Peninsular action: a 25mm napoleonic game

Four friends, a collection of 25mm Napoleonic figures, a table, a good rules set, some beers, and sausage rolls. Some of us are easily pleased. It was time to introduce Murray to VnB napoleonics, given that he'd only played ACW games until now. So Adrian, Jon, Murray, and I, got together to play a small simple scenario designed entirely to allow some good old fashioned 'gaming rather than necessarily generating a novel and challenging scenario. It turned out however that there were challenges aplenty.

I dragged out my age old 25mm napoleonic armies, French and Spanish. They were painted 40+ years ago, in the age when black undercoats, washes, and highlights, weren't a thing. As friend Keith pointed out some years ago though, they are an artefact in themselves, and en masse on the table they still look the part.

The Spanish are on the defensive (now there's a surprise) on the right of the photo, already in position, and the French are attacking from the left.

The French forces attacking from the left, the Spanish in position atop a long ridge, anchored by towns at either end. The French attack is massed on their right (the bottom of the photo). I left the beer can in the photo because .. well .. you know

Spanish dragoons

French brigades advance against a thin Spanish line supported by light troops

The Spanish line is attacked, and driven back by fire and assault with the bayonet. One of the French cavalry divisions (Chasseur and Hussar) has advanced to exploit the situation. The Spanish defending division (which included the dragoons)was exhausted, but so too was the smaller of the two French attacking divisions

The Spanish withdraw to shorten their line and adopt a defensive position

The French right pushes around towards the Spanish, but fire along the way brought a second French infantry division almost to the brink of exhaustion

The as yet uncommitted French infantry division in the centre

The French left attacks the Spanish right (top centre of the photo), as the Spanish commander had thinned out his right to reinforce his own left

Some pretty bloody cavalry action on the French left.. a Spanish dragoon regiment counterattacks, and eliminates a French dragoon regiment

The Spanish had performed exceptionally well .. linear based Spanish with a mix of M4 and M5 troops, against M5 French on massed bases, is hard work. 

And what a great 'small game'... an evening well spent.