Salamanca at Warfare 2024

Last weekend found the OWS team at the Warfare show in Farnborough, UK. This is one of my favourite conventions. It used to be in Reading, which was more convenient, but I suppose the move to Farnborough means we get to meet some new people from further afield.

Our chosen participation game this year was Salamanca. We'd run it at OWS a couple of weeks earlier for our esteemed US guest, Vincent Tsao, of the Corlears Hook Fencibles, so we knew it was a good fun scenario. (See Vincent's write-up here.) It's also famous, colourful and eventful, making it a good choice to run at a show.

So indeed it proved, generating plenty of interest from show visitors. We were only able to tempt one player into actually rolling dice with us (we only attended on Sunday, which seems to be the day when people do a quick lap and buy stuff, rather than leisurely lingering to enjoy the games). But we still got to have good conversations with a lot of good folks, whether about the history, the game, the BBB rules, or the figures and terrain.  I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who stopped by and helped to make it such a good day out.

As for the game: 

This classic battle will be familiar to many readers of this blog. In a nutshell: the opposing armies have been marching parallel, Wellington retreating towards Portugal, Marmont trying to race past and cut him off. Wellington stops retreating and attacks the French army while it is strung out on the march.

(The scenario is by Dr Mark Smith and will be one of 16 in a planned Peninsular War scenario book for BBB. Half of these battles are Spanish vs French; one Portuguese vs French; the other 7, British and allies vs French.)

In my usual format, 11 captioned photos tell the story below, followed by a few modest reflections.

A full battlefield panorama to get you oriented. It's the end of Turn 1. The French are in an 'L' shape on the hills along the left and top edges of the picture, with a division on the Greater Arapil (the single hill at the start of the stream, upper left). Thomieres' division has boldly continued its march to capture the village of Miranda de Azan (top right corner), earning the French an irretrievable Objective (Mark's cunning scenario device to encourage - but not compel - the French to replicate the historical risky French march). The Allied right wing (commanded by me) has responded by advancing onto the Pico de Miranda (the hilltop next to Miranda de Azan), while the bulk of the Allied army masses in front of the angle of the French 'L'. 

All figures, terrain and paraphernalia from Mark's collection. Figures are Baccus 6mm. White rectangles are location nameplates that we did for the show. Little red and blue ones are unit labels, ditto. White counters are objective locations. The French need to hold 3 at game end for a draw or 4+ for a win.

A closer view of the Allied left and centre (commanded by Mark). On the left, the Light Division (including Sharpe's Rifles, of course), supported by Bock's KGL cavalry, sits behind Campbell's division. They will spend all game trying to capture the village of Calvarassa (an Objective) from the French on the opposite ridge (the pipecleaners indicate that it is a steep slope). 4th Div is on the Lesser Arapil (centre right), waiting for the right moment to storm the Greater Arapil. Clinton's division (bottom right) will eventually move right to support our attack on El Sierro.

Closer view of the Allied right. Bradford and Pack's Portuguese occupy the village of Los Arapiles (centre left), anchoring my line as  it wheels forward. The yellow label denotes the one Spanish brigade present.

Zooming right in on Miranda de Azan and the Pico de Miranda. D'Urban's cavalry have crested the hill, supported by Power's Portuguese. Unfortunately, the bulk of Pakenham's 3rd Division (bottom left) was slow to move out. 'Slow' became something of a theme at this end of the battlefield ...

... as it took another 3 turns or so to wipe out Thomieres and capture the village (upper left), making time very tight for Pakenham to join in the final assault on El Sierro at the other end of the pitch. The Portuguese won't make it - they are about to drive off the French cavalry (bottom left) and pursue them off the board.

Here's how it looks from the French side of the hill. Two French divisions (bottom left and right) with artillery support are trying to stop the French left being rolled up by British heavy cavalry (left edge) and Hope's division. My Portuguese are still poised in Los Arapiles (top centre), about to support Hope by advancing against the lower right French. French fire was proving deadly, though - black counters denote French units with Low Ammo after delivering a deadly salvo/volley against Hope.

Meanwhile, on the French right, the Light Division (top right) is working its way around their flank but French artillery fire has deterred the KGL cavalry from supporting the Lights.

Pakenham's men taking an unconscionably long time to dress their ranks ...

Rolling up the French left is slow and bloody work. Most of Hope's division is gone, as are the two Portuguese brigades that advanced out of Los Arapiles. Hope's Portuguese brigade remains, supported by the heavy cavalry (bottom right corner), and will continue to drive back the French division in front of it. We had hoped that Clinton's division could join an attack on the Greater Arapil, but Mark has been obliged to commit it here (top left corner).

Late in the battle, Mark's attacks develop against Calvarassa (top left corner) and the Greater Arapil (top right). On the final turn, he mounts assaults against both these Objectives. Currently, the French hold four - enough for a French win. We need to retake one to draw or 2+ to turn defeat into victory.

The final act on the final turn. Both of Mark's assaults are repulsed. Everything rests on Clinton and the heavies, which have just smashed through a spent French division. All they need to do is overrun the French battery holding El Sierro. It's a fight at good odds - but not quite good enough! The French guns are forced to limber up and fall back, but we haven't driven them off the heights yet, so we can't claim the Objective. The French have won, damn their eyes!

Reflections:

Clever Victory Conditions. In my post last month about Cold Harbor, I reported how I had tried to be too clever with the victory conditions and departed from the tried and tested BBB formula. Mark's victory conditions for Salamanca are very effective: a typical formula of 7 objectives spread around the table, typical victory target for the French of 3 for a draw or 4 for a win - but with one important tweak, namely that the village of Miranda de Azan provides a 'highwater mark' objective that the French can never lose once they've reached it, even if the Allies recapture the village. This worked very well. (As did Mark's special rule for Marmont being wounded and replaced, as happened historically.)

Players Should All Use the Same Dice! When I run a game, I have a set of dice that are all the same type, and everyone uses these. If the dice are biased, at least the bias should affect everyone equally. Mark does similar but his dice are different colours: blue for the French, red for the British, yellow for the Austrians, green for the Russians ... having fought Salamanca twice as the British, I am convinced his blue dice have more sixes on them than the red ones!

Time I Bought a Battlemat? My plain green felt cloth has done good duty for a couple of decades but Mark's battlemat looks better and was part of the reason his layout attracted well deserved compliments. I feel a terrain investment coming on.

BBB: 10 Years of sharing the love!

 

It is 10 years since the publication of 'Bloody Big BATTLES!' in October 2014. I therefore feel I should mark the occasion with a few reflections.

We didn't set out to publish a ruleset. We just wanted to play some good games! This journey began 15 years ago with a remark by Dave Whaley in 2009, when he suggested we get back into wargaming the Franco-Prussian War. As the BBB introduction says:

'Our ambition this time round was clear: we wanted to tackle the major battles such as Gravelotte; to fit them on an 8’x4’ or smaller tabletop; and to fight them in their entirety, in a single evening, with typically 4 players. However, a survey of existing rules soon showed that there was nothing out there that quite met our requirements. Consequently we were obliged to write our own.'

After about three years, we had a solid set of rules that we were happy with and playing regularly - so happy, in fact, that we realised we ought to share the love and publish them. It then took another two or three years to refine and polish the rules until they were fit for publication, as well as writing and playtesting 25 scenarios to publish in the rulebook and in the companion 'Bloody Big European Battles!' scenario book.

BBB and BBEB were duly published 10 years ago. Their birth announcement was the first post on this BBBBlog. BBB was well received and obtained many positive reviews, which I have collected here. A lot has happened since then.

Most importantly, BBB itself met our stated ambition and has stood the test of time. Within our own core group at Oxford Wargames Society, it remains our staple diet, with someone running a BBB game at OWS virtually every week. We have refought literally 100s of different historical battles. The group itself has grown and thrived as wargamers of all persuasions are attracted by the happy gatherings in our corner of the village hall. It's great - we play a different battle, from a different war, producing a very different game, every week - without having to wrestle with a different ruleset each time. That plus a great bunch of mates has meant the past fifteen years have been the best in my wargaming life.

Nor is this just the niche obsession of a few Oxfordshire folk. BBB is not a commercial enterprise, simply an endeavour to share the love for wargaming big C19 battles, so there is no professional marketing effort to promote it. Nevertheless, the ripple effect of positive word-of-mouth has created a large global community of enthusiastic BBB players, as witness:

- 1,000 members of the BBB io group (join this and you can find lots of free scenarios and other useful stuff in the group files, including QR sheets in French, Italian and Hungarian!);

- 1,000 members of the BBB Facebook page (big thank you to Alan Millicheap for creating and maintaining this popular and active site).

That community includes a lot of excellent, seriously knowledgeable, creative people, many of whom have written scenarios and even additional BBB scenario books for their favourite campaigns. Let me list those published so far:

Bloody Big BALKAN Battles! (Dr Konstantinos Travlos)

Bloody Big Battles in INDIA! (Dr Mark Smith)

Bloody Big HUNGARY '48 Battles! (Chris Pringle)

NAPOLEON's Bloody Big Battles! (Dr Mark Smith)

Four more books on the Peninsular War, the American Civil War, and battles in Africa are in advanced stages of preparation. Further down the road, for those with more esoteric tastes, we hope to produce books on the Taiping Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War. I'm sure it won't stop there: folks are tinkering with Seven Years War, Great Northern War, First World War ...

By popular demand, we also run an annual convention of BBB participation games, the BBB Bash Day. Its fifth iteration was in Daventry last year. You can find a report on it here, with links to reports on previous ones. Planning for the 2025 Bash Day has already begun, so watch this space.

So far, so good. What about other future plans? Maybe it's worth saying we are not planning to publish a 2nd Edition. Not to say there's nothing I would change - with the benefit of 15 years' experience, I can see things that could be refined - but the ruleset has proved so robust and popular that I don't feel a new edition is necessary.

What we are planning - and what I know will be popular - is to publish a pdf edition. This should be available via the SkirmishCampaigns website in the next few months.

There are so many people to thank: Dave Whaley for starting it all and being the heart and soul of BBB; Scott Fisher of SkirmishCampaigns for some crucial input early on and for publishing it; all the retailers who have supported BBB (especially Brigade Games and On Military Matters in the US; Caliver Books and North Star in the UK); the playtesters already acknowledged in the front of BBB; others who've joined our gang at OWS since - Luke & Ben A, Matt B, David B, Mark J, Crispin M, Bruce McC, Phil N, Nick O, Nigel S, Anton Van D; loyal partisans Alan Millicheap, Konstantinos Travlos and Vincent Tsao, for their invaluable support over the past decade; all my US buddies, especially Scott, Mark F, Rob G, CB and D Sean, who've indulged me running ACW BBB games for them (they have the right headgear, the right liquor, and the right accents); Jim Owczarski for bringing it to his Armchair Dragoons audience; and all you other great comrades I've met and interacted with at shows, online forums, etc., thanks to our shared enthusiasm.

Therefore, my heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support and encouragement over the years. That's what really makes it all worthwhile and motivates me and the gang to keep building the BBB project. Here's to the next ten years!