General Situation: Palacio is attempting to get to the coast after his defeat at Belchite. but General Junot has been relentless in his pursuit. Not wishing to risk his horseflesh, Junot has left his cavalry and artillery behind, only to be called on in need, whilst he reduces his logistical problems by using only his infantry. Palacio, never the most dynamic of leaders, has been caught to the south of Caspe. He must delay Junot and give himself a chance to break off. Junot, by contrast, is hoping to entirely destroy the remnants of the Army of Catalonia. Kellermann's cavalry and the Corps' artillery have sent word they are marching to the sound of the guns...
Order of Battle:
Spanish Forces:
Army of Catalonia (PALACIO):
Caldagues' Division: 3000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Jacome's Division: 2000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Total: 5000 Infantry, 12 Guns
Imperial Forces:
VIII Corps (JUNOT):
Delaborde's Division: 6000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Travot's Division: 6000 Infantry, 6 Guns
Total: 12000 Infantry, 12 Guns
The Deployment:
View from behind the French left (Travot) towards the hill on the Spanish left |
A closer view of the centre: the French numerical superiority is obvious |
Duhesme's Division on the right is ready to assault Jacome's Division |
And Travot's Division, ready on the right. Two Irish battalions face them on the left, other Spanish infantry gather around a small farm ready to resist the French. |
As Delaborde's troops move forward, the Spanish withdraw and reform in strsngth on the hill |
Travot's troops move slowly forward through the rough fields |
The numerical overmantch is greatest on the French left: 8 against 1. Can the Spanish Irishmen resist?? |
Duhesme prepares to bludgeon his way through; his artillerymen's aim is true, causing severe casualties to the Spanish infantry |
Same position, but you can just see the second red 'shaken' marker through the Spanish ranks indicating the cannonballs striking into the Spanish rearmost battalion |
Delaborde then begins phase two of his assault. Carried out more neatly than the first assault, the Spanish infantry suffer severely and are wavering... |
And collapse! Trapped against the river, two Spanish battalions surrender! The remainder rout or withdraw to avoid the French, who have suffered some casualties in their turn. |
The Spanish left flees the field! |
A better shot of the outcome of the French attack in the centre. The Spanish can clearly be seen in full retreat! |
Game Notes: A more interesting game than it threatened to be on set-up. I had been on the verge of just letting the Tomb for an Empire rules handle it automatically but decided that I might as well play it out, just to get back into the swing of the campaign and using the rules. It played quite quickly on a 4'x3' table, lasting 15 or so moves (c.75 minutes of "real-life"). I am beginning to wonder if the rules for attacking which give +2 to veterans and -2 to raw are perhaps a tad too strong and +1 would be a more appropriate modifier.
In fact, although I like the Polemos rules a lot, perhaps it is time I reviewed the whole thing to see if there are a few minor tweaks I can make to closer reflect my own views of how Napoleonic warfare "worked". After all, for this campaign, I have no-one to please or convince but myself...
Good stuff. What do you think of the Polemos rules. We hated them and just couldn't seem to get them to work. Seemed really badly written.
ReplyDeleteI do like them and I have stuck with them for quite a while now - getting on for 8 years I think. I like not having to do formation changes and think this is much more realistic than doing formation changes for every unit. I generally (but not always) agree with the modifiers used and I memorized most of them quickly. I think the Polemos tempo system is a reasonably fun command and control mechanism, both solitaire and face-to-face.
ReplyDeleteOTOH...I don't think they are very well written. I think that the bases, especially in combat and in outcome moves (falling back, pursuing etc.), interact in complicated ways that aren't clear in the rules. I think the way rallying interacts with the turn sequence is either badly explained or broken or both. I think that introducing "order points" to further develop "tempo points" in General de Division was a mistake (and is why MdE gives a smoother game). I'm not convinced that skirmishers are represented brilliantly (although I don't think that many rules aimed at the same command level do so much better). There are a couple of rules where the intent is fine but obvious exploits are possible by the letter of the book.
The first couple of games I played with them were horrors but I could tell there was a good game in there, which I found quite quickly, as opposed to some rules, much better written, which I didn't think could ever give a good game even though I did understand them.