AAA - absolutely awesome Albuera

Our final playtest of Mark's scenario for Albuera was an absolute cracker.

This famous Peninsular War battle will be one of those in the forthcoming BBB scenario book. I reported on a previous playtest last year, so I won't repeat the background here. Let's launch straight into the photo-AAR. It's a lavish one this time - 13 photos, all lovingly marked up with unit names, troop movements, etc.

Overview of the battlefield before the French deploy, looking east. The allied position is centred on the village of Albuera. Hamilton and Stewart on the allied left may not move until Turn 4 (so long as French are within 6" of the northern bridge) to reflect the French pinning attack. That leaves only the Spanish on the right, plus reinforcements arriving from the left rear, to react initially to the French flank attack.

The dark strips are not tarmac roads but represent the slopes of long ridges between the streams ('Level 1 contour' in BBB terms). The polystyrene hills are Level 2. This '2.5D' approach is a useful method to represent complex hilly terrain.

Stars mark the five objective locations: Albuera village; the southern bridge in front of it; the eastern and western hilltops on the allied right flank; and the road that is the allied line of communications and retreat. Each of these is worth 1 Victory Point. The French also earn 1 VP if any British infantry unit is spent or destroyed (i.e., if the allied players repeat Beresford's embarrassment). French need 3 VP to draw or 4+ to win. It's an 8-turn game.

All figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection. Terrain is Mark's as well. Troop scale in this game is 600 men or 12 guns per base.

I commanded the British and Portuguese, facing Crispin on the French right. Dave W was my Spanish ally vs Dave T on the French left.

The French right advances to pin the allies on Turn 1.

The French flank marching columns approach. The fragile Spanish cavalry tried to charge that column on the hill, bottom right, but evaporated at the first rattle of musketry.

On Turn 2, Godinot seizes the bridge objective and dares the Spanish to attack him ...

... while the flank marchers deploy to attack. Zayas (the only allied general represented in this scenario) rushes his two brigades to defend the hilltop objectives and protect the allied right flank. My heart was in my mouth as Zayas's advance seemed to leave his mean dangerously isolated and exposed.

They were duly subjected to massed French assaults on Turn 3.

Miraculously they not only both survived but, thanks to some outrageous dice, held onto the west hill and inflicted serious losses on Girard's division. 

Then it was our turn to attack. Dave committed Ballesteros's brigade to try to retake the east hill, while I attacked Godinot at the bridge. Cole's Portuguese (mislabelled here as Hamilton's), backed up by the dangerous British cavalry (green cube = Aggressive), kicked Godinot back behind the Rio de la Albuera. However, to retake the bridge objective we would need to hold the other end of it as well; and to do that, we would need help from Hamilton and Stewart on the allied left wing, still pinned until Turn 4.

Another bout of heroic dice saw Ballesteros wipe out a regiment of French shock cavalry, then hurtle on to smash Werle's infantry of the east hill as well. Glorious!

Dave T was not to be gainsaid. He rallied his men and flung them back into twin attacks on the two hills. Both his attacks succeeded this time.

Cole's small British brigade has arrived to stiffen the Spanish. The orange counter denotes 'Devastating Volleys'. Thus reinforced, Dave W may have a chance of retaking the west hill. However, we can't afford to get Cole's unit wiped out and give the French a VP.

Our left has been slow to wake up. Ideally, it should roll up the French right flank and retake the bridge objective, but this is Turn 5 already (maybe even T6? not sure) and not one brigade has crossed the river. Also, French pressure on our right means we need to send some troops in that direction too. But Godinot has lost half his division and can only pray that the allies run out of time before he runs out of men.

In the next couple of turns there was major action on the allied right that I didn't get any pics of, so my caption to the next photo will have to explain.

Change of angle for the final position: this is the view from behind the French left, where there has been hot fighting around the west hill. First, D'España and Cole combined to counterattack and retake it. Then a third French assault booted them off. Cole failed to recover from his disorder but the British cavalry moved up to support him. Just as well, as on the next turn Cole was attacked again, this time also by French cavalry that had worked around his right flank. He survived, but only because we sacrificed our cavalry to save him. The French then rode down a couple of our batteries as well.

Stewart turned up in time to restore the situation. Cole sheltered behind him. Zayas actually stormed the hill again! But was pincered from both flanks and wiped out, so the hill changed hands for a fifth and last time. Girard was left in possession.

On this flank, then, The French earned 2 VP for the hills but we had protected the LOC.

Over on the French right, I had four units that could potentially hit Godinot's beleaguered and diminished remaining brigade. Unfortunately, only the smallest two of them obliged me by moving to attack. Although we still had a significant numerical advantage, having to cross the river and the bridge made it an even fight, which we lost.

Godinot was left in possession of the third VP, making the end result a draw.

This was a really gripping game, tense throughout and in the balance right to the end. Had we taken the bridge, it would have been an allied win; had Cole's brigade been destroyed (as so nearly happened), victory would have gone to the French. All four of us players felt we had a tough challenge, which is as it should be. An excellent evening and a great game.

Reflections

Annotation - too much work! I hope the annotated photos help to explain the situation and tell the story in a clear and colourful way. It's taken me hours to do, though, so I doubt I'll do it again. Its main virtue is of course that it has enabled me to spend a whole evening avoiding doing more important things.

Dislocated and overwhelmed. The first few turns were very stressful for us allies. As most of my troops were pinned, all I could do was watch as the French flank attack dislocated our line and put pressure on Dave's few Spanish. Mark's scenario captures the shape of the battle really nicely, while still giving both sides enough options that we were not straitjacketed into following a script.

Ebb and flow. This game was nothing if not dramatic. The repeated assaults and counterassaults on our right flank saw some epic moments. When one objective changes hands five times and another one falls three times, you know you've been in a fight.

Awesome is good enough. The purpose of these playtests is to refine and polish scenarios to the point where we are happy to publish them for other players' enjoyment. That refining and polishing could go on for ever, there's always another tweak we could try - should we adjust the pinning conditions? Should we add another objective location? Change the French deployment a bit? - but it has produced some excellent games and there comes a point where you have to say "By God, sir, that will do".

Still hoping to get the BBB Peninsular War scenario book published by mid-year. Follow this blog or watch the SkirmishCampaigns website to be alerted when it arrives!