Talavera Using Commands & Colours
/More kriegspiel-inspired Napoleonic action with Commands & Colours: this time I would command the British and Spanish against the French at the battle of Talavera.
A little reminder:
The Battle of Talavera was fought on 27–28 July 1809 during the Peninsular War in Spain, where a combined British and Spanish force led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) and Spanish General Gregorio de la Cuesta faced the French army under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. The Allies held a defensive position near Talavera, repelling several determined French assaults, particularly against British lines on key high ground, and ultimately forced the French to withdraw after heavy casualties on both sides. Despite the tactical victory boosting Wellesley’s reputation, the success was limited strategically because supply shortages and the threat of other French forces soon compelled the Allies to retreat.
Here’s the inital set up. The British (red) occupy the high ground, the Spanish (yellow) are holding the town of Talavera, the French are…everywhere!
The action began with a major French assault on the Spanish holding Talavera. Things got pretty frought very quickly, and I had to use my British reserves to prop up the Spanish position.
The French were eventually repelled, but there were not many Spaniards left, and only really holding Talavera itself. Kudos goes to the Spanish light cavalry, who intervened at a desperate moment, and the Spanish and British troops holding the redoubt in the centre of the table. Had that fallen, then I think the game would have finished then.
The French then switched the axis of their attack to the centre, looking to take advantage of the fact that my reserves had been committed on the right. The Froggies also advanced on the left, looking to evict the Spanish from a walled farm there.
On the left, the Spanish were forced out of the farm, but the French couldn’t follow up because they needed their troops there to join the assault on the British position in the centre. That had started well, with the British forced by artillery fire to retreat off the lower slopes, ceding the ground to the advancing French whilst bringing up what reserves they could.
Fortunately, the Brits then managed to hold their new line, although only with the intervention of the last of their reserves, the Guard Cavalry. The French were poised to do enough damage to the Allies to force a retreat but, in the nick of time, the British Guard Cavalry crashed into the enemy line, breaking an infantry unit and doing just enough to force the French back.
So a very narrow victory for the Allies 15 points to 14. The French would have won if they had had the heart to go forward one more time, but the British Guard Cavalry took that from them. Another of Wellington’s close run things!
