Campaign
Map on 29 October 1813
8th French corps occupy Santiago and
secure depot and three days supplies
Ourense is now the main British depot
9th militia (guerrilla) occupy
Astorga with its three days supplies
They ransack the town and burn all official
buildings
Sanabria is now the main French depot
10th French brigade (the ex garrison
of Astorga) rout towards Oviedo
They are ambushed by 5th militia
(guerrilla) as they near the town
They try to surrender after a brief fight, but
all are killed
Wellington is faced with a choice
He can either move south and retake Santiago
Or he can continue to attack in the north
before the French can recover
He decides to abandon his lines of supply and attack Ribadeo
He decides to abandon his lines of supply and attack Ribadeo
1st and 3rd British corps
attack Ribadeo, both are well supplied
The town is defended by 7th and 16th
French corps, who are both short of supplies
Battle of
Ribadeo
Both armies start the battle with previous
battle casualties.
This leaves them both with fragile morale
Wellington takes command of both corps
artillery, and deploys them in the centre
The remainder of his army are kept in reserve
out of artillery range of the French
He concentrates his artillery on the nearest
French infantry brigade
They already have casualties, and are soon
shaken
He moves his artillery to the next infantry
brigade
Again they have casualties, and soon break and
run
This causes the shaken infantry to test morale,
they fail and also rout
This in turn has the same effect on the nearby
dragoon brigade
With his centre in rout Soult orders his flanks
to withdraw
Campaign
Notes
Wellington took a risk in ordering an attack
The French has longer range 12 pounder
artillery
And he could easily have suffered the same fate
as Soult
However he was lucky, and he rolled better
dice!
Both of the French corps started the battle
with just two days supplies
The compulsory retreat will leave them out of
supply
They will have to retreat, and accept attrition
casualties, until they can resupply
The retreat will allow the Spanish guerrilla to
retake Ribadeo and its depot
They already occupy Astorga, and control the
French rear area
8th corps and the French reserve
have occupied Santiago
But they are now very exposed to attack from
both north and south
The situation of the French army is desperate.
Bold move, Nosey! Now he'd better hope the French decide to cut their losses rather than descend on Ourense with three corps...
ReplyDeleteQuestion - When a unit is out of supply and sustains attrition casualties, once it is resupplied, does that replace the attrition casualties, or does the casualty status remain the same until replacements are received?
ReplyDeleteThistlebarrow,
ReplyDeleteWow! I expected Wellington to try to seize the initiative, but not quite as decisively as this. Mind you, the effect of the guerrilla attacks made it possible for Wellington to be so successful.
I assume that the French will now pull back to draw breath, resupply, and rebuild their forces before resuming their offensive,
All the best,
Bob
Hi Yuri
ReplyDeleteThe French in the south are in a strong position.
However in the north 7th and 16th corps are both in real danger
Both have only one days supplies left
In addition 7th corps are broken and in rout
If 1st and 3rd British pursue, 16th corps could fight.
But at odds of 2 to 1 they stand little chance
If they lose and rout the French are finished
Wellington could send 1st and 3rd corps south
Then 8th and French reserve would be outnumbered 3 to
Neither 13th Polish nor 4th British can afford to move
A lot will depend on which general "blinks first"
regards
Paul
Hi irishserb
ReplyDeleteAttrition casualties are 10% of one brigade.
The corps commander can decide which brigade will receive them
They are then counted the same as battle casualties
To receive casualty replacements a corps must be in supply and stationary
It will then receive 10% of one brigade in replacements (400 infantry or 100 cavalry/gunners) each day
Normally gunners have priority over cavalry and both over infantry
However 10% casualties always remain with each brigade
This means once a brigade has received casualties it will never be 100% again
This in turn means minus 1 on all combat and morale tests
Hi Bob
ReplyDeleteA bad day for the French
But also a lucky one for Wellington
The guerrilla success was the result of a really good dice
Both armies have pretty well fought themselves to a standstill
Both have considerable battle casualties
However the French are the aggressors in this campaign
They must force Wellington to abandon Spain and move into Portugal
In their present condition that is really not possible.
So I must decide whether they can pull anything off in the south
If not then they must withdraw to regroup, resully and reinforce
That would mean that they had failed in their campaign objective
best regards
Paul