Cordova Campaign – Change Order of Battle

 

Start of Battle of El Carpio

This campaign phase was designed to test play a new Order of Battle for the Spanish Army.  

In all previous campaign phases both armies had three corps per side, each consisting of 4 infantry brigades, 1 cavalry brigade and corps artillery.   This worked well for the size of wargames table because one corps occupied each of the nine scenic squares.

The exception was the campaign in Southern Spain, where historically the regular armies always lost set piece battles.   The main problem for the French was not to defeat the Spanish armies, but to maintain their lines of supply and fight the guerrilla war.

Over the years I have tried different orders of battle for the Spanish army to recreate this type of warfare.   The most successful was using guerrilla brigades to force the French to detach infantry and cavalry brigades from their field army to guard their lines of supply.    This was usually done by a roll of dice to determine the outcome of these small combats.   However it had little effect on the main battles, which were fought as regular wargames.

The whole aim of the campaign is to provide interesting battles to wargame.   This is achieved in the other four campaign areas by having equally balanced corps and armies on each side.   All corps are 4 infantry brigades, 1 cavalry brigade and 1 corps artillery.  The outcome of each wargame is largely based on the luck of the dice.   This system works well for my wife and I, who have wargamed together for many years.   It means  that each of us has an equal chance of winning each wargame.

My latest attempt to solve “The Spanish Problem” was to ignore the guerrilla war, but give the Spanish more infantry and artillery and the French more cavalry.   The French troops were better trained, particularly the artillery.   The Spanish gunners were C class, to balance their four corps artillery to the three French.   It looked promising in theory, but as always the true test would be on the wargames table.

After three games it has become apparent that it is not going to work.   It was immediately obvious that it would be difficult just to deploy four corps in line on the available play area (see map above). 

I experimented with having three Spanish corps in line, and one in reserve.   However it was difficult to effectively use them in the available time.   It also caused big problems trying to keep track of them once they were committed.

When they were deployed four abreast, as in the battle of El Carpio, it was difficult for the French to counter the fourth corps.   If they created a large reserve to fight the fourth Spanish corps, the other three French corps were too weak to attack the other two objectives.

So I have decided to rethink the whole concept.   Normally I would do this at the start of a campaign phase, but I don’t want to waste the next three battles in this campaign phase.   Also each campaign phase takes about three months, so it will be a year before we return to Southern Spain to play test the new concept.

The new concept is to have three armies of three corps each.   The Spanish will have 12 infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades and three corps artillery.   The French will have 9 infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades and three corps artillery.    This is because I only have two Spanish cavalry brigades in my collection.   When I designed the original figure collection I wanted the Spanish to have one regular and one guerrilla cavalry brigades, for historical reasons.  This has proved a mistake for practical reasons.  The easy answer would be to paint up some new Spanish cavalry, but I have not painted a figure for 20 years and do not want to start now.

The campaign justification for this wholesale reorganisation is as follows.   Having taken the first three Spanish towns, the French will detach three infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade to protect their lines of supply.   The Spanish, who have lost a lot of casualties, will use their fourth corps in each army to make up the battle casualties.

The end result will still give the Spanish more troops, each army will have 12 infantry brigades to the 9 French brigades.   The Spanish infantry will be slightly less well trained than the French, but the gunners and cavalry will be the same.  

I am not at all sure how this will work out, but I will have three games to play test it.   Don’t be at all surprised if there is a completely different organisation for the next campaign phase in Southern Spain.