Rio Mundo - December 1811

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Myself, Gav and James gathered at Gav's home for our big Napoleonics game of the year, and a pre-Xmas get together.  Not knowing quite how much space we would have I assembled mid sized forces and came up with a simple river crossing scenario.  Gav, for once choosing to command the French, was tasked with forcing the Spanish brigade defending the Rio Mundo, before their British allies arrived.  Gav could only deploy to the west of the woodland on his flank, whilst my Spanish could only deploy behind the river.

Initial Deployment

Short of space, Gav left his Cavalry Brigade in reserve, but began the battle with Two large brigades of infantry advancing north on the river.

  

Meanwhile my Spaniards used the walled gardens of a ruined monastery to cover their defense of the main bridge, with their cavalry looking to cover the more distant wooden bridge, and potentially sally out from it to threaten the French flanks.

  

The French opened with an alarmingly swift, unified advance, bringing their consolidated Grenadier Battalion to the very edge of the river.

 

Fortunately the Spanish were able to hold their urges with a withering fire.  On the allies second turn James' British Brigades arrived in the east.  Six battalions in column of march appeared on the horizon.

  

  

The French moves on the wooden bridge now were conducted with urgency, Gav realising the opportunity to challenge my weak cavalry was limited.  Nevertheless his troops moved sluggishly and were caught on the bridge by charging Hussars.

  

At the same time the Grenadiers attempted to force the stone bridge over the Rio Mundo.

  

The French infantry on the wooden bridge were able to repel the cavalry, who raw and easily rattled, went on to flee the field despite little loss.  The Grenadiers however suffered heavily for their attempt and were sent, shaken, back to their lines.  By this stage, the French cavalry had arrived in force.

  

The British were also beginning to deploy, trying to form a line between the two areas of woodland to threaten the French flanks.  The Spanish were by this point under great pressure, with skirmishers having crossed the river west of the stone bridge (we agreed skirmish troops could find crossing points, but not formed units).  The Corsican Legers went on to outflank and destroy the lone Spanish gun covering the valley.

  

The French having crossed the eastern bridge, had also to be contained and so they rushed their token regular units (one infantry and one cavalry) to counterattack. 

  

Poor transmission of orders left French cavalry tangled in the woodland, and under sporadic fire from riflemen.  The British line began to apply enfilading fire to the French flanks too, putting their rash cavalry in danger.  Gav peeled off some more infantry to contain the problem and tried to reorganise his attack on the western crossing, as his Corsicans threatened the rear of the Spanish militias. 

  

The Spanish were able to throw back the French in the east despite their desperate attempt to form square.  By this stage the British were in a deep deployment and able to replace tired troops with fresh men.

  

By now the French were on a knife edge, mainly due to the bumbled eastern flank.  The cavalry brigade having charged on, was now a broken mess and there was only a moment for it to be saved (we allow only a single attempt to rally a unit if a brigade becomes broken, fail that final attempt and the formation cannot further be rescued from rout).

  

This failed and the cavalry broke into a general rout.  Soon to be followed by the infantry in the east.  The Spanish had held, thanks to the timely arrival of the British in force.  But it was a closer run matter than it may have appeared.

 

Another great game, wrapped up with Black Powder (I) in about 3 hours.  I was fortunate that my Spanish militia , who were classed as untried, proved reliable and stalwart; whilst my cavalry was flaky at best.  Gav's infantry were never able to press over the stone bridge, whilst his attempts to get over the wooden bridge became muddled.  They were able to hold out against the British for a while, but eventually the weight of their numbers told.

A nice way to wrap up 2019.  And with a new home for bigger games finally found - our previous venue having closed - hopefully 2020 can see rather more offerings.

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