Campaign
map of Northern Spain
The campaign starts on 18 October 1813, which
is two months after the French won the Leon campaign. At the end of that campaign Wellington was
forced to retreat west and had to decide whether to hold on to Galicia or
retreat into Portugal. He choose the
more difficult option, to maintain a foothold in Spain.
He concentrated his army at Santiago, the
capitol of Galicia. From here he could
resupply through the port of Corunna, and also maintain his communications with
Portugal. He could also rely on the
Spanish militia brigades who were the garrisons of the nine towns in the
region.
The area of the Santiago phase is the nine
squares outlined in white on the map above. Each square is one day’s march, and
also one wargame table.
Santiago
campaign map
This is the map which will be used for the blog
campaign diary. It covers the same area
as the first map, but is extended to show the terrain in greater detail. Each of the nine towns on the previous map
are now the centre of nine squares.
Each square on the map is also a 2x2 foot square on the wargames table.
The map shows the situation on the morning of
18 October 1813, the start of the campaign.
Each corps is shown, and also each garrison and depot. The Spanish militia brigades are in
yellow. When the French occupy a town,
its garrison become a guerrilla band.
The three on the right hand side of the map have already done so.
The campaign starts with all corps and brigades
at full strength. The French and
British corps also have four days supplies each. The Spanish militia brigades have three days
supplies each.
There is at least one square between each
British and French corps. To enter one
of those squares the attacker must declare a battle. When the map is transferred to the wargames
table there will be one 2x2 foot scenic square between the wargame figures.
Campaign
wargames map
This map is very similar to the campaign
map. The main difference is that there
is a number top right of each square.
This corresponds with one of the scenic 2x2 foot boards which are used
to make up the wargames table. Also the
hills are shown as they appear on the table.
Finally each village or farm is marked the same as the wargame scenery
which will represent it on the table.
I used to use this type of map for the diary
blog. But I decided that the other one
would look more like a “proper map”.
However this only works with a solo campaign. When it was PBEM I had to use the wargames
map on the blog as well.
So all is now ready.
On with the campaign!
