MD06 Talavera "La Grande Battle" (28 July 1809)

Written by Michael Dippel on 13 February 2012. Posted in Peninsular War (1808-1814)

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Total plays 2 - Last reported by Mark-McG on 2021-10-04 12:20:51

Talavera "La Grande Battle" - 28 July 1809

Historical Background
Victor’s reinforced French army faces off against a larger British/ Spanish army in superb defensive positions. The French solution—attack! Ruffin’s French division is wrecked in two unsupported assaults on the British positions atop the Cerro de Medellín. It is now mid-morning of July 28th, and the French commanders meet. They decide to launch concentric attacks. Victor shifts Ruffin’s survivors to the right and supports them with one of Villatte’s brigades. Sebastiani’s fresh division fills the gap. The plan is for Sebastiani’s division to attack first [see Talavera (French attack on British)]. Leval’s division is to attack second following Sebastiani’s frontal attack against the Allied lines, but Leval’s troops lose sight of the French lines, and attack first. The French columns lose cohesion as they advance through the trees and emerge disorganized onto the open ground directly in front of the Spanish batteries on Pajar de Vergara. The French regiments still make some progress, but the central regiment finally breaks under the impact of the artillery fire. Seeing this, the Allies counter attack and Leval’s depleted regiments retreat to avoid being isolated. On the French far left, Milhaud, the cavalry commander, recognizes the strength of the Spanish position in and around Talavera and is content to skirmish with the Spaniards in this part of the battlefield.
The British maintain their positions for twenty-four hours, and then retreat hurriedly when they learn that Soult and a second French army are marching to cut their lines of communication with Portugal. The French claim a victory, even though they were soundly beaten in all of their attacks.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?

Set-Up Order

13	28	13	8	2	4

Battle Notes

Allies Army
• Commander: Wellesley
• 5 Command Cards 

Allies Corps Commanders
Right Center Left
Command 2 2 2
Tactician 1 2 2
Guerilla  1  -  -

10	2	1	1			3	2		7	2	1	4	2	3	1

French Army
• Commander: Joseph / Victor
• 5 Command Cards
• Move First

French Corps Commanders
Left Center Right
Command 2 3 3
Tactician 2 2 2

20	5	6	4	6	1	5

Victory
13 Banners

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

• The Portina Brook will stop movement, but does not cause any battle restrictions.

Tags: Banners: 13, Army: Allies, Army: British, Army: French, Army: Spanish, Special Rule: Guerrilla, Unofficial, Special Rule: "La Grande Battle"

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Posts in discussion: MD06 Talavera EPIC (28 July 1809)

Mark-McG replied the topic: #7467 1 year 3 months ago

Played with 4 players
www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/109417/4-...lgb-variant#comments

French won 13-5, powering home from 4-4 on an impressive display of dice rolling.

An aspect of this scenario design we didn't like was how few Leaders were on the map. We added British Campbell and MacKenzie, and moved Sherbrooke to the left.
French added Milhaud with the French cavalry on the French left.

Fencer replied the topic: #7314 1 year 6 months ago

We fought on this map, three against three. It was a very difficult fight! In fairness, the day should have been French. The English left flank was pressed against the baseline and fought back with the last of its strength. The center was divided into separate defense islands. The 95th regiment was defeated at the beginning of the battle, its fate was shared by the guards. Only the light brigade, coming out of the reserve, dealt a decisive blow. But the Spaniards, thanks to Guerilla, absolutely dominated on their flank. Having lost the battery, the Spaniards destroyed the light cavalry and horse artillery of the French, covered the French from the flank and crashed into the mass of French troops with wedges. The adrenaline victory of the allies - 13: 12.

mike0liver replied the topic: #710 10 years 10 months ago

Thank you - I will do as you suggest and download the versions you provide, but the main reason for my posting was to learn if there is an official (or unofficial) Vassal module I could download to update the original version 1.42 so I can play the Spanish army expansion to the boardgame.

Cheers,

Mike

Bayernkini replied the topic: #705 10 years 10 months ago

If you want to play the special fanscenarios on this site with vassal,
you need first my vassal version, download here from the download site

www.ccnapoleonics.net/category/3-modules.html

then download also my epic version here

www.ccnapoleonics.net/category/4-extensions.html

After first starting my module, its listed in the Vassal main window.
Click then on the module name in the vassal mainwindow (with right mouse click)
choose then the "Add extension" menu option and click to the downloaded
epic extension. Its installed then automatic.
After a vassal restart, the extension module and scenarios should be available then.

I did a little helpfile, Alessandro will upload it immediately

He did
www.ccnapoleonics.net/Articles/CCN-Relat...-and-extensions.html

mike0liver replied the topic: #704 10 years 10 months ago

I've come to this community fairly late in the day, having obtained the original C&C-N a few months ago and having just purchased the first (Spanish) extension to C&C-N. I am trying to update my Vassal v 1.42 module for the original C&C-N to accomodate the extension but can not fathom how to do this.

On this site home page there appear to be myriad download opportunities for "Epic" and "CCNapoleonics" etc. with instructions to put the former into a "module directory called "CCNapoleonics_EXT".

Where will I find this directory and how do I use the downloads and what exactly do they represent?

Your hopefully,

Mike

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