Peninsular Campaign Battle "Somewhere in Portugal"

 We played a rather large Napoleonic's game at Ernie's last night and, as usual, it was a blast.  I just have a few pictures to post as Ernie will be doing a proper battler report over on the Architects of War site.  We had some new players last night and it's always fun to see new faces.  The scenario had the British / Portuguese fortified with a river to their backs.  The French mission was simple - break through the British lines and send them into the river.  I was given the overall command of the French and my forces was essentially a full corps - 27 36 figure infantry battalions, 5 calvary squadrons and 12 guns.  The French were organized into 3 infantry divisions of 8 battalions each, a calvary division and a reserve brigade of 3 infantry battalions.  My plan was simple - the 1st division, commanded by Chris would hold the left flank and demonstrate in front of the fortifications in the hopes of tying down the British right flank.  Next would be Patrick's calvary division which would support the main attack.  Bob G commanded the 2nd division, which was to form into a divisional column and make the main attack in the center.  Lastly, Les commanded the 3rd division, which had all our elite light troops and his job was to attack the Brits in the village.  Les had the toughest assignment of the night as the village proved to be excellent defensive terrain.  The first picture shows the initial entry of our French forces onto the table.

Opposing us was a formidable combined British / Portuguese army that was 2/3rds the size of the French but well fortified in terrain suitable for defense.  The British had fortifications on their extreme right and had a large hill running down the one half of the table to hide behind.  Lastly, their extreme left was the village and those damned walls.  The British were commanded by the sly Dick C - a dangerous opponent on any field of battle.

 The next picture shows the initial skirmishing on the French right flank.  Les had a lot of rough terrain to maneuver through so his initial attacks where forced to be piecemeal.  In the center left you can see our main attack forming up.  Just prior to this picture was an artillery duel which saw the French get the better of their British opponents.

 A view down the British line - that's a lot of Frog's coming their way!  As you can see the terrain was fabulous and featured a lot of the new Architects of War stuff.  It was also fun as the game proved to be a great shopping event for the players. We had access to the complete Architects of War inventory - including all the newly added Perry metals (oh my).  You can see some of the temptations on the shelves in the background.  I picked up some more Perry artillery crew and some limbers.  I also got a chance to look at the Perry Sudan range - wow, very tempting.

Back to the game.  The French Column strikes home!  Bob's second division makes it across the table and slams into the Highlanders.  His left flank was screened by Patrick's calvary division which lost 3 squadrons doing so but successfully protected the exposed flank of the column.  The divisional column proved to be unstoppable and fought its way through 4 infantry battalions and several calvary charges to break the British lines.

While Bob's Borg-like divisional column was chewing its way through the British center, Les was making headway against the Brits in the village.  The Brit's put up a terrific fight, but ultimately lost two battalions and saw the 95th rifles surrounded and forced to withdraw.

The game was called at this point as a French victory.  All-in-all, it was a grand evening and both Ernie and his lovely wife Barb did a fabulous job hosting yet another great gaming experience.  I'm hoping Ernie will use this game as the basis for a tutorial on how to host a game event.  It's not as simple as it seems and Ernie does it better than anyone I know.