Peninsular War: Valencia (1811)

Off to Iberia this week! (As a game setting, not an actual trip. Though I was there a few months ago when I visited the Vitoria battlefield.) In parallel with the mammoth task of writing and playtesting scenarios for all the major battles of the American Civil War, I've also been helping Mark, who's focusing on his set of Napoleonic scenarios for the Peninsular War. Yesterday's foray was the battle of Valencia (1811), which resulted in the siege of Valencia.

What a fine 18th-century army Spain has! Too bad we're into the 19th.

(Baccus 6mm figures from Mark's collection.)

Here's the history: having been defeated in the battle of Sagunto, the Spanish General Blake was now trying to hold the line of the River Turia, on which the city of Valencia lies. His army comprised 30,000+ troops of rather variable quality: some experienced regulars, but an awful lot of raw militia of various types. Marshal Suchet's French Army of Aragon was somewhat smaller but all veterans. On 25 December, Suchet sent Habert to feint against the coastal end of the Spanish lines, and Palombini to pin the Spanish centre, while Suchet himself led a big right hook to get behind the Spanish army and trap it in Valencia. Blake had anticipated this but had not anticipated just how quickly the French would move, nor how quickly his own army would crumble - his right collapsed and turned Habert's feint into a breakthrough. About 10,000 Spanish troops escaped but Blake and most of his men were trapped. Two weeks later, Valencia fell and he and 16,000 men surrendered.

I played this some months ago as the Spanish. It was amusingly (and not entirely unhistorically) disastrous but a little too much of a French walkover then. Mark had therefore amended the scenario somewhat. Here's how it went.

Let's get you oriented. This is a view from the French side, looking south across the Turia. The city of Valencia is lower left; the northeast corner is coastline (out of shot lower left). White Objective counters mark the city, assorted forts and villages along the Spanish fortified line, and the village of Torente in the Spanish rear (top centre). Note also the two wagons behind Valencia: these need to escape up the road to the south. The Spanish also earn points if a couple of their decent infantry units can escape off the table there or through Torente. They need some combo of these to add up to 4 for a draw or 5 for a win.

All the troops south of the river are Spanish. To reflect the fact that Blake had to at least put up a show of making a fight of it, they can't just all leg it on Turn 1, but must stay within 6" of the river for the first three turns.

Help is at hand for the Spanish in the form of the Royal Navy, which directed harassing fire against the French left flank for much of the game. Unflocked Warbases may work OK for dusty Spanish plains, not so good for the Mediterranean ...

Ben and I were the French. I took the right, he took our left and centre. Our plan was to avoid Valencia itself initially, shift our force from the centre to back up our left, and try to break through the raw fragile Spanish militia there (marked with pink cubes). To help with that, we agreed Ben should rumble his guns right up into cannister range. Here you see our left wing starting to move up to prepare to assault across the river against the Spanish right (commanded by Luke).

The best Spanish troops were in the centre (commanded by Crispin), supported by two artillery units. By moving our centre to the left, we avoided these and added punch where we wanted it.

Meanwhile, Dave T commanded the Spanish left. The next pic shows how much it was 'hanging in the air', hence this was my target for outflanking and enveloping. Note the handcrafted buildings by our talented friend Colin the Wargamer.

Consequently, Turn 1 saw me push up to the river by the western edge of the table. The infantry and cavalry can wade it but the artillery will need that pontoon bridge sitting by General Harispe. Musnier's division marches over the hills to cover the flank of my main push. Look top left and you will see one bold Spanish brigade has crossed the Turia, aiming to delay and disrupt our advance. A second will follow it. This will not go well for them circa Turn 4, after Severoli's Italians arrive to reinforce the French (one of the reckless Spanish units will be routed, the other forced to fall back behind the Turia again).

Over on the left: immediate breakthrough! Ben's men stormed across, routed one militia brigade and exploited to get behind another. With the impetuosity of youth, he also attempted an exploitation attack into the enemy fortification against poor odds, but was repulsed with loss back to the village at left edge. (These youngsters and their need for instant gratification, eh?) Developments around Valencia too, where our centre division's leftward shift has drawn Spanish troops in to defend the city against them - even though we had no real intention of attacking it directly yet.

Now we are looking downriver, east, as my right hook develops. Spanish cavalry (right edge) canter forward to try to pin my infantry but wisely don't dare to charge. My brigade by the bridge will scare them off again when it advances.

Two or three turns later, Ben is making progress. He has routed some more militia and got more troops across the river. However, a Spanish counterattack from around Valencia destroys a French brigade and boots another back across the Turia. See-saw action here for a while. Top left, the wagons make their getaway.

A more decisive breakthrough on our right. Backed up by two further divisions of reinforcements (pushing across the river left and lower left), we have smashed the Spanish off the hilltop at Manises (centre foreground) and gone on to storm the fort at San Onofre (centre of pic). The Poles (top right) have fended off the Spanish cavalry and are about to be backed up by my dragoons (out of pic) to threaten the Spanish escape route, while the bulk of my force will brush aside the couple of Spanish units left in front of it (top centre).

At that point, as some players needed to leave early (and not all the Spanish players were keen to play through the extermination phase), we stopped it with a couple of turns still to play. The Spanish still held four Objective locations, but were likely to lose one or two of these; on the other hand, one of their units had escaped and they were likely to get another one or two away. All three results were still possible but the probable one was a draw. Regardless - a fun game, two very different armies facing each other in an interesting scenario situation, and plenty of movement and action along the way. Bags of flavour!

Reflections

Grand tactical maneuver. This game definitely had the feel of maneuver on a grand scale. I could have told the story of the battle with some very large and clear arrows on a map. Our left and right hook combo, the centre's left shift, and the Spanish reaction to those; the decisive commitment of French reinforcements on Turns 2 & 3; the Spanish counterattack around Valencia, the spoiling attack by their left, and the Spanish withdrawal in the face of my right hook; all of these felt very bold-brush and emphatic. It was also nice that both sides had major maneuvers to execute. Somewhat unexpected for a game that was nominally about breaching and clearing a fortified defensive line!

How much fun is it to be crushed? This is a one-sided battle in that the French quality advantage is such that, given time, the Spanish army will almost inevitably be destroyed. It therefore becomes a question of how quickly and thoroughly the French can destroy it. Of course, the scenario design enables the Spanish to 'win' in game terms if they get crushed significantly less than they were historically. Some players enjoy being on the rough end of that equation more than others, e.g., Dave W revels in it; others less so. Maybe it merits another 'Reflections' essay to go with my one on Wargaming One-Sided Wars.

Try it yourself at Warfare 2025. OK, not the same battle, but the prequel to it: Mark and I will be running the Battle of Sagunto at the Warfare 2025 show in Farnborough on Sunday. Come along!

BBB Peninsular War book - not long now. We are now about four playtests away from finishing the whole set, say two or three months. Obviously there will then be some editing and polishing to do, but that will be a matter of a few more weeks rather than months. We should have a nice BBB Peninsular War book ready for you soon!