Escape to Valdelacasa: Action Report for FoB

I received the Black Powder rulebook the other day, it is quite nice and has a nice peninsular scenario. It always puzzles me that battalion level rulesets (each side having no more than a corps with the basic maneuver element a battalion) appear to be the most popular, but at the same time there are few scenario books out there for this level of action. Especially lacking are scenarios for the peninsula.

The Perry brothers designed this scenario for the book. They say it has parallels in the Battle of Corunna, which made it immediately attractive to me. They have played it out on a 12x6 foot table, mine is 12x5 so I think I will be ok.

I need a break from painting, so I think I will play a game, also need to use my terrain as well. I will use Field of Battle rules. The movement distance is much smaller in FoB than in the BP rules, but I suspect I will be ok.

The basic scenario involves a small British force being pursued by a larger French force. To win the game the British force has to get over the bridge to the village of Valdelacasa. The larger French force starts the game in the town of Valdeverja. A single French battalion is garrisoned just south of the bridge to Valdelacasa. If the British can get 60% their units over the bridge in a four moves then they will win the game.

For the fun of it, I changed the fictional town names to real places, so although the battle is fictional, the locale will be real. The places and river exist in the Salamanca province of Spain. I suspect some of you will recognise the village of Valdelacasa, as it is the place of the first battle in Sharpe's Eagle. I do not think I will have Lt. Colonel Sir Henry Simmerson to lead the British though, as they would never have a chance to win.

from google maps

I had most of the figures required for the scenario so had to make few substitutions. I use the random generator on the FoB Yahoo group site to assign combat and defense values to each unit.

Order of Battle

Here is the British Order of Battle, these units all served in the Peninsular wars, mostly in the Light and Third divisions. I will make Wellington CinC.

Here is the French OB, most of these units were in the French Army of Portugal; 6th corps, aside from the Guard Lancers, I need to paint more cavalry. I will make Marshall Ney the French CinC.

The Terrain

Fortunately, I had terrain pieces already made that would work for the scenario. I made Valdeverja a walled town with stones walls to the south. It is a large garrison town for the French Army of Portugal. All units can move freely within footprint of the town and out of the town without movement penalties. As you will note the town is in 2 levels with the French infantry brigades in the upper level. The Anglo-British army is coming from the east along a ridge. The ridge is accessible from the extreme north and along it's western edge at one point only. No movement penalties are associated with the 2 access points. There is a large walled farm north of the river, which can hold a maximum of 2 infantry battalions. The river is uncrossable, except at the bridge. The forests are all impregnable. They act to obscure the eastern ridge so they block artillery and small arms fire in both directions. I elaborate on terrain planning here.

Looking south from the town of Valdeverja. Note the northern access point to the ridge. The French can choose to attack the British from behind.

Five French brigades, 3 infantry, 1 cavalry and 1 artillery; all in column of march.
Marshall Ney.
General Wellesey.
Four British brigades, 3 infantry and 1 cavalry; all in column of march.
The village of Valdelacasa far to the south with the walled farm in the foreground.
The bridge over the river with the 26e ligne in defense.
The French position looking north to Valdeverja.
Close up of the 3rd British brigade.
Looking to the east at the British Army showing the access point.
Looking north.

The British have the first move in this scenario. Now all is left to do is to decide the tactics for each side and start the game.

FoB specific information

All terrain is class I, the forests, the river and the ridge line are all impassable, except at the grassed slopes of the ridge and the bridge which are class I terrain.

The walled farm is 2 town sections, thus can hold 2 battalions.

The town of Valdeverja is a terrain feature not a town in the sense of FoB.

There are no skirmish units.

The forests along the ridge line block line of sight.

The stone walls are hard cover (Class III) in the town and farm area.

The game ends in 4 moves, Army Morale Card failure, or when the British get 60% (12 units) over the bridge to Valelacasa.

Action Report

Turn 1

Die thrown:7IP, British up first per scenario.

British Cards: Lu,TA,Lu,AF,Lu,AF,IF; Well that is a pretty boring start.

French Cards: IF,Mo,L,TA,Mo,L,AM,Ma; Well some movement anyway.

Die thrown:4IP, French up.

French Cards: Me,IF,L,AF; no change

British Cards: IF,Mo,IF,L; The British start their advance.

Die thrown:9v9, Turn ends prematurely.

Positions at end of turn 1.

Turn 2

Took a little longer than I thought to complete Turn 2. Work has really got in the way of having fun, but one good thing about solo wargaming is that you can pick it up whenever it is convenient. I do shift work and have to work every second weekend, so it is hard to organise something with other gamers. Turn 2 was also held up because of debate that arose in my mind over the ability of an infantry unit to test to form opportunity square when being attacked by cavalry. I polled the FoB Yahoo group, after some discussion decide against it.

Well it was quite an exciting round, a lot can happen in a single turn in a game where the the moves are decided my card generation.

Should have been in square....

The first action involves the cavalry brigades of each side. The British Light Dragoons and the KGL Hussars engage the 26e ligne in the rear, they lose 2 UI points and fall back, the Light Dragoons go out of command and pursue. A number of separate cavalry actions ensue and the French get mauled, the 6e Dragoons, 3e Hussars, 15e Chasseurs as well as the HA get destroyed by the British cavalry, the RHA and forward elements of the 3rd Infantry Brigade. The Polish Guard Lancers are routed by the 74th. The only Anglo-Portuguese loss is the rout of the 9th Portuguese Line Infantry.The British Infantry Bdes are almost off the ridge. The artillery element of the Light Bde fires down on the 1e infantry Bde moving in column along the road, the 2/69e ligne loses 2 UI.

Things are looking good for the British; they have decimated the French cavalry Bde, the sole French unit protecting the bridge, the 26e ligne is being engaged by the KGL Hussars and can not even get into square. The other units of the cavalry bde have turned north to face the oncoming French Infantry and the forward British infantry bde is already at the farm. Looks like the game is over before it has even gone 2 turns.

Marshall Ney then makes a daring move. He commands his Artillery Bde to move within 300 yds of the British infantry columns and form into a Grand Battery. He has no infantry support, a very risky move. The French guns unleash a devastating volley at the flank of British 2nd infantry bde. They are destroyed with the only surviving battalion, the 1/5th Regiment of Foot in rout. On one card and some superb dice, he has destroyed 20% of the British forces.

The French infantry start to form into their dreaded attack columns. Finally, if that is not enough, the last card of the turn is a Leadership card and the French brigade commanders are able to rally a silenced artillery battery and the Polish Guard Lancers, who immediately about face and make ready to charge elements of the 3rd British infantry brigade!!!

I believe Marshall Ney is pleased with himself, but those cannon are quite exposed....

Positions at the end of turn 2. Both sides have lost 19 Army Morale points.

3rd Turn

The third turn started with the French starting to rally and move forward. Unfortunately this turn for the British was characterised by extremely poor leadership and poor dice throws; a lethal combination so it appears in FoB. The British consequently could just never cease the initiative.

The French Grand Battery of 32 cannon was lethal and their artillery commander was clever enough to place his howitzer behind the grand battery so there was a continuous lob of shrapnel on the columns of British has they came down the ridge.

Marshall Ney instructed his generals de brigade to form into the dreaded columns of attack. They engage the British 2nd and light brigades in their flanks causing considerable loss. The British just can not get a maneuver card or throw an even dice, they get stuck in march formation. The 2/52nd, 1/43rd and the 1/95th all get routed off the table, clearly their D10 commander was not Black Bob Crauford.

The French cavalry general despite losing 2/3 of his men was able to repeatedly rally his Polish Guard Lancers from rout. The 16th Light Dragoons are routed and the 4th Portuguese Dragoons are routed and destroyed. The British 3rd Brigade manages to make it to the bridge, 2/88th engages the 26e ligne with some success. The 74th and the 9th Portuguese follow closely, the 94th somehow or another get out of square and start to advance to the bridge. Even the 5th, the sole surviving battalion of the 2nd Brigade is rallied from rout and rapidly moves toward Valelacasa. The British and Portuguese foot artillery batteries limber up and start to move slowly forward.

The excellent leadership quality of the French infantry commanders reveals itself when a series of 3 Leadership cards are drawn and they are able to rally multiple UI points for their units, even the weak colonel (D10) of the 26e ligne is able to rally his troops from rout on a D4vsD8 throw!!

The turn nears it's end, the British have lost 7 of their 20 units, one more and the game is over. The Light Dragoons are in rout and only the 2/88th is over the bridge. The turn ends.

Should I end the game, the situation appears hopeless, the British have been at zero AMP for what seems like forever. Lets throw the dice, maybe they will finally gain the initiative and throw some good dice. D12vsD12. Game over. C'est la vie.

The final position.
Summary

I really liked this scenario. It was fun to play and it did seesaw back and forth. It really made me appreciate the Field of Battle ruleset as a solo wargamer, it was impossible to favour one side over the other. If I was going to change something, I would have not used the random generator for FoB to get the Leadership ratings. The British had quite bad Leadership die with 2xD12, 2xD10 and 1 D8. The French had 5 D12 out of 7, I think it made a difference. I will definitely play this scenario again.

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Peninsular War: French Army of Portugal: 6th Corps, Cavalry Brigade, May 1811

Time to post again. I have been industriously working on the 6th Corps, but needed a break from the blue infantryman. I felt some cavalrymen would be nice, so decided to do the cavalry brigade attached to the corps. This was a pretty small brigade with just 8 squadrons of troopers. I wanted to put in all figure types, but had to leave out the musicians as I would have had no troopers! So each 4 figure group has an officer, standard bearer, elite and trooper. When I paint the next unit, I will leave out the officer.

Brigadier-General Auguste Étienne Marie Lamotte was the officer in charge of the brigade, I can find little about him. He started off with the 4e Dragoons, but here he is in a nice Hussar uniform. All the figures are Front Rank, I did the Lamotte figure about 16 months ago and my technique has really progressed. I really enjoy using washes over a white primer.

3e Hussars (170 hommes)

15e Chasseurs à cheval (170 hommes)

Anyway, time to get back to the blue, 25e légère. À la prochaine.

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Peninsular War: French Army of Portugal: 6th Corps,3rd Division, May 1811

Well that is enough of diversions, time to get back to building divisions. Below is a nice aerial view of the 3rd division in the 6th corps of the French Army of Portugal. In May of 1811, division Ferey had a little over 4000 men. Pictured below are 107 figures in 1o battalions with 4 mounted officers, 3 colonels and the géneral de division. This is a little under a 40:1 man/figure ratio, but battalions of less then 4 bases are really not amenable to wargaming.

Général de Division Claude-François Ferey was promoted in 1810. He entered the military in 1787 as a cavalryman in the Chasseurs à Cheval. He was killed in July of 1812 at the Battle of Salamanca.

Behind him are 2 régiments étrangers; la légion hanoverienne et la légion du midi.

La légion hanovrienne (433 men) is to the right in their nice red uniforms and to the left is la légion du midi (385 men) in their brown uniforms. These are Foundry figures that were painted around 2 years ago. A glance to the left or right clearly shows some improvement in my painting technique.
Next are the 4e, 5e and 6e battalions (1370 men) of the 66e régiment de ligne. I have to make a confession here, about half of the figures were painted by someone named Patrick. I was quite interested in improving my technique so I bought these figures on ebay. After discussion with Patrick and looking at his figures, I decided to change to using a white primer and very thinned paints. By looking closely at the figures you can see the difference between the master and the pupil, but this purchase was the best I have made, since I started painting figures. They are Front Rank, aside from 2 Voltiguers and 2 Grenadiers in the second row which are Perry plastics. The colonel is also Front Rank and was painted by myself about a year ago.
Here are 4e and 6e battalions of the 82e ligne. These are Victrix figures and are the most recent off my painting table. The command stand with the eagle show a Perry plastic drummer and flag bearer. I will change them out when I get another box of Victrix. The mounted colonel du régiment is a Foundry figure.
Finally, the 4e, 5e and 6e battalions of the 26e ligne, also Victrix figures.

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Victrix French Infantry: Enfin!!

It is quite a relief to get these figures finished. I started putting this box of Victrix French infantry together in mid July. I got 60 figures out of a box, and you can see 59 of them below. I was able to get 52 figures out of the box in non-firing and non-crouching poses which is excellent. Using a wash over white prime technique, it probably took around an hour a figure to assemble, prime, paint and base each figure. Assembly took 25% of the time, which is excessive in my opinion.

They are painted up as 5 battalions of the 26e and 82e regiments de ligne, as well as some 4 bases of legere. I painted 6 Perry plastic figures to make up the required 5 battalions (they are not posed here). I got a little out of control with the drummers. The Perry's were much easier to assemble, but they are in the Bardin uniform, wrong for the 6th Corps of the Army of Portugal in 1811 (this usually does not trouble me too much, but I am trying to pay more attention to detail).

As I have previously noted, there was an enormous amount of flash and I think I may have got a defective box as some of the figure's details appeared to have been melted away.

All in all though, I suppose they look ok posed as a unit. I do plan to buy a box of the Victrix early French Infantry to paint as Italians for the Battle of Maida, but I think that might be it for me with Victrix. I have 2 boxes of Victrix British Infantry, which I just figured out are centre companies only, so I suppose I will also have to buy a box of British flank company figures, but no more after that.

Some French light cavalry may tempt me though!!!

I almost forgot to say the metal Victrix mounted colonel was a very nice figure, which I quite enjoyed painting.

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Basing

Just a brief note on my basing technique. I mix up some pumice gel with brown paint.Patient voltiguers waiting for their base to be done.
Apply the stained pumice gel and then touch up the base with the same colour paint.
Dry brush with bubonic brown, maybe I could be a little more aggressive here.
Then bleached bone.
Important step, is the mixed flock. I use the leftovers from my terrain projects, so it is a mixture of everything. I apply brown stained white glue, especially to areas that are not well covered with the pumice gel (usually between the feet). Place the base in the bag and then shake off.
Then a bit of "german grass".

Painting with Washes

It is with some reluctance that I put these images on my blog. The Victrix figures are quite nice but the effort of glueing them together was onerous. I had gone over them removing mold lines before they were sprayed, but when I started to paint them there were still multiple pieces of flash and what was more troublesome there was significant defects in the castings. In some areas, it looked like someone had taken a blowtorch to the figures. I wonder now if I had got an early box of figures, if I remember correctly Victrix had some production problems early on with the French Infantry box, I wonder if the box I received was reflective of this, as I had pre-ordered them. I find it hard to reconcile these figures with the descriptions of others.

Additionally, these were the last figures I had painted of the box of Victrix French (around 60 figures) and I was getting pretty tired of them by now. Notwithstanding this, I had taken the photos, so I will post them. My technique definitely can be improved and any suggestions would be welcomed. Please remember though that I am interested in painting units, rather then a figures and am not a modeler. A nice unit of figures is my goal in as few as painting steps as possible. I feel a white primer with a wash is an effective way to quickly paint figures so they have somewhat of a layered look with a single step.

I usually paint 12 figures at a time, glueing them to a painting stick and then spraying them with an automotive white primer. Although the French uniforms I have seen in museums are quite dark, I feel that on campaign they would have faded quite a bit so I like a blue-grey colour to give the infantrymen a lighter blue. Here I used an very thinned down GW Shadow-Grey as a base coat for the jacket. The GW wash is too blue I find. I try to be neat, it is ok to go over on an area that is going to be painted with an minimally thinned acrylic paint, but if the adjacent area is going to be painted with a wash any areas would have to be repainted with white before I applied the wash. I apply the wash and roll the figure to let the thin liquid settle into the crevasses.

I then wash the flesh areas with a GW Ogryn Flesh. I find this wash is excellent and as far as I am concerned the flesh area are done now in one step.
I then paint the shakos with a thinned GW Badab Black and the shako covers with GW Devlan Mud or GW Gryphonne Sepia. I do add a second full strength black wash to the shakos, but this time avoiding the shako chords. I also paint the metal parts with the the black as a base for the metal paints and the boots of course.
I then reverse the figures and use the same 3 washes on the shakos, the ammunition pouch and the water bottles. I also paint the hair with the flesh wash. Sometimes, a second wash is required as the first coat does not give a dense enough colour. I am pretty well finished with the washes now.
I then use a 3/4 thinned GW Blood Red on the collars, cuffs, the thing that hangs next to the ammunition pouch and the buttons.
The figures are then again reversed and 3/4 thinned acrylic paints are applied to the rifle (Khemri Brown), the water bottle strap (Calthan Brown), bayonet sheath (GW Terracotta), rifle barrel, bayonet and shako straps (GW Boltgun Metal) and finally the cuff flaps (GW Enchanted Blue).
I then start to repair the white, fixing the edges and the straps and applying some white to shakos.
The figures are reversed the whites areas are repaired and the pre-painted knapsacks are glued in place. I use the GW black and sepia washes on the knapsack and the blanket roll. Once glued in place I touch up the knapsacks and the metal work and sacks with various colours. I also start to apply a brass paint to the musket and the buckles on the straps.Continue with the brass to the buttons and the shako plates.
I then paint the straps on the knapsacks and the shako pompoms. I then used a very thinned black wash to shadow in the crevasses and to delineate the straps on the front of the figure, I also use it to delineate the equipment. I then put a very thinned second coat of Shadow Grey on the coat and if the relief is not good, I will dry-brush on an highlight of GW Ice Blue.

The final step is the wash over the white trousers and here is where I clearly need help, as I am quite unhappy how these 12 figures came out. I uses a thinned Devlan Mud and it did not work this time, it just looks a mess up close. Any suggestions using washes would be appreciated. On the table, though it does give a nice campaign look...c'est la vie! It took 7-8 hours to paint these 12 figures.

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