The Battle of Sabugal 1811

After the Tallarn jungle adventure, time for something historical. The battle of Sabugal 3rd April 1811 Wellington was driving the French out of Portugal and the Light division caught the French rearguard under Jean Reynier near the village of Sabugal. Bad wether, mainly Fog meant the french were caught and heavily outnumbered. 

The starting positions, the light division coming on from the left, the French on the slightly higher ground. The french brigade on the hill can’t activate until the leading brigade of Pictish 3rd Division crosses the river. The British need to try and pin the french in place, the french need to try and save as many troops as they can and get off the battlefield to the near edge, where the British light cavalry is outflanking their position.

The French position

The 2nd brigade under Drummond advances to support the rest of the light division. Lots of green coated riflemen thrown out in front.

The french open fire, Portuguese troops are sent to cut the retreating french off but are menaced by the french light cavalry

The French light cavalry

The British attack the french right flank which starts to fold back on itself

Ouch Pictons Division starts to arrive, one turn late after the french played a dastardly fate card 

After a failed charge at the Portugese the french light cavalry is forced to pull back and regroup

The British assault through the light woods on the french right

In the centre the french are starting to pull back to buy some time

Finally the rest of the French see the advancing 3rd Division and are activated to move off the ridge

A second charge by the french cavalry has wiped out the Portugese who were caught in the field,

The french right wing has managed to extricate itself despite every unit in the brigade being shaken. The fresh troops can hopefully now hold the position long enough

The British are now in the driving seat pushing up onto the higher ground driving the french before them

The position of the light division, it has been badly beaten up and at one point was on the verge of collapsing completely but it held on just, with the rest of the 3rd Division arriving it is a British win as they have forced significantly more Brigade Fortitude tests out of the french.

Lots of fun and a surprisingly tight game, the British really were on the point of collapsing, it didn’t help that the French rolled pretty badly, especially early on.

The ECW painting has continued with a planned battle later this week.

These are lovely Peter Pig command figures to use both for army and Batalia commanders. I like the fact that each is named on the base so thought I would highlight this, they do a couple more figures which I’ll get next time I order something. For now I have been completing units of dismounted dragoons.

Well that’s it for now , hopefully two games this week.

Thanks for checking in Matt ♥️