Almanza

One of the tests for a refight is "how close did the result of the game mirror the outcome of the battle?". If you get it right shouldn't the outcome match the reality (Waterloo excepted because Wellington never wins in a wargame!)?
If you agree with that then I got this set up exactly right. The Franco-Spanish army can claim the field but the Ango-Portuguese center and left were no push over and as on the day, were only let down by the Portuguese units on their right.
The action in the center was a long, hard fought infantry duel and as always a couple of units shone through (no prizes for guessing that they were not on my side). The English foot guards and Churchill's foot stood upto anything I could throw at them. Despite whittling them down to under a quarter of their orignal strength they were still there at the end and making life difficult for the Spanish.
The Dutch horse managed to break through a unit of Spanish foot but were held, in desperate circumstances by a disorganised unit behind, long enough for the Spanish to rally and reform their second line. A unit of French having to form square to stop the center being rolled up.
On the Franco-Spanish right I always wondered how Berwick managed to stop the English. With only horse to stop long lines of advancing foot it looked a forsaken task. Fortunately Mark didn't press home with the foot here, saving his battalions to cover any collapse (which never came) from his center. The one battalion he did advance saw off a third of the spanish horse with musketery alone. On two occasions the Anglo-Portuguese horse tried to charge down a battery but were stopped each time (but only because the enemy commander had misjudged the distance not for any fire superiority).
The horse massed by Berwick did charge home against the English & Portuguese and fought themselves to a standstill. This also helped to delay the English foot since it was a large mass to march around.
On my left it was a slower affair than anticipated. Again with no infantry, Berwick had to wait until foot from the center could make their presence felt. The Portuguese may not have been very good but lots of them in line against horse was not a prospect I fancied. Once again a couple of units stopped the French attack. A foot unit and a militia unit held up the French advance for two thirds of the game and prevented Galway's center from being turned.
The French horse carved their way through the Portuguese horse (numbers not ability being the deciding factor) but they were too late to stop Galway leaving the field with half of his center intact.








Overall I was happy with the way the game went and many thanks to Mark, Andy, Ron & Jason for taking part.

Things that went well: using the Portuguese as militia curtailed their effectiveness in the main (the unit of line that stopped the French fought well above their training and deserve a field recognition, however the unit that fired and then got ridden down probably doesn't! - and yes it was one of mine!). Another good idea was having the stream being a movement obstacle but not a cause of disorder (rolling 2D6 to affect the charge distance of horse saved the Spanish battery twice!). Horse morales worked well - we were using everything by squadron so morales were based on the size of the almagated squadrons committed and not regiments (example - we threw in seven squadrons of Spanish horse into the fray and thus based the morale of that unit on 42 figures as casualties were removed).
Things I would change: reduce the size of the Anglo-Portuguese battalions. I was happy that I got the numbers of units on the field right, but in hindsight I should have reduced their effectiveness. Using battalions of 36-39 figures for large proportions of the Anglo-Portuguese army made life very difficult for the Franco-Spanish. The counter argument is that Berwicks center fought long and hard on the day and shouldn't have been a roll over, so I suppose that balances out. Still if I did it again I'd reduce the battalions in size but upgrade the musketry effect of the English.

Next week my 1809 French army gets an outing - the first time for a very long time.