Details: Written by: GMT Games; Category: Peninsular War (1808-1814); Published: 20 January 2012; Last Updated: 15 January 2018; Hits: 11374

Victory Results:

39 %

61 %

Total plays 61 - Last reported by trailblazer on 2024-03-20 16:29:57

Tamames - 18 October 1809

Historical Background
General Del Parque advanced toward Salamanca with the Spanish ‘Army of the Left’ as part of the Spanish Junta’s 1809 fall campaign to retake Madrid. Barring his way was the weak French 6th Corps. Marshal Ney, the commander, was away on leave. General Marchand, in temporary command of the corps, rashly moved forward to intercept Del Parque. Marchand knew he was outnumbered, but pride, ambition and contempt for Spanish fighting abilities induced him to attack. The Spanish drew up on a formidable defensive position behind the village of Tamames. Marchand correctly identified the Spanish left as the weak section, but did not mass enough troops to win decisively. Maucune’s attack broke through the front line Spanish division, but did not have enough strength to dislodge the reserve Spanish division behind it. Marcognet’s attack on the right quickly came to naught as it was pummeled advancing uphill against a larger force. Del Parque, seeing the confusion in Marcognet’s advance, ordered his infantry forward. Marcognet’s troops broke and retreated back to their original line of departure. Maucune realized he was now facing the entire Spanish army, so he wisely abandoned his attack and conducted an orderly retreat. The Spanish gained another morale-boosting victory, but unfortunately, the remainder of the fall campaign turned into disaster when the Army of La Mancha was utterly destroyed at Ocaña.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?

Set-Up Order

	2
	15
	1
	2
	1
	3

Battle Notes

Spanish Army
• Commander: Del Parque
• 6 Command Cards
• Optional 2 Tactician Cards


11	2	2	3	2	2	4

French Army
• Commander: Marchand
• 6 Command Cards
• Optional 3 Tactician Cards
• Move First


9	3	3	1	2	1	4

Victory
8 Banners

Special Rules
• The Spanish Guerrilla Action rule is in effect. The Spanish player starts with one Guerrilla counter.

• The Stream is fordable.

Posts in discussion: 110 Tamames (18 October 1809)

Riclev replied the topic:

#10210

7 months 1 week ago

So to the return game. The French assaulted the village, but to no avail, the attacking forces being cut to pieces (three Spanish Fire & Hold cards didn't help), and the score quickly becoming 4-1 to Spain. A French rally attempt resulted in no blocks being recovered, which was unfortunate, although only infantry ones would have counted. Attention switched to the right flank where the French launched a cavalry charge. This was followed by a Spanish cavalry charge and banners were exchanged until the Spanish ran out 8-5 winners. Guerrilla tokens and tactician cards were hard to come by for both players, but the Spanish player managed to use them all in pursuit of victory. Notwithstanding what the stats say above, I think this is a tough fight for the French.

Riclev replied the topic:

#10158

7 months 3 weeks ago

The French got off to a flying start by assaulting the village in the centre, bringing across two units from the left and short supplying the Spanish light unit in the village to race to a 3-0 lead. The Spanish hit back on the weakened French left flank, eliminating the two remaining French line units and removing two blocks from the artillery unit for the loss of one unit to make things 4-2. Further exchanges in the centre made the score 5-3, with both sides shielding a couple of units with only one block remaining.

At this point the French decided to try to force the issue on the right flank. After a French bayonet charge and a Spanish cavalry charge, the score had moved onto 7-6, with the French needing just one more banner. Playing an innocuous recon in force to try to lull the Spanish player into not using a guerrilla token (the ruse worked), a heavy cavalry unit eliminated an already-weakened Spanish light cavalry unit for victory.

The moral of the story? There is nothing to be gained by going down to defeat with unused guerrilla tokens (in this case two), any more than losing while still holding a fistful of tactician cards. This Spanish player was guilty of both.

rjvonline replied the topic:

#7573

2 years 5 months ago

Darn auto emoji, Allied score was 8 (victory)

rjvonline replied the topic:

#7572

2 years 5 months ago

Return match between

Renaud/rjvonline (Allies,

and

Justin/gotigersc (French, 6)

Good die rolling on the first Spanish play (Fire and Hold) set the tone early and gave the Allies a lead that they would never relinquish (although they might have briefly caught up midway). The French did manage to boot the Spanish out of the village (especially after a First Strike by a defending Spanish light infantry yield zero hits), but didn't really have the opportunity to push further up the hills (they did kill 1 line unit). French efforts on the left were generally repelled, despite the fact that they had many cards on that side. Eventually, the French led a bayonet attack on their right, eventually supported by light cavalry attacks that seemed like they might create the upset, but despite a lack of left flank cards (the French had them all!) another Spanish Hold & Fire proved helpful in stopping the bleeding and brought the Allies near victory. In a desperate bid, the French used GM to bring 1 FA and 1 HA to contact, but Break the Square allowed a Spanish LV to kill a French LN unit already reduced to 2 blocks for the victory.

Another fun game against Justin (he won the first match with a better score, so I expect he won the match - congrats to him). Interestingly, both of our games ended up with Spanish victories despite the 1/3 chance suggested by the cc.net reports.

stephent replied the topic:

#7526

2 years 6 months ago

Log file attached (hopefully)

stephent replied the topic:

#7525

2 years 6 months ago

Stevet French 8
EZPickins Spanish 7
French prepared an advance into Tamanes, Spanish soon replied with Forced March in the Centre, creating a very strong defensive position. Realizing an attack here would be difficult, French used LGM to transfer forces to the right. Sporadic (and poor Spanish) shooting continued across the front while both sides prepared Cav Charges on the French right/Spanish left, with the Spanish light inf destroyed here when it advanced to open a path for their cavalry behind. The Spanish Cav Charge occurred first, forcing two French line into square, losses to each square and to each cav were compensated when the Spanish HC destroyed the full strength supported French FA. The French launched their Cav Charge riposte – and were stimmied by guerrillas. Fighting of necessity largely continued on this flank for the remainder of the game, with both sides generally having poor cards here but desperately trying to destroy each other’s weakened units. The line infantry and Spanish art in the nearer part of the centre were gradually drawn in. Near the end it was 7-6, favouring Spain, with mainly one and two block units remaining in the French centre and right and Spanish left. French played assault right, but attacked in the wrong order – Spanish inf were destroyed (7-7) but the ldr retreated to the 2 block LC at the rear and therefore 1 block French LC aborted the attack (perhaps just as well!). Spanish replied with recon in force, missed that French LC with 5 ranged dice. French played elan and collected the last banner.
Thanks to John for a nail biting 1st game that went down to the wire, good conversation, and for essentially faultless play!

Hawkmoon replied the topic:

#7479

2 years 6 months ago