Talavera - A Series of Linked Battles

Tonight will see the second play test of the Casa de Salinas scenario, with an AAR to follow this weekend. I like to try out different ideas with each test game, and tonight we will be using an order of battle generated from a list of all the units present at Talavera on the eve of the battle, with the idea of using this game to set up a series of linked scenarios.

On the lead into the Talavera project I discussed the plans back in May 2014 with a general outline of the models I would work on and the games I would do to capture the events of the battle.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/talavera-plans.html

This outline plan took a step further when I reviewed the campaign as a whole, by which time I was well into the orders of battle for both the Allies and French.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-talavera-campaign-1809.html

It is quite clear that the battle is composed of a series of actions occurring in the space of two days with the climax reached on the afternoon of the 28th July with the almost all out assault on the British centre/right of the line and sputtering out with the debacle of the charge of the 23rd Light Dragoons in the northern valley on the British left. The map below helps to illustrate where the principle clashes occurred.

As you will know, I like to use my wargaming to try and model the events of the historical action whilst having the fun of the game, not knowing what might occur in our refights. One of the great benefits of using C&GII is that it offers gamers, the opportunity of creating the forces involved as a master list order of battle that can provide units for individual scenarios that form part of a whole linked series. The casualties and morale effects can be carried from one scenario to the next and thus help create the whole two days of combat, fatigue and casualties.

I haven't been able to use this facility with the battles recreated so far, but Talavera presents a whole new challenge, and so I have built a series of four games scenarios that can be played separately as stand alone games or as part of a series of linked battles.

The 60th Rifles held their ground as the rear guard is surprised at Casa de Salinas

Scenario 1 - Casa de Salinas, 1300, 27th July 1809

It seems clear from the series of actions that Marshal Victor, in particular, was unimpressed with the British army that confronted his veteran forces on the 27th and with the two actions on that day he looked to take a moral ascendancy over his enemy by inflicting loss of casualties and confidence by attacking them when they least expected such an attack and when a more experienced force would have been better prepared. In addition, in the night attack he attempted to turn the whole allied line out of a strong position and leave it exposed the next day to being broken into its two parts and harried across more open terrain, better suited to his cavalry reserve.

The 9eme Legere led the night attack onto the Cerro de Medellin 27th July

Scenario 2 - The Night Attack, 22.00, 27th July 1809

The dawn attack that heralded the beginning of the battle on the 28th July was a formula that had been used with incredible success against all other major European armies to that date, and there seemed no reason for it to fail this time. When it did fail, Victor put the repulse down to lack of support and failing to stretch the defences enough to ensure success. It seems that Joseph and Jourdan were less sure of this diagnosis, but with news that Soult would not be appearing behind the allies for at least a week and that Madrid was threatened by the advance of Venegas' Spanish army to their rear. they somewhat reluctantly agreed with Victor's plan of attack in the afternoon to break the Allied army before dealing with the other issues.

Scenario 3 - The Dawn Attack, 0500 28th July

Thus with these parameters outlined I have put together the four actions with the principle forces involved operating under the plans constructed by Victor and his staff. The objectives will mirror those plans, and will encourage the players to pursue a policy of striving to win each game and build a pot of victory points that will have a bearing on the outcome in the final scenario. In addition the attrition caused in each will be in effect in the following games.

The French artillery barrage, kept busy all day, reached a crescendo in the afternoon attack

Scenario 4 - The Afternoon Attack, 14.00 28th July

As it stands at the moment, I have constructed about half the units needed for Scenario 4. All are done for Scenarios 1 and 2, with just a few needed for 3, so I aim to post on the play test games as we work towards the big game. Once all the scenarios have been thoroughly play tested I will release the work.

I should add that in addition to working these games up for C&G in particular, the nature of scenario design today is to make them user friendly for other rule sets and I plan to consider ways of carrying forward the attrition aspects of each game with other rules in mind. However with the units based on real numbers of men and a broadly generic morale rating, they should be easily translatable anyway.

Spanish Cavalry regiment El Rey, completed the repulse of the German Division at the close of the battle

The test for linking these games begins with the second playing of Casa de Salinas where the order of battle for both sides is taken from the master list of units involved in the battle as a whole and I will be transferring them back into it prior to moving on to the Night Attack scenario.

As always, feedback and comments welcome.

Man at War Announcement

I have just picked up a post from Mike Whitaker on his blog "Trouble at T'Mill" about an announcement  from Man at War.
http://troubleatthemill.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/napoleon-at-war-announcement.html?showComment=1425546317872#c7801717008579355926
http://www.manatwar.es/

I got into Napoleon at War, the rule set, from its concept and was really taken with the clever ideas that underpinned the rules. My figures are based appropriately for their rules. I really thought they would make the whole era of the Napoleonic Wars more appealing to the new generation of players brought up with Games Workshop and Flames of War; in that they simplified the whole thing about putting these armies together and the abilities that made the armies different without being simple and meaningless.

Bringing Napoleonic wargaming down  to divisional level with ready to paint units that look like units (very FOW) was a great concept to attract these newer players. Personally, I could have done without the list building, points collating, how do I win in one move, aspects (very FOW) and I was disappointed that the range of figures were not compatible with other large 15mm/18mm ranges. For us players with collections already established that was not a great move. However, the FOW principles made commercial sense, and I have a feeling that once a lot of players have grown tired of the competitive scene, they are still left with a love for the period and move on to more scenario based games.

In the last 18 months it was clear that the founders of the business had lost their way; with numerous requests from forum contributors for updates on next product release plans and the continual requests for rule clarity explanations (a must have if you intend to compete!). This in turn led to frustrated followers to turn to developing their own lists in an attempt to take the initiative and move the game on.

Anyway, to use an old business cliche "we are where we are" and it seems that Man at War are going to move into American Civil War with new input into the company and plans to use this to support on going work with the Napoleon at War rule set. I really do sincerely wish them well and hope this will salvage, what I still consider to be a good, possibly great, with a rewrite and better use of English, set of rules.

I will watch the situation with interest and fingers tightly crossed.

Roman Veteran Legionaries - 4th Cohort

Whilst I have been busy on moving the Napoleonic collection on with work on the Talavera campaign taking up a lot of painting time, Tom, in between a lot work for his final year at university, together with his running training, has taken the lead on the Roman collection.

These guys have been coming along from since just before Christmas and we now have a fourth cohort of veteran Roman legionaries to add to our growing force.

These are the Warlord sculpts and feature the added improvised armour, reinforced helmets, bearded and bandaged soldiers and suitably battered shields following multiple clashes with the enemy

I think Tom has really captured the spirit of these guys and you can easily picture them pressed up against the barbarian horde getting stuck in.

The animation on the faces and the shield damage really make this unit stand out from the rest of the army.

Next up Talavera plans, Casa de Salinas game two and the Antiquera Volunteer Light Infantry, so lots to come.

Imperial de Toledo Regiment - Volunteer Line Infantry

The Battle of Medellin, March 28th 1809

The next unit completed in General Portago's 3rd Spanish Infantry Division at Talavera is the Imperial de Toledo Regiment. 

Spanish Army of Estremadura

3rd Division: Major-General Marquis de Portago
1st Battalion Badajoz Infantry Regiment - Volunteer Line Infantry
2nd Battalion Badajoz Infantry Regiment - Volunteer Line Infantry
2nd Antequera Infantry Regiment  - Volunteer Light Infantry in Shakos
Imperial de Toledo - Volunteer Line Infantry in Shako
Provincial de Badajoz  - Militia Infantry
Provincial de Guadix - Militia Infantry

Rey Cavalry Regiment - Regular Line

Soldier & Colonel of the Imperial de Toledo Regiment

This regiment is listed in Oman as a new battalion of Levies as part of the Army of the Centre under Cuesta at the Battle of Medellin in March of 1809. Like the Badajoz Regiment it was almost destroyed in the battle and had to be hastily rebuilt in the months leading up to the Talavera campaign. Thus I have chosen to model this new battalion in the brown with yellow facings, befitting a Junta raised volunteer unit.

Battle of Medellin

Spanish Army at Medellin 28 March l809
Commanding General: Cuesta (24,000 men total)

Forces from Army of Estremadura:
4/Spanish Guard Infantry Regiment
4/Walloon Guard Infantry Regiment
2nd Majorca Infantry Regiment
2nd Catalonia Light Infantry Regiment
Provincial of Badajos
Provincial Grenadiers
Badajoz Infantry Regiment (2)
Zafra Infantry Regiment*
Truxillo Infantry Regiment*
Merida Infantry Regiment
Plasencia Infantry Regiment*
La Serena Infantry Regiment
Leales de Ferdinando VII (2)*
Total l5 Battalions

Troops of old Army of Reserve of Madrid
2/Walloon Guard Infantry Regiment
Jaen Infantry Regiment (2)
Irlanda Infantry Regiment (2)
Parovincial of Toledo
Provincial of Burgos
2nd Volunteers of Madrid
3rd Seville Infantry Regiment

Troops from the Army of the Center
Campo Mayor Infantry Regiment
Provincial of Guadix
Provincial of Cordova
Osuna Infantry Regiment (2)
Granaderos del General
Tiradores de Cadiz
Cavalry (3,000 to 3,200)
Old Army of Estremadura
4th Hussar (Volunteers of Spain) Regiment
lst Hussars of Estremadura (formerly Maria Luisa)

From La Romana's Danish Division:
Rey Cavalry Regiment
Infante Cavalry Regiment
Almanza Cavalry Regiment

New Levies:
Cazadores de Llerena
Imperial de Toledo

Other:
Reyna Cavalry Regiment

Artillery & Sappers:
30 guns - (650)
2 Sapper Coys - 200 men

* Not at battle.
Oman, A History of the Peninsular War

When the Imperial de Toledo took it's place in the line at Talavera, it was a very raw unit composed of young conscripts lacking proper training, mixed in with the survivors of the harrowing defeat at Medellin only four months previously. Little wonder then, that, like the Badajoz Regiment, they too fled after the volley fired at French cavalry vedettes on the evening prior to the Talavera battle.

In the second Osprey title on the Spanish troops, Rene Chartrand suggests that the Toledo Regiment were in the brown with yellow facings uniform by 1811, and so my Toledo boys are possibly premature in having the look they do, but with an eye on 1811 and Albuera where the Toledo Regiment re-appear and, as Chartrand states, with them changing to a blue uniform in 1813, I feel justified in going for the brown look to give me a fairly generic Spanish army that will be around in future scenarios.

Mike Chappell's illustration based on the
Dighton sketch from Cadiz in 1813

Interestingly Haythornthwaite and Chappel have the same uniform of brown and yellow illustrated from a portrait of Colonel Don Juan de Gonzalez from Dighton's illustrations entitled "a sketch from Cadiz" dated 22nd June 1813; this when they are supposedly changing to blue. So I think we have to be pragmatic when it comes to illustrating the Spanish forces at any given time allowing for approximate timings of change. It's quite possible that the regiment was looking like a rabble in peasent dress, but given that we have these illustrations of them close to the time we are looking at I am happy to have them thus, and they make a colourful addition to the ranks .

To illustrate the joys of planning and researching the Spanish armies, I put up a couple of illustrations in my post, in January, on the Army of Estremadura that were wrong and the Toledo Regiment was part of the error. The illustrations and colour guide were for the French raised troops of King Joseph shown in their brown uniform and light blue facings. I compounded the error by showing similar illustrations of the Seville and Madrid Regiments.

My error stemmed from not properly checking the original document put together by another author and being misled by illustrations posted on another site erroneously portraying them as Junta forces rather than Afransecados. I have updated the PDF to correct those errors. In addition, as a prelude to posting on the Antequera Light Infantry, I have included an illustration of a light infantryman in a shako, of a unit the was with Romana's Danish expeditionary force and will be the look of my volunteer light units.

Painting the Spanish Army of Estremadura (revised)

My Toledo Infantry Regiment is composed of figures from the AB range with the Coronella from GMB flags

References used for this post included
Talavera, Wellington's first victory in Spain - Andrew W Field
Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (2) - Osprey, Rene Chartrand & Bill Younghusband
Uniforms of the Peninsular War 1807-14 - Blandford, Philip Haythornthwaite and Michael Chappell
History of the Peninsular War - Sir Charles Oman

Next up the action at Casa de Salinas game two and the Antequera Volunteer Light Infantry

Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery - Exeter

The Gothic marvel that is the Royal Albert Museum, Exeter

Last weekend we caught the train into Exeter to visit our local main museum, the Royal Albert Museum. It was first opened in 1868 and after receiving a major £24 million "face-lift" lasting four years was re-opened in 2011. This was the first time that we had had a chance to look around since that work was done.

http://www.rammuseum.org.uk/

http://www.localhistories.org/exeter.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter

This museum holds childhood memories of school trips not only for Carolyn and me, but both our boys. When they were young, we attended their school trips and helped in the project work about the Romans in Exeter and the fantastic displays of artifacts that the staff displayed for the children, with the opportunity to try out Roman military equipment and armour.

There is more to see than just the ancient artifacts, with extensive world ethnic, zoological and other historical artifacts from other eras that feature in the long history of the city. The museum holds an amazing collection for a provincial museum and the new look to the building which has kept the beauty of the Victorian Gothic architecture but added to it with modern display areas and a modern clean restaurant makes it a major attraction to visitors.

As in previous museum visits I have captured some pictures that I think will appeal to the wargaming/history enthusiast, and because we got so involved in the world and ancient displays, we had to leave at closing time with other galleries, including the English Civil War not looked at. So I intend to add to this post with a second visit in time.

Zulu shield and weapons

The first gallery we looked at was the World ethnic collection looking at artifacts collected over the years from around the globe. Needless to say, the Zulu artifacts caught my eye with weapons and Zulu artifacts collected at the time of the war.

Exeter and the South West region has links to this period of history with a statue in the city erected in the memory of a controversial general officer of the period, Sir Redvers Buller VC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redvers_Buller

Who was born in the nearby town of Crediton and won his VC during the campaign. His later career during the Boer War was not as illustrious and he left the army under a bit of a cloud.

Zulu thrusting spear - Assegai or Iklwa

As well as Buller, we have Colonel John Chard VC who led the famous defence of Rorkes Drift and is buried at St John's Church in Hatch Beauchamp near Taunton in Somerset, about forty minutes up the road from Exeter.

The museum has the assegai shown with its Zulu name, the iklwa, which if I remember is a name given by the Zulus to describe the noise the blade made when pulled from the body. Either way, its a truly formidable weapon when seen close up.

Zulu throwing spear

The beautifully coloured Zulu embroidery 

Another piece that caught my eye was this full set of Samurai armour which is amazing to see how intricate and practical the construction is. This period is not one that has grabbed me, but I can see the attraction when you can see something like this and imagine these warrior going into battle looking like something out of star wars.

I love all things Greco-Roman when looking at the ancient period, so to see this typical Greek bronze helmet and imagine what the wearer must have seen from behind that nose guard was a thrill. When you look at it front on and carefully examine the craft work involved in its construction, you notice the delicate pattern work around the nose guard and edging.

Exeter is a Roman garrison town, and I remember we were taught at school to recognise Roman towns in England with names ending in "ter", Exeter, Colchester, Dorchester etc.

To the Romans, Exeter was known as Isca Dumnoniorum, or simply Isca. The name came from the Ancient Briton name for water pronounced "eshk", hence the local River Exe. The Irish and Welsh Celtic languages have a similar word with the Irish using it to describe whisky as the "water of life". It was also the tribal capital of the native Britons in the area, the Dumnonians.

Roman pottery discovered in the city

Exeter was established as a fort and garrisoned by the Legio II Augusta in about 55AD, the same chaps that Vespasian led in 43AD during their successful invasion of Britain, taking out Maiden Castle on route to the South West.
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia/sites/maiden/maiden.htm
They stayed in the city for the next twenty years before relocating to Caerleon in Wales, naming that new base Isca Augusta.

Needless to say the museum has an extensive collection of artifacts discovered in the city that cover the Roman occupation, and the building is right next door to a major part of the Roman city wall that has survived to this day, all be it with a few modifications over the years.

The remains of the Roman wall at the back of the museum

Roman soldiers cooking pan, and examples of glass ware

I've painted a few of these in recent months

The business end of sharp pointy sticks

Legionary armour fittings - it's incredible to see these small artifacts that show Exeter's long history

As you can see I was engrossed with the Roman collection when we had to leave to allow the museum to close. So before catching our train home we stopped for dinner, and I grabbed a few shots of the Guild Hall Shopping Centre and the restored facade.

What does Exeter have in common with the US Marine Corps?

Exeter - The beautifully restored Guild Hall shopping centre

Above the entrance is the City Arms which bear the motto "Semper Fidelis", carried also by the US Marine Corps, although Exeter has had it since 1660 when it was proposed by Queen Elizabeth I, to recognise the city's loyalty to the crown, the US Marines borrowing it in 1883.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semper_fidelis

The arms of the City of Exeter, with the the motto Semper Fidelis, "Always Faithful" granted to the city by Elizabeth I