24. Battle of Calatayud - 22nd February 1809

The Spanish armies of Murcia and Granada have come out of winter quarters from near Cuenca and pushed north to attack Calatayud, a town held by the French all winter and which has been strongly fortified by them with the construction of breastworks and artillery redoubts.

A recent change of commands in the middle Ebro valley has seen Marechal Moncey's rather battered III Corps withdrawn to rest and refit to be replaced by Marechal Mortier's V Corps. The victor of the siege of Pamplona has reinforced Calatayud with cavalry and these have arrived just in time to encounter a very numerous Spanish column marching up the road from Molina. General Suchet's infantry division is to the south of the town and all of the 21st was spent skirmishing as Suchet skilfully withdrew his outnumbered command down into the town's defences. The Spanish encamped on the heights above the town that night and on the morning of the 22nd prepared to attack.

There is most of a French corps in the town - probably a strong infantry division plus some garrison troops and a lot of artillery. A division of dragoons is thought to be somewhere to the west on the lower ground. The French are probably all of good quality.

The Spanish armies comprise several divisions and are also well served with artillery. They have numerous but not well-drilled cavalry. Their infantry is mixed with some sound regular regiments but also many untested volunteers. They greatly outnumber their opponents however.

Campaign Map:



Battlefield:



We are playing on a modified version of the Gettysburg Manassas map so everyone will have this via the Supplemental Maps mod. Note the field fortifications newly built around "Pont de Mousson" which is Calatayud. The Rio Jalon (marked as the Seille on the map) is not crossable anywhere other than at Calatayud itself where there are three fords.


Please sign up via the Doodle here. Note that we can accommodate this game using either Waterloo (KS Mod) or Gettysburg (KS Napoleonic Mod), so the Doodle is set up to allow you to indicate your preference, if any.

http://doodle.com/poll/sffynsbvw9bsr7mc

I've chosen to go with Saturday at 20:00 UK time using Waterloo as this gives us the most bums on seats. We have 8 and need 1 more minimum, more is preferable. Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far.

We have Charmead, Little Mac, Mark and SJDIII on the French side with Pepe, Kevin, Palmer and me on the Spanish side. We need another Spaniard, preferably 2.

Kevin, Pepe and Palmer can choose between them who commands. Charmead is commanding the French.

Brett - have you any orders for the Spanish? If so put them on the Allied forum please.

Everyone will need an additional small mod because with teh wonders of MyGUI and Waterloo you cannot add a new OOB that uses new units without adding them to the master names.xml file, so for this OOB I will issue a small mod on the night.

Kevin - are you able to host please? If we get crashes we should be able to do resumed runs with every unit in its correct place as there's no AI involved. Having this option up our sleeve will be very helpful.

Yes, I can host. If we have more than 10 or more players, it would probably be best if Ron hosts due to his faster connection.

If people are comfortable with me jumping into the middle of the campaign, I can play (I saw 20:00 U.K., which I believe is standard for when I play with a lot of you on Sunday).

I only have played a division commander a couple of times, so my experience rating might not be the best, so I would prefer a large brigade, BUT I can be a division commander if needed.

If that is ok with people I will add myself to doodle.

Thanks,
Tom W.

You will be very welcome Tom.

Thanks Pepe, I will be there then!

Thank you Tom, that gives us our rock-bottom minimum of 9 players so the game is on. With this many the Spanish C-in-C will also have a division so another person is preferred as well.

Also Tom, it will have to be a division command; we do not yet have enough players to allow me the luxury of letting people take brigade commands.

Tom - I have added you temporarily to the Allied team so you can see their private forum in case the C-in-C wishes to set out a battle plan prior to Saturday.

Mark (Soldier) - I have likewise added you to the French team.

This allows you both to at least see your full OOB and any plans.

Understood and thanks guys.

I will try to be there but I won't know till the day of.

It would be good to see you again Steve.

I can host, if needed.

I do feel I should be able to get one or two GCMers but that is not a firm commitment.

Both sides have zones at the map edges they can move troops to and have them declared safe, representing a withdrawal from the battlefield. As in our previous games, troops which reach the map edges at these locations may not return to the fight, continue fighting or be fired upon or meleed.

The two orange/brown Spanish zones correspond to the two roads south away from the town. The blue French zone represents the road NE to Zaragosa but I have bent it 90deg to the right to give a greater necessary withdrawal distance as Pont de Mousson is too close to the north map edge. Just please imagine that it continues away to the NE.

I believe I will be available on saturday, if you need an additional player .

You will be welcome to join us if you do not mind a brigade in one of the lesser commands

Please make sure you have all the mods installed and working before the day and if you could arrive in teamspeak about 30 minutes before the game is due to start we can test your setup to make sure it is working correctly.

Please be aware that sometimes these campaign games can play somewhat differently from a stand alone scenario. Our stand alone games always involve serious fighting, often to the death. The campaign battles because of reasons of strategy can sometimes involve little fighting for some forces or long periods of waiting around doing nothing until your troops are needed. If you can accept a slow game you will be fine, but impatience may get you into trouble!

Thanks for the welcome .

I would not buy this game if I was to get impatient for its slow pace, it is actually something that I enjoy, as I believe you all do too to some extent.

I understand what you say about the campaign factor, and I am absolutely okay with it.

Also if you play on my side you would have to tolerate my occasional stupid attempts at humor. Others will politely laugh just before they click "mute" on my name. Welcome!

Just a couple of questions:

1. You say we will need an additional Gettysburg Manassas map. Is this map already provided by the Supplemental Maps mod or do I have to get the Gettysburg map from SOW - Gettysburg (which I do not own)?

2. You also talk about a little modification about OOB. I am afraid I have no access to the mod, in case you included it in the private campaign forums. I would appreciate if you could provide me with a link to the modification.

Yes, don't worry the Manassas map is provided by the Supplemental Maps mod.

The other thing is a small mod that Martin Digby will share later today before the battle.

Hope to meet you later Iriasthor.

What does the base Waterloo need to be at? I haven't patched yet. I'm doubtful for the game as I'm not home yet

You need to be at version 1.0006. There has only been one patch.

My apologies to everyone for yesterday's fiasco and the failed game. It was my fault. There was a missing or corrupt file in the scenario structure. This is now fixed. We can attempt to play the game again today at 20:00 BST / 21:00 CET / 15:00 EST and I will be in TS 30 minutes earlier and we will see who can make it. we need a minimum of 8 players.

If that fails I will draw up a new Doodle for next weekend.

I got a 50-50 chance...it would help if anyone can reply to see who else. It is a French thing.

I wish that I could, but I can't. Basically, I traded the wife for Saturday's instead of Sunday's to play, since at this point in time, more people tend to play on Saturday's instead of Sundays.

Perhaps the future will allow more N. American players so that we can look at multiple start times. Hopefully the next patch from Norb will add more players. A few guys that I know locally wait for a 1.0 patch for a game before they start to get involved.

Have fun!
Thanks,
Tom W.