The Battle of Talavera, The Attack on the Pajar Vegara Redoubt - Tiny Wars Played Indoors

The Spanish El Rey cavalry regiment sweep down on the German troops of Leval's division at the close of the battle for the Pajar Vegar redoubt.

Bill Slavin's adventures with the Battle of Talavera continues with his recreation of the Attack on the Pajar Vegara Redoubt scenario recreating the afternoon attack by General de Division Baron Jean Francois Leval's German Division on the redoubt, part of General Sebastiani's IV Corps and part of the 30,000 men destined to make the French afternoon attack of which this scenario was but a part of, designed to pin the Allies on that part of the line, whilst the main attack fell on the Allied centre.

You can read Bill's account of his refight in the link below.

Tiny Wars Played Indoors - Pajar Vegara Redoubt, Battle of Talavera

I had a lot of fun putting this particular little battle, within a much larger one, together and after reading Bill's account I found myself scanning back on the posts to see the first attempts to run this as a distinct scenario in its own right with the idea formulating in my mind that the battle itself could be split up into distinctive scenarios which resulted in those contained in the O'er the Hills Scenario book.

This map comes from my post covering Carolyn's and my visit to Talavera in 2019 with the numbered points showing where I took time to photograph the battlefield as it looks today, with Point 1 showing where we stood to take pictures of the modern day Pajar Vegara hill. 

The forces involved fought their very own little action with Brigadier Alexander Campbell's British brigade in support of General Portago's Spanish infantry Division tasked with holding this particular part of the line and backing up the British and Spanish guns ensconced in the hastily built redoubt to their front, dug in on a very insignificant little hill or mound in front of the French lines.

The French troops detailed for the attack on the Allied line in the afternoon of 28th July 1809. The French IV Corps were very much in a supporting pinning role to the main punch coming from Victor's 2nd Division part of his I Corps. 

As you can see from the map above, I took the pictures below from amid the positions of Campbell's British troops with the view across the field ahead scanning out to the small hill that is the Pajar Vegara today and then scanning left to photograph the ground over which the main French attack was pressed on that very hot afternoon in July 1809, with similar weather on the day we visited.

The ground behind the Pajar Vegara

 

The small hill seen from the Allied line on which the gun redoubt was built.
https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2019/09/battles-and-actions-in-tagus-valley.html

My interpretation of the Pajar Vegara Redoubt back in 2015

The view out to the left over which the main French attack was made and with the British line to the left of picture.

It was way back in 2015 that I first play tested this little battle using Carnage & Glory and with Steve M. and Will taking the respective commands on that day, as their official portraits record and I've put a link below under the official regimental picture of the El Rey cavalry regiment if you want to have a look.

As with Bill's battle our games of this scenario have always produced a tense hard fought affair with the Germans occasionally battering their way into the redoubt defences, but usually ending up so battered in the attempt that like the historical action they are forced back, although achieving such a result is one up on Leval's men and so a French commander can congratulate himself on the achievement.

My interpretation of the El Rey Cavalry Regiment during our game back in 2015.
http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2015/12/talavera-attack-on-pajar-de-vergara.html

As always it was great fun reading Bill's account of the game and very interesting for me having written the set up for this game seeing how others have interpreted it.

The El Rey Cavalry Regiment charge home at the end of Bills refight of the Pajar Vegara Redoubt.

If you are interested in picking up a copy of O'er the Hills Peninsular War Scenario book, pdf copies are available from Stand to Games in the link with a picture of the front cover, at top right of the blog page.

Next up, I have some new model ships to show you that will be taking part in our two day refight of the Battle of Trafalgar later this month.

More anon

JJ