Villa Malparaiso 1811

We get only one or two really big games a year in at the minute, but each one is a looked forward to event and a couple of weeks ago was the latest, with myself and Gav unleashing the present entirety of my Peninsular War collection for a grand battle.

Aireborough Games Club was our venue of choice, offering us a Leisurely Saturday afternoon and evening to set up and play, as well as all the table space we could need.  In the end we set up an 11 by 6 foot table giving more than enough room for the roughly 800 figures.

The two forces were disposed by map deployment as usual, allowing plenty of uncertainty.  I took the French - who fielded 11 infantry regiments and 4 cavalry regiments - whilst Gav went with the British and their allies - 14 foot and 3 horse regiments, but with a lower overall quality due to the propensity of allies.  The battlefield was largely rolling plains, with some isolated farms and light woodland.  Long boundary walls and fences also broke the ground.  Once we had drawn up our maps we reviewed each others and got to setting up:

Looking south, with the French to the Left

Another angle, The French Cavalry set wide to the Right

Looking from the British lines, Spanish and Portuguese on the Right

 Both of us placed our cavalry on the Northern plains, Gav's centre was two British Brigade, whilst his Allies were to the right around the Malparaiso farm, stiffened with a Regiment of Highlanders.  For my part my Guard deployed to the farm, with a Line and Leger brigade in the centre and my allies to the North, adjacent to a small hilltop chapel.

We rolled off for initiative and I got first move.  It struck me that My cavalry advantage would be dependent on outflanking Gav first, and that I could expect an assault around the Farm; to this end I aimed to secure a solid defensive position on my left whilst my cavalry did their work.

The French Advance

The Portuguese and Scottish on the Far Right of the British lines

The Guard, Screened by Caribiniers, advance

One of the British centre brigades

The two lines close, French light cavalry outflanks the Spanish horse

The French form defensive lines as the Portuguese enter the farmyards

A long cavalry engagement begins

The French form a dogleg anchored on the wood in the centre

Spanish cavalry retreats.  A blunder sends French heavy cavalry on a fools errand 

The French Allies try to attack the British, probably ill-advised 

One Spanish Regiment had already quit the field.  The British made slow work of clearing the woodland

The Farm breaks up the Portuguese attack, opening it to withering fire.

The British threaten the centre.  Corsican Voltiguers cover the exposed line.

The Confederation troops fight hard, Whilst Spanish Dragoons mire the French Hussars 

Both sides suffer cavalry losses 

British Pressure in the centre starts to build

French cavalry is ascendant, but their allies are pushed back 

Maximum British pressure, but French guns finally act on an enfiladed target 

As the Portuguese attack falters, the French Guard go on the offensive 

Badly mauled, the French withdraw in orderly fashion from an exhausted British brigade 

Personal leadership keeps the cavalry at bay 

Battered regiments try desperately to gain control of Chapel Hill 

The Spanish attempt to face the French lines 

Carabiniers pursue the demoralised Portuguese brigade

Now the British right is dependent on the  Spaniards

The French allies are at their limit 

And then it is too much for them, and they rout 

At Malparaiso , the Guard turn their attentions towards the centre

Shattering fire and assaults smash the Spanish, the British too suffer losses

This would turn out to be essentially the final coup-de-grace, with the French causing enough losses to break the British army as a whole.  The final couple of pictures showing the ending dispositions:

French cavalry kept at bay, but the British had to draw troops away to shore up the centre 

The French centre is much thinned but the left flank is still full strength

Gav felt he was defeated by the complete failure of the Portuguese and Scottish to make any ground in the Farm, and I tend to agree. My Cavalry were effectively contained, and unit for unit his British outfought my French thanks to their greater fire discipline.  But I was able to disrupt the attack of both his allied brigades for very little loss; mostly degrading its impact with skirmish and defensive fire.  This gave me control of the flank, and crucially a fully fresh brigade at the end of the battle with which to turn on the tired British brigades.

An excellent game.  We made one more revision to our house rules for Black Powder to help things along, essentially that if a Brigade reaches its breakpoint it has only one turn in which to rally or it is permanently broken.  In the established rules, judicious use of rallying commanders could restore whole brigades to action several turns after breaking, in a way I ultimately decided was unrealistc at this scale of battle.  It tended to slow down a decision as brigades went back and forth out of the line.  Now if you can't restore order the first chance you have after becoming broken yo are done; this worked so much better and shaved an hour or more off the play time.

As an aside to this, I don't see us shifting to BP2 anytime soon, ultimately, we've tweaked our play of BP over the years to a point where we are both familiar with and very happy with how it plays.

A good old game, and moreover, we get a rematch soon.  We'll be taking these forces and a similar battle to Recon in December, for a rematch.

Stay tuned...

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