On the Saturday 21st May we recreated the Battle of Salamanca. Javier from the club had very kindly organised the battle. We used the Lasalle rules with some minor alterations to test out some proposed house rules. The Order of Battle for both Armies were as follows.
1 GENERAL (FOY) Enters turn 13 Units of Veteran Line Infantry, 2 Units of Elite Line Infantry, 1 Division Foot Artillery.
1 GENERAL (CLAUSEL) Enters turn 1
9 Units of Veteran Line Infantry, 2 Units of Elite Line Infantry, 1 Division of foot Artillery, 2 Units of Dragoons, 1 Horse Artillery.
1 GENERAL (THOMIERES) Enters turn 5
4 Units of Veteran Line Infantry, 1 Unit Elite Light Infantry, 1 Division of Foot Artillery.
1 GENERAL DE CABALLERIA (CURTO) Enters turn 5
1 Unit of Hussars, 2 Units of Chasseurs, 1 Unit of Horse Artillery.
CinC WELLINGTON
1 Unit of Guards (+), 2 Units of Veteran Line Infantry, 1 Unit of Light Dragoons, 1 Unit of Foot Artillery
1 GENERAL (PACKENHAM) Enters on turn 8
3 Units of Veteran Line Infantry, 2 Units of Cazadores, 1 Unit of Portugese Cavalry, 1 Foot Artillery
1 GENERAL (LEITH) Enters on turn 1
1 Unit of Elite Line Infantry(+), 2 Units of Veteran Line Infantry(+), 3 Units of Veteran Line Infantry, 2 Units of Spanish Veteran Line Infantry, 5 Units of Portugese Reliable Line Infantry, 1 Unit of Hussars, 1 Foot Artillery unit
1 GENERAL Of CAVALRY SPANISH (SANCHEZ) enters turn 1
1 Unit of Spanish Lancers
1 GENERAL OF CAVALRY (LE MARCHANT) enters turn 8
1 Unit of Guard Cavalry(+) 1 Unit of Light Dragoons(+) 2 Horse Artillery
Number of turns 30. The winner is the side who has the most points at the end of the game.
Table size 6ft by 8ft.
Miranda de Azan 10 points for each town area, 20 points in total
Arapil Grande 10 points.
Ermita de la Peña 5 points
Pueblo Arapiles 5 points for each town area, 10 points total.
Arapil Chico 10 points
Teso 5 points
Corrales 5 points
If the French occupy the town of Miranda de Azan or Las Torres then they have won and the game ends.
House Rules
1) Half dice for cavalry in combat in rough or woods.
2) British Infantry in line formation can fire with a third more dice.
3) Foot Artillery can only move 4 BWs and Horse Artillery can move at 6 BWs.
4) Squares can fire with 1 dice from each side simultaneously.
5) Squares cannot move.
6) Formations in march column can fire with one dice and charge to combat at half dice.
I will comment on the result of some of these rules at the end of the post.
The French Forces appear on the edge of the table marching through the woods.
Campbell´s Division commanded by Jose, holds the ridge in the background, whilst Leith´s Division with Wellington marches in three seperate formations directly up to the village of Arapiles to try and cut off the French advance.
A French Formation commanded by Javier moves down the table, ready to cross the stream and attack Campbell´s position.
Leiths vanguard passes through the village to reach the bottom of the hills. Wellington receives a request from Campbell for support in case the French break through his lines and take the Town of Torres. Wellington personally sends back Leith´s rearguard formation to help.
Before the British can start marching up onto the ridge, they spot the French Dragoons advancing on the ridge itself. This causes a little panic in the British formation as they are still in march formation and are vunerable. Luckily they have the unit of Hussars protecting their flank.
Campbell´s troops take up position to repulse the French onslaught which is slowly crossing the stream below.
Leith´s front right wing have made it to the summit but the infantry in the centre have been checked by the cavalry threat of the French Dragoons. The Hussars move in position to countercharge.
The French coloum pour through the gap between the two ridges, Leith´s Artillery deploy in front of them. The French Dragoons (top right) charge the Portugese infantry and the Portugese fail to make square but the French are repulsed and take musket fire in the flank as well from the British unit on the ridge.
The French have crossed the stream and begin to make their way to the bottom of the ridge.
Turn 8 Pakenham and Le Marchant´s Divisions arrive on the board.
The reinforcements have arrived just in time, as it seems that the French may break through the gap by the Arapiles and cut the British in half.
The French cavalry (top right) advance onto Miranda de Azan but are blocked by Sanchez´s Spanish Lancers.
Campbell´s position is under attack, but French Infantry attacking the fortified village are repulsed.
The French cavaly in columns of march, charge the Portugese column who fail to make square, The Portugese break.
The French try again to take the village.
In the centre the French advance over the unprotected Arapile Grande and charge the British line.
Having seen what happened to their Portugese companions the British unit forms square. Whilst the Portugese and British Guards reach the summit in line.
The British Infantry in the centre fall back and are supported by a Portugese Infantry unit comimg up on it´s right flank.
Leith´s Vanguard carries on advancing along the hill, beating back the French forces, but Wellington realizes that its left flank is vunerable.
The French have taken the ridge, destroying most of Campbell´s division. The British second line await the victorious French.
The French start to threaten the British Guard´s rear, so Leith sends out a Portugese infantry who were deployed in the town of Arapile.
The French pour down the ridge and attack the British second line.
The British Cavalry beat back the French Cavalry and with the help of Pakenham´s troops secure Miranda de Azan.
The large British unit in the centre, with French units to its front and rear suddenly break and run.
The Portugese Cavalry charge the French flank to see if they can check the flow. They break one French unit but are now out of command and with three damage counters cannot charge again
The French attack the Spanish Infantry infront of Las Torres, but are repulsed.
All that stands in the way now of the French Troops is a small Spanish unit and a couple of Britsh deployed units.
The French Cavalry attack the Hussars and Wellington is killed.
The Spanish Infantry break when the French charge again. The French prepare to attack their objective Las Torres. But time is running out.
The British deploy a couple of Artillery batteries in front of the town to slow the French progress.
The French Destroy one Artillery Battery but this takes up precious time and the game ends on turn 30.
Conclusions
This was quite a marathon battle which last around 7 hours without a break. The French won Tactically winning most of the objectives but failed capturing their Strategic objectives the village s of Miranda de Azan or Las Torres. However they did manage to kill Wellington so a pretty decisive victory. The problem with the British was that Leith had such a large formation (15 units), I tried and split it into 3 manageable formations but with playing with commanders having a 6BWs command radius, most of the time the units were out of command. Perhaps next time for a historical battle, we could have more commanders and smaller manageable brigades or increase the command radius.
Now my comments on the special house rules.
House Rules
1) Half dice for cavalry in combat in rough or woods.
Although we didn´t really use this rule in the battle, I think it is a step in the right direction of cavalry been used historically. (they didn´t like woods much)
2) British Infantry in line formation can fire with a third more dice.
We have played this rule a few times now, I know it has been debated before on the Lasalle forum but we feel it gives the right effects (even with 8 dice) large unit firing, it is still hard to get 2 casualty markers on an enemy unit.
3) Foot Artillery can only move 4 BWs and Horse Artillery can move at 6 BWs.
This is to stop Artillery, especially Horse Artillery from being used like little armoured cars. Racing around the battlefield and positioning them behind units that have been attacked so if the defending unit retreat they are broken. Very unrealistic, although we did find the horse artillery to be a little to slow, maybe increase it to 8BWs.
4) Squares can fire with 1 dice from each side simultaneously.
This worked well making the enemy cavalry a little more wary and giving the infantry a little potency. Personally I would use the same rule for firing as units deployed in towns.
5) Squares cannot move.
As in the normal Lasalle rules.
6) Formations in march column can fire with one dice and charge to combat at half dice.
I didn´t really like this option because for example 4 attacking columns in march can move from outside musket range and attack a line, so the line can only fire once as a reaction and fight with odds of two to one against the defender. Also with the cavalry, they seemed to be like exocet missiles moving 10BWs and charging units.
Many thanks to Javier for arranging the game and also to Jose and Alexi for making it another enjoyable game.
The French destroy
