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Text of the page (random words):
re the hill on the right the side which occupies at least two objectives at the end of 12 moves is the winner the spanish army are deployed on and around the three game objectives the french army are deployed south of the river guadalquivir the river is unfordable and can only be crossed using one of the five bridges comments cordoba is the campaign objective and the french must take it to win the campaign both armies are deployed on the table at the start of the battle however the french are on the wrong side of the river guadalquivir which they must cross using one of the five bridges if the spanish can pin them near the river they will have no room to deploy and any set back will probably result in total defeat to win the campaign the french must take cordoba which is the campaign objective so far the spanish have won three battles and the french only two there is a lot riding on this battle for the french commander posted by thistlebarrow at 10 40 no comments labels 77 1813 campaign 2026 sunday 19 april 2026 cordova campaign battle of montilla battle of montilla table at start of game both armies are full strength at the start of the game each army has three corps the spanish have 12 infantry brigades 2 cavalry and 3 corps artillery the french have 9 infantry brigades 2 cavalry and 3 corps artillery the french infantry are better quality the cavalry and artillery the same quality there are three game objectives the woods on the left the hill in the centre and the villa on the right the spanish occupy each objective with one corps the french start the game on the table but out of artillery range of the spanish one corps is allocated to attack each game objective the cinc has taken command of the corps artillery of 43 and 44 corps he has placed this reserve between the two corps to support either as required end of move 12 on the left 46 westphalian corps advance against the woods their cavalry charge and rout the spanish cavalry and then threaten their artillery the westphalian infantry and artillery deploy to attack the front two sections of woods the spanish cavalry and the infantry in the front line withdraw to the rear wood sections the westphalian infantry quickly occupy the southern section of woods but their cavalry and artillery have to redeploy to threaten the northern woods the westphalian attack takes three wooded sections but are unable to take the fourth 44 baden corps are supported in their attack on the hill by the reserve artillery the spanish gunners on the road withdraw to the rear of the hill pass the baden infantry take the left hand hill but are unable to take the right hand one once more the spanish have held part of an objective 43 french corps are delayed by having to cross the hill to reach the villa this allows the french reserve artillery to redeploy to support their attack the villa is a strong defensive position and the french need to attack more than one side however the spanish artillery and cavalry make this impossible the french reserve artillery cause casualties to the garrison the french grenadier brigade then attack the villa and rout the garrison the french have only taken one of the three objectives the spanish have lost 4100 casualties to just 900 french there are also four spanish brigades in rout and only one french but the spanish have managed to hold part of two objectives the french have only taken one and thus lose the battle comments the new balance between the french and spanish armies seems to be working well being outnumbered in infantry the french cannot afford to take any risks they must win the cavalry and artillery battle before commiting the infantry however the spanish gunners and cavalry are just as good as the french the spanish held the forward locations supported by cavalry and artillery their infantry were safe behind the objectives the french deployed to attack the front line and the spanish fell back to the second line this meant the french had to advance and redeploy which wasted precious time there are only 12 moves to each battle and this does not allow time to redeploy the spanish deserved to win this game posted by thistlebarrow at 10 24 4 comments labels 77 1813 campaign 2026 sunday 12 april 2026 cordova campaign day five 13 september 1813 southern spain day 5 french attack montilla 13 french army occupy muriano 14 french army regroup at el carpio 15 french army attack montilla spanish defend montilla 1 spanish army retreat and leave campaign 2 spanish army retgroup at cordoba 3 spanish army defend montilla battle of montilla opening positions 15th french army commanded by marshal augereau attack montilla 3rd spanish army commanded by general del parque defend montilla french have 9 infantry brigades 2 cavalry brigade 3 corps artillery 3 infantry and 1 cavalry brigades are detached to protect lines of supply spanish have 12 infantry brigades 2 cavalry brigade 3 corps artillery 12th corps has been disbanded to bring other three corps up to full strength comments having lost the battle of muriano 1st spanish army have two choices they can occupy the city and accept a siege or they can retreat abandon the city and leave the campaign having lost 5700 men against 2500 french they have no choice but to retreat if the result had been more even i would have allowed the spanish to accept the siege the campaign is designed to produce a series of battles to wargame in the past i had considered allowing siege which happened quite often in the peninsular however they are better suited to a solo campaign than to this type of campaign in the past i have been tempted to run a siege as a project but have always resisted the urge it would require a lot of preparation and i don t have any suitable figures i have not painted a single figure in 20 years and doubt if i still have the skill and ability to do so i could run the siege as an abstract paper exercise but that does not really appeal to me finally it would detract from my long running campaign and i am reluctant to allow that so for the present i will have to accept one side retreating off the map at the end of the phase posted by thistlebarrow at 10 45 no comments labels 77 1813 campaign 2026 sunday 5 april 2026 cordova campaign battle of muriano battle of muriano table at start of game both armies are full strength at the start of the game each army has three corps the spanish have 12 infantry brigades 2 cavalry and 3 corps artillery the french have 9 infantry brigades 2 cavalry and 3 corps artillery the french infantry are better quality the cavalry and artillery the same quality there are three game objectives the farm on the left the woods in the centre and the hill on the right the spanish occupy each objective with one corps the french start the game on the table but out of artillery range of the spanish one corps is allocated to attack each game objective the cinc has taken command of one cavalry brigade between 37 and 38 corps this will allow him to use it in support of either corps end of move 12 the french plan is to pin the spanish corps on the left 37 corps will only attack the hill if their artillery can weaken the enemy 38 corps will open the battle with their attack on the woods 39 corps will attack the farm when their infantry are in position on the right the french gunners lost 10 casualties as they deployed this meant they could not engage the enemy gunners the french cinc led the guard grenadiers against the spanish lancers but lost the melee and was out of the game for 9 moves in the centre the french attack was threatened by the spanish lancers they had to form one brigade into square to protect their flank the attack on the woods was surprisingly a success but only because the spanish rolled a poor dice at the critical point on the left the french had to wait for their infantry to cross the hill but they quickly took the farm and routed most of 2nd spanish corps but they were too far from the centre to affect the outcome there the french hold two objectives the farm and the woods the spanish hold one objective the hill french have lost 5 infantry 4 cavalry and 1 artillery casualties 2500 men spanish have lost 13 infantry 2 cavalry and 3 artillery casualties 5700 men there are 8 spanish brigades in rout and 3 french the french win the battle comments despite a poor start the french managed to win the game but it was largely due to luck with good dice at the right time the lower quality spanish infantry was also critical their better quality troops were in the front line and performed well but when they were routed their poor quality reserves usually went with them they often rallied but were too far in the rear to help in the final two moves a really enjoyable game particularly for me as the french player after a terrible start the dice moved in my favour at the critical tests too soon to say how well the new order of battle will work out the dice had too much influence to determine how well the balance worked posted by thistlebarrow at 12 51 2 comments labels 77 1813 campaign 2026 sunday 29 march 2026 cordova campaign day four 12 september 1813 southern spain day 4 french occupy el carpio 13 french army attack muriano 14 french army occupy el carpio 15 french army regroup at espinar spanish defend muriano 1 spanish army defend muriano 2 spanish army retreat to cordoba 3 spanish army regroup at montilla battle of muriano move 12 at nightfall the spanish lose the northern section of the woods in doing so they lose the battle the french hold two objectives the farm and the woods the spanish hold one objective the hill french have lost 5 infantry 4 cavalry and 1 artillery casualties 2500 men spanish have lost 13 infantry 2 cavalry and 3 artillery casualties 5700 men there are 8 spanish brigades in rout and 3 french the french win the battle comments a new order of battle had been introduced at the start of this campaign phase the spanish outnumbered the french in infantry and artillery the french outnumbered the spanish in cavalry and their infantry were better quality after three games it was clear that the balance was not right the spanish were too strong unusually i changed the order of battle in the middle of the campaign phase the spanish would have 12 infantry brigades 2 cavalry and 3 corps artillery the french would have 9 infantry brigades 2 cavalry and 3 artillery the french infantry would be better quality the game worked well as it might be expected to for the first test game however the dice were very uneven so it is difficult to estimate how well the balance worked the french had to attack and to do so with fewer infantry brigades they would have to find an advantage to have any chance of success both sides had the same number of cavalry and artillery and both were the same quality the french would have to take some risks to weaken the spanish infantry the french artillery deployed within range of the spanish infantry and artillery this meant that the spanish gunners could fire first and they did so they required six on 1d6 to cause casualties they rolled one six the french battery which received casualties failed their morale and routed this was not a good start fortunately for the rest of the game both sides received their share of 1 and 6 usually at the worse possible time with 1 for critical morale or combat tests but being evenly divided the two armies it made for an interesting game there are a maximum of 12 moves in each game at the end of move 10 it looked like the result would be a draw the french has the inn on the left and the spanish the hill on the right each side held half of the woods in the centre if the game ended there the spanish would have won however that roll of one i mentioned came at just the wrong time for spanish during move 11 there was a melee both sides suffered casualties the french rolled two and were shaken but held their half of the woods the spanish rolled one and routed abandoning their half of the woods a very tense game but also very enjoyable as these close run things are posted by thistlebarrow at 15 59 1 comment labels 77 1813 campaign 2026 sunday 22 march 2026 20 years living in spain jan standing in what would be our swimming pool on 18 march 2006 we arrived in parcent to start our new life in spain we had both finished work during the previous week handed over the keys to our house in the uk on 17 march and caught the boat to santander the same night 14 months earlier we had selected the house of our choice and put down a deposit so many people wanted to buy in spain in 2006 that there were not enough houses to go around so most had to buy off plan which meant that the house was not built yet you would put down a deposit and the builder would start building at each stage you would pay the costs of work completed until the house was finished and you paid the final amount this system was largely responsible for the many properties which were never completed and buyers lost everything when the builder disappeared fortunately that did not happen to us the advantage of buying off plan is that you had a large say in the design of the property as a result i was able to extend the floor plan to include a wargames room with a walled off area to store the figures and scenery as you can image a lot of consideration went into this project first walk with costa blanca mountain walkers our first priorities on arrival were to organise the wargames room and join the costa blanca mountain walkers a local walking group we had to wait for our removal van to arrive with our furniture and boxes of models and scenery but within a week we had joined the walking group and were exploring the many beautiful walks within an hour of our new house walking had always been one of our passions with wargaming being the second walking was very popular here long before we arrived the cbmw had been formed in 1985 and was well established by the time we arrived most members were british but with large numbers of germans and dutch unfortunately hardly any spanish who are not really interested in organised group walking they offered three walks each wednesday and saturday and all were free to attend it was not unusual to have 50 or more on a particularly popular walk so it was not long before we had built up a wide selection of friends our new wargames room by the end of april my wargames room was complete and ready for the first game we had a 6x6 foot table built and extensive shelving for our collection of 28mm 18mm and 6mm figures and scenery i had also completed 26 2x2 foot wooden scenic squares to allow me to create a wide range of table top battles we tried to recruit local wargamers to form a wargames club which we had done in the uk for many years but there was little support and eventually we decided to restrict our games to just the two of us for a couple of years we played one off games using the three different scales of figures and scenery to add variety t...