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 ❤️

Battle of Montmirail : February 1814

Looking for an opportunity to get the Napoleonics back on the table Martins came up with the Battle of Montmirail, apparently based loosely on a Blucher scenario on the battle but without the Prussians as we don’t have them (yet)

Our battle is focussed on the Russian attack against the French, who have an isolated Brigade of poor quality troops needing urgent support. This comes in the form of the Old Guard and potentially later the Middle guard. Napoleon and Ney are both on the table. V&F would provide the rules.

The French are holding the two small villages, the nearest held by a brigade of ‘Marie Louise’ infantry the second held by some heavy cavalry who are not ideal for holding a defensible feature in V&F the Russians come on in force all along the edge.

Heavily out numbered the French send out some skirmishers and open up but they are poorly trained and have limited shots. The stream does slow the Russian advance.

Having abandoned the village the french heavy attempt to throw the Russian Dragoons back but despite having the advantage the french are knocked back.

As the Russian infantry develop their attack and now holding the second of the villages Napoleon arrives with the Old Guard !

The battered french heavy cavalry tries to rally whilst Ney arrives leading a unit of Heavy cavalry

The first assault by the guard goes in on the village now being held by Russian grenadiers a tough fight !

Heavily out number by the advancing Russians !

The Guard have brought some heavy artillery which with Napoleons special rules is effective at slowing the Russian infantry 

The first of the Marie Louise units has been driven off but the remaining two are holding on despite being shaken. Using a fate card the unit in the village is boosted to improve their resilience and tenacity. But can they hold ?

The two villages become the focus of the battle. With the french holding on by the skin of their teeth.

On the right wing, the french cavalry having now rallied charges back in and throws the Russian cavalry back

Still the Russians are holding the second village

But after several rounds of combat and two or three assaults the old guard finally break into the village

Against the odds, the French are still holding on despite still being shaken for much of the battle

The french cavalry have broken through and are threatening to overrun the Russian artillery and at this point the Russian general halts the attack and decides to wait for the Prussians

The hero’s of the battle are without doubt the Marie Louise infantry who despite repeated attacks and against the odds have held the village for the whole battle. A splendid battle with lots of close run combats, when the french initially lost the cavalry battle it didn’t look good at all but the stubborn infantry saved the day for Napoleon.

The weather has return to a heat wave but thankfully we are now up north which is considerably cooler and perfect cycling weather

We haven’t had a bike picture for some time

And with mountains in the background

In a slight change of plan today George hosted me for another run out with his lovely Italian wars collection. I played with the French who seemed to have a lot of advantages both in numbers and quality of troops over the Spanish.

Given the advantages it seemed rude not to just advance all out, my Elite Swiss got excited as did some of my heavy cavalry.

As the two lines advance to combat……

Crash the fight begins……

Wonderful stuff and I will leave George to recount the details of the battle, of course what no scenario can allow for is a ridiculously, no crazy, above average dice rolling by one side, enough said 😀 but it may take some years for the Spanish to rebuild their army ?

That’s it for now, another Napoleonic game planned in for Saturday if it doesn’t get too hot

Thanks as always Matt ❤️

4th July AWI Celebration Battle : Chatterton’s Hill

Given the date yesterday it seemed appropriate to dig out the AWI collection. With a slight limit on gaming time I was looking for a smallish battle Chatterton’s Hill is a scenario straight out of the BLack Powder Rebellion book, the battle for the hill was part of the larger White Plains battle. To speed things up  we used V&F for the first time downloading the latest army lists form the Perry Website.

The American ‘Rebels’ are defensively setup on the Hill, they only have two brigades, McDougall with regular continental troops and Douglas with a much less dependable brigade of Militia. These have a low tenacity of 2 compared to the regular British infantry of 4 so they are fragile and could easily flee if the British can get to grips with them ?

The first British brigade arrives under Maitland, they have artillery setup on ‘Wolf Pit Hill’ scary for the Americans but in the end they have little effect on overall battle.

Maitland with his light troops advance on the right, Leslie’s British brigade of regulars can be seen in the distance and beyond them a Hessian brigade under Colonel Rall

As the Allies advance towards the hill the Americans rather than pulling back move up to take advantage of the various stone walls, looking to blunt the advance before the British can fully deploy.

Given the space and the numerical advantage the British really need to get stuck in and not surprisingly they chose to assault the weaker militia units holding the wall either side of the road.

 Not surprisingly the Militia unit taking the brunt of the attack turn and run, but the brigade holds and the second line pours volley fire into the advancing British.

With some pretty lucky dice, the Militia on the right hold and eventually /heroically push back the Hessian Grenadiers

Both sides throw more troops into the hand to hand fighting the militia are on the point of breaking

In the centre Maitland has crossed the river and his light troops are starting to bring fire onto the ridge. The final grenadier brigade has also now arrived and in crossing the river.

The key fight is now very British have been badly mauled with all their units shaken but the militia are thinning out and shaken as well it is only a matter of time before one side breaks !

The British light dragoons charge forward driving the American riflemen away but they come under fire from behind the walls and are shaken

After two further turns of combat the fighting is on the edge, the Militia hold and have to use a fate card to stay in the fight. In the final turn a single volley causing a single wound causes a cascade of failed valour and fortitude tests for the British, this is too much for Leslie’s Brigade which flees the field. Hoorah !

With redcoats fleeing the field and the Hessians beyond now down to a single unit the Americans have held the day. A fun battle with combats and Valour tests right on the edge for several turns. V&F worked well with the recent army lists so we will be using this again in the future. A good way to celebrate the 250 th celebration.

During the week I was also down with George to pick up our 1940 campaign. As always a beautifully setup battle with George’s WW2 collection.

Having won the last two battles this attack by the British was a harder setup (sone might say almost impossible ?)

They gave it a go but the Germans proved too strong. I’m sure George will be posting his thoughts, but fair to say we agreed the scenario wasn’t really balanced, both in terrain and the forces available. That said a fun game.

That’s it for now another battle planned for early next week.

Thanks as always for checking by ❤️

Matt