Over the Hills Playtest - Rearguard at Grijo

This final scenario play test carries on where the previous 'Retreat from Albergaria' left off and is designed to allow both to be linked up.

Retreat from Albergaria

General Franceschi skilfully fended off the British pursuit and the French troops marched overnight and up the Lisbon road to join forces with General Mermet's troops positioned in the hills covering the road at the little village of Grijo.

To quote Napier:
The French were posted across the road on a range of steep hills, a wood, occupied with infantry, covered their right flank, and their front was protected by a village and broken ground, but their left was ill placed."

The road leading to Oporto with the village of Grijo astride it

As before, a key responsibility of the French command was to ensure safe passage for Marshal Soult's baggage wagons as well as getting the bulk of the French force safely back across the River Douro and into Oporto to join the rest of the army.

The countryside characterised as rolling hills with small open woods

This second scenario differs in that the Anglo-Portuguese crossed the River Vouga below Albergaria and regrouped before setting off in pursuit of Franceschi, now with flanking columns of infantry looking to cut in behind the French as Wellesley attempted to pin them with a close pursuit using the bulk of the allied army.

The picture below shows the two forces arrayed with the French preparing to move out through Grijo and with Wellesley, two infantry brigades, one of guards and artillery ready to press the French rearguard.

The two armies drawn up with the French holding a ridge in front of Grijo

Now with Mermet's brigade of infantry, Franceschi's force of cavalry and legere posed a significant force to be used to keep the road open and escape via the northern end of the table.

Sir Arthur Wellesley inspects the French position before giving the order to advance

However with two brigades of allied infantry marching to intersect the road at various times through the game the French cavalry would be kept busy trying to stem the allied attacks and allow their infantry and wagons to get clear.

The French drawn up to hold their position as the wagons and other elements prepare to march

This was the last games in our series of play tests and we aimed to play this one right through to completion and it was important to have everything set up ready to go when needed.

Pre-game preparation with all the forces laid out by command and the force morale cards set up

We have got into a set up routine, be the game large or small, and we like to have all the force cards set up with the orders allocated and the dice towers primed for action.

The Anglo-Portuguese set up similarly prepared

The French were tasked with setting up first and then Wellesley could arrange his force accordingly to prepare to attack or move or both depending on the French set up.

All is set and ready to go - turn one

In the last game I played the French, so this time we switched things and I played British to Steve's French.

The 31me Legere are in reserve following their gruelling march from Albergaria the previous day

On observing the French looking to make a fighting stand below Grijo, to allow their wagons to get a good start, I immediately put my battalions into line and moved my guns to the flank, to allow them to rapidly move on to a nearby hill and get a good view of the French sheltering on the ridge line opposite.

Franceschi's cavalry on the flank and able to police the table for the French

The Royal Artillery boys duly did their stuff and managed a few early hits with a bit of plough through onto rear units. With drums beating and fifers playing the redcoats advanced into the attack.

The RFA move on to a nearby hill and open fire on the French ridge as the British line advances

With the British intention obvious the French threw forward their cavalry on their right flank to threaten the British lines, which forced the infantry to push out a couple of squares to cover the exposed flank and slow the attack.

In response to the British move the French throw forward their cavalry to threaten the British flank

Meanwhile two French infantry brigades and the wagons headed off down the road towards Oporto, with Franceschi detaching two squadrons of dragoons to shadow the road as they did.

As the opening shots are traded, the legere escort the wagons along the road to Oporto

As the rearguard started to exchange musketry with both sides light battalions closing, the French force on the road were suddenly faced with several British battalions in column of companies making best speed to cut the road.

These troops were Sir John Murray's KGL and their light bobs, some armed with rifles, soon started to take telling pot shots at the French wagons as the dragoons came across to instill a sense of discretion into the German troops as the legere quickly looked to cover the road from the new comers.

First surprise, General Sir John Murray and his KGL brigade threaten the road

As the French battled to pin down Murray's brigade along the road, the French rearguard started to draw down on its force in and around Grijo as three battalions formed into column and st off to catch up the wagons.

The French are midway through their withdrawal using cavalry to stymie both British threats

Eager to prevent ideas of further withdrawal, the British moved up onto the ridge over Grijo, calling forward the guns to begin a softening up of the French rear units with massed musketry and artillery rounds.

The ground prevented Franceschi's cavalry from intervening and so they pulled back to cover the escape route should the French infantry feel so compelled.

The KGL deploy rapidly with rifle armed skirmishers moving into the woods to attack the French wagon train

The move to bring the dragoons over to cover the wagons had been a good one and so Murray's troops had to content themselves into pouring volley fire into each and every unit that tried to pass their position.

Meanwhile the 1st KGL move towards the road countered by French dragoons in the distance

The French start to draw down on their rearguard in Grijo

With the game past the halfway stage the French were eager to get their force into the second half of the table whilst the British were still looking for Hill's brigade to appear.

The KGL fire starts to cause casualties on the French troops trying to get to the Oporto crossing

The legere battalions were doing a grand job fending off Murray as the first elements of Mermet's rearguard infantry started to pass behind them, and with the wagons almost clear the French could congratulate themselves on a good job so far.

The French dragoons menace any further advance on the road

Then General Hill decided to show up with his brigade coming in from the opposite flank, just behind Grijo.

With their wagons safely withdrawn, the French cavalry hold back Murray's KGL as the French try to extract their rearguard

Suddenly an opportunity presented for the British to snatch a result from a game that was slipping away from them with the bulk of the French force sitting pretty on the road to Oporto.

Wellesley forces the Grijo position as the 1/2nd Guards storm into the village and rout the 2/47me Ligne

Not needing a second invitation, the 1/2nd Guards charged into the little village and smashed the French battalion trying desperately to resist, but breaking in rout after the first shock of combat.

The position around Grijo becomes untenable as Hill's brigade move in to cut off the road and hope of escape

Meanwhile the foot guns sent a few rounds of round-shot up the road to dissuade any French cavalry of thoughts of a rash move to rescue the beleaguered garrison.

Franceschi is stranded as his force looks on at the beleaguered rearguard

With just one move remaining the British brigades moved in to cut off the 47me Ligne from any escape, as Franceschi and Mermet had to settle for a withdrawal less two battalions as part of the bill.

The two battalions of the 47me Ligne fight bravely as the trap closes around them

The 1/16th Portuguese Line join Hill's brigade in the advance to seal off Grijo 

The British main force advance as the Guards close in

Steve's rearguard had lingered a few moves too long and the arrival of Hill's brigade sealed their fate as the first tentative steps backward were being contemplated towards the waiting cavalry.

Sir Arthur Wellesley oversees the taking of the village

General Franceschi prepares his cavalry to withdraw

The game proved to be an interesting challenge to both sides with the French doing an excellent job fending off the early threats to their column and getting the wagons off save a few musket hits, and the attack of the Guards nailing a better result than Wellesley managed by snipping out two battalions that wouldn't feature in the 2nd Battle of Oporto.

The British line advances on both sides of Grijo as the envelopment develops

The 1/2nd Guards mop up in Grijo

We hope you have enjoyed this series of game reports even though I have been frustratingly sparse on the details. I hope to remedy that situation soon.

In the meantime I have made available the play aids we created for these play tests and hope you will find them useful in your own OTH games.

If you want to check out all the posts referring to these OTH play-tests and other related OTH stuff then follow the link below.

Over the Hills

Next up, bows and arrows and Vikings and Saxons.

Over the Hills Resource Folder

This week Steve M and I finished the series of scenario playtests during which we have put together different play aids to facilitate the games we were working on.

These aids included our own version of the QRS, designed around 15/18mm figures that we were playing our games with adapted from the rule book and from other versions produced by other players of Over the Hills.

We decided to play all the extra rules and wanted those readily available on the QRS and these took several games to make sure we had captured everything we wanted.

Over time we added a few changes of our own that we played as house rules and I have included copies of the standard and JJ's house rules options in the folder.

You will also see the Force Morale cards we used together with our orders dice. I have included the twelve cards we produced for both French and Allied forces and you can either use dice or order tokens with them to indicate a force's set of orders.

OTH Order Tokens

Finally, because we were using the orders system regularly we decided to put together an Orders QRS which outlines the can and can't do requirements for each order together with the issuing summary.

You can download a zip file of the contents either from the link below or from the link in My Resources and Downloads titled Over the Hills Resources.

Over the Hills Resource Folder

Over the Hills Playtest - Retreat to Albergaria

Sir Arthur Wellesley landed in Portugal for the second time on the 22nd April 1809. On learning that Marshal Soult was pinned down in Oporto he made immediate plans to carry out the first part of his mission, namely to secure Portugal from the French, before turning to deal with Marshal Victor's I Corps, hovering on the border close to Alcantara.

After confirming his intelligence reports, Wellesley marched his army of around 19,000 troops off up the road to Oporto on the 7th May, having dispatched Marshal Beresford inland the day before with an Anglo-Portuguese force designed to get around Soult's left flank and prevent him retreating from the city.

The little village of Albergaria straddles the road from Lisbon to Oporto

Only Generals Mermet and Franceschi were operating south of the River Douro and Oporto, ignorant it seems of the force Wellesley was bringing against them.

Wellesley's forward elements bumped Franceschi's pickets guarding the crossings on the River Vouga below the village of Albergaria and after giving his force a days rest and to allow Beresfords force a good start, he made preparations to encircle Franceschi before he could escape back to Oporto.

The next day Cotton's cavalry and Trant's and Stewart's Anglo-Portuguese infantry, after some unfortunate delays pushed the French back from the Vouga and with Cotton's Portuguese guide failing to bring the British cavalry onto the flank of the French march route, the chase began as described:

"..... Cotton arrived, not in his rear or on his flank, but right in his front, so as to get the surprise which he meant to give; and being yet unsupported by any near approach of the main body, felt obliged to decline the combat which Franceschi offered.

General Paget's division now arrived, with the Commander in chief at its head, and at once cleared the pine-wood and turned the French cavalry to flight with scarcely an effort, moving swiftly on in column, as if upon a forced march with not a foe in front. The astonished Franceschi adroitly extricated himself from his perilous position ; he retreated, all day, without any confusion and with little loss, to Oliveira de Azemis; and continuing his march during the night, by Feria, joined Mermet next morning at Grijo.

The villages of Albergaria Velha and Albergaria Nova, which the French had occupied, presented fearful evidence of the atrocious spirit in which they continued to carry on their invading war. They had, in mere wantonness and malignity, destroyed everything which was destructible,—smashed the houses, burnt thatch and furniture, wasted food and drink, slaughtered cattle and pigs, and strewn the debris of their devastations along the public road. And in this manner they acted through the whole of their retreat to Oporto." - A Memoir of Field Marshal, The Duke of Wellington

Cotton's cavalry brigade draw up on the road to Albergaria and assess the French column 

The plan saw Stewart's infantry and Cotton's cavalry brigades cross the Vouga and pursue the French column now preparing to fall back from their position having ascertained the size of the British force facing them.

At the same time General Hill with one brigade but with others to follow would use boats to cross the coastal Lake Ovar, to land his troops in behind the French and allow them to cross country march onto their line of retreat.

General Franceschi aware of the threat to his column directs his cavalry to draw up on a nearby hill

As Franceschi became aware of what was up the action in front of and around Albergaria would develop into a two day chase along the road to the next stop point in front of the village of Grijo where Franceschi and Mermet would join forces before falling back into Oporto and burning the bridge of boats, thus setting up the Second Battle of Oporto covered in the previous post.

The 31er Legere up the pace to put as much distance between themselves and the British cavalry

Thus this scenario is linked to the final one in this series, 'Rearguard at Grijo' with the French player tasked with making sure he doesn't lose his wagon train (this represents Soult's baggage train entrusted to Generals Mermet and Franceschi) to the British pursuit and minimises his casualties to allow his force to be better able to cooperate with General Mermet's infantry in the next.

General Jardon commands the rearguard of two battalions of the  31er Legere and the 22me Chasseur a Cheval

In any kind of pursuit scenario the fundamentals require an assessment of the command choices available to players based on what the scenario presents them in the set up.

In this case the British cavalry are one move behind the French column leaving them two turns before they may hope to be in combat contact range. Of course they are not that interested in the French escort, as if they can take out the wagons they will complete the mission in one scenario and Mermet will have been deemed to fall back into the Oporto alone. That then presents the option to play the Oporto scenario with Franceschi's cavalry - good luck with that one!

It will not be easy for the British to catch the supply train in its entirety so there is always the alternative of trying to break one of the French escort brigades thus damaging it for the next scenario.

As the French wagon train negotiates the village streets, the British pursuit closes

The terrain is designed to produce challenges and opportunities for both players with gently rolling hills interspersed with small woods and rough ground consisting of fields and fences, allowing the French to find little defensive positions to resist the British advance.

However with the skilful use of open order, the British light dragoons can negate a lot of the terrain restrictions and move across country quite rapidly. Like wise the village of Albergaria whilst offering a possible refuge for wagons or French infantry acts as a choke point on the quicker road movement and with Stewart's infantry brigade in close assistance the French do not want to linger too long among the houses, not to mention the risk of retribution from the locals.

The French cavalry oversee the wagons and rearguard battalions up to and through the village

In this test game I took command of the French and Steve the Anglo-Portuguese and started to discover the command challenges this scenario presents for both players, deciding when and where to stand or where to push the advance, always operating within the restraints of the various command ranges, with both sides finding it difficult to stray too far from the road or risk elements falling out of command range.

With Stewart's infantry brigade close at hand the British cavalry prepare to charge

The action was the debut for Marshal Beresford's newly trained Portuguese forces with 1/16th Portuguese Infantry attached to Stewart's brigade

The game also tested our knowledge of the rules to another level as we developed our understanding of road movement limitations and cavalry opportunity moves to combat contact, not to mention using open order cavalry in combat.

The French column, by using the road managed to stay just ahead of the British pursuit for a couple of turns

The wagons cracked on as Franceschi's force turned to buy time for them to escape off table.

As in the real encounter Franceschi managed his column up the road with a few short sharp engagements that helped reveal where we could throw in a few 'spanners among the cart wheels' to help ramp the tension up for both sides.

The British cavalry amassed to the right of the road and drove the 22me Chasseurs back forcing the voltigeur battalion into square covering the road

Whilst resisting the British cavalry it was important for the French to not become embroiled in a fight with Stewart's infantry

From a French perspective the sight of all that British cavalry bearing down on my escort units with redcoats in close company ready to finish off any mistake on my part made for a really enthralling encounter, whilst Steve also felt the challenge of identifying and pushing down particular routes to get at the French column, which calls for a bit of daring by the British if they want to try and win big.

For me there was always a pang of nervousness deciding to put my infantry into square to protect my wagons on the road whilst contemplating the movement restrictions that would impose on them whilst British redcoats are barrelling along in their company columns.

With the the wagons still not clear, it was a struggle to stop the British cavalry from exploiting into the French rear

As the action draws to a close both the rearguard and vanguard are drawn up in squares and cavalry lines

The scenario produced several sharp cavalry encounters between the Chasseur a Cheval and Light Dragoons as described in the accounts together with the appearance of a steeple-chase as mass squadrons of cavalry bounded across the countryside - great fun.

The Chasseurs contested the British advance supported by the voltigeur battalion

In fact my need to throw in my Chasseurs on several occasions and the fatigue hits that accrued caused my rearguard brigade to come perilously close to break point so with the tweaks we garnished from this test will offer opportunities for both sides to embarrass the other.

The rearguard (Force Card 4) looking a bit battered after the fighting conducted by the 22me Chass a Cheval

The British pursuit force still full of fight, ready to resume the pursuit the next day

Next up the final scenario in this series, Rearguard at Grijo where we discover if Mermet and Franceschi are trapped before falling back into Oporto or they are able to imitate the successful withdrawal carried out for real.