Monday 9th May 2016

Second Battle of Santiago

Campaign update

After our last battle for Santiago ended in stalemate, with the French still in control of the town, the allied forces withdrew out of cannon range.

After discussion, the allies withdrew south being followed by a "victorious" French force.
several days, and many miles later the allied plan was revealed. They were only marching to met up with the remainder of Beresford's troops. The Portuguese doubled in size over night and the French decided to go back north!!!

This time it was the allied turn to chase the French, but they wanted to catch them and did, s few miles south of Santiago. The French were attempting to retreat by crossing 2 rivers and were caught between them, battle on!

The French deployed and their left flank was across the rivers already and attempting to hold the allies as long as possible, The centre was split between the 2 sides of the river and the right stuck between both rivers.
The allies deployed as follows -
Right flank was the Portuguese, whose entire 1st Division along with Cavalry and Artillery from the second Division on table and the remainder left off table in reserve.

A nice line of 10 gun batteries faced the "thin blue line"

 

 

The centre and left were needed to deploy on the far side of the first river, which gave the French an advantage, however there were plenty of guns to be used too.

The centre ready to go

 

 

The left faced the hardest fight as the French were deployed well forward in an effort to hold up the allies, whilst inflicting lots of casualties.

 

 

The left fight was the hardest with Bob suffering from poor dice and good French resistance. Initially, Bob sent a cavalry unit around the flank to try and get in the rear. However, march column, traverse shot inflicted casualties, followed by a French cavalry counter charge saw the end of that!

The remainder of the Divisions struggled to get across the bridges.

 

 

 

But did find a ford and by the end had started to get across.

 

 

The centre fared a bit better, managing to cross in several places.

 

 

 

 

Stubborn French cavalry charges, combined with infantry and artillery fire, slowed the advance down and it became a bit of a mess in the centre.

 

 

 

 

The centre were finally able to push through the town and had started to cross the far river after som e hard fighting.

 

 

Unfortunately in their eagerness to get across and into the French baggage, the gallant French defenders in the town were ignored and managed to escape under cover of darkness.

 

 

The Portuguese fared a lot better and were frustrated in not being able to get at the French, who deployed over the river, with the only bridge well defended, whilst being rigged to blow. The French infantry suffered under the constant gun fire as the Portuguese slowly approached behind a rolling fire of cannon.

 

 

 

The infantry were thankful to be ordered to withdraw out of range, but this left the artillery to suffer instead. On the far right, the Portuguese tried and tried to cross the bridge to no avail. Finally leaving it to the artillery to deal with the stubborn cavalry holding them back, but too late to get the Portuguese across.

 

Luckily for the Portuguese, their first attempt yielded a ford and the first brigade streamed across, with the Cazadores finishing off a gun battery with close range musket fire. By the end of the day, 1 brigade was over and being closely followed by another.

 





 

 

The battle soon ended after this and was declared a draw. unfortunately, most of the dead French were able to recover and re-join the army as were the allied.

Once again luck was with the Portuguese and took no casualties, I'm sure their luck will run out soon.

Monday 4th April 2016
Battle for Santiago 

After our crushing victory at Viga, Tom and Myself pursued the French North towards La Corunna.

However the town of Santiago lay inbetween, still with its intact "British" defenses and now manned by French troops with traitorous, Napoleon loving Spanish living within!!!

The allies went on the offensive, with Wellington and his gallant troops taking the left flank and our glorious army the right.

Adam was assisiting me and took the far right with intentions of swinging round the towns side, whilst Bob was helping Tom by doing the same on the left.

First turn and unfortunately Adam failed his orders as did most of the allies! Giving the French cavalry brigade time to advance and occupy the hill immediately to his front, second turn however saw 3 brave battalions advance to close range and unleash a devastating volley into those cavalry.

2 Units would retire never to partake again for the rest of the battle. However the middle Dragoon unit held, and forced them into square, giving the 3 horse batteries time to move up and fire. This caused 1 unit to become shaken, but, held its ground. This gave time for the Portuguese Artillery time to recover from its maneuver blunder and silence 2 of the 3 guns.

I was informed later that the far left advance never got off either with command after command being refused.

The centre Portuguese plan was simple - destroy the defenses and troops within by howitzer and cannon fire and then advance over their bodies, however it didn't work. the amount of cannon defending the front of the town also made it impossible.

The brave Transco Cacadores disappeared under a dust cloud of shot and shell which they endured for most of the battle. Their brigade commander feared the worst once the order was given to advance, however, out of the dust and smoke the unit was found, reforming after the battle shaken BUT NOT BROKEN.

So with the Portuguese centre reduced to an artillery duel, it left the British centre to do all the work, which they did in fine style. Advancing just to the left of the town, eliminating the defenders in the redoubts and then swinging around to take the flank.

All would have worked if not for the second French cavalry brigade advancing along the front of the town to charge the brave British line. The Mamelukes of the Guard caught a unit in line and charged home, only to be beaten off at point of bayonet.

The battle ended with the Portuguese right and centre starting to advance, the British centre holding off the French cavalry outside the town with the far right french troops cut off, and the British left still not moving.

At the end of the day the French despite heavy losses still held the town, but not the outlying defenses, again the Portuguese under the great command of Beresford fought well and no losses.

The battle was declared a draw and unless the French retreat, I'm sure we will fight again!

Monday 1st February 2016
 Battle of Viga

Winter is over and the allies advance north from Portugal towards the French held town of Viga.
The river south of the town is held by a fort and earthworks and the British under Tom  Wellington advance to the attack. Meanwhile Andy Beresford with the Portuguese has found a crossing to the east and marched towards the flank. Unfortunately French cavalry scouts spot the army marching, giving them time to abandon the fort, earthworks and the town of Viga without a shot being fired. 

After a token march by a British division to the elation of the much abused citizens of Viga, the rest of both armies skirt the town and the ecstatic welcome. The chase was on and finally the French were caught trying to get their siege train away.

A French rearguard was formed and turned to face the pursuing allies.

Game ON!

The French have to get their 3 siege train wagons off table as well as the rearguard. The allies have to stop them.

 

Tom with Bob assisting took on the challenge of cutting off the wagons, as the British Cavalry were better than mine and so deployed to the right whilst I tried to occupy any troops defending the rear.  Report is taken as ever from the Lisbon Herald -

Our gallant English allies deployed to the right of our brave boys. From what this reporter saw, they advanced steadily. Initially their cavalry charged and destroyed a gun battery. A steady advance on the right resulted in at least one battalion of French guard being routed.

    

But not before the siege wagons had escaped north. 



The superior training of the Household cavalry saw off the Cuirassiers in the centre.

 

The allied middle of the allied struggled at first with some bad command rolls and stoic French defense but the pressure eventually told. The gallant troops were able to cut the road and block the retreat of 3 French infantry units and a regiment of battered Lancers. Soon these prisoners will be parading through the streets of Lisbon before a term on the Prison Hulks of England.

    

Our troops on the left were faced with a rearguard of horse artillery and cavalry. Progress was slow and steady by 2 infantry brigades supported by guns. The French saw our brave boys and opted to stay behind walls and hills. Even the guns didn't show to shoot.

 

The first brigade advanced towards the hill and the cavalry beyond, with a stroke of luck the Dragoons misread their orders and advanced to the woods edge. taking advantage the Cazadores entered the woods and opened fire from close range. This did not go well for the Dragoons who were immediately shaken (5 dice needing 2+ to hit, 5 hits and only 2 saves).

    

Second brigade went up the road with the artillery support. The artillery engaged the French guns and skirmishers behind a wall, destroying the guns and forcing the infantry to fall back and eventually to surrender.

  

The cavalry arrived and 2 regiments faced off against a Lancer unit and held their own, again these Lancers went on to surrender. The French Horse guns without firing a shot limbered up and tried to escape, only to cut down by volley fire, as were the Dragoons who escaping from the first brigade fell in front of the muskets from the second brigade.

   

Result of the battle was technically a French win. However (before rolling for returns) the French lost 8 units (4 at the hands of our brave boys) and 4 units surrendered. I believe our allies lost 3.

A great game, and any battle were my Portuguese don't loses any troops is a win!!

Sunday 19th July 2015
Campaign game

Tom took over as Wellington and faced battle immediately as the Anglo-Portuguese attempted to push passed the French.
The French deployed along a river with several bridges to defend and the possibility of fords along the banks.

Unknown to the British, the French had engineers prepping the bridges for demolition.

Initial deployment saw Les on the right holding a village across the river and a bridge behind, facing him was Bob with a Division.
Steve held the middle with a village either side of the bridge, this was against Tom with a Division.
Finally, Lee took some cavalry and very light guns to hold the left, against my Division.

French deployment
Right

 Centre

 Left

The allies had to roll to arrive and in turn 1 mine was the only arrivals.

Lee advanced the French artillery and a short duel ensued until the British Shrapnel shredded them and the retreated.

Les sent his cavalry forward which pinned Bob for the game and slowly he was whittled down to a few units left holding the flank. Whilst the French started to retreat unmolested back over the bridge before it was primed for destruction.

In the centre the allies where held up by advanced units of scouts and determined French occupying houses.

The allied right pushed forward, causing problems for the French. The sole French infantry unit tasked with finding an escape route, failed to find a ford. This unit was then pinned against the river and destroyed. Fate wasn't kind to a cavalry unit also when it was enfiladed by 2 batteries of artillery.
Whilst the remaining forces from the flank were finished off with volley fire and canister.
The artillery then advanced into the centre and helped the centre division push the French out.

The final few turns where spent with the British throwing everything across the centre bridge.
It was primed for destruction but on the first turn failed to blow. Cavalry were thrown across only to suffer from crossing fire, and retreat.

Second turn it failed to blow again and Infantry were thrown across, only to again suffer from enfilade fire and be thrown back.

Finally a third attempt to blow the bridge again failed. This time after artillery support fire, more units were sent across the bridge. This time the units reached the explosives and held the far bank.
Game was over and the allies had won a hard fought battle.