A game of two halves: Medina de Rio Seco (1808)

Judging by the number of game reports around on the web, the Peninsular War battle of Medina de Rio Seco is a relatively popular one to fight. This is very understandable - despite there being no Brits involved (it is Spanish vs French) - as it is an interesting situation with relatively simple terrain.

Essentially, a Spanish force on the strategic attack was thrown onto the tactical defensive by a vigorous French response, then outmanoeuvred, assaulted and smashed. The force in question was a combination of two armies under Cuesta and Blake. Expecting the French to attack from the southeast, they deployed half their force under Blake on the heights in front of the town of Medina de Rio Seco, while Cuesta held the rest echeloned behind Blake's right, close to the town. Bessières side-stepped them and approached from the northeast, which enabled him to attack Blake's exposed left. The Spanish were smashed off the heights. Cuesta launched a counter-attack that had some initial success but was then driven off in his turn.

Mark presented us with a typically clean and clever scenario that captured the essence of the battle and delivered a see-saw nail-biter of a game. Only 10 annotated photos for you this time as I got so embroiled in the thick of the action, but they should give you the gist. Some reflections follow.

A frog's-eye view from the French arrival edge. Bessières leads his team onto the pitch. Blake's Spaniards line the heights. The track leads past them to the town of Medina de Rio Seco in the distance. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection on their Warbases representing arid Spanish soil.

A better look at Blake's men on the heights. The unit right of pic has two flags to indicate that it is Veteran. Units with one flag are Trained. The unit left of pic with no flag and a pink cube is both Raw and Fragile - best kept out of the front line.

Cuesta's force is visible top of pic. These troops are not allowed to move until Turn 3 because of the strategic surprise the French have achieved by rudely approaching from the wrong direction.

The white counter indicates that the Teson de Monclin knoll in the foreground is an Objective. There are four more: the northern and southern sections of the main Paramo de Valdecuevas ridge, plus the two bridges by the town. (John has cunningly parked his troops on one of the Objective counters to deceive the French.)

The French need to take two Objectives to draw or three to win. 

The French attack against Blake's exposed left flank develops swiftly. The French have an advantage in their superior skirmishing ability, as indicated by their many Skirmisher bases (readily identifiable at 'wargamer range').

French superior quality and quantity quickly make themselves felt and Blake's force is in disarray. Hard to tell here, what with both sides wearing blue, but the French assaults have destroyed Blake's veteran unit, forced back another (top centre, with a black cube for Low Ammo), and are threatening the flank of the one immediately behind the Teson knoll.

To compound Blake's discomfort, a detachment of the Imperial Guard is confronting his raw rearguard (left edge), while Lasalle's guard cavalry has got behind his flank and taken the southern Paramo objective.

Spanish Turn 3: Cuesta's force is unleashed and lumbers hesitantly forwards to the rescue.

Spoiler alert: it'll be a bit late.

White-coated Spanish grenadiers merit a green cube to show they are Aggressive.

End of French Turn 4. More of Blake's units have been battered or destroyed. All he has left on the top contour is the raw unit (now with blue and yellow cubes denoting Spent and Disrupted) and his little 2-base unit with the Skirmisher. They are surrounded by French (the large unit upper centre has just exploited after a successful charge). However, as the Imperial Guard failed to charge, Blake has retained a toehold on the northern Paramo objective long enough for Cuesta to get troops onto it next turn and prevent the French ever claiming control of it.

The next three turns were a ding-dong fight at the northern edge of the top contour. Blake's remnants were soon expunged but repeated French assaults were unable to kick all the Spanish off - even the Imperial Guard was repelled repeatedly. No photos of this phase as it was so fast and furious.

Thus, come Turn 8 (the final turn), the game was still in the balance. The French held two objectives - a draw. Could they gain a third for a win, or would a Spanish counterattack inflict defeat? Let's see ...

The Teson knoll objective (lower right) is secure, held by artillery that also guards the French right flank. Those Spaniards top right have been stalled there for half the game.

The northern Paramo objective counter sits behind the French line but it is an area objective, not a point. The Spanish have maintained a foothold on this throughout, so it remains technically theirs. They have three units on it. I need to defeat all three to claim the objective, starting with one just out of shot top left:

I took a gamble by taking the guard cavalry away from defending the southern Paramo objective and launching them in a combined-arms charge. This therefore succeeded (though only just). One down, two to go ...

On the right, General Mouton's men drive some of Cuesta's back down the steep slope. That's two out of three - but the 6-base Spanish unit top left stands firm, heroically repulsing the Imperial Guard yet again. Foiled! No victory for France today.

But there might yet be one for Spain. Denuding the southern objective left it exposed to Cuesta's tiny 1-base unit of fragile rubbish cavalry on the flank. All they needed to do was roll high enough for a full move (8+ on 2 dice, as they were Passive) and they would ascend the steep slope and embarrass me considerably ...

... and they rolled 3:

Thus France holds two objectives and it ends as an honourable draw.

Reflections

Player Morale. Crispin aka Cuesta was on the verge of giving up on Turn 4. Blake (John) had been crushed and Crispin didn't think he could fight his way up a steep slope against better French troops. But, of course, he didn't have to - he was able to get just enough men up there without assaulting, then put the onus on the French to kick them off. Not only did he hold on for a draw, he almost snatched a win at the end. In BBB, there is nearly always hope!

A Game of Two Halves. One of my popular 'Reflections on Wargaming' essays is on 'Changing Situations Mid-Game'. That lists a dozen BBB scenarios that make for particularly interesting games because the situation changes part-way through, so the players have more decisions to make (and more substantial or complex ones) than usual. In this game, Cuesta's force being fixed in place for the initial turns means it is effectively a mid-game reinforcement that transforms the numerical odds and the overall situation. We could therefore reasonably add Medina del Rio Seco to the list.

Research, Research. The ground shapes the battle, but it is not always easy for a scenario designer to shape the ground! Hills are particularly challenging, of course. Mark said he consulted eight different maps to distil into his scenario map.

Elegant Simplicity. This was a classic Mark Smith scenario, clean and simple in concept, yet providing a rich and complex tactical challenge and a thoroughly exciting game.

Joy of BBB!

One of my favourite wargames shows is "Joy of Six", which happens every July in Sheffield UK. It is devoted to showcasing the virtues of 6mm figures. As I've been wargaming in this scale for decades and nearly all my armies are 6mm, this is right up my street.

I last attended in 2022, when I was able to put on a game at the last minute because of a no-show. Missed the next couple because of Real Life(TM). This year I actually felt obliged to turn up. Not only was there the "Ilkley Irregulars" (ie Colin & Mike) BBB Waterloo game (which you could say was the "official" BBB table, as Colin's a good mate, has run a BBB Bash Day, etc), but also not just one but two other teams had independently decided to run BBB games. In the circumstances, it really would have been rude of me not to be there! The games in question:

- Per Broden is a stalwart of JO6, whose beautiful layouts will be familiar to many readers of this blog already. He had not played BBB before but decided to use it to lay on the Franco-Prussian War battle of Gravelotte. See his "Roll A One" blog post about it here.

- Then Richard Heath of the Chesterfield Open Gaming Society, likewise new to BBB, decided to pick up a WWI scenario I wrote a decade ago for the COGS Retreat from Mons (battle of Le Cateau), together with suitable WWI rule mods.

I took a few photos, which I'll share below, but you will see more and better on Colin's blog and in these other blog and video reports:

https://hereticalgaming.blogspot.com/ Jon Hetherington.

https://youtu.be/a3CV-LR67k8?si=11G1WyG3fwLKO_3e Storm of Steel.

https://youtube.com/shorts/kiStQ9nwQFg?si=oBDBLygwvOeOhS8W Miniature Adventures TV.

https://youtu.be/lWfARyFD22o?si=ref_AOYoenxeyXXt Big Lee.

Apart from admiring the BBB games and chatting with Colin, Mike, Per, Max, Richard and their comrades, I did manage a lap of the show. As always, there was lots of beautiful work on display. To pick out just two games that struck me particularly:

- Operation Vijay. This was from the ever-creative Richard Crawley and his Cold War Commanders: a "what-if" of the Indian invasion of the tiny Portuguese colony of Goa in 1961. (The invasion actually happened; the "what-if" assumed there was more serious fighting than the relatively token resistance it met.)

- Midgard in Glorantha. I've always had a soft spot for the fantasy world of Glorantha, so it was great to see Praxian nomads etc clashing with Lunar Imperial phalanxes and wizards outside the walls of Pavis. May have to check out the Midgard rules.

I also got to catch up with or meet loads of people - Alan, Andy, Bob, Brendan, Peter, Frosty, John, Ken, Nick, Ian, Russ, Tarquin - OK, maybe there wasn't a Tarquin, just trying not to miss anyone out ... better stop there with the namechecks ... anyway, tons of good conversations (not to mention being asked to autograph a few rulebooks 😮 ). Thank you to everyone I talked to, it was great to meet you all and your good company helped to make it a great day.

My photos:

The COGS Le Cateau WWI game. The Germans had to get past the extensive French fortifications around Maubeuge, nicely portrayed here. Note that it is on a removable base so can be replaced by eg a town for a different scenario.

The whole Le Cateau game, looking south from the German start line. The game travels the length of a 6'x4' table as the Germans chase the retreating BEF, who eventually make a stand at Le Cateau and Caudry. The custom battlefield comprises multiple tiles. Richard has cleverly designed these so that, although they work for the specific scenario, they can also be rejigged multiple ways so he can reuse them for different games.

The COGS boys played the game twice during the show. Here you see the closing stages of one of the games - possibly the one in which the Germans managed a draw, I believe (they lost the other). It was a pleasure to meet this happy crew and I'm glad they had so much fun with my WWI dabble. Richard sounded as though he might dive into BBB ACW next - hope so, as I'd love to see one of the biggies like Chancellorsville or Chickamauga or the Wilderness get this treatment at JO6 next year.

Per's lovely Gravelotte game. It would be even more lovely if Parcelforce hadn't mislaid his custom-painted battlemat, so he had to improvise another. Never mind - it still looks great! The French infantry modelled in their rifle pits were particularly nice.

About two thirds of the way through the battle of Gravelotte. The Saxons have arrived and are rolling up the French right wing. By game end the French had virtually nothing left on this flank except some embarrassed artillery. Victory to the Germans in this one. Grand to have the chance to talk to Per and Max and to see my scenario brought to life like this.

Waterloo! Napoleon's army masses on the heights around La Belle Alliance. Buildings handcrafted by Colin. The army is his work too. Figures are Baccus.

And the Allied line waits to receive the French. (I think these troops are Mike's.) Red objective counters indicate Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte and Mont St Jean. Mike's work on the custom hills really paid off - the terrain shapes the battle. I think this game ended up as a German victory as well (or a French defeat, at least).

Gloranthan battle outside the walls of Pavis. Figures by Rapier Miniatures, I believe.

Sabre Squadron - Arab-Israeli

I don't only do horse and musket. WWII or modern games involving tanks also meet my criteria for interesting tabletop wargames. In the 19th century, it is infantry, cavalry and artillery that provide the balanced triad that produces suitably complex tactical challenges and interesting games; in the 20th century, tanks take over from cavalry and the same applies.

I have therefore been angling for a while to get in a game of Sabre Squadron. This is a ruleset for company-level wargames "from the Cold War to the Digital Age". This week Nick O finally obliged and ran one for us.

The background was the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The scenario was set on the west side of the Suez Canal, after the Israelis had counterattacked across it. I was given a company of Israeli Centurions and a company of paratroopers to seize a bridge across an irrigation canal in the Egyptian rear. Will's Egyptian infantry company and supporting armour was tasked with holding it.

This kept us amused for three hours. It was two games in one. First, the superior quality of Centurion tanks and Israeli crews blasted the Egyptians out of the objective and shrugged off the Saggers and T-55s trying to stop them. Then the Israeli paras ensconced themselves on the objective, a load more T-55s tried to counterattack, Israeli quality again beat Egyptian / Soviet quantity.

Here are some photos of the action. Reflections at the end include my impression of the rules.

View from the Israeli entry edge: an idyllic scene of date palms and canal-side villages, about to be disturbed by the clank of armour and the rumble of guns.

I brought my force on in balanced formation: one tank platoon either side of the road, one leading the mechanised paras up the road, HQ tanks central.

Egyptian infantry about to leap into their defensive positions in the village. All figures Heroics & Ros. Nick says he painted them when he was a teenager. Does that make them veterans?

Meet Mr Sagger! The Soviet AT-3 wire-guided antitank missile was a nasty shock for the Israelis. Fortunately Will only had these couple and I managed to dispatch them without loss.

One platoon plus HQ on overwatch while the infantry push through the date palms towards the village.

Egyptian reaction: one T-55 platoon rumbles up the road ...

... and another takes position on the rise behind the village. I told Will I wasn't sure whether the T in T-55 stood for "Target" or "Terrible".

Nevertheless, I showed some respect and shifted my central platoon right with a view to adding to my firepower there.

Big beasts among the trees: paras about to debus at the plantation edge, with a Centurion platoon in support.

The paras draw fire from the village and also from another Egyptian company in the plantation beyond it to the left. A column of smoke on the road reveals what's about to happen. Having already seen off the Saggers, the Centurions will wipe out the T-55s and the infantry in the village. Our only loss will be one Centurion in the plantation disabled by artillery fire.

After that emphatic and rather one-sided success, we reset. My paras occupied the village to hold the bridge. Some of my Centurions were deemed withdrawn for business elsewhere. Will got to bring on another couple of companies of T-55s to counterattack. 

Coming on in the same old way. Who'd volunteer to lead an Egyptian tank column? This lefthand Egyptian company did eventually manage to register a few hits on HQ troop but didn't actually break any Centurions before being seen off.

The righthand company advanced past the plantations, killed a Centurion (the artillery took out a couple more) and pummeled the paras a bit, but not enough to winkle them out. Then it too went up in flames.

Reflections

Nice to Push Some Tanks Around. I do like a decent tank battle now and again. (And it's healthy to play something other than BBB occasionally too.) Tanks have so much character. And they do make a battle move along.

Hidden Deployment/Movement? It would be even more interesting to play this with a bit more fog of war: hidden deployment for the defender, maybe hidden movement for one side or both. Something to think about for next time.

Terrain. Nick's terrain was simple but effective. Most of our BBB games are on green fields, so his desert table looked exotic. I particularly liked the palm trees.

The Rules.  The rules worked well. Troops can move useful distances across the table. We had tactical choices to make. Moderns being moderns, there were necessarily some stats to look up for tank armour and gun penetration initially, but once we'd got these down, firing was slick and quick to resolve. I like the morale system, which allows a chance of catastrophic failure. The on-table results felt plausible. All in all, I'd be happy to play Sabre Squadron again.

Decisions, decisions! Players' gambles pay off at Pered.

A visit from my fellow Helion author and Hungary 1848 enthusiast, Nigel Smith (of The Honvéd War fame), provided the occasion to muster half a dozen of us for a game. Since we had the leisure of a long Sunday afternoon and a couple of the guys were going to miss the kick-off, I chose a largeish scenario that features substantial reinforcements mid-battle: Pered (whose anniversary fell the week before).

We last fought this a few times back in 2021 when we were still playtesting it for the Bloody Big Hungary '48 Battles! scenario book (see report here). It proved an ideal choice for our game.

Initially there were just four of us. Luke and Ben slotted comfortably into the role of the Hungarian revolutionaries, while Nigel opted to wield the forces of Imperial reaction. As he was relatively new to BBB, I acted as his technical advisor until Anton joined him for Day 2.

Pered is a battle fought on three days (with a few days' interlude after Day 1). As multi-day BBB battles generally do, this provided the players with important strategic decisions at different stages of the game, and produced very different phases of play.

Let me therefore offer a brief summary, followed by a more detailed photo-AAR for those who like these, then some reflections at the end.

In summary:

- Day 1 is when the Hungarian II Corps needs to drive back Herzinger's isolated and dispersed Austrian division far enough to encourage Hungarian III Corps to cross as well. Both sides conducted bloody and desperate charges and countercharges with heavy casualties. Net result was that the Hungarians didn't achieve their Day 1 goal, only taking one of the three objectives they needed.

- Day 2, both sides have important options. The Hungarians chose to convert III Corps's demonstration upriver behind the Austrian left flank into a serious crossing attempt at Sellye. The Austrians chose to gamble on bringing Perin's brigade (covering their rear off-table) south and on-table a day early, hoping that the off-table Hungarian I Corps would be too slow to exploit their absence and raid the Austrian rear. Both gambles paid off: III Cps crossed at Sellye, threatening the Austrian LOC and making space for the rest of the corps to deploy forward for Day 3; but I Cps failed to show, while Perin's grenadiers freed up all of Herzinger's division to contest the main Hungarian advance. The actual fighting on Day 2 consisted of II Cps slogging forward to take a second objective but at cost of further casualties.

- Day 3 was grand battle. Panyutin's Russian division reinforced the Austrians, who chose to form a solid line on II Corps's front, with isolated brigades guarding flank and rear. Meanwhile, all of Hungarian III Corps arrived. Luke and Ben decided to form this on their right and aim it at the hinge of the Imperial position. This looked like a good plan as they stormed into another two objective villages. However, Imperial counterattacks ejected them on the last turn, as well as recapturing one from II Corps to claim a last-gasp victory.

Now that you're oriented, here are the photos:

Sometimes troops would be issued schnapps or pálinka to fortify them before battle.

We made do with tea and coffee pre-game and saved the good stuff for after.

Initial set-up on a flat, marshy plain, north of the Danube. Ásboth's II Corps in the foreground prepares to assault the objective villages (yellow counters = Austrian-held) of Királyrév (left), Zsigárd (centre) and Pered (behind the wood, upper centre). 

How it looks from the Austrian side, with the two units of Pott's brigade holding Zsigárd and Királyrév. 

General Herzinger with the rest of his division: part of Theissing's grenadier brigade and Lederer's fearsome cuirassiers. I wish I'd planned my Austrian army better when I commissioned it. The grenadiers should have bearskins; the gunners should have broad-brimmed hats; I didn't get any grenzers or uhlans or chevaulegers ... oh well, you can get away with a lot in 6mm. Figures are proxied from various Baccus 6mm ranges.

Imperial reinforcements, from the left: C-inC General Wohlgemuth with more of Theissing's grenadiers; light cavalry; the two units of Perin's grenadier brigade, plus artillery and some rockets (the red trail); and the four mighty regiments of Panyutin's Russian 9th Division, plus guns. The 'Russians' are Prussian Landwehr figures by Heroics & Ros.

Hungarian C-in-C, General Görgei, reviews Knezics's III Corps. (Knezics gets sacked mid-game, so his corps actually gets led into battle by Leiningen.) Units with two flags and red hats are aggressive veterans: the famous 'red kepis' and the Polish Legion. The blue- and green-tunicked units are in early war national guard uniforms, which would have been replaced by standard brown honvéd tunics by the time of this battle - but they look good. Pikéty's hussars cavort at the rear.

Battle was ferocious on Day 1. The unit with black smoke (Spent), lower left, is what's left of Buttler's Hungarian division after recklessly trying to assault Királyrév across the bridge left of pic. However, the Hungarians have taken Zsigárd (red counter = Hungarian-held). Heavy casualties on both sides, including the entire cuirassier brigade.

The two sides reset for Day 2. Ásboth weights the left of his line to attack Királyrév. Herzinger braces his division to receive the Hungarian assault.

Meanwhile, behind the Austrian left, one of Knezics's brigades brings up pontoon bridges to demonstrate near Sellye. Alarmed, the Austrians call in Perin's grenadiers and dedicate three brigades to guarding objective villages in their rear: Deáki (upper left), Királyfalva (centre) and Tósnyárasd (right).

Austrian's-eye-view from behind Herzinger's line. I didn't manage to take any photos of the assault that ensued - another sanguinary one that expelled the Austrians from Királyrév with loss, but left a second II Corps brigade Spent.

Each of the three days consisted of four game turns. On Turn 8 (dusk of Day 2), the Hungarians got lucky and rolled a 6 to get Knezics's men across the river into Sellye. This had significant implications for the set-up for Day 3.

At end of Day 2, the Hungarians held two objectives - enough for a draw, needing one more for victory. Dawn on Day 3 therefore saw the Imperials commit most of the newly-arrived Russians to their line, as they needed to retake at least one objective if they were to win. Both sides formed substantial gun lines in this sector (at 18 guns per base, that's over 70 guns a side).

The Hungarians got to deploy their reinforcements second. Rather than just beefing up II Corps to try and hang on for a draw, they gambled to win. The crossing at Sellye opened up deployment space for them to the right of II Corps. They chose to commit all of Knezics's corps (now Leiningen's) there, outside the main Austrian line's left flank, and launch it at the objective villages behind the Austrian left rear.

Crunch! The Austrians had a turn to react and face left against Leiningen, who nevertheless thumped into them en masse. Although the righthand Hungarian units will bounce off Deáki (behind the wood centre right), they will smash the central Russian regiment, which reels back Spent. Meanwhile, the first Austrian attempt to retake Királyrév has been repulsed (top left) ...

... but the next one goes in, wiping out a Hungarian brigade. A Russian regiment advances towards the Hungarian gun line; Hungarian hussars behind it prepare to counterattack.

The Austrians launch a counterattack of their own against Leiningen, whose troops are driven back with heavy losses. The Austrians will advance to the edge of the wood.

This exposes them to a flank attack by Leiningen's indomitable red kepis and Poles. It is the Austrians' turn to suffer heavy losses. Not only does the Hungarian infantry take Deáki, but the hussars move north and seize Királyfalva (top right). The Hungarians hold three objectives - enough for victory. This means that on the last Imperial turn the Imperials must retake at least one to avoid defeat, or two to turn the result around.

The Imperial troops respond with alacrity and ardor (i.e., they get all their movement rolls). First the Poles are wiped out; then, assaulted on two sides, the Hungarian brigade in Deáki surrenders, leaving the red kepis to stand alone.

No better fortune for the Hungarians in Királyfalva, where the hussars are unable to stand against the Austrian infantry's assault.

The final Hungarian turn and a final charge by the red kepis. They manage to expel the Austrians from Deáki - but a few Russian boots are enough to retain possession of the village for the Imperials, and therefore to deny the Hungarians a draw and claim Imperial victory!

Reflections

The Narrative. As Bob H said on the io group after he participated in our BBB Bash Day convention a couple of weeks ago, "Every time I've played BBB I've come away with a narrative and the urge to revisit the scenario map to see if there's another way it could have played out". That absolutely applied here. As my brief summary shows, the game told a story in several chapters with dramatic twists and turns. There was no shortage of options for both sides to do things differently, and no shortage of moments where different dice could have made things turn out very differently. Eminently replayable to change the narrative!

Variable Reinforcements. Dicing to see whether reinforcements arrive is hardly an innovative game mechanism but doesn't feature in most BBB scenarios. It really helps to introduces some Clausewitzian gambles into this one and make it a nail-biter.

Councils of War. As noted above, the two Night Intervals in the battle produce major resets and present the players with major strategic decisions. As I was reffing rather than playing, I was able to stand back and enjoy the two command teams each debating their options and making their plans. My main demand of a game is that it should present players with plenty of interesting choices and challenging decisions. Pered definitely delivered.

The Social. As is traditional after our weekend games, four of us went for a post-battle curry. In its way, this was just as much fun as the game. Good times with good friends are precious.

First Significant Military Use of Railways? Panyutin's Russian division was only able to save the day because it had been shipped across Galicia by train before marching to the battlefield. People like to point to the Second Italian War of Independence as the first massive military use of railways, but perhaps the Imperials can claim the first significant one? The railway in Hungary also featured in various ways during the war, ferrying troops and supplies and even, on one occasion, sending a locomotive to raise the alarm and call for reinforcements. A nice footnote in history on which to end this post.

The Pered scenario is one of sixteen in the "Bloody Big Hungary '48 Battles!" campaign book for BBB.