On Battles, opening turns 1 & 2 of the Battle of Vimeira, 21st August 1808
The battlescape and location of Wellingtons clash against the Junot.
I love how this map hearkens back to maps of the period like the one below printed in 1848. It is an Antique hand-coloured engraved map. This map was published in 1848 but it may depict an earlier representation of the area shown dated 1808 and the mapmaker may have drawn on an earlier original work, of course but it resonates accurately as does Terry’s work.
The first Cav and Foot move on board quickly using column march.
Wellington orientates his men on the Hill to face the advance and bringing Arty and Cav up onto the opposing hill above Vimeiro, protected by a steep slope. Those forces compose Ferguson’s formation including 36th foot, and the Scottish or rather Highland Light 1/71st foot as well as others. Lockes Battery is protected by the attached army assets – 20th Light Dragoons and some Portuguese cav also the 6th and 12th.
In turn 2, Terry in an effort to get us into some early action and demonstrate Artillery and skirmishers, rotates his cavalry to the left and forms up to charge with one brigade and has a second ready to follow through or reinforce behind it,
unbeknownst to Terry, there are 2 SK units in the garden [green hex] and 2 on the hill also. These are I believe Fane’s 2/95th Foot. With his units in Column and charging there are some bonus’s accrued to the fire that the skirmishers conduct. This disorders and then shakes the 1st Brigade led by Major Weiss from Division de la Cavalerie as they execute the charge. As the charge progresses the French can keep the target secret until they are close enough to allow for reaction fire [like opportunity fire], the arty and the skirmishers both fired here and thwarted the attack. The second cavalry unit the 26e Regiment de chasseurs a cheval are wiped out when they fail a disorder check upon the charge, and begin to retire. During reform/retire step they take more effective fire from the 95th leaving the hex.
They take enough fire in fact to force a step loss and are eliminated.
I lost track of part of the game play here, but the skirmishers ended up breaking either in an attempt to form a square [ there are 2 units so about 400 men in the hex] or were disordered from another roll I missed [If Terry reads this maybe he can chime in!]
With that result and the unforseen extra skirmishers in hex, Terry elects to stand to, and await further resources to assault the hill, and place some of his own arty on it!
Play may continue face to face, or on Vassal not sure at this stage. More to come!
I really *want* to get excited about this system, but in the early going, I see the designer repeating all the (graphic) mistakes that turn me off of games; and worse, doubling down on them. Thankfully, they’re only graphic in nature at this juncture: the designer has professed his love of caltrops hex “junctures” instead of a light, unobtrusive keyline and full hex outline (which actually, the brain filters much easier than the mealy-looking caltrops graphics). And then the MMP staple of graphic abomination: “every five hex rows, put a bold, ugly streak made up of hex numbers across the map)… ugh. And the confusing colors for heights which just do not suggest the contours without constant reference to the legend; nor do the colors suggest Spain in any way, shape or form. I really hope the designer teams up with art and production people who have taste and know their business (*cough* nobody in the employ of MMP *gack*).
The *good* news so far is that he’s doing some interesting things with skirmishers (always seemingly a problem in this milieu of tactical Napoleonics), and is committed to eliminating the need of having to turn counters over to get oft-used values during game play. So, there may be hope yet if someone opens his eyes, so to speak, graphically…