Wednesday 30 September 2020

Toledo Campaign – Day 4

 

12 March 1813 – Southern Spain - Day 4

Giron orders his army to concentrate between Albareal and Toledo

He sends 1st corps to support 3rd corps at Albareal

 

Suchet orders 16th corps to move to Bargas and abandon Mocejon

This is to protect 7th corps as they try to rally and regroup

He also orders 15th corps to attack Albareal

This is to distract the Spanish from the weak French centre

End of Move 9

Albareal should have been an easy French victory

It is held by a weak 3rd Spanish corps, who have run out of supplies

They are reduced to two infantry brigades and corps artillery

There is also a militia brigade in garrison in the town

And a guerrilla brigade resting in a nearby village

 

The Poles are not aware that there is a full strength Spanish corps approaching

Despite this they launch an all out attack on the weak 3rd Spanish corps

Their cavalry charge the gunners, but are routed with 20% casualties

The gunners then concentrate on the approaching infantry, and rout one brigade

The Polish infantry press on and rout the two Spanish infantry brigades

 

At move 9 (out of 12 moves) they spot 1st Spanish corps arriving

Without cavalry support, and with one brigade in rout, the Poles halt

It is clear that they could not reach the town before 1st Spanish corps

And to do so they would have to abandon their broken infantry and cavalry

This would allow the guerrilla brigade behind them to attack the routed troops

 

A second defeat for Suchet and the whole campaign looks in danger of collapse

After four days and four battles his army must now halt, resupply and regroup

 

The Spanish army is not much better off

3rd corps has already run out of supplies

They will lose 400 infantry or 100 cavalry or gunners each day until they resupply

The other three corps are down to one days supply

 

Each French corps can carry a maximum of four days supplies

The Spanish corps can only carry three days supplies

So the Spanish need to halt and resupply more often than the French

2 comments:

  1. Thistlebarrow,

    What is up with the Spanish artillery? I know that they were the elite of the Spanish army, but this is the second battle in which that have shown how devastating they can be when presented with the right sort of opportunity,

    This is turning int9 a very interesting campaign.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Bob

    It is even more complicated than that.

    As commander of the French I have made the same mistake that historical French commanders in Spain have made - over confidence. In both games I failed to use a "belt and braces" approach.

    In this current game I ignored the guerrilla holding the village on my left. I then expected the cavalry to be able to take out the Spanish artillery, and did not allocate any infantry support. So when the cavalry were routed all of my infantry were committed to attacking the town.

    Faced with two brigades in rout, and likely to be wiped out by the guerrillas, I had no option but to call off the attack and retreat.

    Great game, even though I lost again. And so satisfying to be caught out just as historical commanders were. For me this proves how good the campaign and game rules are at recreating the historical tactical and administrative problems. And this despite using really very simple rules which provide a fast moving and fun game. Just goes to show that rules don't have to be complicated and time consuming

    regards

    Paul

    ReplyDelete

I have set the settings for comments to come to me before posting so that I will not miss any