Battle of Albuera 16th May 1811

Mark, you wanted a Peninsular scenario. Here it is. You'd better show up!

Soult vs Beresford.

I am putting together a scenario that will be based on this famously bloody battle. I won't be attempting a replication of it but it'll be close and involve similar terrain and similar objectives. The armies will be somewhat simplified and reduced in size as the historical OOBs are long and rambling. It will use a brand new map that we've never used in a Napoleonic game before (though I recall we used it a year or so back for one or two of our Plains Indian Wars scenarios using Gettysburg).

I am trying to get this ready for Sunday 31 Jan at our usual time, but if I don't manage it, can you have a back up plan for us please Kevin?

I am designing the scenario to fit 8 players, 4 per side. Additional players can fit in as brigade commanders.

BTW I chose Albuera because it was a very close result and could easily have gone the other way. It also features an Allied army with British, KGL, Portuguese and Spanish forces.

Ha, I will be there. I neglected last sunday because my internet connection was goofy. Hopefully that problem doesn't return!

Good to hear that Mark. Your stylish tactical presence has been much missed

Would you like to take a C-in-C role?

I'm happy to take a CinC role for a change.

I am back and getting caught up on everything.

I thought that I replied to this thread, but I guess not. Anyway, I will be there, unless I fall off the roof tomorrow. This will be fun, because I am now on the last 3 turns of playing this battle FTF using the La Battaille game system.

Thanks,
Tom W

Marechal Soult,
                      I humbly beg the honour of commanding a brigade.

I remain, Sir, your must devoted servant to the very Euripides,

Volunteer.

Gentlemen

I do believe I will be available for a Sunday match. But I must confess that my emotional shattering by recent events has turned me into a wanton mercenary. I care not for whom I serve as long at the money and flatware is good.

The French once discarded me like a dirty shirt. Certain officers raided my baggage train repeatedly. My saddle bags were stolen whilst I was focused with my telescope on distant enemy formations. Loyalty? What does that word even mean anymore?

Thus I offer my services to the lowest bidder

My resume you ask? My CV de guerre? I shall advertise:

At the brigade and battery level:

I have no equal on the battlefield in leading artillery too close to the enemy and creating conditions for the routing of my battery. I can guarantee you at least 50 percent friendly casualties at the head of cavalry. There is no infantry in Europe that runs faster than mine in short and long and even longer and indefinite retreat (aka strategic routing to the rear)

At the division level:

Nobody loses track of brigades faster than I, and I pair that with unparalleled capability to lose my sense of direction

At the CInC level:

I guarantee my subordinates 5 to 10 minutes of democracy before I consider their input and establish my dictatorship. My plans vary from the overly complicated to the unworkable and nobody communicates faster and more often with couriers on the most mundane of matters

I am, as they say, the complete package. Nobody achieves higher levels of mediocrity than I. You need a brigade or division to cover your flank but yearn to check on them periodically because you are not quite sure if they will do what you ask? Call on me. You want that lead assault to be executed in a disjointed fashion? Send me that courier message. Do you desire discomfort in the ability of your reserves to get there in time? Just call on me.

Vive le Average!

Charmead de Patrick

A conversation between Soult and Beresford overhead by a spy:

Soult: "That fellow Charmead is a damnably fine commander. He sets himself the most mediocre levels of performance and consistently fails to meet them. I highly recommend his commissioning."

Beresford: "Gadzooks a fellow after my own heart; he shall have all he cannot handle and more from me!"

     

Indeed. That Charmead fellow is just the sort I like to have on the other side. Come to think of it, so long as his saddlebags are restocked and his baggage train full and slow he can "fight" on my side.

Should make it today, I would like to be a peon!!

I'm up for a scrap today.

Scenario is all ready and tested. It should be what we English like to call "a battle".

There are 4 commands per side but the nature of this fight and the terrain means it will help if the C-in-C does not have a command of his own and is allowed to focus on managing the fight.

I know Kevin is willing to command one side, but hasn't shown a preference. If, in the next couple of hours, someone would volunteer to command a side and make a choice I can then send that person and Kevin the maps and briefings. If I don't know your e-mail I will PM you, so check the forums again later.

SUMMARY OF SITUATION

It is May 1811 and the Allies are besieging the French-held Spanish fortress of Badajoz in western Extremadura (close to the Portuguese border). Marechal Soult (the "Duke of Damnation") has been tasked with marching a strong corps-strength relief army to the fortress to drive Wellesley and the Anglo-Portuguese army away, lifting the siege.

The Allies have got news of this through their usual channels via Spanish agents and have positioned Marshal William Beresford with an Anglo-Portuguese Corps south east of Badajoz to block any French relief attempt. The Spanish "armies" (in fact merely divisions) of Blake and Castanos have marched to join Beresford and the combined Allied army is in position on a ridge behind the Albuera stream at the village of Albuera some 30 miles south-east of the fortress.

Marechal Soult commands the Armee du Midi (Army of the South) which comprises V Corps and part of IV Corps. He collides with Beresford's position late on 10th May, breaking contact in the late evening to rest his men. During the following morning he closes up to engage.

The map has three objective markers; one in the village of Albuera near the church, one in the centre of Beresford's ridge and one on it's western end. Each side must control two of these three objectives to claim a victory. The Allies must hold two adjacent ones, but the French can secure any two. The road to Badajoz crosses the Albuera stream by a stone bridge and passes north of the village and off the map.

The Albuera stream is fordable at all points but has steep rocky banks which will slow down and may fatigue troops. Crossing it via a bridge or ford is significantly easier.

Note that I have set up the forces so that Soult is committed to his famous flank march and the battle should play out semi-historically. Beresford has just become aware that his position is being flanked as the Spanish "armies" have realigned their positions to face the new threat.

I'll take a division if possible.. as I'm not being listened to as a CiC...

In keeping with the campaign, I'll take the French.

I can make it today but I might have to leave early depending on when we start

I'll send you the briefing Kevin. Maybe Pepe will play Beresford?

I'll take any role, anywhere but best not to give me a vital division.

Kevin impressed me not once, but twice, visiting my troops on our side of the river at Albuera and not once did he steal anything. Not once!  Two or three times, yes but not once!

I has to leave TS before hearing the Post game discussion. My command was alone and not afraid facing the Allied hordes in the middle at Albuera


I tried to bait Martin once or twice to get him closer to my artillery.  Other then sending a squadron or battalion across and back a couple times, I pretty much stayed put for the first hour or so until Kevin gave the order for me to attack. And I follow Kevin's orders. I find that I tend to lead my attacks with my baggage trains in front. It keeps them away from prying fingers.

In crossing that bridge I immediately veered right, away from town so I could put some distance and terrain between me and the effect of British cannon. Apparently the British took ammunition with them today. Overall  I took about 450 casualties pushing the Portugese back on my right to secure a nice hill east of town. I also managed to scatter some British infantry on my left. They looked so confident while they advanced on my "exposed" skirmisers.

Boy I liked that hill. The hill gave me Very nice fields of fire, and if that were the actually objective I would have been quite happy. But it wasn't the objective. Unfortunately, The town was the objective. No way could I grab it.

Martin you did a nice fighting withdrawal and wheel backwards, pivoting on the town. And real good with the artillery maneuvers... I tried a coulple times to scatter them but to no avail. Nice fight.

I knew how bad the Portuguese troops were so I was very pleased to see you spend an hour doing nothing. The only reliable troops I had were the artillery and the two KGL light battalions but the KGL performed very badly going exhausted quite quickly, I don't know why.

My "wheel back on the church" was more a "run like hell and hope some of them stop on my second line" as far as I was concerned. I really began to doubt I could hold the village when you got onto that hill and began your attack. Luckily for me the battle had been decided elsewhere by then.

Most of the time Beresford was sending me orders to "be ready to support the centre" or "be ready to send two brigades to help on the west". By the time I had only 3 exhausted cavalry squadrons left I got an order to "send a fresh cavalry brigade west to complete the enemy's destruction". I had to politely decline all these requests!

Kevin impressed me not once, but twice, visiting my troops on our side of the river at Albuera and not once did he steal anything. Not once! Two or three times, yes but not once!

I want to thank you for your very generous donation. Your baggage train was suitably slow and I was pleased to see your saddlebags plump.

I've been focussed on this battle for so many days I'm unable to look at it right now but when I'm in the mood I will tweak the scenario for play balance and also create a second one that sets the French further back and gives them the opportunity to create their own attack plan which might produce a better fight.

Martin - since I did not, and still do not, care about the fate of my troops I was gearing up for that final assault. I was going to keep driving your left and testing those troops who kept running like hell (aka wheeling back in fighting withdrawal)

Kevin. Please stop convincing my teamster wagon drivers to allow you to "inspect" my wagons. I looked up the French Army regulations. There is no such thing as a "flatware combat weight compliance test" ... It took a week to ensure all my drivers understood that there was no "General Order 12: Mandatory Commissary Wagon rental program" ...you can imagine my dismay when I came upon the supply depot to find all my wagon drivers in a big crowd gambling their recent "bonus paychecks" and to be told, when asked about the 3-dozen missing supply wagons, that they were "all rented out until Monday morning." One enterprising driver asked if I had a rewards card and cared to upgrade to the Division Commanders wagon.