Start of Cordova Campaign Phase

 

Central Germany – Campaign Phases 

Cordova is set in southern Spain and follows the French invasion under the command of marshal Suchet and the Spanish defence led by General Giron.   This is the fifth phase to be fought in southern Spain.   The French won three phases and the Spanish only one.

Of all five campaign areas this is by far the most difficult to model.   As you know my 1813 campaign is designed to provide interesting battles to wargame.   That means giving both players a reasonable chance of winning each of the wargames fought.

In previous phases I have tried to weaken the French by including the guerrilla war, which played such an important role in the historical campaign.   The French had to detach large numbers of men to protect their lines of supply, which were under constant attack by the Spanish irregular forces.  

This war within a war had a critical strategic bearing on the campaign.   French supplies had to travel hundreds of miles, and were under constant attack.  However by and large they did arrive.   However the French commanders had to disperse their armies in order to supplement these supplies by living off the land.

It did not however have any real tactical effect.   I can’t think of any battle in the Peninsular which was affected by the guerrilla war.   And my primary interest in the campaign is the wargames which is produces.

Gaming the lines of supply and the guerrilla war has taken up a lot of time and effort, for relatively little reward.    And as the French won three of the previous four campaign phases it clearly did not balance the French and Spanish armies on the wargames table

Cordova Campaign Map

For this campaign is am trying out a new idea.   The Spanish will have considerably more brigades than the French.  There will be nine French corps against 16 Spanish corps.  

All armies are based on the number and type of wargame figures on my shelf.   Apart from the Spanish all French and allied corps (in wargame figures) have four infantry brigades of 8 figures, one cavalry brigade of 4 figures and corps artillery of 1 gun and 4 figures.   So all corps have the same number of infantry, cavalry and artillery.

The Spanish have two such corps, but the other two do not have any cavalry.   Many years ago, long before I created my 1813 campaign, I replaced my Minifigs 28mm figures with Foundry figures.   This allowed me to buy exactly the number and type of figures I wanted at the time.    My infantry units 16 figures, 4 skirmishers and 1 mounted officer.   My cavalry were 8 figures.  

For some long forgotten reason I did not apply this logic to the Spanish.   They included a mixture of regular, militia and guerrilla figures.   But they only had two cavalry units of 8 figures, unlike the other nations which had four such.

Spanish corps (including cavalry brigade)

In each wargame the French will have 9 infantry brigades, 3 cavalry brigades, 3 corps artillery

The Spanish will have 16 infantry brigades,2 cavalry brigades, 4 corps artillery

This is a huge advantage in numbers .    To balance the infantry will be almost entirely conscript and poor quality skirmishers.   The cavalry will be trained, as will the gunners.   Otherwise both would be virtually useless, particularly in later games when they have casualties.

I anticipate that the major difference will be artillery.   The attacking French will always be outgunned.   Yet to press home an attack they will have to advance and risk artillery casualties.   Their slight advantage in cavalry will help, but probably only in the early games of the campaign.

The main Spanish disadvantage will be the poor quality infantry.   If the French can rout one brigade there is a good chance any supporting troops within 4” will fail their morale and join them.

However if the Spanish guns can cause casualties to any of the three cavalry brigades, or the three corps artillery, the French will be unable to deliver an attack with any hope of success.

I have no idea how all of this is going to work out.   As always it will depend on the luck of the dice.   I suspect I may have to reduce the quality of the Spanish cavalry, which would be correct in historical terms.   Hopefully I will not have to do the same for the Spanish gunners.   My understanding is that they were the best of all three arms in the Spanish army.   But more important it would make it very difficult for the Spanish player to win.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming campaign.