013 Combat at Aire (2 March 1814)
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Combat at Aire - 2 March 1814
Historical Background
Wellington’s victorious army was too tired to give immediate chase to the defeated French after the Battle of Orthez, but Wellington did dispatch General Hill with two divisions of infantry, a cavalry brigade and horse artillery to deny the French time to regroup. Hill caught up with General Clausel’s rear guard at Aire. Marshall Soult ordered Clausel, with two divisions, to hold Aire long enough to allow Soult’s artillery stores and ammunition to be moved out of harm’s way. The battle opened with the Portuguese assailing the center and left of the French line. These attacks were met with a bayonet counter-charge that sent the Portuguese back toward the Grave River. Stewart’s advancing British reinforced Da Costa’s men and halted their retreat. The Portuguese and the British reinforcements stormed up the ridge a second time and hurled the French back. Aire was captured and the French stores became Hill’s prize.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?
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Set-Up Order
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Battle Notes
British Army
• Commander: Hill
• 6 Command Cards
• Optional 5 Tactician Cards
• Move First
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| 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
French Army
• Commander: Clausel
• 5 Command Cards
• Optional 4 Tactician Cards
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| 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Victory
6 Banners
Special Rules
The two town hexes are Victory Banner objective hexes for the British player. If an Anglo-Portuguese unit occupies an objective hex at the start of the British player’s turn, the British player gains a Victory Banner. As long as the unit remains on the objective hex it will count as a British Victory Banner. If it moves off or is eliminated, it no longer counts
(Temporary Victory Banner Turn Start)
The River Grave can be forded not only at the ford terrain hex, but in all other hexes as well. However, when crossing the ford terrain hex, a unit or leader does not cease movement (the ford terrain hex represents a low water crossing point).
Tags: Base Game, Banners: 6, Army: British, Army: French, Army: Portuguese, Special Rule: Temporary VB (Turn Start)
Turns 1-4: British and French slowly but surely move closer to each other.
Turn 5: British create a tie at two banners a piece after General Harispe is mortally wounded just north of the town of Nauzeilles.
Turn 9: French secure the victory at the end of turn nine with "Elan" and a good roll of the dice... They win 6 to 4 in a close game that saw very little movement along the front. British were never close to the two town objectives.
The Allies' first move was for the Portuguese to move forward on the right, bringing the Light cavalry to the fore. The French militia opposite them advanced in response, with the French Light cavalry trotting in front of the town.
The Portuguese Light infantry and British Horse artillery advanced a little further to engage the French cavalry at long range. The cavalry retired out of range.
Further shooting from the British Horse artillery and Portuguese Light infantry on the Allies' right inflicted casualties on the French Line infantry on the end of the hills. At the same time, the Portuguese Heavy cavalry moved right while General Stewart on the Allies' left joined advancing Line infantry. ["Forward" is such a useful card.]
Piqued by the long-range fire, the damaged French Line on their left moved up to engage the Portuguese Light infantry in the wood, while the French Light cavalry attacked the guns. Both infantry units took damage, but the Horse artillery was battered by the cavalry. French forces also advanced in the centre, Light infantry moving forward on the hills, and the Foot artillery on the French right took up position on the hills. [Such a good card that Evert played a "Counter-attack".]
Time for the Portuguese to move forward in the centre, engaging the advanced French infantry with some ineffective musketry. The French returned fire, rather more accurately, only for the Portuguese to respond with concerted volleys, weakening the French infantry in the centre. French bayonets then came into action, Line infantry all but destroying their Portuguese opposite numbers under General da Costa.
With the attack in the centre faltering, British infantry advanced on the left, carefully keeping the woods between them and the French artillery on the hills. And, on the Allies' right, the Portuguese Light cavalry pounced on the half-strength French Line in front of them. The infantry tried to fight them off, but fell. [That opens the scoring: 1:0 to the Allies.]
French militia moved onto the hills on their left wing, their fire driving off the Portuguese Light cavalry. The French Light cavalry finished off the Horse artillery in front of them. And then the Portuguese Light infantry in the woods! [Lucky dice from Evert and the score's suddenly 1:2.]
The Portuguese cavalry, Heavy and Light, responded, driving the French out of the woods as their Line infantry advanced. The French Heavies now got into the fight, smashing the Portuguese Light cavalry, despite the protection of the woods. And, in the centre, French Line finally finished off that Portuguese Line unit, General da Costa escaping. [1:3]
With all eyes on one side of the battlefield, nobody noticed British infantry surge forward on the Allies' left flank to surround the French on the hills. ["La Grande Manoeuvre" lets me get round the end of the hills.]
The French defence was vigorous, immediately eliminating one of the attacking British Line units and inflicting heavy casualties on the Lights. [1:4] The battered British fight back, almost getting a French Line, while the Lights take cover in the town. From here, they finish off that French Line unit, only for the French artillery to smash their positions and annihilate them. [2:5]
The British infantry continued to engage what's left of the French right, but a French attack in the centre ended things by removing another Portuguese unit. [2:6]
Well, that was quite a beating! I don't know quite what happened, except that Evert rolled good dice at a couple of crucial points. The return match is due next week, but I can't see I'll get a better result than that. We shall see.
Boy did we get some weird results this week.
We managed to get in six games and five of them were blowouts. Also the French won four of the six games.
The wildest was the last game we played that was a British Victory. I was commanding the French. For the first time the Portuguese successfully mounted a full scale assault on the French center and annihilated it. When the game ended there was only one French Unit left in the center.
Final tally: French 5 victories; English 4.
We have played the last four scenarios (We started with Waterloo and are working our way backwards). So far we think that this is the most interesting scenario we have played so far.
Thanks, your corrections look great.FYI. My regular CCN partner and I have played this scenario six times. For us it is a very balanced scenario. Both sides have one it three times. In four of the games the final score was six banners to five.
One of the features of the C&C series that we like is that one can play a game several times in one session. Last Friday we played this particular scenarion three times in one evening.
Everything should be fixed right now.
We have discovered three errors in the directions for the scenario here.
1. Map: The Portuguese unit in the top row, four (4) hexes from the left should be a LC not a HC.
2. Map: The French unit in the third row, five (5) hexes from the right should be a LT not a LI.
3. Portuguese order of battle: There should be two (2) Portuguese leaders, not one (1).
