Battle of Cuarte : 21st October 1094

Last week we swopped periods and brought out my Al Andalus collection for a Reconquista battle. This time with El Cid in charge of the Christian forces. 

From a historical perspective the Almoravids were besieging the city of Valencia. The Christian forces in the city were running out of food and hoping for reinforcements, but when it was clear they were not going to arrive El Cid decided to take things in hand. As the Almoravid force started to filter away he sneaked out of the city by an unguarded gate, then set the rest of the defenders to draw the main enemy army away from their camp. The map above shows the outline of what happened.

I squeezed what I could onto my extended table.a couple of tweeks in our scenario, El cid would arrive randomly from the two blue areas. The Almoravids in camp can’t move until El cid arrives and can’t turn backwards either………and so to the battle

The Almoravid forces dominated by cavalry face off against the defenders of Valencia

The Almoravids have the opportunity to defeat the Christian’s if they can deal with each element separately and before they are caught from behind

So the Almoravids charge in where they can and shoot off their ranged attacks

With the thunder of horses hooves and a cloud of dust the Cid arrives slightly earlier than expected

His force of mounted knights charge forward, this enables the rearguard of the Almoravids to begin deploying

The rear Almoravid troops can turn around to face the charge as the cid makes his way across the river

Outside the walls of Valencia the two forces are now engaged 

As the Almoravid cavalry turns back from the initial charge they turn toward the charging knights

The local town militia armed only with pitchforks and sticks prove very effective in combating the Arab light cavalry

The Almoravids are now fighting on both sides but they have the numbers

The Arab rearguard are now advancing across the plain to help defend against the heavy Christian cavalry

The battle now turns into  series of isolated combats across the whole battlefield

Although the heavy knights make good their initial charge, they start to get tired and are outnumbered, they start to pick up wounds

The Almoravid rearguard start to drive into the Christians

Both sides are now thinning out and are getting worn down, the Christian knights reform and charge in again

Eventually Muhammad Ibn Tashfin is killed in combat, although the Almoravids have the numbers still they lack enough force to stop the Christians reforming and making their way back to Valencia so both sides chose to withdraw. At this point the battle ended broadly as a draw but with El Cid claiming a minor victory. A fun battle giving both sides some interesting challenges.

As my lack of posting might suggest I have been busy, including a trip down to the Peak District

The weather was good a trip to Pilsbury Castle

Some gravel cycling

I also had a trip down to George’s where we played our first battle in a 1940’s Campaign, George has covered the details, all I need to say is I hope the Germans can do better next time !

I also hosted a friend from New Zealand so we had a couple of  beautiful days walking in the lakes.

That’s about it for now, I’m gearing up for my excursion to the continent. I’m sure I’ll have some stuff to share when I return, sadly I’ve been too busy to get any painting done but hopefully soon.

Thanks as always 

Matt ❤️

Battle of Reichenberg 1757 : SYW

It has been a while since we played with our SYW collections, we have fought the majority of the larger Prussian vs Austrian battles so we are now exploring some of the smaller battles. The battle of Reinchenberg on the 21st April 1757 was part of the Third Silesian War. The battle involved a corps or so on each side, the Prussians commanded by Marshal Von Bevern and the Austrians were under Count Konigsegg.

The two armies were marching somewhat in parallel when the Austrian took up a defensive position close to the town of Reinchenberg, but when they came under serious pressure they chose to pull back giving the victory to Bevern who captured a significant amount of Austrian supplies.

A couple of useful map from the web

Martin had set up the battle, the Austrians holding the two emplacements on the higher ground. The objectives for the Prussians are to take the high ground and if possible cut the road and thus trapping the Austrian army.

The Prussian left wing prepares to assault the high ground

Both forces have their centre dominated by cavalry, the Prussians seek to block any Austrians crossing the river

On the Prussian left wing they are assaulting the earthworks on the high ground, the Prussians have split their cavalry who have then been able to turn the earthworks and support the assault

On their left the Prussians have a tougher job, fighting up hill into defensible earthworks !

The rest of the Prussian cavalry has been thrown back from the river, but luckily reserves have arrived to strengthen their centre

After a hard fight the Prussians have forced the earthworks on the left, but they don’t have enough strength to push down the hill to the villages on the road

The Prussian cavalry has regrouped in the centre and their reserve infantry brigade prepares to cross the river and drive the Austrian cavalry away

On the Prussian right, the earthworks have been taken but at significant cost and when the Austrian reserves arrive they can’t hold onto the objective

Prussian reserves crossing the river

They drive the Austrian cavalry gradually back towards the road

The position at the end of the battle the Prussians have snatched a victory having taken and held one earthwork and cut the road. The Austrians have retaken the second earthworks, with the Prussian right wing pulling back to a defensive position.

A great battle and it reminded us how much we enjoy these SYW battles and we are now searching out some more for the future 👍

Also managed a bit of painting this week completing some KGL Hussars for my British peninsular army

This gives me two units of Hussars for the British which is enough, I certainly don’t enjoy painting Hussars way too much lace and bits. These will have to do and are ok if you don’t look too closely.

That’s it for now thanks for checking in this week

Matt ❤️

Battle of Brandywine AWI : August 1777

The end of last week saw a change of period and a return to the AWI. This was a separate game to our ongoing campaign so as a face to face battle I could get a few more figures on the table, in fact nearly everything I have for the Battle of Brandywine.

Just a reminder of the Battlefield today the view here looking downhill from the American artillery 

Our scenario was based on a scenario published some time ago in Wargames Illustrated and using Rebels and Patriots I have just enough figures to stretch to the full scenario

Our table as setup, I made one slight adjustment giving the British a couple of units on this side of the Brandywine river, these would arrive from turn 3 and randomise which Ford they could use. I felt this would force the Americans to keep some forces by the river to hold their flank rather than simply allow them to rush to hold back the main British assault

The cream of the British army, Grenadiers and British guards 

As expected the Americans quickly try to redeploy when they realise the British have outflanked them

The firing starts against the British advance

The British guards advance towards the base of Birmingham hill

To their left the British third brigade arrives and advances under the watchful eye of Cornwallis (the red markers indicate ‘first fire’)

The British start to return fire but should they be driving the attack forward ?

Some Hessians arrive over the river, but the Americans have left a unit to guard the crossing

Some of the Americans are forced back but the rest seek to form a strong defensive line

The British choose to avoid a direct assault on Birmingham hill, during use their artillery which has a fairly bad effect on the defenders

The British have attempted to outflank the Americans by river advancing through the cornfield

A strong defence line is eventually in place and the British are starting to struggle to keep up any momentum

The 3rd Virginia are still holding the Meeting House

…..but then they are thrown back only for the British to be pushed back as well

The British elite troops have won out against the American left and are gradually driving them back but it is probably too little too late

The Americans are holding a strong centre where the British are making no progress, and although the defenders of Birmingham Hill have been severely thinned out the British have no chance of driving the American from their position. At this point we gave the win to the Americans as it was clear the British don’t have the force to break through and the Americans could start to withdraw in order. A fun battle and nice for me to play with the Americans for a change 🙂 next time I might give the American a few more challenges to deal with.

Still not managed to complete too much new stuff, I did pick up these French from EBay at a very low cost considering the unit includes the warlord metal command figures. The bases have been recoloured to match mine, and the figures all highlighted to try and bring them to life. They have come out pretty well.

Finally another landscape picture looking over the northern fells for those that enjoy them 👍

Thanks as always for checking in, yesterday we played a SYW battle so will post that soonish

Matt ❤️