Cordova Campaign – Battle of Espinal

Battle of Espinal – table at start of game

Both armies start the game on the table.

At the top the Spanish are deployed in and around Espinal
All four corps are deployed on the three objectives
The CinC is behind the hill with both cavalry brigades

The three French corps are deployed with one corps in each square

There are three game objectives
Village on the left, hill in the centre and large woods on the right
The side which has possession of at least two objectives a t the end of 12 moves will win

End of move 12

The battle opened with 45th French corps attack on the village on the left.
11th Spanish corps had no cavalry support and quickly withdrew from the village
They deployed their artillery to engage the village and prepared to counter attack
The Westphalians left one infantry brigade and the cavalry to hold the village
The remainder attacked the ridge on their right

The Spanish centre was held by 10th and 12th corps, 8 infantry brigades and 2 corps artillery
The hill was far too strong for a frontal attack by 44 corps
The Westphalians took half of the hill, and 44 corps advanced to support them
But the right half of the hill remained in undisputed control of 12 Spanish corps

Between the hill and the woods both CinC faced each other with two cavalry brigades
The French advanced and the Spanish counter charged
The leading French heavy brigade routed the Spanish lancers
But the reserve brigades were fought to a draw

On the right 9th Spanish corps abandoned the southern half of the woods
43rd French corps fought hard to take the northern half, and routed all Spanish brigades
The Spanish CinC counter attacked with two brigades from 12 corps
At nightfall the Spanish held three of the four sections of the large woods

At the end of move 12 neither side held two of the three game objectives
The Spanish held one, and more than half of the remaining two
The result was a draw.

French have lost 5 infantry and 1 cavalry casualties (2100 men)
Spanish have lost 17 infantry and 3 cavalry casualties (7100 men)

6 French brigades in rout
11 Spanish brigades in rout

Comments
Another game where the Spanish won, but lost three times as many casualties as the French.
They also had almost twice as many brigades in rout.

It is becoming obvious that the game is not long enough for the greatly outnumbered French to defeat the Spanish in detail. The Spanish have 16 infantry brigades to the French 12. They also have four guns to the French three. This makes it very difficult for the French to win a frontal attack, and there is not sufficient time for a flank attack to be exploited.

The Spanish command and control is also difficult. Normally there is one corps to each 24” square of terrain. This is sufficient space for the corps to deploy and fight. With four corps to three squares is becomes very crowded, and one rout can take many more brigades with them.

We will continue to test play the new Spanish organisation for the rest of this campaign. But I am not confident that we will use it again in future campaigns.