle 'Peninsula' list so the units are all Reliable or Valiant. To give a chance to the Spanish to stand againts the onslaught, a 40% (6 units) received the 'Veteran infantry' status being 'Reliable', whereas the rest are Unpredictable (8) or Shaky (1). The Spanish cavalry is Shaky (3) or Unpredictable (2) whereas all the Portuguese cavalry (3) are also Shaky.

My final proposal is

French Army Moral 37; Break point 12
9 Battalions/7 Regiments/2 Batteries
C-i-C Mortier (+1/-)

Infantry Girard (+1/)
1st Brigade Philippon (+1/*)
1/34th Line Reg R/E/SK2
2/34th Line Reg R/A/SK1
3/34th Line Reg R/A/SK1
1/88th Line Reg R/E/SK2
2/88th Line Reg R/A/SK1
3/88th Line Reg R/A/SK1

2nd Brigade Gaud (+1/*)
1/100th Line Reg R/E/SK2
2/100th Line Reg R/A/SK1
3/100th Line Reg R/A/SK1

Artillery
2/3rd Horse Artillery Horse/2 cannons/ Medium/ 1 How
4/6th Horse Artillery Horse/2 cannons/ Medium/ 1 How

Cavalry Latour-Mauburg (-1/*)
Light Cavalry Briche (+1/*)
10th Hussar Reg R/E/Pu
21st Chasseurs V/E/Pu
27th Chasseurs V/E/Pu
4th Spanish Juramentados U/I/Pu

Reinforcements
Dragoons Bouvier des Eclats (-/-)
4th Dragoon Reg R/E/Sh/Pu
14th Dragoon Reg R/E/Sh/Pu
26th Dragoon Reg R/E/Sh/Pu
2nd Hussar Reg R/E/Pu

Engineers (One base if Spanish are entrenched)

Spanish Army Moral 49; Break point 16
15 Battalions/8 Regiments/3 Batteries
C-i-C Mendizabal (-/)

Vanguardia de España (-/)
Union R/E/SK1
Principe R/E/SK1
Batallón del General U/A/SK1
1/Tiradores de Castilla U/A/SK2
2/Tiradores de Castilla U/A/SK2
Cataluña U/A/SK2

1ª División García (-1/*)
Rey R/E/SK1
León R/E/SK1
Barcelona U/A/SK1
Sevilla U/A/SK1

2ª Division Virues (-/)
Princesa R/E/SK1
Hibernia R/E/SK1
Zamora U/A/SK1
Toledo S/A/SK1
Voluntarios de Navarra U/A/SK2

Caballería Boutron (-1/-)
Carabineros Reales S/A
Reina S/A
Algarve S/A
Húsares Extremadura U/I/Pu
Imperiales de Toledo U/I/Pu

Portuguese Cavalry Madden (-/)
3º Dragones S/A
5º Dragones S/A
8º Dragones S/A

Artillería
Batería 1 Foot /3 cannons/Medium
Batería 2 Foot /3 cannons/Medium
Batería 3 Foot /3 cannons/Medium

I hope the Spanish/Portuguese force may stand against the French!

Peninsular break: the battle of Gévora

The Peninsular War was never one of my favourite wargaming periods. There are two reasons for it: (1) the irregular performance of the Spanish armies of the era and (2) the small size of the battles of the Peninsular War, not easily played with Napoleon's Battles, a grand-tactical ruleset. Notwithstanding, I did re-fought in the past the battles of Talavera (1809), La Albuera (1811), Fuentes de Oñoro (1811), Salamanca (1812) and Vitoria (the northern combats and the main battle, this being the last time I played the Peninsular War (back in march 2007).
However, we are now immersed in the middle of bicentennial of the Peninsular War and now I own a ruleset, Lasalle, that allows to fight small-size combats, like were most of the Peninsular War, so I have decided to try again that period, and I have chosen a minor Spanish-French combat: the battle of Gévora.
The Battle of the Gévora (Gebora, Gevora) occurred on 19 February 1811, near Badajoz, Spain, where an outnumbered French force routed and nearly destroyed the Spanish Army of Extremadura.
Soult led part of l’Armée du Midi from Andalucía into Extremadura and laid siege to the fortress town of Badajoz. It was a Soult’s diversionary operation to help extricate Massena’s army from his impasse in front of the Lines of Torres Vedras. A Spanish Army (with a small contingent of Portuguese cavalry) under La Romana was sent to raise the siege, but La Romana died unexpectedly and the command of this force was entrusted to Mendizábal, that arrived to Badajoz and ignored the Wellington’s advice and failed to entrench his army.
Soult sent a small force (7,000 men and 12 guns) that attacked and routed the larger Mendizábal force (12,000 men and 17 guns) inflicting 1,000 casualties and taking 4,000 prisoners for a loss of only 400 men. The victory allowed Soult to concentrate on his assault of Badajoz, which fell to the French on 11 March and remained in French hands until the following year.
The map is taken from the Limpscombe book, and I am working on the OOB's using Limpscombe, Oman and Thompson books.

Bibliography
- Cust, Edward (1863) 'Annals of the wars of the nineteenth century', Volume 3
- Lipscombe Nick (2010), 'The Peninsular War Atlas', Osprey
- Oman, Charles (1911), 'A History of the Peninsular War: Volume IV', Greenhill Books 2004
- Queipo de Llano y Ruiz de Saravia, José María, Conde de Toreno (1835), 'Historia del levantamiento, guerra y revolucion de España, Volumen 4'
- Thiers, Adolphe (1854) 'Histoire du consultat et de l'empire faisant suite à l'histoire de la révolution française, Volume 7'
- Thompson, Mark S. (2002), 'The Fatal Hill', Mark Thompson Publishing

There is also a great web site (in Spanish) devoted to the sieges of Badajoz during 1811 and 1812: Badajoz 1811-1812.

The end of the Tortosa siege

The end of the siege of Tortosa was the first event that took place in 1811 during the Peninsular War.
Tortosa was in the road between Tarragona and Valencia, both in Spanish hands and important targets for the French, so its possession would allow the french to cut the communications between the Spanish armies of Catalonia and Valencia.
Tortosa was defended by a garrison 7,179 strong (including 600 artillerymen). The city was built on the east bank of the Ebro, at the foot of four hills, with the lower town on the valley bottom and the upper town on the lower slopes of the hills. The garrison was commanded by the General Miguel de Lili e Idiaquez, Count of Alacha.
The town was besieged by the General Suchet, commander of the French Army of Aragon, with 14,000 men, 52 heavy guns, 30,000 rounds of ammunition and 90,000lb of powder. Suchet arrived outside Tortosa on 16 December 1810 and decided to attack the southern wall of the town, where the soft soil would make it easier to built siege works. This area would also prove to out of sight from Fort Orleans, allowing the French to work virtually unhindered. Suchet’s main targets were the bastion of San Pedro, closest to the river, and the demi-line El Temple, while a false attack would be made against Fort Orleans to prevent its guns from interfering with the siege works.
Preparations for the false attack took place between 16-18 December, and work on the main siege works began on the night of 20-21 December. Under the cover of darkness 2,300 French soldiers threw up a basic entrenchment only 160 yards from the San Pedro. The Spanish only realised what had happened on the next morning. On 21 December they attempted to destroy the French trenches by bombardment, and with a sortie, but both efforts failed. The French engineers were able to make very rapid progress, and by 25 December their trenches had reached the glacis of San Pedro.

After a delay caused by two Spanish sorties, on 29 December the French opened fire with 45 heavy guns in ten batteries. The nearest Spanish guns were soon silenced, and on the night of 29-30 December the French were able to open their third parallel, on the brink of the ditch, and only 25 yards from the wall. Suchet used this advanced position to begin firing mortar shells into the city.
On 31 December the French engineers were working in relative safely in the ditch, placing mines under the walls of the bastion. That night a new battery was built in the third parallel, containing four 24-pounder guns. On the morning of 1 January, before these guns had even opened fire, the count of Alacha raised the white flag, but his conditions don't were accepted by Suchet.

On 2 January the French heavy guns opened up at short range, and had soon created a breach in the walls. Once again Alacha raised the white flag, but Suchet continued to prepare for a never needed assault.
Suchet took the bold step of presenting himself at the gates of the citadel and demanding to see Alacha. In a face-to-face meeting Suchet threatened to offer no quarter if the garrison did not surrender, and under great pressure Alacha agreed, signing the capitulation on a gun carriage.
French troops took control of the citadel, and then moved through the city looting it. Alacha was vilified after the end of the siege. The Catalan Junta tried him for treason, condemned him to death in his absence (he was a prisoner in France), and executed his effigy.

I must acknowledge to Nick Lipscombe the use of one of the maps of his Peninsular War Atlas. I am sorry for any inconveniences caused for it

Post battle questions (II). The Guard Cavalry and the casualties in Lasalle

Lasalle is a ruleset designed mainly to play competition-type games. The losses and moral of the units are linked by a system based on the numbers of bases of the unit.
An average unit has 4 bases and get 4 points whereas a large unit has 6 bases and 6 points. These points are lost by fire or combat and can be recovered by resting the unit far away from the front line. The system is very simple and easy to implement and I actually use coloured pins for it (green, orange and red for 1, 2 and 3 points). Once all the points are lost, the unit is broken and dissapears form the combat and the table-top. It is supposed that the survivors run to rearguard regrouping in a safe place .
For 'Continuing Games and Campaigns', Lasalle has an Optional rule (See p. 79 of the rule book) based on a discipline test for each broken/eliminated unit with several modifiers taking in account the characteristics of the unit and the course of the battle. A unit that fails this test is forever lost, whereas passing it implies that the unit can fight another day.
I was very curious about the fate suffered by the units of the Old Guard Cavalry, Grenadiers a Cheval and Dragons de la Garde, that were overrun during the battle of Sellerhausen. In this case the Grenadiers a Cheval de la Garde recovered to fight another day but the Dragons de la Garde (Dragons de l'Imperatrice) were losen. However, I hope that a significant number of cadres plus survivors and stragglers of these fine unit may rejoin the flags, to fight another day.
Sic transit gloria mundi!

Nota bene. This is a programmed entry. Happy New Year!