Peninsular War, 1811 ish. Outpost. Game at NBHW

Last Friday three of us at New Buckenham got together for a smallish Napoleonic game of Black Powder set during the Peninsular War. It was a fictitious scenario I had created.

An understrength Portuguese brigade found itself manning an old hill top fortification overlooking a river crossing. The rest of the allied line had pulled back from this river but the orders hadn't reached the Portuguese. When a strong French force arrives to their front they send an officer off to seek instructions/support.

Table layout and deployment areas, squares are 24"

A few scenario specific rules etc:

1) The River is only fordable by infantry and cavalry, artillery must use the bridge.

2) If more than a single move is used while crossing the river that unit ends up Disordered.

3) The slope of the hill is Rough Ground / Light Cover

4) Hill top fortification is Heavy Cover.

5) On the Portuguese first turn a mounted commander leaves the hill top heading west. He has to spend one full turn off the table before returning with a British relief force west of the river.

The French objective is to capture the hill fortification and destroy the Portuguese brigade.

The Anglo/Portuguese objective is to prevent the loss of the Portuguese brigade by either defeating the French or withdrawing the Portuguese over the river under British cover.

The opposing forces, British force unknown to French players. I also allocated the brigade commanders with individual attributes for Aggression, Decisiveness and Independence as per the main rule book.

French Roster (Infantry all normal special attributes)

Anglo Portuguese (Infantry all normal special attributes)

So how did it play? Well my first mistake was setting the table up 12" short on the north south axis giving a table of 6' x 5' instead of  6' x 6', so we decided to use 50% distances for the game. In hindsight even with the slightly smaller table we should have stuck with our usual 66%.

The Portuguese set up with the line regiments inside the fortifications and the caçadores in skirmish formation amongst the light cover of the rough ground on the forward slope of the hill. The French advanced rapidly on their left flank in columns with their centre more cautious in Ordre Mixte behind the artillery battery. The French cavalry hung back on the right flank near the bridge.

The French centre would soon deploy
into Ordre Mixte

By turn 4 the French left columns had reached the caçadores while the centre moved slowly forward behind their guns. At this point the British relief force arrived west of the river with the RHA half battery deploying at the bridge in perfect position to enfilade the French light cavalry!

British relief force arrives, doesn't look good for the French cavalry.

As predicted the nearest French cavalry unit was soon advancing to it's rear after some accurate fire by the British artillerists. Meanwhile the light dragoons and line infantry, thanks to the CinC, crossed the river and began to advance to their allies aid. The 5/60th rifles however seemed reluctant at this point to do much, words would be had with the brigade commander later!

The caçadores traded a few rounds of fire with the French columns then started falling back behind their line colleagues who had repositioned within the fortification to meet the immediate threat.

Deus nos preservará

The French centre and right turned to face the new threat to their flank and a sharp cavalry action was fought between a regiment of French hussars and British light dragoons.

Cavalry action

At this point the "save" dice god deserted me and the light dragoons withdrew leaving the victorious hussars to follow up and force them back over the river. This left them in perfect position to be enfiladed by the RHA who had now crossed the bridge.

British finally shake out into line.

The British infantry finally cleared the trees and shook out into line, even the rifles finally joined in and deployed in front of the other light dragoon regiment that had failed to charge the enemy horse artillery. The rifles together with a battalion of line soon put paid to this artillery leaving the stranded French hussars no option but to withdraw as their brigade had broken. This they did in good order despite receiving several shots from the RHA.

French assault arrives, caçadores now in support of the line.

Meanwhile back on the hill I had succumbed to the usual wargamer's error of forgetting the game's objectives, doubly embarrassing as I wrote them. Instead of withdrawing the Portuguese under cover of the supporting British, I held them at the walls to try and repel the assaulting French, which they did, for a couple of turns anyway, before the walls were breached and some poor command roles led to bad positioning and the breaking of the brigade with one unit forced from the table and another destroyed. Oops!

The game was called at this point as a French win with the Portuguese brigade broken and the hilltop in French possession.

A fun game with a few errors made on both sides, the unfamiliarity of using 50% distances caused some poor positioning, and a reminder of a vital factor in wargaming, namely "Remember the Bl@@dy Objectives!"

As usual a lot more photographs on the club Facebook Album

Unit rosters, map and any scenario specifics will be available in my scenarios section soon.

Tony.