For more than two years now the Kriegspiel Group has been fighting the war of the Iberian Peninsular or as the French called it The Spanish Ulcer. We began playing using the KS Napoleon Mod for Gettysburg and now that our KS Mod for Waterloo has reached maturity we are fighting the battles the campaign map moves generate with SoW WL MP games.
The game's staring point was the full strength historical armies present in summer 1808 and subsequently arriving forces (notably the British) and historical schedules of troop arrival and withdrawal although some events have begun to override our history and the campaign has taken on a story of it's own.
We began playing in June 1808 and it is now late February 1809. Each map turn is 1/2 a month and we have had battles big and small (23 so far), sieges, guerilla actions, attempts to cut and reopen lines of supply, cavalry raids, garrison troops, replacements, political skulduggery, some fun and rather bizarre role-playing mostly involving over-ripe Extremaduran hams and various exotic breeds of birds, the arrival of the British in August 1808 and the impact of their naval supremacy. The Spanish armies lack a unified command and in the early months there was much rivalry and bickering between the Spanish generals not all of whom have the same political aims. In one infamous early battle a nearby Spanish army marched away from its compatriots leaving them to be defeated because the two generals distrusted each other!
The first French army made up mostly of reservist quality troops and commanded by Marechal Murat met with disaster at a terrible series of battles around Madrid culminating in a general retreat to the Rio Ebro in the north-east of the country by October 1808. In the far north east Barcelona was lost with the destruction of an entire French division and two failed sieges allowed Gerona to remain in Spanish hands.
However Burgos held out, a fortress astride a vital road junction on the route to Madrid. In the Ebro valley Saragossa then fell to a surprise French assault after its garrison was stripped down by a desperate local Spanish field commander, leaving it too weakly held.
In November Napoleon himself arrived at Bayonne with a reorganised army of Spain and proceeded to push south and west into the country slowly forcing the Spanish back and relieving Burgos. In the north Marechal Ney captured Santander, an important Biscay port and Marechal Mortier retook Pamplona after it fell to a quick Spanish attack earlier in the summer. In Catalonia in the north-east, General Gouvion St-Cyr has reopened the siege of Gerona for the third time.
We had an almost historical Battle of Vimerio at which the French under Junot were defeated but they inflicted a good deal more damage on Sir Arthur Wellesley's British army than historically. Nevertheless Junot was obliged to surrender and we had our own version of the Convention of Cintra. Junot's Corps, now rebuilt over the winter, has returned to Spain via Rochefort, Bordeaux and Bayonne.
The British daringly landed a supplementary corps commanded by Sir David Baird at Santander to assist the Spanish in the Cantabrian mountains but his forces had to be withdrawn by sea again when it became obvious that Santander could not hold out. Sir John Moore's corps participated in a rather undignified retreat from Valladolid in Leon-Castile alongside the rag-tag army of the Swiss General Theodor von Reding. Sir John was obliged to fall back on Salamanca via Zamora.
General Wellesley meanwhile had entered Madrid with his Army of Portugal and the stage is now set for a titanic battle between Napoleon himself leading his Imperial Guard and Victor's I Corps against General Castanos and his large and well-drilled Army of Andalucia. These two heavyweights are facing each other in the central highlands near the town of Aranda, about 100 miles north of Madrid. Time is running out for Napoleon however - he needs to recapture Madrid and place his brother Joseph back on the Spanish throne as his puppet ruler before spring as he is needed on the Rhine where his army is assembling to take war once again to the Austrians.
We have a battle taking place this weekend, Saturday 17th October at 20:00h UK time (British Summer Time). We always meet on the Kriegspiel Teamspeak server and if players wish to join us, all are welcome. We use the KS Mod and always play with HITS (10 yds view radius) and couriers. Our fight this weekend is at the eastern town of Calatayud, about 60 miles south-west of Saragossa on the edge of the mountains that form the southern wall of the Ebro valley. The French garrisoned this town in October during their retreat from Madrid and over the winter they have fortified it with earthworks, breastworks and artillery redoubts. During that time the Spanish kept watch with cavalry patrols but kept their main armies warm and snug in winter quarters. Now the snows have thawed and the roads become dry enough to allow military movement again the combined armies of Murcia and Granada have advanced north from Cuenca via Molina to attack Calatayud. Parts of Mortier's V Corps is defending.
For those interested the campaign forums are here:
The Spanish attack on Calatayud was a sanguine and most bloody affair.
General Villava pushed two infantry divisions and a cavalry division west and north across the ford beside the burned timber bridge over the Rio Ribota about two miles SW of Calatayud while screening the south side of the town with a third division and the cavalry division of the Army of Granada which had just come up after a tiring night march.
Marechal Mortier sent his dragoon division under General la Houssaye south-west to block the Spanish western advance and used good ground on a narrow frontage between the Ribota on his left flank and the broken terrain of the mountain foothills on his right to slow the Spanish down.
Meanwhile in the town Mortier ordered Suchet's infantry division to withdraw from the Novian Fleches back into the works on the south side of the town where a formidable line of artillery had been set up.
Things then began to unravel for the French as one of la Houssaye's brigade commanders went off on his own initiative and was lost to the rest of the battle; his brigade of three squadrons being trapped up against some wooded rocky terrain in the far west of the area of the battle and the second brigade being relentlessly driven back to the town despite inflicting heavy losses on the enthusiastic Spanish infantry who came on in a series of ragged columns through the broken country bisected by wooded ravines and fast flowing steams.
Suchet meanwhile had sent a brigade west to defend the wooded country around the Soria Redoubt on the western end of "The Neck", the name the French had christened the narrow strip of ground between the confluence of the Ribota and Jalon rivers. This ground was highly unsuited to artillery deployment and throughout the action several French batteries made almost no contribution to the defence at all. There was talk of Spanish spies in the town mixing sand in with the gunpowder or drilling holes in the stock of roundshot so these projectiles split apart and scattered harmlessly when fired!
Suchet had one brigade holding The Neck and his second facing south at the Three Bridges but the Spanish came on in an unstoppable mass, taking the Soria redoubt and pushing on to threaten the line of breastworks at the eastern end of The Neck and hard up against the town proper.
Here the Spanish attack stalled, several battalions being destroyed or driven back by heroic charges of la Houssaye's dragoons while in the south several charges by battalions of regular infantry against the southern line of breastworks were thrown back with bloody melees taking place bear the bridges and along the river banks.
As nightfall drew on the Spanish pressure let up and they pulled back a few hundred yards to secure the positions they had overrun - the Soria redoubt in the west and the Novian Fleches in the south. They had suffered some 2,000 casualties for French losses of about half that number but many wounded French were left to the mercy of the Spanish in the positions Mortier had lost.
The French still have communications with Zaragossa to the north-east and over the next days it is expected that both sides will renew the struggle here, the situation taking up more of the character of a siege.
1 - 6) La Houssaye's delaying action in the south-west along the left bank of the Ribota.
1) La Houssaye goes forwards to near the western ford with a squadron of dragoons to observe the approaching enemy.
7) Looking south on the south side of the town. Spanish troops advance to capture the east Novian Fleche on it's ridge overlooking the river crossings.
8 ) Viewed looking south-west, Spanish infantry advance down the slope from Soria Redoubt (far right) and push from right to left across The Neck to be confronted by French dragoons.
12 & 13) "A most terrible musketry at the barricades". For fully half an hour the two sides exchanged volleys at under 50 yards. The Spaniards fell in heaps but there were more than enough fresh and eager soldiers to continue the fight.
14 & 15) On the south-east side of town two Spanish battalions charge across the fast flowing Jalon against breastworks held by the 3rd battalion of the 88th Line. The 3/88th sees off both attacks and counter charges down to the river edge driving the Spanish back across.
16 & 17) Past the bodies of the glorious fallen from an earlier assault, Spanish regulars make a desperate charge over the bridges south of the town and momentarily gain the breastworks before a counter-charge by dragoons threw them back.
Following the battle of Santander, General Acevedo's Spanish and British forces fell back west to reach the north coast town of Torrelavega. Here, perhaps inadvisedly, Acevedo called a halt and ordered the infantry division of General Romana's Corps south to Reynosa where a couple of days later it overwhelmed and captured the entire French garrison made up of the 4th battalion of the 51st infantry regiment.
Acevedo's main force remained halted while the bulk of the heavy artillery and cavalry continued to withdraw along the road to Oviedo.
On the 26th contact was made with French light cavalry patrols coming along the coast road from Santander. A hearty skirmish ensued and it became clear that Ney's VI Corps was moving in force west. Acevedo sent an urgent message to La Romana's infantry to hurry back to Torrelavega or else he would be cut off on the mountain road, and now the Army of the Asturias is pinned in place at that town where it must hold the mountain road open until the force from Reynosa arrives.
Meanwhile French pressure from the east is growing.
This battle is being played on the Fox's Gap map of the Gettysburg Antietam expansion pack which you will need in order to play. I have rotated the map 90deg clockwise so that west has become north. The range of hills across which Fox's and Turner's Gaps cross represents the coastal range of the Cantabrian mountains. The township of Neuerhausen is Torrelavega and the road to Reynosa runs off what is now the south map edge.
There is a safe exit zone for the Spanish in the north-west corner representing a coastal route towards Oviedo. The French VI Corps is advancing from Emminghausen which map corner represents the route to Santander.
The north map edge is considered to be the sea. The south map edge apart from the road to Reynosa leads into impassable mountains. Further impassable mountainous terrain extends east and west.
Both sides have had much of their heavy artillery, horse artillery and heavy cavalry deleted as the terrain in this region cannot support operations of such troops in large numbers. Light cavalry and some dragoons and medium and light artillery is present. Part of Acevedo's artillery and cavalry have already been sent west off the map. Ney's heavy guns and cavalry are at the rear of his column and will not participate in the battle.
There are no restrictions to combat on the low ground between the mountains and the sea.
The mountain tracks are passable for all troops but combat in the hills is going to be extremely difficult. The following rules apply:
1) All troops must pass over the mountains only by road, in road march column. The region between the orange dots is the area in which all movement must be on roads. The Spanish troops coming from Reynosa have a choice of several mountain tracks on the south side but these all converge eventually into three routes out of the mountains to the north: the eastern track leads down from Guntelfingen towards Emminghausen - the central track leads down from St. Peter to Torrelavega (Neuershausen) - and the western track passes from Alpersbach to Hochsteten. Only once units get to the northern orange markers on the roads can they then exit off road to continue cross country.
2) If there is combat in the mountains units may deploy but at least some of their sprites MUST remain on a road. Therefore the maximum frontage a force can deploy is 2 units abreast. This includes skirmisher units.
3) Units which fail morale and retreat away from a road must be returned to a road as soon as practical. They must not be ordered to continue across country.
The above rules should make it apparent that units must be TC'd for any mountain combat.
The game will need a minimum of 10 players.
We are playing this battle on Sunday 1st November at 20:00 GMT / 21:00 CET / 15:00 EST. A doodle link is below; please sign up if you are able to join us. You will need all three of the KS Napoleon Waterloo mods and the Antietam add-on for Gettysburg.
Not quite the bloodiest - Santander still holds that dubious crown.
The last day of February witnessed the war's second bloodiest battle. Only the fearsome confrontation at Santander two weeks previously resulted in greater losses. The French suffered 590 killed, 4,260 wounded and 100 missing. The Spanish lost 550 killed, 3,940 wounded and 90 missing. In both cases this was about 23% of the total engaged. It was a very hard fight but the French slowly lost their grip on what was originally perceived in the Spanish camp to be an easy victory. All the Spanish officers were resolved to suffer a defeat and were of the mind to try and escape once San Roman's division had arrived from the south over the mountains. A powerful and rapid French attack was expected as time was clearly in the Spaniard's favour and they perceived that the French needed to move rapidly to close the routes down from the mountain passes. Unfortunately for the French this was exactly what they did not do.
The fire and spirit for which Marechal Ney is feared across Europe was lacking and the French advance began at 9:00am, slowly and on a broad front, pausing often and giving General Acevedo time to keep moving his divisions back to more westerly defensive positions until General San Roman arrived at Hochsteten at 9:50am having taken the road from Alpersbach. San Roman enquired of Acevedo if there had been a great battle and had he missed it but it became apparent that battle had not yet been joined and the artillery fire heard was only a long range bombardment.
In the map below the left side is NORTH and is the coast. Beyond the left map edge is sea. The separate Spanish division that began the battle at the far map edge was therefore marching NORTH and the French were attacking from the EAST.
General Ballesteros' division (Kevin) formed up on the coastal plain with Llano Ponte's division (Mikel) south of him, inland astride a prominent height. The newly arrived San Roman (Martin) disposed his division atop a very high ridge with his right flank in the town of Hochsteten among densely wooded and rocky terrain. Acevedo (Pepe) placed de Fuy's division in reserve with the weak cavalry division of Ortega, just 6 squadrons, held in reserve also about the right centre.
Ney (Tom) sent Mermet's small 3rd division (Alex) against Ballesteros while Lagrange's 2nd division (Tom) made a general assault on the Spanish centre. Desolles' 4th division (Sean) was placed in the south, it's left hand brigade on the wooded heights facing San Roman. Marchand's 1st division (Steve) was initially a reserve but was committed to support Desolles and plug the gap between Desolles and Lagrange. Debellier's cavalry (Mark) initially swept across the high ground in the south but as the battle developed was committed to action in the centre.
The French attack when it came was indifferent in the south and after several shaky moments San Roman's Cacadores held up the French as they attempted to press up the steep slope of the eastern end of the ridge his left-most brigade occupied. One brigade attacked Hochsteten but was repulsed with high losses. While the French left was struggling and was eventually obliged to relinquish pressure on the Spanish right, the Spanish left flank collapsed! With his guns overrun and routed, Ballesteros' division fractured and his troops fled along the coast road pursued by eager French dragoons calling on all who would listen to flee. The Spanish left flank folded back along a useful spine of high ground giving them a new front that faced north-east and this bastion was assaulted by the combined efforts of three French divisions plus their cavalry. Acevedo and Llano Ponte were forced to give ground but the terrain dictated the shape of the battle and the more they advanced the more their left flank was exposed to the Spanish in the south where San Roman was holding steady and de Fuy was moving into the gap between Desolles and Lagrange.
The attack in the south was called off at 10:50 and from then on the divisions of Marchand and Desolles contributed no further effort to the battle beyond a long-range artillery bombardment. In the centre General Lagrange was badly wounded at 10:55 and it was a critical 15 minutes before this was understood at corps HQ and his next in command was notified. By then the central assault had run its course and by 11:20 firing was dying down all along the line. By midday the French pulled back to a line along the Eltz Fluss and the afternoon was spent by both sides in succouring the wounded. In the evening the Spanish were relieved to see the French march away east back to Santander.
General Acevedo has finally broken his string of defeats; this victory is his finest and echoes his first success in battle at San Milan last August. Only time will tell if this win is merely a pyrrhic one. Acevedo's army is now thinned out to a mere shadow of its former strength and it is known that Marechal Verdier's IV Corps is approaching Reynosa.
5, 6, 7) Three images of the ill-fated French attack on Hochsteten town, showing the high-water mark of the assault; the attackers faltering; and the retreat. The French lost almost 450 men in this attack, Spanish losses were just 35.
8 ) The French attack on San Roman's ridge at it's height. Most of a division is held back by eight cazadore companies. The Spanish lost 165 men from these two light infantry battalions over the course of the action.
10, 11, 12) Three views of the distant action to the north - here Mermet's division attacked out of sight beyond this high ground and Marchand's division attacked it's eastern (right hand end - the French are attacking from right to left across these scenes), pushing along it:
13, 14) San Roman rode north at the end of the battle and got these views of the wreckage and body-strewn field north of the ridge shown in the last images - this was the scene of the destruction of Ballasteros' division by the French cavalry:
15, 16) Two views of a very curious event at the end of the action. A French battalion arrived marching noisily, musicians playing, along the road into Hochsteten where I had three battalions posted watching this flank. The French column marched right between my two front units which wheeled to face it, pouring fire into its flanks as it went by. The third battalion was posted to block the road and stopped the French with volleys. They then surrendered. In the second picture you can see the road strewn with French wounded and dying. A very strange incident:
The Second Half of February 1809, the Most Momentous Two Weeks in Spain Since Last May?
Great events are taking place as the armies that beset this fair land clash, causing blood to spill and ruin to descend on soldier, nobleman and citizen alike.
Latest News! Revelations at Lerida! Scarecrow Army Found. Mayor Names Them "los muertos vivientes".
A cold dawn awoke the world on a miserable wet day in the third week of February. The last few fit men of Palafoxes' scouting group, mounted on mules, watched the city of Lerida below them in the mist-veiled valley of the Rio Segre a few miles distant. They hid among pine trees on a hillside of the north flank of the Segre valley. Several miles further north of the little hungry party of Spaniards the thousands of starving men, soldiers now in nothing but name, of the Army of Aragon huddled for warmth under brush cut from pine trees in a wooded valley sheltering from the last of the winter snow. Behind them on the mountain paths many sons of Spain would never rise again from their slumbers. The men were reduced to nibbling at pine cones, catching insects and squirrels and boiling the leather straps of their equipment to make a crude soup. Even their muskets had been burned for firewood to boil water to keep alive. The men were living skeletons.
From the scouts party a man came into their camp astride an exhausted mule.
"Don Palafox! The French! They are retreating from Lerida! There is cannon fire! Come quick!"
Palafox took another mule - a gift from the guerilleros who had supplied his weakened army with what food and clothing they could over the winter - and rode south with his companion. Back at the hilltop he put his dented and dirty brass spyglass to his eye. A column of troops, their French banners plain enough to see, were snaking away west from the town on the road to Zaragosa. Behind them he could make out groups of Spanish horsemen carrying the Royal banner of King Ferdinand and from the walls of the citadel cannon popped, their shots chasing the French away. After an hour the sight was plain, the French were falling back from Lerida. Palafox sent his three best men mounted on the three strongest mules south towards the town. He watched them meet a party of cavalry and the group returned to his lookout point. A Spanish capitan took off his hat and bowed.
"Sir, whom do I address?" he asked.
"I am Major Ricardo Alfonse of the Pamplona Volunteers," Palafox lied, his mind made up. "The Army of Aragon is just north of here, sheltering in a wooded valley. I will inform Senor Don Palafox that we have made contact with friends." Palafox deliberately withheld a significant truth.
"I am pleased to meet you Major. I am Capitan Eduardo Vigres y Sengre of the Dragones de Numancia, part of the 16° División de Caballeria of Mariscal de Campo Feodoro Murillo de Galluzzo. Army of Valencia. I am at your service. Capitan-General de Llamas is in person in the town. He - no - all of us will be delighted at this news. We feared the worst for your army."
"Capitan, I am most grateful. I fear we need much food, water and blankets as well as wagons to move our sick and the most weak. Lieutenant Moraz, go to the General and pass him this wonderful news. I shall be with him shortly."
Palafox gave one of his men a certain look. Understanding his intent with a silent nod, one of the Aragonese scouts rode away to pass on the news.
Two days later as the weakened stragglers of the Army of Aragon, over 15,000 of them, collapsed in the streets and barns of Lerida they learned that a French army had invested the town six weeks prior but had been driven away back towards Zaragossa by the Army of Valencia only this week. The siege had trapped Palafox's men in the hills with no way to cross the Segre. By abandoning the town the French allowed this ragged army to be saved from complete disintegration.
None other than General Llamas, Capitain-General of Valencia was present in the town at the head of his troops. The Capitan-General asked to meet Major Alfonse of the Pamplona Regiment but he was not to be found. Following enquiries it was learned that no such officer had served on the strength of the regiment. Alfonse had vanished into the misty woods of the Pyrenees mountain lowlands, leaving his men to find safety but himself riding off into myth and legend.
The men of the Army of Aragon would need weeks to recover and even longer to be resupplied and equipped. Llamas gave orders for them to march to Tarragona to begin a period of rest, training and re-equipping. It would likely be months however before they could call themselves an army again.
Capitan-General of Aragon, Senor Don Palafox was never found. He appeared to have abandoned his men, his senior staff and close friends having vanished also. The Junta Central is still hunting for him and a reward of 20,000 Reales for confirmed news of a sighting of him is unclaimed.
Reynosa! A Small but Decisive Action!
At the hilltop town in the Cantabrian mountains the French garrison of the 4th battalion of the 51st line regiment was surprised one morning by a dawn attack by several thousand Spanish infantry of the Princesa and Zamora regiments and the light infantry of the Cataluña and Barcelona Cazadores regiments. There was a brief but violent charge into the main buildings of the square and the French suddenly found themselves overrun. A couple of hundred barricaded themselves in the Convent of Our Lady but were persuaded to surrender a few hours later.
Several French, fleeing the town eastward along the track to Espinosa were ambushed and shot or captured by guerilleros watching that path. These soldiers suffered a gruesome fate of torture and hideous dismemberment not seen before in this war. The guerillas were especially angry and intolerant after the months of French deprivations in their locality. We fear that reprisal will follow on reprisal after this most grisly incident.
Only a small party of mounted officers galloped back to Espinosa to report the news to Marechal Ney. The entire battalion was lost.
Somosierra. A Clash of Great Armies?
Around this remote mountain town Spanish soldiers have been labouring for weeks. An impressive series of redoubts and other works have been dug to command the only road up to the pass that leads the highway from Burgos to Madrid. Steep hillsides and gloomy pine woods look down on this pass from both flanks. The Spanish engineer officer lay his map aside and lit a pipe. He was satisfied with his work. He sent a courier down the road northwards informing General Castanos that all was as ready as it could be. The men and cannon were in position. Only a madman or the devil himself might attempt to attack here. It was a fortress.
A days ride north Castanos sat on a chair on the verandah of a taverna that commanded a splendid view down into the Duero valley where, hidden in the far distant haze, the town of Aranda lay, its streets now full of marching French columns. Below him on the hillside the Spanish army was drawn up in serried lines, cannon between the regiments and horsemen on the flanks. Further away and lower still an army of ants appeared to be gathering on the plain, covering the road from Burgos and fanning out to either flank in the farms and citrus groves. Their white, blue and red flags told him all he needed to know. Castanos lay his spyglass aside and with an irritated wave of his arm dismissed a waiter who offered another bottle of wine. Kicking his chair back, he stood up. Soon there would be warm work to be done.
A beautifully uniformed Chasseur of the Garde rode up to a staff officer, saluted and handed over a written note. The ADC read the message and passed it to a more senior officer. The man tucked his large feathered hat under his arm and pulled aside the flap of the ornate tent. Inside he spoke to the man who sat on a drum, his legs raised a little, ankles crossed, feet comfortably resting on a saddle. The seated man, his arms folded, his chin on his chest, eyes closed and seemingly asleep made no reaction as the officer read out the report received from the cavalry screen. Spanish guns here, cavalry here, brigades of infantry up here and over there. Bad ground on this flank, better ground at so-and-so. The message reader stopped.
"Sire?"
Silence.
"I can come back later if you wish to sl-"
"I heard every word Duroc, my friend. There is to be no 'later'. There is only 'now'. Are the cannons in position?"
Duroc nodded.
"They are Sire."
"Then give the order. We attack at noon. Do the necessary."
"Yes Sire!"
The Duc de Frioul, commander of Napolen's guard, bowed and withdrew, passing orders to his aides-de-camp. Drums rattled, bugles called, the French began to move.
Gerona.
General St Cyr's Corps has made a sudden move from almost complete inactivity in its camps along the valley of the Ter to rapidly surround and cut the city off from outside communication. It appears a siege has begun. This is the third attempt the French have made on the city. News is almost completely lacking about the exact events here but some reports are trickling out carried by local civilians and of course the ubiquitous miquelets. It seems the French may have 30,000 men in the region with no less than five divisions plus a cavalry division and most importantly, a siege train has arrived along the coast road from Rosas, escorted by a second line division of reservists. The boom of heavy guns is heard each day in the surrounding villages and farms.
Further south French cavalry has pushed aggressively from Gerona and at Hostalrich has contacted a Spanish brigade of cavalry with some infantry who are busily working on digging field defences near the village on a commanding ridge. The French cavalry officers can plainly be seen taking notes of their enemy's strength and are presumably happy to see the Spaniards acting defensively instead of preparing a relief column.
Near Vich there is similar news; a band of miquelets holds the village while French light cavalry have issued south-west from Gerona along a secondary road to observe the town.
Lerida.
A Spanish division with some attached but somewhat ragged looking cavalry has been posted at Mequinenza and is covering the river crossing there acting as a forward defence for the town. Inside the fortress what remains of Palafox's Army of Aragon is recovering it's strength although there have been some sad scenes of burials of the most sick soldiers for whom rescue came too late.
A powerful Spanish column is said to have left the town and gone along the road towards Cervera.
Barcelona! Court Martial of a Popular Noble!
In Barcelona a military court has sat in judgement of Mariscal de Campo Martin de la Carrera, the commander of the cavalry division of the Army of Cataluna. The general has been found guilty of disobedience of orders during the action at Cervera on 14th February as well as "behaviour of an excited and reckless nature, resulting in unnecessary losses suffered by his command, and actions unbecoming an officer of one of His Majesty's regiments." De la Carrera has been placed on the reserve list on half-pay and refused a field command. He was offered command of the garrison of Tarragona but in a rage rejected this "insult to my honour", storming out of the courtroom. He has reportedly retired to his estate at Vendrils.
General de Brigada Servando Teresa de Mier, previously the commander of the cavalry of the Army of Aragon, has been appointed in Carrera's place, though its thought it will be some weeks before the demoralised and weakened cavalry will be fit to offer battle.
Calatayud!
A great battle has been joined at this fair town. The French under Marechal Mortier dug extensive earthwork defences to protect the place but have been driven back from their outer positions by the Spanish Armies of Murcia and Granada. The French now find themselves in a besieged situation. Of some concern is the whereabouts of the cavalry division of General Kellermann which marched south-west along the road to Madrid mid-month. Spanish cavalry patrols report it has reached Aviza or Medinaceli (it is not clear which) where it has probably halted, Kellermann's supply line being cut, preventing him from advancing further.
At Villa Viciosa a Spanish corps that is part of the Army of Extremadura has laid idle in camp. It was apparently supposed to muster and arrest the progress of the French cavalry at Aviza but has done nothing.
At Calatayud the Spanish are labouring to build a bridge of boats across the floodwaters of the Rio Jalon east of the town to facilitate a complete surrounding of the French there.
Oropesa and Valencia.
Following accusations of incompetence from Capitan-General Llamas, Mariscal de Campo el Conde de Caldagues, twice defeated yet twice claiming victory at Oropesa, has returned to Valencia with his second-line division, his career, it would seem, in ruins. He left a battalion in Oropesa and in great distress has retired to his villa to write his memoirs: "A Loyal Soldier: Life in the Grand War of Liberation - The Spanish Army and Why General Llamas and General Vives Have No Friends."
Madrid!
Always a hotbed of social speculation and liable to boil over into excited chaos at a moment's notice, the news of Bonaparte so near the capital is causing all manner of excitement, speculation and unrest. A few fashionable people are leaving, taking carriages to their country estates, while the bolder entrepreneurial merchants are buying up stocks of grain, wine, textiles and other goods in the hope of selling them to the French!
About sixty miles north of the city, in the still-cold Sierra de Guadamarra, a bleak high pass in the mountains at Somosierra is the scene of quiet resolution as the tens of thousands who comprise Capitan-General Castanos' Army of Andalucia await the arrival of the French, or more specifically, one man. A man whose name is on every pair of lips; to whom the conversation turns at every camp fire and card game; about whom each man of this great host has his own opinion, fears and imaginings:
"Bonaparte is coming. He must not get to Madrid. We are in his way. We must stop him.
We - must stop Bonaparte, the conqueror of Europe!"
In the last days of February Castanos refused battle south of Aranda and abandoned that position to withdraw thirty miles to Somosierra. It is said this is the strongest military position in all Spain. The Swiss strategist and engineer Bertholdt has opined, "Soldiers say the Ordal Cross heights are a strong position. True soldiers know that Ordal is but a child's castle of sand upon a beach compared to the pass of Somosierra."
South of Aranda the French army has moved forwards and remains in contact with the Spanish. Their cavalry officers have arrived at the foot of the road leading up to the pass and are studying the position through their spyglasses.
In the West! Lisbon and the British! What is Going On?
There is news of further fleets of transports approaching Lisbon. It seems the English intend to land yet more soldiers ashore. Soon perhaps Portugal will break off and sink into the Atlantic under the weight of fat English officers, their fat wives and their fat horses. Madeira, potatoes and beef are being consumed in grotesque proportions. The Lisbon economy is booming, English soldiers stomachs are booming, but what is not booming is English cannon! Where are the British? They landed ashore last summer yet all we have seen of them is one battle at Vimiero and then nothing! They have landed ashore here and gone away there. They march hither and thither and their politicians yell at their generals who yell back, indignant and red-faced. We have only seen the English run away from battle! Valladolid! Santander! Duenas! These foreigners come into our country, take their pick of our finest beef herds and our exotic birds and keep marching away from the French. Something must happen soon, something more than the loud belches coming from the English officers messes!
Valladolid, Zamora, Aravelo and the Plains of Leon.
A farcical cat and mouse game is being played out on these pretty fields and among the red-roofed farms of Castille. Detachments of French and Spanish cavalry trot here and there, armies sit idle, garrisons relax and enjoy the local delights. There is a French division - or two divisions - at Valladolid, a critical place that the British and Spanish seem to pointedly ignore, despite its military importance. The English armies go back and forth to no purpose. At Arevalo the Conde de Belvedere rests in a fine villa and his men enjoy the dry fresh weather. A few hundred French cavalry are posted across the Adajo and daily chat with their counterparts as they water their horses on the opposite bank. There are rumours of French patrols in Zamora yet no attempt is made to investigate this news. Is this a war or is it not? Is every person so mesmerised by each word Bonaparte utters that none cares for any place but where he rests his behind?
It is like a war and yet not a war in Leon-Castile. Are we trying to drive the invader from our beautiful country or are we not?
Torrelavega!
The latest news is of a titanic battle on the coastal plain near this town. Reports are that General Acevedo's army was caught in a strung out position with one of his divisions out of place. Certain defeat was uppermost in every officers mind yet by the Grace of God the French have been halted here. Marechal Ney's corps attacked on the 28th in the morning but was denied victory by a combination of their own slow advance, the very bad terrain in this region and an unusually dogged defence by the brave soldiers of Asturias. We carry a full report of this battle elsewhere but the most important news is that the French have gone back to Santander to lick their wounds although Ney's fellow Marechal, Baron Verdier, is reported at Reynosa upon Acevedo's flank.
Of the British who were in Santander and marched out with Acevedo and la Romana, there is no news.
Oviedo!
At this city the powerful garrison marched out to confront a brigade of French light cavalry that was patrolling outside. A couple of days of inconclusive skirmishing took place with the more numerous garrison able to send convoys of carts and ox-wagons past the French to Acevedo's army. Shockingly, within a week, the French commander, Colonel Louis-Marie Le Ferriere-Levesque, was confronted with the news that his own line of communications was cut. A powerful body of Spanish cavalry arrived from the east, escorted by an artillery train and most worrying of all, a brigade of British light infantry. Faced with enemies to front and rear and with the Royal Navy's private lake on one hand and a mountain range infested with murderous guerillas on the other, a demoralised Ferriere-Levesque surrendered his entire command! Eight squadrons of fine French light cavalry, nearly 1,200 men, have been captured and are now held in Oviedo's barracks. The exhilarated Spanish horsemen at once began exchanging their thin mounts for sleek French ones.
HITS & Couriers - a different and realistic way to play SoW MP.
We have a clash of Titans. Napoleon's 'Armée du Madrid' is assaulting Capitán-General Castaños' Army of Andalucia at what many contemporary strategists believe is the finest defensive position in Spain - the high pass of Somosierra over the Sierra de Guaderrama on the Burgos-Madrid road about 70 miles north of the capital. It is 6th March 1809.
Only the Spanish team will see the battle map in their private forum since the French have no possibility of conducting a reconnaissance of the terrain - they are at the bottom of a steep sided narrow valley with a winding dirt road running up it and the sides festooned with pine woods and broken rocky ground. Astride the roadway Napoleon can observe a series of earthen redoubts constructed to block the only practicable route up with further redoubts built part way up the flanks of the valley nearer the summit. At the summit itself is a defile where the road passes through a belt of densely wooded broken terrain.
The woods to either flank are passable only to skirmish order infantry. The valley is entirely unsuitable to cavalry. Artillery will only be able to deploy astride the road (that is artillery units in the game must have at least one cannon sprite on the road). The pass is narrow; less than a half-mile wide. The game map will have a series of objective markers to show the boundaries of play and we will have to TC almost all units to prevent the AI moving them over these boundaries.
This is a critical moment of the conflict; it may even be a critical moment for Europe and Napoleon; the capital of Madrid beckons. If he is halted here he will have to leave for the Rhine and pass the conduct of the campaign to his marshals. Should he win, Madrid is his for the taking and no doubt many of Spain's soldiers will suffer a demoralising effect because of this loss. It is known that King Joseph is with his brother, the Emperor. He no doubt has plans to make the citizens of Madrid bend to his will.
This is going to be a moderately big game, but although the forces arrayed in the region are large the circumstances of terrain mean that only limited troops can be brought to engage, so we will need about 8 or 9 players for this battle. More will allow us to allocate commands down to brigade level which is a good thing given the amount of careful and close control generals will have to exercise over their units.
Please sign up via a Doodle poll here. For our regular players I would appreciate it if you would indicate on the poll even if you are not available since this aids my planning. This game needs no Gettysburg add-ons. We are using Waterloo as usual as the base game and our customary KS Mods - KS Nap v1.04, Supplementary maps v1.09 and KS Sprites v10.2. There will be a new version of the KS Peninsular Campaign mod (v1.04) to cover the new OOBs. I'll supply that on the day.
I will add posts to the two private forums on the Kriegspiel site on Monday 9th November.
