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