Battle of Rolica 1808

Two games from last week to post. First up Rolica which George has already posted on his blog. Looking for some revenge after the Italian wars we had agreed to get out My peninsular Napoleonics and introduce him to Valour and Fortitude. Rolica is famous as Wellingtons first proper battle in the Peninsular and therefore fairly well known. My scenario came pretty much straight out of the Albion Triumphant black powder campaign book. It is relatively small although the forces are unbalanced giving a challenging battle for both sides. 

The scenario covers the second British assault up the very steep and difficult ground known as the heights of Columbeira. Historically Wellington had planned to outflank the position on both sides but the 29th Foot ended up attacking too early directly up the slope, when this was repulsed it prompted a full scale frontal assault. The scenario needs a couple of special rules, the Heights are difficult for movement and troops moving up hill have a disadvantage fighting up hill. Cavalry are are harder to activists in the difficult ground. The ground constricted historically by a series of gullies means the British can only assault in attack column rather than the normal line formation. As this was the first run out for George with V&F and being ‘very friendly’ I didn’t push the french defence who can also gain an advantage fighting down hill. Depending on the tweaks you can make increasingly impossible for the British to get up the hill so it needs some balancing.

The French only have two brigades fighting on the heights, formed up in line they prepare to defend, their artillery opens up. The British break up into mixed formation to attempt the assault

The British reach the crest and take quite a battering, volley fire and canister

Weathering the storm and with Craufurds brigade arriving in reserve, the British line pushes despite the growing losses, the British manage a couple of key morale saves holding the line together…

Just long enough to surge up the hill

The french on the other hand roll poor morale and their line begins to break. You can see them in the distance but already the french cavalry protecting their right flank has broken and fled to the rear !

With the french cavalry gone the Light Brigade of Riflemen and British light cavalry is closing in on the French right.

As the french line contracts the British bring up their reserves. Still the french pound away causing casualties all along the line but not quite managing to break the British brigades.

Eventually the french is reduced to a single regiment and the remaining troops (not many) are forced to flees the field, the British have taken the heights.

A fine battle and hopefully a good introduction to V&F a good win for the British, but they probably had the better of the scenario with the balance in their favour. I’ll look to play this one again sometime with the other advantages built into the Scenario which will make it much tougher for the British !

Last week also saw a trip to Erik’s for another battle with hi ECW collection this time Braddock Down near Plymouth. Not a battle I knew anything about and in fact historically the Parliamentarians pretty much ran away after the first shot. However, Erik meticulously researches the battles to make them as accurate as possible.

The Royalists (me) choose to attack as they have the numbers  and are looking to make this count before the enemy are able to bring up their artillery.

The Royalist force 

Given the terrain I thought I would try and refuse my right, ‘feint’ with the centre but drive up the road to try and get the advantage of the wind and the hedge turning the Parlimentary right ?

Now fair to say the Royalists didn’t have the favour of the dice gods this day. We managed to drive off the dragoons but despite all the odds in their favour my infantry struggled to drive off the Parliamentary cavalry, in fact they started to win.

Eventually numbers counted but the surprise and speed of the flank attack had now been blunted by the cavalry giving them time to prepare. Still the Royalists have managed to create a significant advantage in numbers, this should have been enough but in at least five combats I rolled appallingly scoring 2 or 3 (total) on two dice while the Parliamentry forced rolled 10’s and 11’s. Any hope of a quick and decisive win was lost.

After several hard fought turns and with both armies really exhausted the battle came to a close, at best a very minor Parliamentary win or perhaps a draw, the Royalists had taken the high ground but had nothing left to press the advantage, similarly much of the Parliamentry force was retreating or close to being broken. A fine battle and if it hadn’t been for the very poor rolling the Royalists might have taken the day. A pleasure of course to play with such a lovely collection.

Not sure if the hot weather is coming back this week ? But I was out for some more walking this time the Howgill Fells, for those not aware these are to the East of the Lake District within their own smaller National Park they have a very different nature to the Lake District smaller and quieter, but lovely hill walking on a good day. Some lovely wargaming 🙂

Looking North

Looking south from the highest point the Calf as the Fell is named

Well that’s it for this catch up, we’ll see how long blogger takes to post this up ? Maybe I will have played some more games before it does 😀

Thanks as always for checking by ❤️

Matt

Battle of Seven Pines ACW : May 1862

This weekend with the weather perfect for a bigger game outdoors Martin brought over his ACW collection for the battle of Seven Pines. Once again the scenario is based on one published by Brad Butkovich in one of his excellent ACW scenario books……..

…as usual I made a few tweaks mainly in the terrain. 

This official map is very useful, given the historical scale of the battle we would only be focussing on the fighting to the south of the railway.

Our setup with as many trees as I could find as much of the battlefield is wooded. Specifically the Union forces have some command issues  which is fairly easy to arrange with V&F by having the brigades spread out beyond the 12” command range. The confederates are outnumbered and on the attack. The scenario also has interesting ideas on the involvement of Hood’s Brigade. I managed this by allowing Abercrombie the option to send Regiments off the table to the North and these would reduce the number of regiment that would arrive with Hood. In the end the Union commanders didn’t take this option. The Union have significant reserves arriving from the East. Numbers wise the Confederates have 6 infantry Brigades and 1 artillery brigade. The Union have 9 infantry brigades and 2 artillery brigades.

The Union forces immediately start to reorganise their lines to a defensive position. Three Confederate brigades advance in the first couple of turns

The Confederates suffer some early failed activation rolls which means they are on the back foot

Anderson’s Brigade sweeps forward through the woods, whilst in the middle distance Garlands Brigade is advancing across the first set of abatis. The Union are pulling reinforcements into a second line. (Due to the action I didn’t seem to take that many photos early on) 

As after some delay we are now around turn 6 Hoods brigade advances across the railway line

All along the line the confederates are starting to struggle to break through not helped by some poor dice on occasions. In the middle distance the Union forces can be seen defending their rapidly dug entrenchments

Ouch…..Union reserves arrive

Peck’s Brigade has advanced through the woods to the south. Again delayed ! Rodes and Raines brigades arrive on the confederate right wing 

Fighting all down the line now…

and finally the confederates are breaking through the entrenchments

Rains Brigade charges into Pecks brigade in the woods, but despite winning the combat for several turns the Union forces keep passing their Valour tests

Jenkins brigade is now broken but Hoods brigade is ready to take up the fight

Still the Union left is holding against the odds

The Union reserves are being sent in three directions to block the confederate attacks

Some of the reserves run forward in column but also get delayed

After an epic battle the confederate forces are losing their impetus, the second Union artillery brigade opens up a devastating fire on confederates climbing into the Union defences 

Eventually the confederates win on the right flank but a second Union brigade is now blocking their path. In the centre the Confederates have almost no troops left.

On the confederate left Hoods brigade is now engaged but again the numbers are against them. A fun and fairly epic game, alThough the confederate attack ran out of steam in the end they had broken 3 Union brigades during the day. The cost of this was losing 4  brigades themselves. Given this we awarded the win to the Union Generals although a ‘fate card’ had (slightly tenuously) been used to keep Abercrombies Brigade on the battlefield, this would have levelled things up making only a minor win for the Union forces. Either way V&F worked well allowing a big game to be played to a reasonable conclusion during the day. Luckily I have a few days rest before my next battle 🙂 were I to change the scenario the Union reserves should be held back longer giving the confederates a bit more time to deal with the Union forces in front of them.

During my trip last week I also visited Egremont Castle on the west coast of Cumbria so I thought I would share a picture, an interesting Castle in the centre of the town. Although not so much left now…

Finally I also managed a ‘rare’ trip out Mountain biking on another hot sunny day, giving some nice views into the distance.

That’s it for now, many thanks for checking by on my blog. More to come with a Napoleonic battle planned for Thursday.

Matt ❤️

Battle of Redinha : Peninsular 1811

This weekend we managed another Napoleonic battle this time the French are fighting in the peninsular a Scenario from Command and Colours for the Battle of Redinha in 1811. Ney commanding the rearguard must try and hold back Wellington who is gradually bringing up the whole British Army. By the time he is ready to attack he has the light Division, Picton’s 3rd, Cole’s 4th and Pack’s Portuguese Brigade.

An interesting battle the french must hold as long as possible. Historically as soon as Ney saw the overwhelming British Numbers they pulled back over the river. To try and replicate this the French are all in position on the Battlefield. The British will roll for the arrival of Cole’s 4th Division the turn after this arriving the french can start to with draw over the bridge. Using V&F rules the village of Redinha is represented by two small defensible terrain features one on each side of the road.

The setup, originally I had planned to go outside but the weather was too hot so I squeezed things into the dungeon instead.

The light division on the British left

Picton’s Division on the British right, 

The french are split into 3 Brigades plays a cavalry support, they have some small detachments of light troops posted in front of the main line to delay the British advance, the French artillery opens up on the advancing Portuguese 

The British light cavalry moves forward but is countered by the french, the woods are classed as impassable for cavalry

While the British gallop off towards the centre the french threaten the British left, again hoping to cause delay in the advance of the light division

With the British cavalry now galloping about the centre all hell break loose, all the cavalry is classed as detachments so are really fairly ineffective other than for a little skirmishing.

The British cavalry are now committed and charge home but are fairly easily repulsed, Wellington is reluctant to commit the Portuguese brigade until Cole arrives?

Picton’s Division is gradually advancing on the right but the french here are putting up a stern defence supported by french heavy artillery firing from across the river.

Finally the British dice for Cole who arrives on the baseline, immediately Pack is order to assault the french on the hill.

Hand to hand fighting now as the British reserves get closer, the french need to try and disengage , the french artillery has been moved to face Picton and to avoid them being overrun by the Portuguese 

The Portuguese have been driven back and the french start to pull back off the high ground towards the village, in the distance the light Division has pretty much eliminated the french right flank and is now closing in

Still the defenders are holding Picton back, there is a brief moment when three of Picton’s units are all shaken but the french can’t get the British to fail a Fortitude test

The light division is now closing on the village from the left bringing up their horse artillery

As the french move into the defendable village the British are closing from all sides

A final ‘forlorn’ charge by some french infantry to hold back the tide 

The french manage to get two units across the bridge with a third starting to cross

We didn’t play the final assault to the final death and we settled on an inconclusive draw. The french had done enough holding the British back for most of the day. A fine battle and very enjoyable to play, always hard to have a balanced scenario when the objective for one army is to escape, but this worked out fine and technically it was pretty much equal in VP’s. As always a joy to get the Naps on the table I’m hoping to play the alternative British rear guard action at the River Coa sometime soon.

The weather has remained very warm (nice) so I had a couple of days out in the Western Lakes staying in the van.

The landscape in Wasdale always spectacular

I took some hobby stuff with me and managed to stick some Spanish infantry together in the evening

Day two a visit to Hardknott  Roman Fort looking out to the Irish sea beyond

My walk took me over the hills looking down onto the fort with the Scafell peaks in the back ground one can only imagine what a posting to this location was like back in 100 AD it was a pretty hot day but this view alone made it worthwhile 

That’s it for now another game planned for Saturday hopefully outside.

Thanks as always for checking in 

MAtt ❤️