A break!

This week-end, Ms. Pardo and me are at Murcia, int he southeast corner of Spain, paying a visit to our daughter. See us under the vigilant glance of the statues of the monument devoted to 'Mours and Christians' at Caravaca de la Cruz.

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The battle of Sagunto (October 25, 1811)

The Battle of Saguntum (Sagunto) was fought on 25 October 1811 between the French Army of Aragon under Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet and a Spanish army led by Lieutenant General Joaquín Blake y Joyes composed by his own 2nd Army as well as reinforcements from the 3rd and 4th Spanish armies.
Suchet, under orders from Napoleon, had invaded Valencia in September 1811 following his victorious siege of Tarragona in June. The castle of Saguntum lied in his road towards Valencia at a distance of 30 km (19 mi) and he tried to quickly seize it by a coup of main. However, the Spanish garrison repulsed two attacks and the French-Allied army was forced to lay siege to the ancient fortress. On the other side, Blake had planned to defend a line of fortifications closer to Valencia than Saguntum, but as the French siege dragged on, Blake came under increasing pressure to make an attempt to lift the siege. In mid-October he yielded to that pressure, called up all of his reserves and prepared to leave his lines around Valencia to attack the French.
Blake split his army into two unequal wings. The left wing (17,700 strong) was sent on a long march around the French right to outflank the French on the battlefield. The Spanish right under Blake (10,500 men) was to engage Suchet’s army directly, pinning it in place to give the left time to complete its outflanking move. This wing contained the most experienced of Blake’s troops – the 5,500 men in the divisions of Zayas and Lardizabal.
Suchet was only able to bring 14,000 men into his line, for he had to detach a force in the trenches outside Saguntum and another force to protect his lines of communication to the north. Despite this he was still in the belief that the Spanish troops would perform badly so he took up position on the plain south of Saguntum, on a terrain well suited to cavalry. Suchet posted his men on either side of the high road from Valencia, and left a reserve to the right rear to protect again the very out-flanking manoeuvre that Blake was planning. 

The Spanish left outflanking force outnumbered the French by two to one, but they were completed routed by the French-Italians units composing the French right that forced them to flight. After only just over ten minutes of fighting the Spanish had lost 2,000 prisoners and 400 dead and wounded. The Spanish right performed much better led by the Laridizabal's division, that became entangled with French infantry and cavalry. Blake attempted to break this deadlock with his cavalry, and for once the Spanish cavalry performed well and the Spanish riders were in the edge to break the French infantry when the arrival of the 13th Cuirassiers saved the day for the French, routing the Spanish cavalry and exposing the Lardizabal’s flanks. Suchet attacked with his Italian reserve and Lardizabal was forced to retreat. The Zayas's division, the only intact part of the Spanish army, was now also forced to retreat.
The Spanish lost 1,000 killed and wounded during the battle itself, and 4,641 prisoners during the rout that followed. The divisions on the left suffered very few casualties, but lost half of the prisoners. Suchet reported his own losses as 130 dead and 590 wounded, although other estimates give a total of nearer 1,000 casualties. Saguntum itself surrendered on the following day, the garrison having watched the defeat of the relief army from the walls of the citadel.
Despite this victory, Suchet was now not strong enough to risk an immediate attack on Valencia: He had to place a garrison in Saguntum itself, and another force was detached to escort the prisoners back to Tortosa, so his disposable force was down to only 15,000 men, and he was forced to ask for reinforcements before to move.

Más información en Wikipedia / History of war

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Leonard Cohen. Prince of Asturias Prize for the Letters

Leonard Cohen, poet, songwriter and novelist, is the recipient of Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Prize for 2011, in the Arts section (eight parallel prizes are awarded every year under the Prince of Asturias rubric, corresponding to different fields). The same prize was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2007.
The veteran Canadian artist, aged 77, has received the prize in person this week in Oviedo, capital of the Principality of Asturias (Spain).
Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships.Famously reclusive, having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments, for the richness of his lyrics, and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.
The videos shows two of his most known songs, 'Suzanne' and 'Hallelujah'
 

 
More information at ALKAID EDIICIONES ART (Spanish/English) and Leonard Cohen (English)

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Altenburg. An OOB for Lasalle

This is the first version of the OOB for Altenburg. As was exposed in previous posts, Altenburg was a small combat, a running retreat fought between a small French force searching for Allied Streifcorps near Leipziig in the last days of September 1813. The number of combatants was small and the forces of both sides were almost composed by cavalry, so this game will be a sort of wargaming experiment, because I never did played a such engagement on the tablegame.

French Army
2 Battalions/11 Regiments/1 Battery
Army Moral 27 ; Break point 9
C-i-C Lefevre-Desnouettes (-/-)

2nd Guard Cavalry Division Lefevre-Desnouettes (-/-)
1st (Young) Guard Lanciers V/A
(Young) Guard Chasseurs a Cheval V/A
(Young) Guard Grenadiers a Cheval V/A
5th Old Guard Horse Battery Horse 3 guns/M/1 Hw

1e Light Cavalry Brigade Piré (-1/*)
1/2/6e Hussars R/E/Pu
1/2/3/7e Hussars R/E/Pu
1/2/3/8e Hussars R/E/Pu

Baden Brigade Hochberg (-1/*)
1/2nd Baden IR S/A/SK1

2e Brigade. 4th Heavy Cavalry Division Quinette (-/¶)
Combined Dragoons R/E/Sh/Pu
Combined Dragoons Cuirassiers R/E/Sh/Pu

Reinforcementes

5e Light Cavalry Division Lorge (+1/-)
12e Light Cavalry Brigade Jacquinot (-/-)
3/4/5/5e Chasseurs a Cheval R/A/Pu
3/4/10e Chasseurs a Cheval R/A/Pu
5/6/13e Chasseurs a Cheval R/A/Pu
3/35e Legere R/A/SK1

Allied Army
1 Battalion/9 Regiments/7 Cossack Pulks/1,5 batteries  
Moral 38 Break point 13
No designed C-i-C

StreifCorps Mensdorff (+1/-)
(Austrian) Er. Ferdinand Hussars #3 V/E/Pu + (Includes Hessen-Hornburg Hussars #4)
Illowaisky X Cossacks S/I/Pu
Gorin I Cossacks S/I/Pu

StreifCorps Platov (-/¶)
Austrians. Illessy (-/-)
Walchen Grenzer Regiment R/A/SK1 or R/I/SK2
Palatinal Hussars #12 V/E/Pu
Er. Ferdinand Hussars #3 V/E/Pu
Guns Horse/1 gun/Medium
Russians. Kudachev (-1/-)
Attaman Don Cossacks S/I/Pu
Don Cossacks S/I/Pu
Black Sea Cossacks S/I/Pu
(Austrian) Levenehr Dragoons Regiment #4 R/E/Pu (includes Vincent Chevaulegers #4)
1st Don Cossacks Battery Horse/2 guns/Light/1 Hw

Reinforcementes

StreifCorps Thielmann (+1/¶)
Austrians. Gasser(-/-)Hohenzoller Chevauxlegers #2 R/E/Pu + (includes Klenau Chevaulegers #5)
Kienmayer Hussars #8 V/E/Pu
Prussians. Von Kurland (-/-)
Silesians Hussars V/E/Pu
Silesian National Cavalry S/A
Neumarkt Dragoons R/E/Pu
Russians. Orlow (-)
Gorin II Cossacks S/I/Pu
Yagodin II Cossacks S/I/Pu
Cossack Guns Horse/1 gun/Light

Next, the tablemap and special rules!

NB. The portraits depict Levfebre-Desnouettes and Platov respectively.

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All the Nafziger collection

In February 2010, George Nafziger donated his large collection of OOB to the U.S. Army (See this post).
However the OOB's at the CARL site  must be individually downloaded in a boring and time-consuming procedure.... until now.
Thanks to Allan F Mountford of the Napoleon-Series Forum, I have discovered that all the Nafziger collection ( 596 MB) can be downloaded as zip files organized by era, from the Alternate Wars site.
A wonderful finding!

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Assault on Plancenoit, a vignette

Below you can see the first pictures of a small diorama built by Jesus, a member of the ALKAID forum.

The vignette depicts the fighting at close quarters in Plancenoit, between the Prussian assaulting infantry and the French Young and Old Guards, sent by Napoleon to counter the Prussian flanking movement.
All the figures are 1/72 plastics: Revell 02580 Prussian Infantry, Esci 214 French Imperial Guard and Italeri 6002 French Infantry for the Young Garde.
The diorama is not finished so watch this space!

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Off topics: 2011 Ig Nobel Prizes

Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

The Ig Nobel Prizes 2011, acknowledging every year research that seems a pun but is real, were announced and awarded on September 29

PHYSIOLOGY PRIZE: Anna Wilkinson (of the UK), Natalie Sebanz (of THE NETHERLANDS, HUNGARY, and AUSTRIA), Isabella Mandl (of AUSTRIA) and Ludwig Huber (of AUSTRIA) for their study "No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise."
REFERENCE: 'No Evidence Of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise Geochelone carbonaria," Anna Wilkinson, Natalie Sebanz, Isabella Mandl, Ludwig Huber, Current Zoology, vol. 57, no. 4, 2011. pp. 477-84.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami of JAPAN, for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm.
REFERENCE: US patent application 2010/0308995 A1. Filing date: Feb 5, 2009.

MEDICINE PRIZE: Mirjam Tuk (of THE NETHERLANDS and the UK), Debra Trampe (of THE NETHERLANDS) and Luk Warlop (of BELGIUM). and jointly to Matthew Lewis, Peter Snyder and Robert Feldman (of the USA), Robert Pietrzak, David Darby, and Paul Maruff (of AUSTRALIA) for demonstrating that people make better decisions about some kinds of things — but worse decisions about other kinds of things‚ when they have a strong urge to urinate.
REFERENCE: "Inhibitory Spillover: Increased Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains," Mirjam A. Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop, Psychological Science, vol. 22, no. 5, May 2011, pp. 627-633.
REFERENCE: "The Effect of Acute Increase in Urge to Void on Cognitive Function in Healthy Adults," Matthew S. Lewis, Peter J. Snyder, Robert H. Pietrzak, David Darby, Robert A. Feldman, Paul T. Maruff, Neurology and Urodynamics, vol. 30, no. 1, January 2011, pp. 183-7.

PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, NORWAY, for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh.
REFERENCE: "Is a Sigh 'Just a Sigh'? Sighs as Emotional Signals and Responses to a Difficult Task," Karl Halvor Teigen, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, vol. 49, no. 1, 2008, pp. 49–57.



LITERATURE PRIZE: John Perry of Stanford University, USA, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important.
REFERENCE: "How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done," John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996. Later republished elsewhere under the title "Structured Procrastination."

BIOLOGY PRIZE: Darryl Gwynne (of CANADA and AUSTRALIA and the UK and the USA) and David Rentz (of AUSTRALIA and the USA) for discovering that a certain kind of beetle mates with a certain kind of Australian beer bottle
REFERENCE: "Beetles on the Bottle: Male Buprestids Mistake Stubbies for Females (Coleoptera)," D.T. Gwynne, and D.C.F. Rentz, Journal of the Australian Entomological Society, vol. 22, , no. 1, 1983, pp. 79-80
REFERENCE: "Beetles on the Bottle," D.T. Gwynne and D.C.F. Rentz, Antenna: Proceedings (A) of the Royal Entomological Society London, vol. 8, no. 3, 1984, pp. 116-7.

PHYSICS PRIZE: Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne and Bruno Ragaru (of FRANCE), and Herman Kingma (of THE NETHERLANDS), for determining why discus throwers become dizzy, and why hammer throwers don't.
REFERENCE: "Dizziness in Discus Throwers is Related to Motion Sickness Generated While Spinning," Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne, Bruno Ragaru and Herman Kingma, Acta Oto-laryngologica, vol. 120, no. 3, March 2000, pp. 390–5.

MATHEMATICS PRIZE: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.

PEACE PRIZE: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank.
REFERENCE: VIDEO and OFFICIAL CITY INFO

PUBLIC SAFETY PRIZE: John Senders of the University of Toronto, CANADA, for conducting a series of safety experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face, blinding him.
REFERENCE: "The Attentional Demand of Automobile Driving," John W. Senders, et al., Highway Research Record, vol. 195, 1967, pp. 15-33. VIDEO

Tomado de /Taken from Improbable Research

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