Blucher Spanish v French

Another of the things I really like about Blucher is that all the armies have an individual character but are all playable with none being much superior to others.

Unlike in many rulesets the Spanish are actually quite effective in Blucher if you play to their strengths and use the 'Scharnhorst' system. They are unique in having a number of ways of affecting Scharnhorst such as having guerrillas ambush enemy columns weakening them and delaying the start of the battle, Taking these options costs points which could be spent on troops but generally they are well worth it.

Sean kindly agreed to play the Spanish with a suitably composed early French army cunningly using 10mm cannon models to depict attached artillery. After the jockeying for position on the map almost all columns appeared on the battlefield (apart from one Spanish column consisting of a single unit which captured an objective rather than march to the battlefield) and the Spanish had sufficient objectives to win the game if their army was not broken:

The Spanish ambush was quite effective taking 12 Elan off one column and, given that they only had to survive the day to win, they took the option to delay the start of the battle. The terrain was also favourable to the Spanish with a long ridge line for them to defend and one French Corps hemmed in by rivers. The Spanish deployed with almost all of their forces defending the ridge line and two brigades of Militia thrown forward to defend the bridges over the river and slow up the French advance:

The French began by advancing upon the somewhat isolated Militia:

The Militia on the left started to withdraw while those on the right had to stand as they couldn't outrun the French cavalry. They were already significantly delaying the French:

The forward Spanish Corps fell back to the ridge line:

The brave Spanish Militia are swept aside and the French advance continues:

The French start to develop their attack lead by the cavalry:

The Spanish horse artillery has been destroyed by French cavalry and the Spanish foot artillery has retreated behind it's infantry support. The French infantry are coming up fast on the Spanish left and begin skirmishing with the Spanish line:

A brigade of Spanish heavy cavalry charges home on some unprepared French infantry and almost destroys them in a single combat:

On the French left more infantry begin to push through the forest. Spanish cavalry drive back the French cavalry in the centre:

The two lines continue to exchange fire, one French brigade has been broken and some Spanish brigades have retired and been replaced by fresh troops:

The valiant action of the Militia in delaying the French at the start of the battle and the spoiling attacks by the Spanish cavalry have eaten up a lot of time and nightfall is approaching. The French attempt to close with the Spanish to force them off the ridge:

Two French brigades have pushed back their Spanish opponents while the Spanish have held off two French brigades. The Spanish have enough reserves to plug the gaps while the French have no fresh units to commit:

 On the Spanish right again the French have made some progress but nowhere near enough:

With the French attack repulsed and night falling the Spanish hold on for a victory!

Pretty much everything went right for the Spanish in this battle. They won the Scharnhorst objective battle and had a strong position to defend with the terrain very much in their favour.

While the Spanish line looks very impressive in fact once they come into combat they weaken quickly having low Elan and no skirmish ability. This is compensated for however by their ability to replace damaged units and the Spanish cavalry which is numerous and reasonably effective.

I think Sean's French might have fared better attacking the Spanish left in depth rather than attacking all along the line, moving through the woods on the Spanish right delayed their attack so they didn't really get into action until it was too late.

The Spanish are a difficult army to play against if they get to defend (which they almost always do), in attack I don't think they'd be so effective. 200 points is also probably the optimum for them, they can select all of the cavalry (I'm not sure having so many is very historic), all of the artillery and the most useful guerrilla options while still having a decent infantry force as well. At 300 points they'd get a minimum of two more Grenadier brigades, nine Regular Infantry brigades and a Militia brigade extra which would be a truly vast force! I don't think I'll ever paint that many more though.....