Bataille Empire - Game Report 7

1810 British vs French in the Peninsula - Plan B

One of the great things about gaming at home is that here in my war room I don't have to rush to pack away the figures. After the last game Dave and I were wondering what the French could have done differently. I decided therefore to see exactly that! I left all the forces as they were. I retained Dave's Battle Plan but came up with a new French Plan. Dave didn't play on line but I gave him the option to amend his orders by email as the game proceeded

Initial Set Up

So what was "Plan B"? Simply put the French Plan B was to send one of the infantry divisions right flanking. The point of effort would be in taking the difficult hill, and we wouldn't worry about the village and its hard cover.

Game Turn 1

As before the British managed to seize the hill. The differences this time were that the French broke the Light Infantry Regiment into detached skirmishers, Ney committed the Converged Grenadiers to support the attack on the hill, and there was no need to garrison the village. 

Meanwhile the right British Infantry Division were exceptionally well commanded and managed to conduct 3 moves to secure the village and occupy it. Cotton’s Cav have come in support on the right.

The French Division launched the attack covered by skirmishers which made it to the top of the hill supported by the Line Columns. In the firefight with the Brunswick Oels skirmishers they suffered an attrition and failed their morale and fled their position leaving the columns exposed.

No sign of the French Flanking Force

Game Turn 2

Wellington’s staff officers failed miserably [2 Command points]. Only the orders to Cotton got through this time, and they have advanced. Erskine's Infantry Division in the centre continues to hold waiting for his order to engage.

Houston’s division were attacked by the French columns and this time the Brunswick skirmishers were thrown off the hill (just). In the ensuing firefight the British light infantry in line in support drove the left French column back, while the right hand French column remains ensconced on the crest of the hill.

No sign of the Flanking force

Game Turn 3

Another successful British cav charge!

In the attack the Slade's heavy cavalry caused one of the French Ch a Ch to flee off the table and they were lost. In their pursuit they came up short of the French column. The Light Dragoons engaged the other Ch a Ch brigade and caused them to retreat.

Erskine’s Division moved out of the village to engage the left flank and rear of the French division attacking the hill.

On the hill the British Light Infantry advanced and gave a punishing volley into the converged grenadiers in column, but they held their ground manfully.. 

There is still no sign of the rest of the French flank force

Game Turn 4

The French infantry still attacking the hill seized the initiative. In doing so they were able to change the orientation and format of their left flank regiment to line and face of against Slade’s Bde and gave them a volley. This caused a loss and Slade’s cav fled behind their supports.

Meanwhile the converged grenadiers seized the hill top throwing the British LI off with losses. However, the French line to their right flank retreated from fire given to them from the foot of the hill from the Brunswick Oels. To make a bad day even worse for the French the converged Grenadiers were fired in the flank from Dunlop’s Bde moving out of the village and also retreated. The hill top was now in vacant possession!

Erskine’s skirmishers advanced against the French skirmishers and threw them back in the firefight with the French fleeing

As for the rest of Cotton’s Division the best to say is that it is regrouping. His command roll was the worst possible (after Wellington used his command points to try and help Cotton seize the initiative) Consequently both the British Cav brigades remained disordered. Cotton’s one command point was used to send the Portuguese Cavalry against the remaining Chassuers, who fled rather than standing to face. However, the Portuguese halted their charge successfully and have regrouped with the rest of Cotton’s division in good order – rather showing the Brits how it should be done.

At the start of Game Turn 5 there is still no sight of the rest of the French forces that should by now be on the battlefield!

Game Turn 5

The French have pulled back of the hill and are cowering around the village they defined as their objective

The British are trying to follow up as best they can. The Portuguese Cavalry in the fore are showing the British Cavalry how the pressure should be maintained on the enemy.

Still no flanking force!

Game Turn 6

The last action of the game was the successful charge of the Portuguese Cavalry to rout the final Chasseur Brigade. 

With no arrival of the flanking force on Game Turn 7 I decided to forgo the pleasure of another game turn. At this stage the British scored a Decisive Victory.

Lessons Learnt

Number one lesson for this game was that a flanking force is not guaranteed to arrive. I crunched the numbers and if you are interested the odds are that if you want to try a flank march the % chance the force will arrive on a particular game turn are shown below. But note that you are rolling the dice when you decide to go flanking as there is an 11% chance that they will never arrive!

Game Turn                    % chance

        2                                    17%

        3                                    28%

        4                                    19%

        5                                    12%

        6                                    8%

        7                                    5%

    Never                                11%

The question is though, what would have happened if they had arrived? Time for a Plan C me thinks?