Not so one-sided: Uclés (1809)

The impending BBB Peninsular War scenario book will include a lot of battles where the Spanish army fought alone, without its British or Portuguese allies. One of these was the battle of Uclés in 1809.

Before I launch into my report of our game of Uclés, I just want to smuggle in an honourable mention of the Royal Engineers museum in Gillingham. I did a day trip there at the weekend. It is an absolutely splendid place, stuffed full of unique and fascinating artifacts, and with a very decent AFV collection outside. Highly recommended. Two hours wasn't nearly enough to take it all in so I will have to go again. Here's just one pic to remember my visit by.

Now back to Spain. Sir John Moore's incursion had distracted Napoleon's attention and many of his troops to the north, leaving Madrid exposed. The Spanish Army of the Centre advanced on Madrid with Venegas's corps in the lead. Victor concentrated his forces against Venegas, who made a stand at Uclés, where he was enveloped and overwhelmed. He lost half his force; French casualties were negligible.

On the face of it, this looks very one-sided and unpromising as a game. (Though see my Reflections essay on "Wargaming one-sided wars".) However, when Mark examined it, he saw that it had potential. Specifically, the fact that the impassable River Bidija divides the battlefield into two presents both sides with decisions about how many troops to commit to which half - in effect, making it two-sided. And, as so often, of course an inevitable defeat in real-world terms can be turned into a fair contest in game terms by judicious setting of victory conditions.

Here's how it went for us, this time with some lovingly crafted labelled pics as well as the usual annotated photos. Reflections follow at the end.

Bird's-eye view of the battlefield, which is roughly 10km x 7km. This is a small battle by BBB standards: each base represents 300 men; each side has fewer than 50 bases, as they had under 15,000 men a side.

The Bidija bisects the battlefield and can only be crossed at Uclés or the bridge at the righthand (south) edge. Uclés nestles in the gap where the Bidija cuts a steep ridge into two: the Sierra del Pavo and the Cerro de Uclés. The Spanish main line sits on these ridges. An advance guard holds the village of Tribaldos. Venegas himself has his HQ atop the monastery in Uclés. Most of the French army arrives from the SW corner (bottom right of pic). On turns 7 & 8 of this 9-turn game, Ruffin's division will arrive behind the Spanish right flank.

Victory is determined by seven Objectives (white counters): Tribaldos; two for Uclés (one each if it is contested); one for each of the two ridges (held by whoever has most units on it); and one each for the Spanish army's two possible escape routes, either to the NW (near where Ruffin appears) or across the bridge to Rozalen. The French need four of these to draw and five or more to win.

The Spanish centre around Uclés. Dave W commanded the Spanish left in Uclés and on the Sierra del Pavo. I took the right on Cerro de Uclés, including our cavalry, and the advance guard. All figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection. The pink cubes denoting 'Fragile' troops betray the quality difference between the two armies. Our Spanish army has a few good units but is a very mixed bag.

By contrast, most of the French are veteran, some of them Aggressive (green cubes), and some of their cavalry rated as Shock (purple counters), seen here enveloping Tribaldos on Turn 2. (Note the scratchbuilt church from the talented hand of Colin the Wargamer.)

I did contemplate abandoning Tribaldos immediately but we decided it was better to force the French to deploy and fight for it, which would cost us troops but them time. I was facing Will, while Crispin took the French right against Dave. The first French assault hit Tribaldos on Turn 2, Latour-Maubourg's heavy cavalry descending on my left flank while Pacthod's tirailleurs harried my white-coated defenders (two 3-base regiments). My lefthand regiment was forced out. The righthand one held on but suffered losses to musketry.

Meanwhile, some important action was going on in the top left corner of the above pic. On Turn 1, I had pushed our advance guard cavalry around Pacthod's right flank to pin or divert one of his regiments. When this turned against my cavalry, they evaded across the Bidija bridge. That obliged Puthod to fight his way across, instead of being able to race along the road in march column - more precious time expended.

Now we see the other side of the Bidija a turn later. The AG cavalry rallied and charged Puthod - a good call as they had a 50/50 chance of driving him back across the bridge to have to fight for it all over again - but it didn't come off. Puthod's lead regiment rallied in turn and here advances to drive the blown cavalry from the field (which will take another turn). This lets the rest of Puthod's brigade, led by some of Latour's dragoons, march rapidly to the eastern end of the Sierra del Pavo to avoid its steep slope. At left of pic, Dave's leftmost regiment is about to head down the ridge to confront them.

The fall of Tribaldos. Will commits Pacthod to support Latour's renewed assault. This is too much for my gallant defenders. The depleted regiment in the village is swept aside; the flood pours onto my veterans behind; they are driven back, then routed as well. Have they bought enough time, or will their sacrifice have been in vain?

About Turn 3, Dave and I made a major strategic decision. Tribaldos had held out as long as we'd hoped, but my cavalry's subsequent screening skirmishes along the stream behind it had not gone so well, nor had our other cavalry's delaying action at the Bidija bridge. Under pressure on both wings, we decided to abandon the west bank (the foreground) entirely and pull my right wing force into Uclés, freeing all of Dave's troops to fight for the Sierra del Pavo. This picture shows that plan being implemented. All my troops made it across the river except that two-base cavalry unit lower left, of which more later.

A close-up of my beautifully choreographed mass flamenco into Uclés. White-coated infantry, yellow-jacketed dragoons, sombre brown militia, light blue light infantry - it's a very pretty army.

View from behind the now rather abbreviated Spanish line with just a couple of turns to go. Dave's troops on our left are making valiant efforts to keep the French right wing at arm's length from Uclés, while our right in the town presents a formidable front against any French assault across the bridge there.

While all our left wing is disrupted by its exertions, the French right musters all its strength for one massed coordinated assault (good movement rolls compensating for an earlier turn when it was briefly paralysed). This proves irresistible and all three Spanish regiments are swept away.

Dave is left with just one regiment (lower left of pic) to cover the rear of my town defence. Will's best troops move up and form assault column. Their first attempt will be rebuffed but will cover the deployment of his guns in cannister range.

Once deployed, the guns delivered a devastating salvo that rendered my foremost regiment Spent. It did not survive the ensuing French assault on the final turn and is no longer visible in this picture. The other key to the French success was an infantry regiment joining in from the other side of town. It was able to bypass the defenders on the Sierra because they were busy fending off the rest of the French right wing.

Although we still had two Spanish regiments in Uclés, these were not enough to expel both the French units that had broken in. The town ended up contested, worth one Objective each. That gave the French a total of five, enough for victory. However ...

... remember that tiny fragile 2-base cavalry regiment I told you to pay attention to earlier? Here it is on Turn 7, backed up against the Bidija, about to be trapped between the force preparing to assault Uclés (top left) and Ruffin's arriving division (top right). The solution? My caballeros made a mad dash through the gap in front of them - and headed for Tribaldos.

Fortune favours the Fragile - they got the rolls they needed on Turns 7, 8 and 9, and Will's artillery was unable to stop them - they had just enough movement to leap into Tribaldos, on the French line of communications, retaking an Objective and salvaging a draw. Viva el rey! Viva españa!

Reflections

Battlefield geometry. It's a truism I've quoted before: the terrain shapes the battle. In this case, the distinctive terrain - the river bisecting the ridge and dividing the battlefield - definitely made it a distinctive and interesting game.

Last-turn drama. Mark was unsure whether the victory conditions were pitched right, but they turned out perfect. The luck of the dice seemed reasonably evenly distributed. It could hardly have produced a tighter or more dramatic finish, so let's call it good. Classic BBB.

Labelled photos are hard work (well, not so much hard, just time-consuming) so somebody had better say nice things about them if you want me to keep doing them in future reports.

Four playtests to go? Not of this scenario, but of the remaining ones to be polished before the Peninsular War collection is complete and ready for publication. (On which note, I should mention that BBB and its scenario books are now available in pdf as well as print.) Hoping to get the book out before mid-year ...