Beware the grape-scissors! Portuguese militia at Braga (1809)

The Peninsular War of 1807-1814 gets plenty of tabletop exposure. However, for obvious and understandable reasons, Peninsular wargames tend to focus on battles where British forces were involved. Occasionally we see a game that just has French vs Spanish. But for our game this week, Mark offered us a true rarity: the battle of Braga (1809), which pitted Soult's much-diminished French II Corps against a purely Portuguese force, predominantly made up of half-armed and quarter-trained - but occasionally ferocious - ordenanza levies.

It's an interesting match-up. Not only is it fairly extreme in terms of French quality versus Portuguese quantity, but the French have to attack a lightly fortified defensive position held by twice their numbers. It produced a really absorbing game, so much so that I only took five photos. I'll do my best to describe it from these.

The photo above is a close-up of the French assault on the village of Lanhozo, of which more later. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection.

Here's the battlefield to get you oriented. The pic is taken a couple of turns into the action. The main Portuguese positions are on the two big ridges, Monte Adaufe (lower left) and Monte Vallongo (running diagonally from bottom centre to top right corner). These are steep hills. They are the Level 2 contour; Level 1 is denoted by the dark grey strips that create another steep slope all around the two ridges.

The two ridges are Objectives (white counters), held by whoever has most units on them at game end. There are three other Objectives, all villages: Lanhozo by the bridge at top centre, between the two halves of the French force; Carvalho d'Este, on the main road axis, by that giant hand; and Palmera, in the Portuguese rear, bottom left.

The French are divided into two wings. Heudelet's and Delaborde's divisions start on table, roughly between Lanhozo and Carvalho, facing the Portuguese left. Mermet's division arrives Turn 1 from the top right.

The Portuguese must deploy on the two ridges but have the option of deploying a unit in Lanhozo. We Portuguese players chose to do this to distract and delay the French advance. We also posted a 'speed bump' unit to do the same on the far top right tip of Monte Vallongo. The rest formed up in rough lines behind V-shaped redoubts. These were 'Rifle Pits' in BBB terms, just 1 level of cover.

A Portuguese ordonenza unit together with a friendly battery on Monte Vallongo. The ordonenza's poor armament is indicated by the scythe-men in the back rank. Very versatile figures, these - they've served as Tyrolean rebels, Hungarian national guards, Spanish guerrillas ... a good investment. We said it was not their scythes but their grape scissors that the French truly feared. They are rated Raw and Fragile with Ragged Volleys, but because they could be ferocious (they murdered the Portuguese C-in-C prior to the battle because they learned he didn't want to stand and fight, and some of them did give the French a serious scare at one point), we could reveal one of these units to be Aggressive instead during the battle - a potentially nasty surprise.

Apart from these, the Portuguese have one slightly better unit of properly organised militia (no Ragged Volleys penalty) and one actual decent unit, the British-trained Loyal Lusitanian Legion (Trained and with a Skirmisher). The LLL's commander, Baron von Eben, had to act as C-in-C following his predecessor's unfortunate demise.

The core of the Portuguese position on Monte Adaufe. Top left unit is Baron von Eben and the LLL - they merit flags!

Shot of one of the two critical Portuguese delaying actions, that by the scythemen on the tip of Monte Vallongo. Trying to advance swiftly, the French unit in column of march (top of pic) had exposed itself to a Portuguese charge. The ordonenza duly obliged, succeeding in killing a base and driving the French back Disrupted (yellow cube). To add to the French disarray, Mermet is knocked over to show that he is out of action for a turn, having been caught up in this embarassment.

The French did then chase these ordonenza off the hill so they could press on to clear the redoubts, but it continued to loiter and be a nuisance, so some of them had to turn around and beat it up. They failed to kill it off entirely, so at game end it was still lurking to contest their ownership of the ridge.

Similar story with the ordonenza in Lanhozo in the first pic. That French assault expelled them, but the French neglected to finish them off. Consequently, they rallied and reoccupied the village later, forcing the French to clear it a second time.

These two distractions slowed, disrupted and weakened both prongs of the French advance. On the Portuguese right, Crispin did eventually break enough of my units to claim the ridge, but only just, and he ran out of time to press on against our left.

Meanwhile, Phil did advance far enough to exchange volleys with Dave's force on Monte Adaufe but never got onto the ridge. Instead, Dave took advantage of Phil's force's minor disarray, advanced off the ridge and recaptured Carvalho.

The French needed three Objectives to draw and four to win. They couldn't quite hang on to the third, so it was a Portuguese victory.

Reflections

Using the whole pitch. Many battles (and hence wargames) are just a simple affair of two lines, coming down to whether one side or the other gives way on its left or its right. This is especially true of anything pre-Napoleonic (per my customary prejudiced dismissive view). Games become much more interesting when the geometry is more complex. In the case of Braga, all it took was those two little units posted well forward. Not only did they disrupt the French line and oblige the French to attack in different directions initially; by remaining as forces in being, they continued to do so all game. Having the action spread across the pitch like that, not just focused on one end of one line, made for a far wider range of possible tactical combinations and a much more challenging and thoroughly absorbing game.

The joys of active defence. Sometimes it is too easy for a defender to sit tight and just roll firing dice. (This is truer of later periods with better firepower, of course.) In this game, both Dave and I had plenty to do. In my case, as well as cunning maneuvers with my valiant forward outpost units, once Crispin's attack reached my redoubts I was then having to constantly maneuver to reconstruct my line as his superior quality drove me back. In Dave's case, he first maneuvered to deter an initial flank threat by Phil, then chose his moment to advance off Monte Adaufe in force for his victorious counterattack.

Every game needs its grape-scissors! Colourful troops make for colourful games. The Portuguese ordonenza may not have been the most glamorous or effective force but, by God, we will remember them!