Victory Results:
 100 %
Record a victory for BOTTOM ARMY  0 %
Total plays 1 - Last reported by Mark-McG on 2023-08-07 14:01:09

Évora
29 July 1808

Historical Background
The Spanish Dos de Mayo uprising against the French quickly spread throughout Spain and crossed the border into Portugal. The Portuguese countryside rose against the French and General Junot and his troops in Lisbon had their lines of communications cut with Spain and France. At the end of the July, Junot decided to send General Loison with a force of at least 7,000 men and eight artillery pieces to clear a path to the border fortress of Elvas.
On 29 July 1808, Loison's troops reached the outskirts of Évora to find a Portuguese-Spanish force arrayed across their path with 2,000 men and seven artillery pieces. Behind them, manning the ancient walls of Évora was a motley collection of poorly armed townsmen and peasants.
The French advanced quickly in three columns. The charging dragoons caused the Spanish hussars to flee. The impact of the infantry charge quickly broke the defenders leaving the town at the mercy of the French, the sacking of which lasted all night and following morning.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?

 

Set-Up Order

Forest 3
Hill 5
Town 5
TownWindmill 1

 

Battle Notes

Portuguese-Spanish Army
Commander: General Francisco de Paula Leite de Sousa
4 Command Cards

Line Infantry Light Infantry Militia Infantry Light Cavalry Leader   Line Infantry Light Infantry Grenadier Infantry Foot Artillery Light Cavalry Leader
1 1 2 1 1   1 1 1 1 1 1

French Army
Commander: General Louis-Henri Loison
5 Command Cards
Move First

Line Infantry Line Infantry Light Infantry Grenadier Infantry Heavy Cavalry Foot Artillery Leader
4 1 2 2 2 1 3

 

Victory
6 Banners

Special Rules
The French use British line infantry blocks for the Hanoverian Legion. The Hanoverian Legion is treated as French Line Infantry except that they do not get +1 when in Melee vs Infantry.

The French gain Victory Banners in the normal way; one is gained for each enemy leader or enemy unit entirely eliminated. However no Victory Banners are gained for eliminating Portuguese Milita.

The Portuguese-Spanish gain one Victory Banner when the FIRST block of a unit is eliminated and one additional Victory Banner when the LAST block of of a unit is eliminated. When a leader is eliminated, collect one Victory Banner.

The Portuguese Milita may not voluntarily leave the town of Évora.

 

Notes
The battle was not balanced. With 7,000 good French troops against 2,000 inexperienced Portuguese-Spanish there was really no doubt about the outcome once the allies had decided to meet the French outside the walls. The French lost 90 dead and 200 wounded. The whole Portuguese-Spanish army was routed with huge loss.
The unusual Victory Banner rules mean that the Portuguese-Spanish army will win if they do better than their historical counterparts. The French must eliminate their enemies with small losses to their own side in order to win the scenario.

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Mark-McG replied the topic:
7 months 1 day ago

REPLACE;
The Portuguese-Spanish gain one Victory Banner when the FIRST block of a unit is eliminated and one additional Victory Banner when the LAST block of of a unit is eliminated. When a leader is eliminated, collect one Victory Banner.

WITH
Évora, Convento and Quinta dos Cucos are Temporary Victory Banner Objective Hexes for each side. Place a Portuguese Garrison marker in the unoccupied towns. Allies start with 3 Victory banners.

For Tactian cards we gave the Allies 1 and the French 2. No Guerillas.
we gave this version a playtest and it was quite tense
French won 6-4, but the Spanish were at 5-1 at one point and rolling a 1d Leader check. So there was definitely a Spanish chance.

Made a VASSAL file for anyone interested
 

File Attachment:

File Name: KB02a-Evor...808.vsav
File Size:588 KB

 
Mark-McG replied the topic:
7 months 3 weeks ago
We played this for a novelty, and it was novel. It is terribly unbalanced because of the Victory conditions. Spano-Portos won 6-1, with a single unit eliminated on each side, and 5 wounded French units.

There is however a rescue option I believe. If the hexes with the names are made into Temporary Victory Banner Objective Hexes for each side, this would give the Allies a bit of a start, and the French a real objective

REPLACE;
The Portuguese-Spanish gain one Victory Banner when the FIRST block of a unit is eliminated and one additional Victory Banner when the LAST block of of a unit is eliminated. When a leader is eliminated, collect one Victory Banner.

WITH
Évora, Convento and Quinta dos Cucos are Temporary Victory Banner Objective Hexes for each side. Place a Portuguese Garrison marker in the unoccupied towns. Allies start with 3 Victory banners.

For Tactian cards we gave the Allies 1 and the French 2. No Guerillas.