A game of two halves: Medina de Rio Seco (1808)

Judging by the number of game reports around on the web, the Peninsular War battle of Medina de Rio Seco is a relatively popular one to fight. This is very understandable - despite there being no Brits involved (it is Spanish vs French) - as it is an interesting situation with relatively simple terrain.

Essentially, a Spanish force on the strategic attack was thrown onto the tactical defensive by a vigorous French response, then outmanoeuvred, assaulted and smashed. The force in question was a combination of two armies under Cuesta and Blake. Expecting the French to attack from the southeast, they deployed half their force under Blake on the heights in front of the town of Medina de Rio Seco, while Cuesta held the rest echeloned behind Blake's right, close to the town. Bessières side-stepped them and approached from the northeast, which enabled him to attack Blake's exposed left. The Spanish were smashed off the heights. Cuesta launched a counter-attack that had some initial success but was then driven off in his turn.

Mark presented us with a typically clean and clever scenario that captured the essence of the battle and delivered a see-saw nail-biter of a game. Only 10 annotated photos for you this time as I got so embroiled in the thick of the action, but they should give you the gist. Some reflections follow.

A frog's-eye view from the French arrival edge. Bessières leads his team onto the pitch. Blake's Spaniards line the heights. The track leads past them to the town of Medina de Rio Seco in the distance. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection on their Warbases representing arid Spanish soil.

A better look at Blake's men on the heights. The unit right of pic has two flags to indicate that it is Veteran. Units with one flag are Trained. The unit left of pic with no flag and a pink cube is both Raw and Fragile - best kept out of the front line.

Cuesta's force is visible top of pic. These troops are not allowed to move until Turn 3 because of the strategic surprise the French have achieved by rudely approaching from the wrong direction.

The white counter indicates that the Teson de Monclin knoll in the foreground is an Objective. There are four more: the northern and southern sections of the main Paramo de Valdecuevas ridge, plus the two bridges by the town. (John has cunningly parked his troops on one of the Objective counters to deceive the French.)

The French need to take two Objectives to draw or three to win. 

The French attack against Blake's exposed left flank develops swiftly. The French have an advantage in their superior skirmishing ability, as indicated by their many Skirmisher bases (readily identifiable at 'wargamer range').

French superior quality and quantity quickly make themselves felt and Blake's force is in disarray. Hard to tell here, what with both sides wearing blue, but the French assaults have destroyed Blake's veteran unit, forced back another (top centre, with a black cube for Low Ammo), and are threatening the flank of the one immediately behind the Teson knoll.

To compound Blake's discomfort, a detachment of the Imperial Guard is confronting his raw rearguard (left edge), while Lasalle's guard cavalry has got behind his flank and taken the southern Paramo objective.

Spanish Turn 3: Cuesta's force is unleashed and lumbers hesitantly forwards to the rescue.

Spoiler alert: it'll be a bit late.

White-coated Spanish grenadiers merit a green cube to show they are Aggressive.

End of French Turn 4. More of Blake's units have been battered or destroyed. All he has left on the top contour is the raw unit (now with blue and yellow cubes denoting Spent and Disrupted) and his little 2-base unit with the Skirmisher. They are surrounded by French (the large unit upper centre has just exploited after a successful charge). However, as the Imperial Guard failed to charge, Blake has retained a toehold on the northern Paramo objective long enough for Cuesta to get troops onto it next turn and prevent the French ever claiming control of it.

The next three turns were a ding-dong fight at the northern edge of the top contour. Blake's remnants were soon expunged but repeated French assaults were unable to kick all the Spanish off - even the Imperial Guard was repelled repeatedly. No photos of this phase as it was so fast and furious.

Thus, come Turn 8 (the final turn), the game was still in the balance. The French held two objectives - a draw. Could they gain a third for a win, or would a Spanish counterattack inflict defeat? Let's see ...

The Teson knoll objective (lower right) is secure, held by artillery that also guards the French right flank. Those Spaniards top right have been stalled there for half the game.

The northern Paramo objective counter sits behind the French line but it is an area objective, not a point. The Spanish have maintained a foothold on this throughout, so it remains technically theirs. They have three units on it. I need to defeat all three to claim the objective, starting with one just out of shot top left:

I took a gamble by taking the guard cavalry away from defending the southern Paramo objective and launching them in a combined-arms charge. This therefore succeeded (though only just). One down, two to go ...

On the right, General Mouton's men drive some of Cuesta's back down the steep slope. That's two out of three - but the 6-base Spanish unit top left stands firm, heroically repulsing the Imperial Guard yet again. Foiled! No victory for France today.

But there might yet be one for Spain. Denuding the southern objective left it exposed to Cuesta's tiny 1-base unit of fragile rubbish cavalry on the flank. All they needed to do was roll high enough for a full move (8+ on 2 dice, as they were Passive) and they would ascend the steep slope and embarrass me considerably ...

... and they rolled 3:

Thus France holds two objectives and it ends as an honourable draw.

Reflections

Player Morale. Crispin aka Cuesta was on the verge of giving up on Turn 4. Blake (John) had been crushed and Crispin didn't think he could fight his way up a steep slope against better French troops. But, of course, he didn't have to - he was able to get just enough men up there without assaulting, then put the onus on the French to kick them off. Not only did he hold on for a draw, he almost snatched a win at the end. In BBB, there is nearly always hope!

A Game of Two Halves. One of my popular 'Reflections on Wargaming' essays is on 'Changing Situations Mid-Game'. That lists a dozen BBB scenarios that make for particularly interesting games because the situation changes part-way through, so the players have more decisions to make (and more substantial or complex ones) than usual. In this game, Cuesta's force being fixed in place for the initial turns means it is effectively a mid-game reinforcement that transforms the numerical odds and the overall situation. We could therefore reasonably add Medina del Rio Seco to the list.

Research, Research. The ground shapes the battle, but it is not always easy for a scenario designer to shape the ground! Hills are particularly challenging, of course. Mark said he consulted eight different maps to distil into his scenario map.

Elegant Simplicity. This was a classic Mark Smith scenario, clean and simple in concept, yet providing a rich and complex tactical challenge and a thoroughly exciting game.

Peninsular punch-up: Tudela (1808)

I know very little about Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 and don't remember ever hearing of Tudela before. (A search of TMP to see how often others have gamed it found just one report of it being fought on a 12'x7.5' table over a weekend of  'two solid days of gaming', a commitment of time and space that is both metaphorically and physically beyond the reach of most of us!) This was a decent-sized clash of 35,000 French on their way to Madrid attacking 45,000 Spanish trying to defend a river line. The Spanish forces are divided, in or arriving at two towns, Tudela and Cascante, that anchor the ends of the line. They need to move towards each other and fill the gap. Meanwhile Marshal Lannes has seen the opportunity to defeat the Spanish in detail by pouncing on one Spanish force while fending off the other.

Looking south from the French table edge. Spanish-held Tudela left centre and Cascante top right corner, with the Rio Quieles running between them. White counters indicate the seven hilltop and village or town objectives. The French must take four for a draw and five to win.

The Spanish garrison of Tudela. Figures by Baccus, buildings by Leven, all from Mark's collection. (Come on, Mark - spend a day listening to Test Match Special and flocking your bases!)

Four of us fought this at Mark's house in two and a half hours. It was so intense and absorbing, I didn't take any photos during the actual game, but I can give a brief synopsis and some reflections.

The French right (Mark) and Spanish left (Dave) start further apart, arrive gradually and, in the Spanish case, are not allowed to move initially. The action therefore kicked off on the French left, commanded by me, facing Crispin's Spanish. He pushed north onto the heights to delay me as well as marching troops west to fill the gap in the Spanish centre. I soon kicked him off the Cerro de Barbara above Tudela, then shifted my weight right to push across the Rio Quieles.

Over the next few turns, the quality of the French army told. Mark advanced rapidly, seized two objective villages, and got a dragoon brigade across the river in the centre. Meanwhile I drove the Spanish off the nearest height west of Tudela, isolating a Spanish division on the further one.

So many of the poor Spanish units were now spent or destroyed that Crispin was reeling. We were confident of smashing the isolated ones in the centre to take that objective, and perhaps even storm Tudela, for a more than sufficient victory. A counter-attack by Dave retook one of the villages, though, making things a little more difficult. In classic BBB fashion, then, several objectives were in play on the final turn, with all three results very much possible.

Dave sent a cavalry raid to seize another village, but this was repulsed by French artillery. Mark stormed Urzante, which changed hands yet again. My assault on Tudela was repelled by the Spanish guns. Could I take the central height? The cavalry let us down (my cuirassiers still rallying from a previous charge, the dragoons failing to move at all), so my infantry went in unsupported, pushing the Spanish back but not enough to claim the hill.

The result? An honorable and very satisfying draw. A big thank you to Mark for designing a great scenario and laying on such an exciting game.

Reflections

It felt Napoleonic. As with our Borodino game over Christmas, I enjoyed the feeling of making grand tactical decisions, shifting whole divisions to move the point of attack.

Ideal as a four-hander! The battle divides naturally into two halves so we players could pair off.

History in action. I knew nothing about Tudela. Now I am quite well acquainted with it. A week later, Napoleon was in Madrid.

Player morale: for the last few turns, as one Spanish milita unit after another disintegrated and fled to hide among the olive groves, Crispin was obviously feeling more and more beleaguered. He took it in good spirit, but it was quite amusing to watch. Anyway, his tenacious defence was justly rewarded in the end.

Movement makes the game. Both sides had to manoeuvre, there was plenty of space to do so, the terrain was just complex enough to make decisions interesting. Arrival of reinforcements contributed to the changing situation and the need to manoeuvre.

Super good fun! A fast-moving battle, plenty of ebb and flow (Urzante changing hands three times), nice mix of troops, well-designed victory conditions that produced an exciting finish.