The Battle of the Nive

Table at the start of the battle of the Nive

Our Hanover PBEM campaign has reached a quiet stage, where both sides will have to retire to lick their wounds before moving forward to fight again.

Whilst waiting for the next campaign battle to arrive, Jan and I have set up one of our occasional wargames inspired by Wellington’s battles in the Peninsula

The battle of the Nive is the eleventh in our occasional series of Wellington’s Battles in the Peninsula.

This was a complicated battle fought over the period 9-13 December 1813, and involved fighting on both sides of the river Nive. Wellington’s aim was to force Soult to retreat and abandon Bayonne.

Our wargames are inspired by the historical battles, and not an attempt to recreate them. So we combined all three days fighting on both sides of the river into a single wargame.

The game was fought in 28mm with only 128 infantry, 16 cavalry and 4 guns per side.

The battle report will be published on my Wellington’s Battles blog each day. The set up of the game compares an historical map and order of battle with our wargames table and wargame order of battle.

The battle report can be found at

http://wellingtonsbattles.blogspot.com/