This was an interesting wargame, where the traditional
tactics were reversed.
There were two corps per side.
On the right A
French corps held a strong defensive position around a town, and the British
were not strong enough to attack. A
second French corps holds the road junction to the north of the town.
On the left one
British corps pins the French around the town.
A second British corps advanced in column against a French corps
deployed in line. I know Wellington did
not organise his Peninsular army into corps, but in our PBEM campaign we do for
ease of comparison. Each corps has four
infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade and corps artillery
When I collected our armies, many years ago, this type of
formation would have been a division.
This particular collection was my light division. It has two rifle, one line and one cacadore
infantry formation. They were
battalions, they are now brigades. I
don’t actually call them the light corps, as that sounds too strange even to
me. But it was interesting that they
would attack in column.
The French were in defence, and their artillery pounded the
British infantry as they advanced.
Fortunately they were all good quality troops, even the Portuguese were
B class, so they soaked up the casualties and closed with the French line.
Our wargame rules allow infantry to advance half a move and
fire each turn. But they cannot move,
change formation and fire in the same turn.
The British could advance into skirmish range of the French line, and
still fire.
But if they moved within musket range, and then changed
formation, they would not be able to engage in a fire fight until the next
turn. The French would be able to
skirmish fire as they deployed. With the
casualties the British had already suffered they might well break and run
before they could fire.
In our wargame rules infantry are classed for both skirmish
and volley fire. The rifles were
excellent skirmishers, but poor volley fire.
So they did not close with the French, but carried out an extended
skirmish battle.
It lasted four turns, with both sides suffering
casualties. But in the skirmish fight
the French suffered more than the British.
In addition they were all line infantry, and two of the brigades were
conscripts. Eventually one of the
French brigades failed their morale and ran.
The panic spread, or perhaps the morale dice were not so kind to the
French, and the other three brigades broke and joined the rout.
A very satisfying wargame.
Neither side had all the luck of the dice. For four moves it could easily have gone to
either side. Finally better morale won
the day.
