Salamanca in Albany: Empire and Fury

No fury but a game played in the true wargaming spirit of friendly competition with plenty of banter, beer, camaraderie and fun.

As well as a gathering of wargaming friends, some of many years' duration, others like me relative newcomers to the Serpentine group, the game was a chance to test the latest version of the group's in-house rules Empire and Fury. As the name suggests, these are a derivative of Empire, with elements of Fire and Fury mixed in. Mitch had spent many, many hours writing, editing and formatting to translate what was simply tables and ideas into a version one document of the rules.

Salamanca was the stage. Mitch's wargaming den the location. Steve R, Steve W and I took the French. John, Simon and Paul the Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese. Mitch umpired.

Hosted in Mitch's marvellous wargames room, the game featured his figures and some of John's atop the marvellous terrain that they had constructed with foam terrain tiles and a cloth overlay. I made a tiny contribution in the form of some Portuguese infantry and caçadores, here pictured occupying Los Arapiles (represented by 3D-printed buildings painted by John).
These Portuguese are all derived from Airfix British infantry. There's added nostalgia as the infantry were painted in the early nineties by my late father, when in his early seventies. The caçadores are from another great benefactor, whom I only know as Mr Hine.

I opted to take the left, with Thomières lead division supported by 'not now' Curto's light cavalry as well as the following divisions of Maucune and Brennier. Steve R had the centre with Bonnet's and Clausel's large division as well as Boyer's dragoons. Steve W took the right and tail of the army with Foy, Ferey and Sarrut's divisions, plus the reserve (corps) artillery. We were opposed in order by John (Pakenham's 3rd Division, the cavalry, Bradford's indept. Portuguese and España's Spanish), Simon (Cole's 4th Division, Clinton's 6th Division, Hope's 7th Division,  and Pack's indept. Portugues) and Paul with the powerful 1st and Light Divisions.

It was interesting as, having made plans and divided up the forces, we each largely focussed on our own troops/sections of the battlefield. This was especially true for me as I spent most of my time 'fighting for my life' and trying to keep my troops extant (which was my role in our French plan) in the face of John's aggressive and well-directed attacks. As a consequence, this report is very much about my own game, with glimpses of other sections of the battlefield.

As always, we'll let the pictures tell most of the story.

Across the battlefield at the start of the game, beginning with the French left, Thomières division in the lead, Curto's light cavalry at the right, British 3rd Division at left with the cavalry beyond them.

 

 

 

Looking from behind and to the left of the Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese right we see España's Spanish, Bradford's independent Portuguese and most of Stapleton-Cotton's cavalry (the remainder being on the right flank).

In the centre, Cole's Portuguese occupying Los Arapiles, the remainder of the division and Hope's 7th behind.

On the French right, we are overlooking Sarrut's division, Foy's to the left of them and Ferey's on the edge of the photo opposing the Light Division with 1st Division behind.

On the French left, Wallace's brigade attacked Bonte's lead troops...

to devastating effect.

J. Campbell's brigade then charged the French division's guns, but were stopped by their fire and that of the supporting infantry.

At the other end of the table, the Anglo-Allied commanders opted for defence, so the French took the initiative and advanced in strength (as was our plan).

Back on the French right, I sent a brigade of Curto's hussars/chasseurs against Wallace's brigade. The latter failed to form square, but sent the French troopers back with minor losses.

This gave an opportunity for the remainder of Bonte's brigade, lead by Thomières himself.

A minor victory, but a bit of success nonetheless, dampened by a minor wound to Thomières, which took him out of the game for a turn (indicated by the large, red 'sombrero'!).

John unleashed the right-wing detachment of the cavalry, Bock's well-rated KGL dragoon division.

The French counter-charged, but were easily beaten, though not broken.

Bock's men followed-up on the other, blown French cavalry brigade...

who were more severely beaten.
'Not now' Curto. Or ever more, having fallen with a fatal wound.

Then it was the turn of D'Urban's Portuguese. The French formed square beside the convalescing Thomières (who had no impact on proceedings).

The Portuguese came on...

but failed to break the square, so fell back with minor losses.

Wallace's brigade exacted some revenge, popping off sufficient additional troops from the square to remove a stand. Importantly, the regiment remained 'fresh' (see label).

J. Campbell's brigade attacked the French battery once again...

this time closing, despite the defender's fire...

only to be driven off by the gunners stoic defence; aka particularly good die rolling on my part!

Pakenham aligned his entire brigade. Opportunity fire from the French guns dropped a few.

Further to the (French) right, (Avro) Anson's light dragoons charge Maucune's lead brigade, who successfully formed squares (represented by a square at this scale).

Effective defensive fire put an end to the charge.

(Above and below) No breakthrough yet, but the French were well and truly on the back-foot, with a ring of Anglo-Portuguese forming to 'pounce'.

In a land far away, also known as the other end of the table, Marmont prepared to ramp up the attack on the Anglo-Portuguese left.

Thus ended the first two turns.

Enough of the piecemeal attacks; Pakenham lead forth his entire division!

To contact.

And success!

A view from the Anglo-Portuguese perspective.

Next target the guns of Maucune's division.

Le Marchant's troopers 'laughed' at the defensive fire...

driving off or killing the crew before rallying back towards their lines.

Brennier lead his lead division in a counter-attack against Pakenham's men...

but they were blunted by the latter's defensive fire.

Maucune's left-hand brigade was isolated on the ridge, with Pakenham's men to their left. Faced with the option to retire or attack, he lead them against España's infantry, driving them off in a deadly firefight.

The loss broke the morale of the Spanish (failing subsequent manoeuvre element morale test) and they did not recover so were lost for the day.

However, Maucune's men were now isolated (rear of photo).

(Above and below) Over towards the French right, Bonnet lead a successful attack against the Anglo-Portuguese defending 'the angle'.

The same action from the Anglo-Portuguese lines.

This brought us to the end of turn three.

Back at the French left, the British opened with some ineffective fire against Maucune's first brigade.

(Avro) Anson's brigade charged, the French failed to form square...

but survived the attack, driving back the British cavalry and retiring themselves...

directly into the path of Pakenham's left!

The victorious British infantry then followed-up against Maucune's next brigade.

Attack being the best defence, Brennier lead his men against Pakenham's Portuguese (Power's brigade).

'Lady luck' swapped and changed sides over the course of the game, so the 'imponderable' was there but no-one (except Simon) could claim that they 'was robbed'. Thus far I'd had some excellent rolls, chiefly for firing, but generally poor ones for combat (with the notable exception of the gunner's defense against J. Campbell's brigade). With a good chance of victory in this one, I pulled out a double one, against John's double eight. Bummer!

 

The Anglo-Portuguese were beginning to roll up the French left.

Brennier suffered a minor wound (removing him for a turn, as with Thomières before him).

Meanwhile, the action had hotted on the French right.

It looked to be a crisis at 'the angle' for the Anglo-Portuguese forces,

Boyer's troopers providing the 'arme blanche'.

The attack was blunted by the stoic defence by Rezende's Portuguese brigade.

All held their breath as Sarrut's division attacked the left of the Anglo-Allied line, only to falter and then be driven off by the firepower of the Light Division.

Thus ended turn four.

John's phobia of guns was in clear evidence; using the cavalry to expunge French artillery.

Next on the block were Brennier's artillery, newly moved towards the front, driven off by von Alten's brigade.

J. Campbell's brigade attacked again, ignoring the French defensive fire.

A mêlée ensued.

The defender's forcing the British to retire.

Hope's lead brigades charged Maucune's men who had formed square in response to von Alten's earlier charge of Brennier's guns.

They survived the defensive fire, but failed in the mêlée. Simon's appalling die rolling coming down in my favour!

Brennier lead his division against Power's Portuguese (Pakenham). Both falling back after an indecisive firefight.

The situation on the left of the French army. Under huge pressure, but still there and being aided in defence by the wood.

At 'the angle' the French formed a new, threatening line,...

 

but the casualties were mounting and beginning to tell, especially on the French right.

End of turn five.

After a couple of stalled attempts (poor manoeuvre rolls by John), Bock's KGL dragoons charged again, supported by D'Urban's Portuguese. The French light cavalry counter-charged.

The result was never really in doubt. A victory, but not a decisive as the red-coated Germans would have liked. The larger (left-hand) brigade would rally, while the other was done for the day.

Bradford's independent Portuguese brigade charged Brennier's right...

but failed to dislodge the French in the woods, so retired back to their lines.

After a long bombardment of the Portuguese defenders, Clausel's men attacked and captured part of Los Arapiles.

 

It was Saturday evening and the players, like their troops, were running out of puff, so we called it there. Continuing on Sunday was not possible as we visitors needed to make the 450–500 km return journey so as to be ready for work on Monday.

 

The French left was battered, but not broken. Pakenham's 3rd Division and the cavalry had fought hard, but losses were beginning to tell and the French now had a reasonable defensive line, assisted greatly by the light woods.

Over on the French right, the attack had reached a 'high water mark', but it too was running out of puff.

 

Mitch declared a French minor victory. They had resisted the attack and even made advances against the Anglo-Allied left, especially at 'the angle'.

Beyond that it was time for some actions by the C-in-Cs, a role which until now we players had largely ignored. Wellington clearly had more options. He could rely on the right of his line to hold, transfer 1st Division to the centre to join Clinton, Hope and Cole, help finish the job on the French left/centre-left and then roll up the French army.

Of course, such 'thought actions' are never as clean and decisive as we may imagine, but we'd expected at least a minor Anglo-Allied victory in another four to six turns. Maybe.

For now, we French happily took the win!

It had been another really enjoyable game with the Serpentine Group. Everyone had experienced some highs. We'd each had some set-backs too, but all got the chance to manoeuvre troops, roll some dice, engage in some friendly sledging and enjoy the company of like-minded wargamers.

The rules in their first, written edition, had passed. Naturally a few edits and additions to assist clarity for the players were needed, but the system works and provides an enjoyable and Napoleonic feeling game. My preference would be for less of the Fire and Fury elements and to represent units below brigades, but that is for my own rules, at my place. I'll happily play them again and hopefully we'll have another session in Albany in the not-too-distant (with these or General d'Armée if it's more of John's game).

Thank you to John, Simon, Paul, Steve and Steve for making the game an enjoyable experience and especially to Mitch for putting together a great looking game, hosting us and umpiring. A top effort!