The “Summer Game” this year included a surprise major flank attack. Always tough to do on the tabletop. Must keep it secret (or else what is the point…), have the players accept that: “whoops, things are not quite how you might think they are” and still make it still interesting for the players to make a fair game of it.
Luckily for me, as “Game Master / Scenario Designer / Deliverer of Information”, I had a good group of wargamers who readily accepts such trials with aplomb. In this case, the Battle is Albuera, the Peninsular War/ Spanish Napoleonic affair, in which the outnumbered French under Soult, sought to out flank the British/Portuguese/Spanish army to relieve a British siege - or as I suggested ‘take Brussels’ as I substituted the afore mentioned with British/Hanoverians/Dutch-Belgians/ Brunswickers from my Waterloo collection.
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| My Dutch-Belgian militia playing the part of Spanish troops now in an about-face from their original position to face the very wide French flanking maneuver. |
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| Westphalians on the Albuera river bridge. Unlike Godinot's efforts they did not advance against the town. |
To keep the subterfuge, I renamed all the commands. For those who might want to follow at home, I list the OOB:
Allies
Colville = Cole (some British, some Hanoverians/Portuguese)
Cooke = Stewart (with the best of the British regiments)
Clinton = Lumley (with all the cavalry)
Alten = Hamilton (Hanoverians playing Portuguese)
Chasse = Zayas (with the best of the Spanish)
Perponcher = Ballesteros (with the rest of the Spanish)
Brunswick = Lardizabal (the black clad lads as the Spanish vanguard)
French
Junot/Westphalians = Godinot
Reynier/Saxons = Gazan
Bertrand/Italians = Girard
Morand/French = Werde
Pajol with the cavalry = Latour-Maubourg
The element ratio to actual troop numbers is a bit different for this battle as it is a bit smaller than our usual affairs so 1:1,000 for the infantry, 1:800 for the horse and 1: 1 battery for the artillery. The experienced Ron and James (who drove all the way from Oregon to participate!) were amazed at how few artillery shot they would have, especially after the cannon heavy affair of Borodino a few games ago)
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| Duchy of Saxony "helping" the French...a good excuse to get these boys on the table. (converted plastics) |
Now for readers familiar with this historical battle, I did not have the player place their commands in the actual positions but allowed a rather ‘free-form’ affair. To be forthright, I did describe much of the pre-game scenario set up to suggest the French would attack all along the river. To add to the surprise for the British/Allies, I shifted the centre of the battlefield, as indicated by the bridge and town of Albuera, a bit to the right so leaving the tempting large area of their left open so subtly suggesting (?) the attack from that side whereas the historical attack, and that I allowed for the French players, was to the other. Not to have them cover the “corners” too closely I suggested they heed the military axiom that “he who defends everything, defends nothing”. However, the Allies commanders ( James and Ron ) did spread themselves a bit thin as the frontal divisions covered much of the table. In their defence, they have played enough of my scenarios to know I will have surprises! James said their plan was to have the Netherlanders and Hanoverians do all the initial fighting. “To let the foreigners do all the fighting and then have redcoats come in finish the job and get all the glory. Instead, it was the Brits who took the blunt of French flank attack and we (shamefully) needed the arrival of Germans to save the day. The French very well could of had the better of us, but for stiff upper lips and all that…”
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| Birds-eye view of the initial French flanking maneuver. Much deeper toward the Allies rear than the historical attack. |
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| View of the French masses with the cavalry leading. The French commander admitting that he left himself little maneuvering space. |
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| As I did allow each side to plan in secret, even I was surprised by the British blocking force in front of the French cavalry. |
And indeed the French (et al) almost did collapse the British. However, inexperience with the rules by the French players and a spirited defence allowed the British to recover and bring in fresh troops into the fray.
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| Alten's Waterloo uniformed Hanoverians (playing Hamilton's Portuguese) slowly, with Ron's poor move dice unfortunately, finally prepare to come into the battle. |
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| The British army now virtually facing in the opposite direction but still allowed to maintain formations as the French fail to pin much of their army. |
At a certain point Peter who controlled the majority of the flanking attackers for the French, did not think it prudent to continue the battle and so withdrew the majority of the force before it would collapse completely. This left Jim, who controlled Junot’s/Godinot’s command, dancing around at the bridge, to accept the result and so end the battle. James and Ron sighed in relief but
As in the real affair, the French attack simply ran out of steam.