Burgos Campaign – Day Seven

1 September 1813 – North Spain – Day 7

French lose campaign and retreat into Burgos district
10 French army – retreat to Picuerga
11 French army – retreat to Santa Maria
12 French army – retreat to Cuellar

British win campaign and hold Valladolid-Burgos district border
1 British army – occupy Quintana
2 British army – occupy Laguna
3 British army – occupy Coca

Burgos Campaign Map

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Most of you will be aware that our campaigns, and the battles fought as a result, is very much a family affair. I do the map work on my own, and set up the table from the map with the two armies. I then brief Jan (my wife) at the table with a short background to the game and explain the winning conditions. For quite a long time this has been two of the three middle squares on the table. The player who controls at least two of those squares at the end of 12 game moves wins the game. Every square on my wargames table has a terrain feature, for example village, woods or hill. That is the object which must be controlled, rather than the whole square. Although I set up both armies on the table, Jan is free to change my deployment of her army, providing each corps remains in the square they occupy on the campaign map.

At the start of each campaign phase there is a declared objective. This is always the city which is the capitol of the military district being invaded. There is therefore always an attacking side, and a defending side. Because I run the map campaign I always command the attacking army.

The campaign map shows the area of the campaign, and the location of each corps at the start of the campaign. The British are on the left and the French on the right. There is one square between the two armies, which is no-mans-land. When a corps enters the square between them and the enemy a battle is declared. The British are the attacking force in this campaign and their objective is to take and hold the city of Burgos. They are deployed on the Valladolid side of the border with each army (of three corps) concentrated and ready to attack. The French are on the Burgos side of the border with one corps from each army on the border, and the remaining two in and around the nearest town to the border.

Normally the British would attack one army at a time. Because they are concentrated they have a slight advantage over the French. That advantage only last for the first battle, because the French react as soon as the first British army crosses the border. Because they have the advantage, it is usual for the attacking army to win at least two of the opening battles. At the end of three battles the defending army is normally in retreat towards the three towns on the right of the map, one of which is Burgos.

After the first three battles both armies have battle casualties, received during the wargame to decide the outcome of each battle. Often the losing army will have received more casualties than the attacking one Most of these casualties are replaced before the fourth battle is fought. Casualties in each brigade is reduced to 10%. This will affect both combat and morale tests for the brigade concerned, and it makes all six armies much more brittle than in the first three battles. It also makes it more difficult for the attacking player. Because he has to approach the defending army, who then normally fire first and can initiate cavalry charges. Therefore the advantage is with the attacking player in the first three battles and with the defender in the last three.

If you have followed the progress of the Burgos campaign you will be aware that things did not go smoothly. The attacking army, the British, only won one of the first three battles. Instead of advancing in pursuit of the retreating army they found themselves withdrawing back towards Valladolid. The British did win two of the next three battles, but only resulted in a draw. Because they had failed to take the French held city of Burgos they lost the campaign.

All of this does not matter much, because the whole purpose of the campaign is to produce interesting and enjoyable wargames. All six games were indeed both interesting and enjoyable. However they did highlight the weakness in requiring the attacker to force the defender to retreat after the first three battles.

The reason for the lack of British success was poor dice, made worse by particularly good dice for the French. We both feel that it is essential to accept the luck of the dice, even if it does mean a game which should last about a week only lasts a couple of days.