27. Second Battle of Calatayud - 9th March 1809

After the Spanish attack in late February the French withdrew inside their inner fortifications but were reinforced within a week by the arrival of a fresh division of V Corps. They busied themselves with moving troops about within their defences and also sending units out to the east to observe the activity of the Spanish who constructed a bridge of boats across the Jalon about a mile-and-a-half east of the town.

Across this bridge the Spanish pushed a division with a second in support on the south bank. However the French response was to send a division of dragoons to the east side of the town near Pagny to watch the Spanish busy at their work. Over the next two nights the French also sent at least a brigade, perhaps two to the north-east of Pagny into the wooded high ground. This activity appears to have dissuaded the Spanish from exploiting their route to the east side of the town. They withdrew their infantry two days later, replacing them with two brigades of cavalry which patrolled the north bank of the river and obliged Mortier to keep la Houssaye's dragoons watching them.

During this, the Spanish to the west and south of the town and the French within it exchanged a desultory fire during the day and harassing skirmisher probes in the night. Neither side gained anything and casualties were light. However by the 8th March the Spanish were clearly withdrawing from the Soria Redoubt and on the morning of the 9th were back on the right bank of the Ribota gathered mostly about the Novian Fleches although a strong cavalry presence was left on the left bank of the Ribota.

On the morning of the 9th there was activity in the French camp as troops moved to reoccupy the Soria redoubt.



The map shows only approximate or conjectured enemy formations. This is not an accurate survey of the opposing dispositions.

We'll try to play this battle this coming weekend. There is a Doodle poll here - please sign up, as usual please even do so if its only to tell me you can't make it.

http://doodle.com/poll/tcizsdfmx9mvyxqe

This is a big battle in that it has numerous commands. Given what has taken place nearer Madrid it is also a very critical action so if you can support it by being there that would be very much appreciated.

Tomorrow I shall put OOBs and more details in each sides private forum.

Pagny has the greatest little tavern on its eastern end. Awesome lamb chops, delicious wines. Literally to die for.

Sunday is looking like the best day so far, so we'll go for that, unless there is an explosion of interest in Saturday.

This battle needs to be resolved so we will play it regardless of how many players we get (unless its just us three!).

The corps commanders will just pick up the extra divisions and out of necessity these will be inactive for a while or left to AI command. I'll comment further on that when we know how many players we have, but it looks like 12 players are needed split about 50/50 between the two sides to get everything commanded.

Be aware attendance may suffer due to school being out next week due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the US

Don't you Yanks ever stop partying? Last week or something it was Halloween!

And you Brits have a half dozen, 'We Love Our Bankers Day'. Talk about a lame excuse for a holiday.

But those days are an excuse to do online games, for some weird reason you spend your holidays doing odd stuff with your families! Shocking!

Should we update to the patch or not?

I updated last night and I had zero issues.

Thanks,
Tom W.

Yes, let's update. There seems to be only one problem reported with reference to Dx10 and NSD have provided a fix for that.

We are up to 5 for Sunday. Here is hoping for more ....

If everyone is able to wait for Ron to join us later we have 8 now; 4 a side. Its just do-able at that number. We still have several more players not signed up as well.

We are on for Sunday. We have 9 players which is a good number. We'll meet in TS around 19:30 GMT and do some testing and planning and then start when Ron can join us.

You will all need the new v1.042 patch, our usual 3 KS mods and v106 of the PenCamp Mod for the scenario which I'll give a link to on the day.

Actually, Martin, the correct version is 1.07 because the French get 3 Mirages and 2 surveillance drones. We talked about this.....

I've added French and Spanish escape/safety/exit zones to the map. These function as usual:

1) To have your troops leave the battle and march away, TC them and move them to the map edge as close as you can get within the coloured zones.

2) Limber guns, lie men down, face units away, etc - whatever you can do so they are not combat effective.

3) They may not return to the fight - they have marched away.

4) Enemy must not target or melee them.

Good game!

I missed the post game TS chat but have a couple minutes now.

Our plan was for Mark to slice SE out of Calatayud with his cavalry and get into Spanish rear. Kevin rolling right behind him. We thought we could trap the Spanish on the West Bank of the pontoon bridge. That was our primary goal, and of course getting the Spanish out of Calatayud. Tom and his cavalry stayed near Pagny a bit as an insurance policy, then moved on South as well.. Once those attacks were launched I took half my division west (one of our objectives was to link up with cut off cavalry in the west) in a sweep over the western bridge and the other half straight south (once they figured out how to cross the river). We were corps reserve and ended up reuniting the division at Nancy. Giving orders across rivers is a PAIN.

To the Spanish - well played short handed getting your command out of there!

It was a shame the battle ended when it did, it was just starting to get interesting. Kevin's division didn't blast through as quickly as one would have hoped. What were you doing back there Kevin? My men were riding to glory but the damn grumblers couldn't keep up. I was riding straight for Madrid.

I presume Kevin's men were emptying the pockets of the Spanish prisoners and dallying with "la chicas" of Novian.

I've recorded this as a French minor victory. About 2400 Spanish losses to 500 or so French. More of a big running skirmish.

The Spanish were under orders from Villava not to get the army destroyed so Pepe who took battlefield command really had few options. Had the game run on longer he had plans to halt near Chames and hold a line there which may have contained the French given how few they were.

The difficulty I had of controlling 2 divisions plus a 3rd player in charge of another division whose PC was lagging the heck out of his ability to control his units was hard work. Had I been seriously attacked I probably would have unravelled completely. How Pepe controlled 3 divisions while retreating from a bunch of angry Frenchmen and had time to manage the rest of 2 corps I have no idea. I'm impressed!

I'm pleased the burned pontoon bridge surprised the French. I like to toss in these curveballs now and again.

Villava's men will have to retire south on the Cuenca road but they consider themselves to not have been beaten. A few of the more raw Spanish units, especially in Eroles division have gained experience from this.

Run away and lose almost 5 men to every 1 you inflict and they consider themselves not whipped?

Yep! This was a successful withdrawal in Spanish eyes!

Don't get me wrong - its still a lost battle in the campaign rules with all the problems that brings with it but I won't be hammering the Spanish troops experience levels like I do for some of the more traumatic losses they've had.

It was a cold morning in February. The great Villaneva looks to his Soanish army gathered in the valley noted for its excellent acoustics. "Men, we advance to calatayud!"

"To victory sire!"shouted a young sergeant.

"No"

"To reclaim our territory from the disgusting French!!" said another.

Villaneva shifted uncomfortably on his horse. "Well no, not exactly"

A Captain raised his hand tentatively. "To teach the French a lesson?"

"Nope" Villaneva adjusted his collar.

The sergeant looked puzzled. " Maybe we are to smash Napoleons left flank as he advances upon our sacred capital city?"

"Actually I think it would be a great experience for you guys"

"Seriously, sire?"

" Oh yes. Take a long march. Get some shooting in. Camp out in the wild. I think it would be good for us. Therapeutic. Build some confidence"

The Spanish did an excellent job of breaking contact and preserving the bulk of their army. They used the woods south of Novian to delay my division while the greater part of their divisions scampered away. It was a very good tactic to reduce the superiority of the French forces. Pepe even managed to escape my assassination unit at the very last moment.

But the outcome must still come as somewhat of a shock to the Spanish. They greatly outnumbered the French and obviously had high hopes of being able to surround us and force us to surrender. Their visions of glory faded quickly once we decided to execute the breakout to the south.

It was a well played game by all involved.

On an open field I would love to see what the Spanish could do; 37,000 Spanish versus a much smaller French force. Would be interesting to say the least.

Actually I just want open ground to run my horses

We could play a one off game using these OOBs. Might be interesting. The Spanish really need 7 players at least, 8 to have a separate C-in-C.