The Napoleonic Wars, General de Brigade, 28mm

This fictitious little Peninsular  game , with a couple of brigades a side was set around a bridge in Spain – a crossing over an important river. The British had seized the bridge during the night, but the bridgehead was poorly-defended, with just two battalions of foot and some riflemen on hand to hold off the French until reinforcements arrived. The French turned up in force – six battalions in two brigades, one appearing from the eastern (long) table edge, the other from the north. The aim was to crush the defenders before the rest of General Hill’s Division could come to their rescue. Thanks to Dougie’s car trouble we had a very late start to the game – leaving less than two hours of playing time. The pressure was therefore on to achieve a reach a conclusion in the short time we had available.Fortunately for my British, a lucky die roll meant that the reinforcements began appearing almost as soon as the game began. Just what unit from the pool would arrive was in the lap of the gods, and as yet more luck would have it the first unit on the table was a battery of 9-pounders, which were soon ensconced on a hilltop on the near side of the river, just to the north of the town of Puta Madre. They arrived just in time to pour flanking fire into the French infantry brigade that was approaching the bridgehead for from the north. That, of course, was when I started rolling low, and for the next few turns their fire was singularly ineffective.Meanwhile Dougie’s French attacking from the west deployed from column into line, hoping to pin the British line with musketry while a third battalion swept the olive grove to the south of the British line of the skirmishers who were ensconced there. First blood here went to the French, whose own skirmishers charged and drove back their British counterparts – light infantrymen detached from the British foot. That left the men of the 60th Rifles to hold the line. Fortunately for the British their second unit of reinforcements had arrived – the 16th Light Dragoons – which passed through the olive grove to deploy in the open ground to the south. Behind them came a British infantry battalion – the 28th Foot, who also turned right after crossing the bridge, and deployed in the olive grove, with their backs to the river.The arrival of the cavalry prompted the battalion on the left of the French line to form square. Thanks to their rather rash “Assault” orders the British light dragoons had no choice but to try to charge home. They did, and were promptly bounced back. All this bought time for the French to bring up their own supporting cavalry regiment – Chasseurs a Cheval – who formed up and charged the reforming British horse. Meanwhile over to the north the French brigade attacking from that direction was starting to suffer heavy casualties from the British guns. By contrast the French artillery didn’t achieve much, apart from inflicting the odd casualty on the British reinforcements as they crossed over the Burro bridge.The French cavalry charged, and were met by the counter-charging British light dragoons, who had just managed to recover from the disorder caused by their rash charging of the French square. I have to say, my light dragoon have never been particularly lucky on the tabletop, but this time they came through. The French chasseurs were driven back in disorder, and true to form the British horsemen gave chase – no doubt halloing like they were chasing foxes. This of course did little to influence the battle in the centre, which had degenerated into a tough musketry exchange, with the outnumbered British gradually getting the worst of it. Only the faltering of the second French brigade thanks to enfilading British artillery fire prevented the British line from being overwhelmed.At that point we had to pack it in. The battle was still all to play for, as by now the British had brought up a full three-battalion brigade of foot, and were deploying through the olive grove to counter-attack the French from the French southern (left) flank. If truth be know the tide of battle was slowly swinging in the British favour, helped mainly by the fire of the Royal Artillery battery, and the charge of the light dragoons. Still, the French had the edge in the centre. The question was – would the British line hold long enough for the counter-attack to smash open the French line? We’ll never know. Thanks to that car trouble and our lost hour of gaming we never got to finish the game. While General de Brigade is a great set of rules, its also detailed, and games take time to play out. If we’d been using Black Powder we’d probably have had a resolution, and have time to spare. Next time we’ll tailor our choice of rules to the time we have available!

Tags: General de Brigade