Albuera 1811, Bloody Big Battles

I’ve been hankering to play this battle for years, never got around to it until now. The new Bloody Big Peninsular Battles scenario has one for Albuera. I made a game mat. Jay agreed to take Beresford's Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish. I got ready to try on Soult’s cocked hat. Allied troops are in italics. Yellow markers indicate disrupted units/silenced artillery, red arrows show charges, yellow arrows show forced retreats. Low ammo shown by .22 cartridges. The large arrows indicate objectives, red when held by the Allies, flipped to their blue side when held by the French.

I opted for the historical French deployment. Much of the Allied army is held in place at start, representing Beresford’s indecision on the day. My first turn movement dice weren’t too bad. One artillery unit, one infantry and one cavalry failed to move. Everyone else moved at a decent clip towards the Allied right flank. Jay had trouble moving unengaged units to the front, along with all those tied down by scenario rules.

One nasty fight saw intrepid Zayas’ first Spanish brigade destroyed in a bloody brawl with one of Girard’s brigades, which was soon dispatched by Cole’s British brigade. Various Allied units failed to march to the sound of the guns, while the French pushed hard. A grand battery of horse artillery, aided by some of Werle’s infantry, shot up Ballesteros’ infantry over a couple turns, reducing it to spent (bad news).

It has become clear to me that getting decent movement rolls is more important than decent combat rolls, though dreadful ones in either category truly suck. On the fourth turn, the dice were kind to me, simply by not being trash. Most of my infantry moved, those needing only half-moves getting them. Some artillery and the lancers decided to take a break, but my attacks against the Allied right went in. My assault dice (opposed D6 rolls) were kind, none less than 4. Jay rolled good, bad and indifferent. I had modifiers in my favor, a number of his unit disrupted, some spent. The bad rolls saw his units badly beaten, the indifferent ones were dislodged, even the good ones were driven back. Girard’s lead brigade thrashed their first target and exploited into one of Stewart’s British infantry units in march column. In all the years I’ve played the game we’ve not had such a column assaulted before. Shot at, yes. This called for a look in the rule book. Disrupted, Girard managed to push the British back. Another British unit charged and routed the small French grenadier unit.

One of Godinot’s brigades advanced past their halted colleagues, storming the bridge south of Albuera. Another first-time occurrence required a look through the book. The raw Spanish infantry defending the bridge were spent. The attack narrowly drove them back and secured the bridge. A French cavalry brigade headed west just south of the bridge to take a Spanish brigade in the rear. They exposed their flank to three Allied batteries, who rolled 12, going low on ammo. The cavalry brigade vanished. The following photos are back-lit, and not even Photoshop can rescue them. My error.

I now had the two hills on the Allied right flank, the bridge and my dragoons had ridden past the road to Valverde, 4 objectives. Cole’s British infantry unit had been routed, making 5 objectives total. I needed 4 for a win, 3 for a tie. Jay needed to recapture 2. Running late, he threw in the towel. Soult raised the siege of Badajoz. The Spanish had been left out to dry, slammed by the French with help too late, too little.

 

We played 6 turns in 3 hours. The losses were extremely lop-sided, due to the piecemeal way the Allied reserves were fed into the fight, my grand horse artillery battery and my fortuitous 4^th turn.

 

French losses: 3 infantry bases, 1 fled (of 32), 2 cavalry (of 8), total 6 bases.

 

British losses: 5 infantry bases.

Spanish losses: 10 infantry, 1 fled (of 22), 2 cavalry, ½ artillery, total 13.5.

Portuguese losses: 2 infantry

 

Grand total: 20.5 bases.

 

Jay said he enjoyed the game in spite of the ending. I would like to try this again, perhaps as Beresford next time. We’ll see. Real life intrudes on our schedule, as always. We had two situations not seen in 10 years of playing, calling for a search in the rules.