Historical Background
July 14th, 1808 – Medina de Rioseco, 25 miles from Valladolid
At dawn of July 14th, 1808, barely three months after “Dos de Mayo”, the general Spanish uprising against French occupation, a cavalry patrol arrived at the headquarters of General Cuesta, Commander in Chief of the Army of Castile, reporting that an unexpected French force had been spotted advancing against the village from the East.
Immediately, the veteran 67 years old commander deployed his troops, composed of mostly overenthusiastic volunteers with little or no training, and sent a rider to General Blake, who at the head of 14.000 regular soldiers from the Army of Galicia was camped over a plateau, half an hour distant from Medina.
The approaching Frenchmen, wrongly supposed to be less than 5.000 strong, were in fact three Divisions from Marshal Bessières’s Corps, reinforced with units from Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, both foot and horse. They had orders to search and destroy any Spanish force between Madrid and the Cantabrian mountains, to keep clear the road between the French frontier and the Spanish capital, known as the “Camino Real”.
General Blake’s instructions from the Galician Junta (local government), was NOT to cooperate with General Cuesta, whom they considered nearly a traitor. Nonetheless, he deployed his light troops in front of the French vanguard, and sent a Division to reinforce Cuesta’s volunteers.
Bessières sent a solid infantry column strengthened with artillery against the Spanish lines, maintaining his cavalry and guardsmen in reserve. Eight hours later, Cuesta’s surviving peasant soldiers retired alongside Blake’s regulars, leaving behind more than a thousand casualties, after several cavalry charges and countercharges, the sacrifice of two whole squadrons of Spanish Royal Guard and Royal Carabiniers, and even an Imperial Guard battery taken by Spanish grenadiers. But to no avail. The exhausted French soldiers, with their own share of dead and wounded comrades, never intended to pursue the Spanish fugitives. Instead, they entered in Medina, buried their dead, sacked and burned the city.
This is wide open scenario ready for a challenge, where you will have to use your best skills in order to modify the encounter outcome, and win the day.
The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?
Battle Notes
Spanish Army
• Commander: Blake and Cuesta
• 4 Command Cards.
• 2 Tactical Cards.
• no guerrilla counters
French Army
• Commander: Bessieres
• 5 Command Cards
• 5 Tactician Cards
• Move First 
Victory
12 Banners
Special Rules
• The Spanish heavy cuirassier cavalry unit is exceptionally composed of 4 blocks. On the other hand, it does not have the benefits against musket fire and cavalry lances, because the troopers had already discarded their cuirasses at this point in time.
• Every unit of the French Imperial Guard eliminated gives 2 victory banners to the Spanish player.
• The British horse artillery unit is in fact a Spanish one, and behaves just the same.
