Valeur et Fortitude: Busaco - Reynier Attacks!

 

Its probably getting a little late in the year to call in the Wollongong Wargamers faithful for another game, particularly as we had such a good Christmas social and quiz last week, but a couple of us were keen to swiftly reinforce our Valour and Fortitude learnings after our Friedland game...

Given that the objective once again was to master the rules and see how they handled a large game I didn't spend too much time on the scenario and army lists - we would just smash Reynier's Corps up the steep slopes of the Busaco ridge against Picton's Division.

Elements of Leith's Division, twiddling their thumbs, would arrive to reinforce the Anglo-Portuguese line. I had envisaged a 'what-if' twist with Marchand's Division of Ney's Corps losing its bearings and supporting Reynier, but time did not permit on this occasion...

I'm afraid with my 2D approach to topography these days you'll have to use your imagination to visualise the steep Busaco Ridge - it's represented by the area covered in flock and edged by trees!

An interesting thing about Busaco 1810 was that it was the first acid test of the reformed Portuguese Army. Famously, the 'fighting cocks of the army' as Wellington then dubbed them passed with flying colours so we simply gave them British Line stats.

David suggested we allocate teams by rolling dice - since the British were up on the ridge the 3 highest rolling players would be Anglo-Portuguese, the 3 lowest the French! 

Since Leith's Division wouldn't arrive until Turn 3 I attempted to close rapidly against Picton's open southern flank...not easy on a mountainside!

But Daniel was on to me and extended his Portuguese brigade and then commandeered the first few units of Leith's Division as they arrived in the nick of time...

The RHA battery was particularly deadly firing down on my attack columns...

With the open flank secured it became a traditional column vs line engagement as we French 'came on in the same old style' - at least it looked good...

Whilst Caesar, our CinC, and myself put in some charges more in hope than expectation, right up on the northern flank Darren came within an inch of success, but Alan's deft fate card playing pulled his chestnuts out of the fire.

Even with a novice player and the rest of us pretty inexperienced, in a game of this size we still managed to play seven moves in 2 hours, so were impressed with the speed and simplicity of the rules. Did they deliver an authentic outcome? Looking at the ruins of my two brigades, I'm afraid I'd have to say so!