Command and Colors : Napoleonics Pennisular Campaign

Between my large ACW game I have managed to keep playing each week another of the C&C scenarios with my son. We continue to enjoy them and although some of the results you will see might indicate something different all games have felt quite close. If lockdown continues we might get through the whole book ! But then we have the Prussian campaign as well. Anyway as red and blue blocks are not massively Photogenic I haven’t taken lots of photos and will give you no more than a brief overview of the battle.

Talavera 28 July 1809

Classic Wellesley a defensive battle for the British on the heights of Cerro De Medellin, the french have numbers but it will be hard to do-ordinate an attack. 

Now if you have gamed with me you will know that I have a real reluctance to be defensive and almost almost just throw everything in, so the french immediately start to drive down the right with cavalry hoping to catch the British cavalry napping and perhaps turn their left flank.

Unfortunately on this occasion it backfires completely and the french cavalry is smashed to pieces by the British heavy cavalry !

Well if the right won’t work we’ll try the left, the challenge here being the river which although crossable is a disadvantage, the French under General Sebastiani throw themselves forward

Whilst on the right the British heavy cavalry is still causing problems

The french do manage to get across the river but unlucky rolling means this is only temporary

And then suddenly out of nowhere the British cavalry sweep in for an easy kill

This was a whitewash for the British which surprised us both as it actually felt quite close ? I was too aggressive, wasted my right flank cavalry and didn’t build the track with enough force. I think I learnt my lesson 🤔

Thought it would be interesting for people to see what my son sees from his end when we are gaming, so we got him to take a screen shot. he does need to check which troops are which occasionally but otherwise it feels like we are in the same room.

River Coa - Crawford and the Light Division July 1810

A famous battle where Crauford must escape the attack of Ney’s 6th Corps this was the first scenario with slightly different victory conditions. Here the British can earn victory banners by escaping across the narrow bridge across the Coa. Heavily outnumbered they must chose where to hold and where to attempt to escape. A really interesting scenario

Well the French seem to be attacking in most of these scenarios. Thinking I might cut off the bridge and then defeat them piecemeal I head off down the left flank.

Applying some pressure in the centre as well, the battle progressed really well and was tight

Until out of the blue my son pulled this card ! Allowing him to suddenly jump from  4 to 6 victory banners and claim victory. The french looked slightly red faced at this ! This is one we definitely want to try again some time as it is a great little scenario.

Bussaco (Reyniers Assault) 27 September 1810

Last up for this set our game from Saturday another frontal assault by the french at Bussaco, of course I have remembered my mistakes from Talavera !

A harder position for the french with no river to hide behind, and they are weak on numbers, so taking my time a slower build up mainly on the right but taking opportunities to develop in the centre as well.

The french  have managed to take the hill on the left as a foothold and are threatening the centre, this was really just a feint to weaken the British centre.

French slightly behind but in an increasingly strong position, the Portuguese on the left are looking vulnerable and the french have broken through on the right as well. You can see form the photo that both armies are significantly weakened at the stage so we started to get very cagy pulling back weakened units. The Fuke of Wellington was getting really worried at this stage

The french are definitely in the stronger position able to pour artillery in on the British, and they advance on the left as well trying to pin the Portuguese militia in the corner.

At this stage, and this was the first game like this, nearly every unit has seen combat and almost nothing is full strength, the battle could have gone either way, but Wellington pulled some trick out of the hat to claim the winning banners ! This was a superb game and tremendously fun to play with lots of interesting tactics and twists.

So we have managed to play through a number of games, we are getting better at the rules, with little need to check them. All games have been enjoyable and it has encouraged me to read a little bit of background on each battle. We certainly intend to keep playing through the scenarios. Let’s hope the french can get another win soon 😢