Talavera Redux

We recently played the battle of Talavera in 15mm using Commit the Garde rules. The details are in a previous post. We agreed that the scenario was interesting enough to try again so I reset the terrain and switched sides to give it another go.

In the first run through of the battle, the French tried to ignore the British and attack the Spanish. In this battle the French plan was to pine the British in the center and break through the difficult terrain on the exposed flank to force the British to defend 2 fronts with inferior numbers. 

French foot face of against British guard cavalry

The French pressed ahead on the flank with 5 infantry and 2 cavalry with Marshall Victor making sure it all went to plan. A large firefight occurred across the stream with both sides taking casualties. The French flanking attack bogged down in the difficult terrain but drew off valuable reinforcements from the Allies. 

The Spanish defending Talavera remained in their field works except for 2 cavalry units who came out to threaten the French left. Slowly but surely the French plan was coming together. The British were having to withdraw badly damaged units and became the thin red line. The French made a breakthrough on the right but were hampered by the terrain and the loss of three generals over the course of the battle.

Wellington's HQ

 British units retreat to the hill for a last stand

Just as the the lines were starting to break up into a free for all, the Spanish cavalry on the French left was joined by the lone Spanish general, broke through the French defenses and proceeded to roll up 4 infantry units, clearing a large swath of the French line. The remnants of the cavalry unit survived to tell the tale and were hailed as the heroes of the battle. French morale collapsed on the following turn.

Remnants of the heroic Spanish heavy cavalry

The battle was a real nail biter. Both armies were extremely worn down at the end but the French could not recover from this cavalry charge on top of other losses. 

For future games, we will add a rule that allows cavalry in good order to evade attacking infantry if they pass a morale check.

Thanks for an awesome game John!