Blucher "Battle of Albuera, 1811"

Sean and I have been thinking of trying to replay a historical battle using Blucher for a while now and yesterday did our first one, Albuera from the Peninsular War. We found a suitable scenario online,I took the Anglo-Spanish and Sean the French. In this battle the French under Soult make a surprise attack on the Allies commanded by Beresford concentrating on the Spanish army under Blake and attempting to break through to Badajoz which the Allies were besieging.

The initial set up found the Spanish on the Allied right, the Anglo-Portuguese on the left and more Allied units arriving behind the battle line. The French deployed their cavalry and horse artillery opposite the Spanish and their infantry guarding the cavalry's flank. More French will be arriving shortly:

The Spanish await the French attack:

Allied reserves move up:

French cavalry cross the river:

On the Allied right Beresford senses an opportunity and sends Hamilton and Stewart's Divisions together with the Light Division forward to engage the outnumbered French infantry:

The French are caught out of position with their infantry unable to support their cavalry and vice-versa:

Hamilton and Stewart press their attack on the left:

The French cavalry advance onto the Spanish-held hill. The French horse artillery drives off one of the Spanish cavalry brigades:

More French infantry have arrived but they are somewhat scattered with the ones under attack seriously outnumbered:

French infantry have also joined in the cavalry attack on the hill, the Spanish Guard are decent units for the Spanish army but are under heavy pressure. French Dragoons charge into the remaining Spanish cavalry brigade but the Spanish heroically repulse them:

The British heavy cavalry attempt to take some pressure off the Spanish Dragoons and charge the Polish lancers. The British charge is ineffective and they fall back. In response the Poles charge the Spanish Dragoons who, having made short work of the French Dragoons previously throw back the Poles as well!:

Somewhat dispirited by the resistance of the Spanish Dragoons the French throw a light cavalry brigade into them. For the third time the Spanish Dragoons stand firm and repulse the French! The Spanish Guard are also holding on stubbornly:

Worn out by multiple combats the Spanish Dragoons retire and the British cavalry take their place:

The Spanish Guard has been defeated but the Spanish line holds firm. In the distance the Anglo-Portuguese have broken several French infantry brigades:

French resistance crumbles on the Allied left where the victorious Allied infantry chase off the remaining Frenchmen:

The French cavalry look impressive but have taken huge losses and are largely spent. The French infantry facing the Spanish are outnumbered and don't look likely to break through. Even if they did there are substantial Allied forces in reserve:

Shortly after the French army morale collapsed leaving the Allies in control of the field.

Having played the game it was a tough task for the French as the Allied army was much larger and they had the advantage of two lots of MO dice (one for the British and one for the Spanish) compared to the French one lot.

In hindsight the French would have been better off using their entire initial force to attack the Spanish as quickly as possible. Deploying as they did left the French infantry isolated and outnumbered against the Anglo-Portuguese infantry and the French cavalry unable to do anything against the Spanish infantry until they brought up some reserve infantry.

The brigade of Spanish Dragoons which held off almost all of the French cavalry put up a truly heroic defense, three times beating much stronger French cavalry units and only retiring when exhausted by combat!

In the real battle the French had some initial success including the Poles riding down some British infantry in a rainstorm but failing to break through and retiring the next day. In our re-fight the rainstorm never appeared despite having a 1 in 6 chance of starting in every firing phase!