113 Alba de Tormes (28 November 1809)

113 Alba de Tormes (28 November 1809)

Is this even winnable by the Spanish? A friend and I played it twice tonight, myself as the French, and it felt like clubbing baby seals. I didn't have great cards, but not bad, either. Ths Spanish had average cards, but no scout cards on the initial draw, therefore no guerilla counters to spend. Any ideas on the Spanish having even a slight win chance?

Paul

I haven´t played this one, but there are still some more scenarios in the spanish extension,
which are extreme outbalanced,
"Zornoza" for example (my favorite worse scenario)

PaulK wrote: ...A friend and I played it twice tonight...

Hi Paul, don't forget to update scenario results hitting one of the two arrows on page top (under black scenario name).
Hitting the left most arrow (red) will record a victory for the "top army".
Hitting the right most arrow (blue) will record a victory for the "bottom army".
Doing so we can keep scenarios statistics updated and we can also better see scenario balance in the future.
Thank you
Alessandro

Ok, played this scenario today first time, and my
mind about the worse spanish scenario changed from
"Zornoza" now to this one

I've not played this one, but from the scenario text, it would seem the French should be outnumbered 5:1. Of course infantry are more numerous, but perhaps reducing the French force by 2 HC might balance up the scenario a bit.

The 2 main outbalanced rules here are, that french starts first turn
AND spanish can´t cancel turn.

Give the spanish the first turn AND a Guerrilla Marker at start, that should help
(and french should have still an advantage, but not anymore 100%).

At last, you can additional change the command cards, give the french also only 4 or the spanish also 5 command cards.

I consider it a small victory as the Spanish when I got 1 French unit off the board. Oh well! History was repeated.

The Spanish marksmanship was worse than the French cards. This scenario is not competitive, but it is instructive. One can get a sense of how badly Del Parque was beaten. French win, with a slight delay, 6-1.

This was Tom and my second unbalanced scenario (after Zornoza). Again, it isn't obviously that unbalanced, with the French force being purely cavalry (though mostly heavies).
I started as French and attacked on my left. This quickly eliminated one of the Spanish light cavalry units and put a couple of infantry into square. 1:0
Cavalry Charges into the centre took out another light cavalry, a line infantry (now unable to form square), a militia and the artillery (!) with just a little damage to one French Heavy cavalry. 5:0
A further attack in the centre finished off another Spanish line infantry to seal the deal with French cavalry also taking the bridge (no escape!). 6:0 and played in 20 minutes.
Switching sides, Tom followed my example by attacking on the left and taking out a Spanish light cavalry. The gallant Spanish infantry refused to form square (gulp!) and got mauled. 0:1
The French finished off the mauled unit and moved towards the centre, destroying a militia and another light cavalry en route. 0:4
A last-ditch Cavalry Charge from the remaining Spanish lights almost (almost!) removed a damaged French light.
The French attacked in the centre again, destroying a battered Spanish line unit, despite it going into square, and taking General Losada with it to win 0:6, before the Spanish lights had a chance to finish off their counterparts.
Note the complete lack of Guerilla action in this 6:6 draw that took a whole 40 minutes.