Torres Madres 1810

Being our second large game of 'Napoleon' I think we got a little greedy, and stretched what could be achieved in five hours to the very limit.

The armies of Britain and France again met across a verdant battleground. This time two full Brigades of British infantry were supported by an Spanish and Portuguese brigade, two regiments of cavalry and two batteries of artillery.

Facing them the French put forward two large Brigades of infantry, a Heavy Cavalry Brigade, a regiment of Lancers and two of their own artillery batteries.

The attacks were of course led in most places by the french, who came on in 'Order Mixte' to some effect. The most notable maneuver of theirs however was catching the highlanders unprepared with their heavy Dragoons. The only place the British were aggressive was on the right flank where a ridge line hid each force from the other. Both sides raced to the high ground, but the British and Portuguese got there first.

Not that doing so really helped their cause. In the centre British artillery caused severe losses, but the French still came on, and their cavalry ruled the battlefield, tying up most of the British lines. On the hill the French columns began to prove ascendant, pushing the British back. Although the Portuguese and Spanish developed a flank attack they were to weak willed to press home when the opportunity presented itself.

Ultimately the British had to conduct nine tenths of the fighting, which left them outnumbered and ultimately outfought. Torres Madras would go down in the books as a hard fought French victory in which four British regiments were broken.

Another rip roaring game, but a little too big for the day, 400 points a side left little time to play out the whole action, though not helped by taking an hour and a half to get troops sorted and the battle started! Next time a little smaller I think, but still, pushing 600 little men around the table looked good and was plenty of fun for a Sunday afternoon...