1815 The Hundred Days - Scenarios for General d'Armee

Reissswitz Press, TooFatlardies’ sister publishing company has just released a new publication called “1815, The Hundred Days”, a supplement for General d’Armee and covering the period of Napoleon´s return from Elbe Island to Waterloo.

This 45 pages-long booklet is divided in two parts:

• The historical background of the campaign leading to Napoleon’s defeat on 18th June 1815, intersected with comments from the Dave Brown expressing his views of some the key moments of the campaign (the “blue boxes” in the book).

•  Six scenarios covering some of the key actions in this period: the crossing of the Sambre at Charleroi (Battle at Gilly), Quatre Bras, Ligny (the Battle at St Amand), Waterloo’s Battle for Mount St Jean, Plancenoit and finally the iconic attack of the Old Guard. 

Therefore this is NOT a campaign book á la Pint-Sized format used in Chain of Command, but six independent scenarios that can be played individually.

Each scenario is very well detailed, with precise roster of troops involved, nicely drawn maps and clear special scenario rules. The battles can be played in standard or large formats, and specific instructions are also provided. The scenarios also include suggestions on terms of table sizes to be played in 15mm (I suppose also valid for 20mm – 1/72scale) as well as 28mm.

The publications maintains the a very high quality standards of other Reisswitz Press releases, contents are well structured, the edition is outstanding and include some very nice photos and illustrations.

Generally speaking, all what I could have expected for a supplement for GdA is in the book.

This is the first supplement for General d’Armee since the publication of the rules early last year, but it seems from comments in the Lard Island blog that more are in the pipeline. The book scenarios are also useful as templates to build your own scenarios in other campaigns or standalone battles.

!815 The Hundred Days is sold for 9.68 Pounds only in electronic pdf format, no plans to be released in hard copy. It can be acquired at the TooFatLardies website here.

Th Painting Challenge - Final Report

Incredibly how fast time flies when you are enjoying an activity. Unexpectedly, March 21^st arrived and the IX Challenge was suddenly called off. I couldn’t achieved my target points (750) but having obtained 637 points left me happy enough (my highest score in a Challenge so far).

This is a group photo showing all the models painted included in the customary wrap up post in the Challenge blog.

And now let’s look at the different entries since my latest post here

VIII Painting Challenge is over :-(

Time flies and three months later Curt's Annual Painting Challenge is (sadly) over. This is my third year participating and probably the one I've enjoyed the most. It's also a good opportunity to accelerate on one of my annual painting projects which I tend to focus around one theme.

This year was Austrian Napoleonics, which I've been slowly advancing now for several months now. I took the opportunity to do some research on less known units and bumped with the Vienna Volunteers, one of the most outstanding militia units in the 1809 campaign.

This is a summary of the output this year

Austrian Line Battalions

 

Sleeping in a Vaubam Fortification: Fuerte de la Concepción (Salamanca)

Patio de Armas with the chapel remnants

This is a quite belated blog entry which I was initially planning to publish in late October 2017. I spent several days touring the Portugal/Spain border fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, as well as the battlefield of Fuentes de Oñoro.

But how would you feel if in addition to visiting all these historic places,  you had the opportunity to sleep in truly original Vauban fortification now refurbished as an upper scale (4 stars) hotel?

This is actually the case of the Fuerte Concepción located at Aldea del Obispo, now called Domus Real Hotel. I don't think it is  well known specially among British tourists, a shame because it is the perfect base-camp for touring all the places mentioned plus the battlefields of El Bodón and Tamames in the Spanish side and the River Coa area in the Portuguese side.

A little bit of background and context: until very recently, the only good communication routes between Spain and Portugal passed through Salamanca and Badajoz. To exert control on those two routes, twin fortifications were erected, Ciudad Rodrigo-Almeida and Badajoz-Elvas on both sides of the border respectively.   

Aerial view from a tourist leaflet

TFL Christmas Special

A quick post. Just before Christmas day the traditional TFL  Special issue was released, containing over 130 pages of scenarios and ideas for many of the house's rule sets. This year it also includes a scenario I wrote for General d'Armee called "Encounter at Guareña River".

This a small battle or large skirmish (whatever you may want to call ot) that took place on 18th July 1812, two days before the major engagement at Salamanca, between a British-Portuguese and a French force.

It's been extensively tested at the club and was even some time ago adapted to be played as a Sharp Practice scenario (you can see a review in my blog here)

General d'Armee - A player review

As many of you know, General d’Armee (GdA) is a new set of Napoleonic rules published just before summer by Reisswitz Press, the sister company to TooFat ardies. The author, Dave Brown, is a well-known and experienced wargame rules writer so I was expecting a good quality set, as it’s been the case.

Although I bought the book the release day and read thoroughly in my summer holiday break, I decided to refrain from commenting in the blog until after I had tested on a gaming table and could consider myself enough familiar with the system.

For that purpose, I gathered a small group of players in my local club and have been extensively playing since late September. GdA is not simple, on the contrary, the learning curve is fairly steep at the beginning; but now I feel finally fairly confident and familiar with the rules.

What is General d’Armee?

In GdA players seat in the saddle of a commander of an army or division (in Napoleonic terminology): 5 to 8 brigades, each composed of several regiments. The rules however can be stretched and extended to play with a full Army Corps. So at least on paper, GdA is suited to play medium to large battles.

However the basic manoeuvre unit is an infantry battalion (300 to 1000+ men), cavalry squadrons and artillery batteries, representing the building blocks of the regiments; and this is as we’ll see later one of my main objections to the game.

General d’Armee is an old-school wargaming set; the 100 pages manual is basically all rules, with some photos and a good number of examples to illustrate or clarify the different topics. It is not designed for a light reading; it’s full of details and as I said before, it requires a fair investment of time in reading, annotating and playing with the book on the side for consultation. 

Sharp Practice: Encounter at Guareña River 1812

The following is a scenario for the popular skirmish rules in the black powder era Sharp Practice published by TooFatlardies in the context of the Salamanca campaign in 1812 won by Wellington's allied forces.
 

Background

Before the actual battle of Salamanca (or “de los Arapiles” as it is known in Spain) was fought, on 21st  of July 1812 the British and the French armies spent several weeks following closely each other looking to exploit a moment of tactical advantage to defeat the enemy in force.

Since the end of June 1812, the theatre of operations had moved north of Salamanca, to the Duoro river line where both armies try to outmanoeuvre the enemy during several weeks.

Marshall Marmont finally caught Wellington out of step in a faint move in which the French crossed to the southern bank of the river, posing a flanking threat to Wellington and also potentially cutting the line of retreat to Salamanca and further afiled, to Portugal.

On July 17^th, Wellington ordered the army retreat towards Toro; the objective was to move from there via the north-south road that links this city with Salamanca. The retreat continued during the 18^th reaching by mid-afternoon the line of the Guareña stream, a small tributary of the Duoro. The British crossed this small river unopposed and formed a line along the west bank, supported on the village of Vallesa on the right.

Considering the position sufficiently secured and the late hour (around 4PM), the British were ordered to prepare the camp for the night.

However the French thought differently and spotted a good opportunity to cross the Guareña at a lightly defended position on the left of Wellington’s line. This move if correctly executed will allow a flank attack on the British and allied forces.

Sharp Practice: The Battle of García Hernández

Background

The Battle of García Hernández took place on 23^rd July, 1812 the day after the victory of Wellington at Salamanca.

The defeated French army left the battlefield covered by General Maximillien Foy’s 1^st Infantry Division, a fresh French force as it did not have an active role in the main battle. Foy`s forces comprised two brigades with two regiments each and artillery.

Foy’s also got a light cavalry force reinforcement commanded b y General Jean-Baptiste Curto, with 2 squadrons of the 3^rd Regiment d´Hussards, two squadrons of the 26^th Regiment de Chasseurs and one squadron the 28^th Regiment de Chasseurs.

According to French sources (but not mentioned in the British reports) the cavalry rearguard also comprised elements of the Division de Dragons commanded by General Pierre Boyér, in charge of protecting the artillery train retreating ahead in the north.

In the British side, Wellesley took personal command of pursuers, forming a group with the 1^st Infantry Division, the Light Division, the light cavalry brigade of General Anson and the heavy cavalry brigade of General Von Bock (1^st and 2^nd  KGL Dragoons Regiments), the latter being part of the reserve division the previous day.

At dawn of July 23^rd, both Anson and Von Bock initiated the persecution.

Sharp Practice Corunna Campaign Errata

As you probably know, the 2016 TFL Summer Special released yesterday includes the full Corunna 1809 campaign for Sharp Practice that we´ve been designing, testing and playing over the last two months.

Alas, when I downloaded the issue, I discovered to my horror that my eagle eye failed to spot several mistakes in my latest revision of the article just before publishing. So here are the corrections in case you are interested in taking note:

• In page 13, the note with an asterisk about General Colbert should be deleted, it does not apply to the 4th scenario.
• In the same page 13, in the British reinforcement table, the Marksman Thomas Plunkett should also be deleted (again it does not apply to the 4th game of the campaign).
• Less important, the photos posted at the end of the article are from Cacabelos not Bembibre.

Sorre for the inconvenience.

Also worth noting that we introduced a British "Rifle Column" organisation in the artcile. But recently, we have realised that the brunt of the fighting was in fact undertaken by the light infantry with the support of Rifle companies distributed among the main British force.

Therefore, if you like a more historically accurate approach to the campaign, we would suggest using the Light Column Force of page 98 of the rules instead, as the backbone of the British forces for the campaign.

Sharp Practice: The River Neira Crossing

The final game of the Corunna Retreat campaign for Sharp Practice was put to test today. In this scenario, we saw the British crossing a major obstacle (the Nerea river at Constantin) with the French in hot pursue. The full campaign will be published in the cinoming TFL Summer Special 2016.

To achieve a victory, the British had to cross the only passable point (a bridge) with at least a 75% of its forces (equal to 48 models with the OBs used). The British forces started the game fully deployed on the south bank of the river.

The initial French forces were off table, but only the cavalry contingent was available in the first few, reflecting the scattered situation of the French column. After each Tiffin card, the French player rolls a D6 dice and if the result is equal or less than the turn number, the infantry command cards are then added to the deck. 

Sharp Practice: A Belated Xmas Gift

Today we playtested the third scenario of the Corunna campaign for Sharp Practice. That we expect to publish in the incoming Summer Special 2016 In this case, it was inspired on the events of January 6th 1809 (Epiphany Day) when, having lagged the main army column, the paymaster's cart bullocks died and the army's silver was in danger of falling in French hands. General Paget had to retrace back all the way to where the carts were stranded and ordered the money chests to be thrown over the nearby cliff.

The game is played across the longest edge of the table. The table is actually a straight road with several terrain features offering light cover to the units, the number of items randomly calculated and placed. The British stranded cart at a certain distance of its tactical edge based on a die throw; and its deployment point at 12” from the cart. The French enter through their tactical edge, the deployment point located on the road.

The British must empty the cart and throw the money over the cliff. This is accomplished as a task with 16 points (see chapter 10 of the Sharp Practice book) undertaken by a brigade of men under the command  of a level I leader. They can start moving the money from the cart after the 3^rd Tiffin card is out.

Sharp Practice: A bridge at Cacabelos

We are currently working on a small campaign based on the retreat to Corunna by Moore forces for Sharp Practice. The campaign rules are not ready yet and Richard Clarke already warned that we should dump away the Chain of Command mentality, as in this period battles are less important than outmanoeuvring your foes in the field. For this reason, the plan is to play four interlinked scenarios instead of a full campaign with the same forces. Eventually (...this is our intention..) the campaign will be published in the Summer Special 2016.

The game today was the action taking place on 3 January 1809, a rearguard defensive battle of the British at the town of Cacabelos in El Bierzo (Leon) area. It is a well known action because the French commander General Colbert was killed by a British rifle marksman called Thomas Plunkett killed at an uncertain distance. There is some confusion about this event, but likely a known impatient Colbert risked too much when reconnoitring the advanced outpost and rifleman Plunkett took his chances... and hit bang on target.

Dashing French Dragoons

The Peninsular War: A New History by Charles Esdaile

As many other wargamers, history is an integral part of my hobby activities. Believe or not, I have neglected the Napoleonic period for a long time and even more the so called (more on this later)  “Peninsular Wars” in the English speaking world, about which I’m a total ignorant despite being Spanish.

The recent publication of Sharp Practice by TooFatLardies is marking an end to this period of ignorance, as my gaming mates have embraced the rules with our renowned Spanish passion… and of course with a view to fight games against the invader of our sacred soil.

The fact is that part of my lack of interest in the Napoleonic period in Spain is the result of my school education. Being a child of the 60s, with Franco still alive and kicking, history was taught always in the key of the Spanish Civil War.

I’ll try to clarify. Script:

·      Spain had always been Spain since the prehistoric ages.

·      The Romans were invaders, The Visigoths, the Moors… all were invaders alien to our immortal soul and culture and all were defeated in due time.

·      The French of course were also invaders and actually a bunch of pre-communist revolutioners and atheists that wanted to destroy our culture.

·      The last attempt to destroy our Spanish soul was the unholy alliance of Marxist-Leninists, Jews and Masons in 1936… thank God, Franco was there and we were free to live as true Spanish since then.

Sharp Practice: The Storm of Cascajales de Alba

The French and British forces in the Iberian Peninsula fought today for the control of Cascajales de Alba, a small poor village in the border with Portugal, but key to the French defensive line in the Tagus valley.

This was Scenario 5 of the Sharp Practice book. The French were on the defensive this time and to win, the British must capture the house with the blue line on the map below. The French had a Regular core force plus 10 support points, invested in a gun with leader level I.

Sharp Practice: Attack on Cerro Medellin (July 1809)

Today I played my second Sharp Practice game (third for my gaming pals as I missed the one organized the last weekend). We used Scenario 3 “Defence in Depth" of the book, in the context of the Talavera Battle (July 1809), the French attack on Cerro Medellín.

French attack and British defend in this scenario. I played on the French side and chose the French Regulars as core force, adding an artillery piece, a Dragoon group  and a Big Man level I as supports.

The terrain was basically featureless, with a hill (Cerro Medellin) dominating the British deployment area and small stream (minor obstacle) marking the limit of its defensive line. The British had a primary and a secondary deployment points located within the first 12 and 36 inches of its table edge.

The French also had two deployment points to be located in the two halves of their table side and with 6 inches of the edge.

The French had to capture the British primary deployment point or force their withdrawal from the battlefield to win.

Sharp Practice: First Shots

As many readers of this blog and the whole Lard fan community knows, Sharp Practice 2 was released on St George´s day. I received the pdf copy of the rules at 7.30AM sharp (sigh) on Saturday and my hardcopy, cards and tokens will hit home hopefully some day next week.

It was too tempting to lose this Sunday without at least giving a try to the rules; despite having just skipped the book on Saturday (… while busy preparing a major dinner at home to celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary), my club’s pals were of the same opinion and this morning we exchanged the first shot in a small skirmish encounter game.

I played the French side with four line infantry groups, two skirmish group and one Dragoons cavalry group vs the a British army with a similar lay-out. I’m not looking to describe the battle in detail as it was a game frequently interrupted to clarify aspects of the rules and in search of the right tables in the tablet to fire and to move.

The most remarkable action was the charge of the French cavalry downhill against a group of KGL hussars that dare to get to close to the French. In the melee the Germans were massacred, losing 6 out of the 8 troopers and the group commander being seriously wounded.

Sharp Practice 2 - Preorder period open

A little late to the party (I was out of Spain in a business trip the wople week), but I have just pre-ordered Sharp Practice, the incoming new rules by TooFatLardies covering the black powder period that is, from 1700 to mid XIX century.

  

The rules will be available on the 23^rd of April, Saint Georges (but also the day our own national Cervantes died, that was instituted as the Book’s Day in Spain). In the meantime, TFL offers a number of bundles with the hardcopy of the book, cards and tokens needed to play at a significant discount… and in addition you get the pdf electronic version of the rules for free.  Detailed explanation can be found in Lard Island (the official blog) and the website.

Note that these are NOT Napoleonic period rules, but cover a substantial wider period including The Seven Years Wars, FIW, AWI, Napoleonic and ACW among other. And also that these rules are designed to play skirmish oriented battles, therefore do not expect to move large masses of models on the table; actually with 40-50 minis per side you can have a game, making them suitable to play with the larger scales (25mm or 28mm).

The initial release will include army lists for FIW, AWI, Peninsular Campaign,  ACW and the Indian Mutinity. However TFL is already working on a series of complementary lists that will available for free download and some of their popular Pint-Sized Campaign books (called because the price is the pint of beer in the author's favourite  pub at Saint Albans).

Currently I have put my sight in the Napoleonic period with a twist to the Peninsular Campaign period. But if the rules root firmly among my gaming pals, I cannot discard at all a Carlist project or a painting project covering the FIW and the AWI period.

So wallet is lighter and only rests now to wait patiently to April 23^rd.

Episode 2 - Dragones in Waterloo

This is the second instalment of our trip to Crisis 2015, covering the visit to the Battlefield of Waterloo. I must add that personally, the most emotive milestone of the whole trip, suffering one of those “Stendhal Moments” on arriving to the “Butte de Lion” feet, when I could hardly contain my tears... how many of us in the wargame hobby had played countless hours (with my younger brother in my case) in the early 70s with the Airfix farm and the boxes of British, French and Prussian soldiers???

A visit to the real Waterloo one day in the future was one of my earliest dreams, but it has taken 53 years to become true... I’m sure you understand the feeling

Freezing but happy and moved

Architecture in La Mancha: A Photo Report of Almagro

In early July I spent a weekend with a group of friends at Almagro a beautiful town near Ciudad Real in the La Mancha region and at about two hours by car from Madrid. Almagro is well known for his traditional architecture typical of central-southern Spain, its buildings and main square (Plaza Mayor) from the XVI-XVII century. Almagro was the main seat of the Knight Order of Calatrava, a powerful and important order of the late Reconquista period.

Almagro is also the site of one of the oldest theaters in Spain ("Corral de Comedias"), placed inside the patio of a tavern and famous for the plays performed of the golden age of Spanish literature (Siglo de Oro) major writers between the XVI and XVII centuries. After a long decay, the building was restored in the 50s and in July every year a major international theater festival takes place (which incidentally was the reason of our trip), with classical as well as modern plays are performed.

The town streets, residential houses façades and major buildings (palaces, monasteries, churches...) are in extremely good state and when you walk those streets is like travelling 500 years back. What follow is a selection of the photos I took in two different trips (this year and in 2010), aiming to serve a source of inspiration for those of you (specially from abroad) who like playing wargames in a Spanish context, appropriate for any period from the Napoleonic or Carlists Wars to the Spanish Civil War.

I hope you find it useful and may be inspirational of you are a scrtachbuilder aficionado... whatever the case, enjoy the photos.

Chasseurs and Guides in the French Napoleonic Armies

 

A couple of nice little surprise were awaiting at home, the two latest works of the Historire & Collection Napoleonics books, dealing with the Chasseurs à Cheval and the Guides & Guards of the great headquarters. To start with, back in December I made a brief review of the Cuirassiers tome, and all I said about the latter are 100% applicable to these two new additions.

The Chasseurs à Cheval is the first of three-part series and covers the period of the Revulationary Wars to the eve of the First Empire. As usual this book is short in words (some interesting introduction pages and notes of the changes introduced with each different new regulation) and looooooong in colour plates, covering with outstanding detail the uniforms of every single unit of this corps, including the overseas regiments in the Americas and other French colonies. Detailed OOBs (from the official regulation, not the actual on the battle fields)  are also covered in the book.

The Guides & Guards is a very intresting tome, focused on the lesser well known and generally neglected byt the wargaming-related literature units that undertook the security functions of the great French commanders and their headquarters. The most popular and well knonw of these units are the Guides attached to the Imperial Hedquarters, but the books covers probably every possible unit, from Itally until the Cent Jours period, through Italy and the Peninsula. A real gift for any Napoleonic aficionado, it will not help putting on the table any large unit, but will for sure inspire adding that original model to enhance your command and HQ bases... and  see how your gaming mates go green of envy!!

I cannot recommend more these books, a 10 on 10 mark. Real added value for any Napoleonic era library and significant superior price-to-value that any tome of the Osprey range.