End of Merida Campaign Phase

Battles fought during campaign phase

Suchet won four of the six battles fought.

 

He won the first three, forcing the Spanish army to retreat west to Adjucen, Merida and Calamonte.

 

To pursue the retreating Spanish, Suchet had to detach more infantry brigades to protect his every lengthening lines of supply.   This was necessary because of the increased guerrilla activity, which resulted in the loss of the town of Bargas – not once but twice.

 

The French won the fourth battle to the east of Adjucen.  However 2^nd Spanish corps occupied the city, and 13^th French army were forced to lay siege. 

 

The Spanish won at Calamonte, and also at the final critical battle of Merida.

 

By now the French were down to one or two days supplies for each corps, and the final blow was when the guerrilla captured Bargas for the second time.  This caused the collapse of the French supply system in the north. 

 

Suchet ordered his army to retreat east to resupply and regroup

 

Comments

The end of a campaign is always a time for reflection and to review lessons learned.   This was true at the end of the very first campaign phase in October 2009, it is no less true at the end of this campaign, which is the 85^th campaign phase.

 

There are always good and bad aspects of each campaign.  The good aspect of this one is how well the Spanish guerrilla activity has affected the overall campaign.  I am not really sure whether this was luck or great skill at rule writing.  But I feel the narrative of this campaign has followed the historical war in the Peninsula very well.   The French swept all before them in the first half, but gradually ran out of steam (or more precisely supplies).   The guerrilla lost far more actions than they won, but the ones that they did win had a dramatic effect on the campaign.    The French really did run out of supplies, it was not just something I made up to bring the campaign to a dramatic end.   This was a really enjoyable campaign, one of the best so far.

The bad aspect is a general dissatisfaction with the whole concept of the campaign.   After 13-14 years of almost daily Wargaming the campaign battles it is not surprising that it is all getting a little tired.   Those of you who have followed my blog will know that I regularly revise both the campaign and wargame rules.   I feel that the time has come for yet  another major revision.   I have done this six times with the campaign, but the rules have changed very little.   I feel the time is right to perform major surgery on them.

At present is only a vague dissatisfaction with the outcome of recent games, and particularly in this campaign phase.   Over the next weeks I will put some serious thought into what I feel is necessary.   I will present my ideas and progress on the blog, so the campaign will be suspended until I have redesigned and play tested the new rule system.

I feel it is a bit sad to say that I am really excited at the prospect - but I am.