Failure at the First Line of Torres Vedras - thoughts and a depressing conclusion

Played Dave again. My new army idea that applies most of my previous ideas. He did a bombardment attack vs my static defence. 

Game ended just past the 3:05 hours mark with > 30% of the army broken and routed, vs 8% of the invading Russian army. Not the complete tabling of last time, but only 1 enemy unit was broken (a large conscript unit) and 1-2 other units somewhat unsettled.

Thoughts:

* Every new game of FOGN reveals a new, unexpected and seemingly illogical rule. I'm sure it makes historical sense and is perfectly reasonable and it's just me not understaning or knowning the historical impact. 

* eg. A entire Brigade, Division or Corps of British infantry WILL NOT advance towards a single small cavalry unit quickly enough to get in range to shoot it. Fair enough you might think, men on horses will outrun infantry. BUT...if you are more than 6 inches away, you CAN move fast enough to catch them! So in game terms the infantry CAN cover the same volume of space unless their is 2 mules and a pony within sight, in which case they slow down due to "presence of enemy cavalry".

* Cossack's can just move past your lines and if there is a gap you can't shoot them, stop them or charge them. 

* Don't leave a gap big enough for an enemy unit to move into between the units unless there is a reserve unit behind the gap.

* Cossack's can stand in sword range of heavy cavalry and only have a 1 in 6 chance of being caught when charged, despite needing to turn around first. 

*  Spanish Guerrillas in cover are really good at not taking any hits, and can fall back all day from enemy infantry. They make a great delaying unit in cover. Add a cavalry detachment and few enemy infantry units can hit them with gunfire.

* Place redoubts in FRONT of the army, not behind it..  That was an incredibly stupid move on my part.

* Despite it being thematically correct, do not put artillery in redoubts.

* Napoleon was only right about commit reserves if you already outnumber the enemy to HAVE reserves. I can't do that with a British Peninsula army!

* Doing a Static defense mission, does mean you will not advance out of your 18 inches deployment zone before the enemy is already into it. 

* With a British Peninsula army you must go on the defence. Frontal attacks must be blocked AT ALL COSTS. Bombardment attacks should be blocked too if possible. 

* British units must be more resilient.  Use large infantry brigades. Add cavalry detachments to light infantry units to remove enemy fire at medium range or intersperse light cavalry between the infantry brigades.

* Place TWO hills to use the reserve slope.  One is too small to hide behind.

* Unreformed infantry, cannot shoot across a river. They can only shoot at close range (2 inches!!). 

* Being on the defensive, allows you to select a RIVER and then place it to block off 1/3 of the table. Do not attempt to fight on BOTH sides of the river.

* When on the defensive, select two towns.  They wont hold, but they will delay and slow down enemy assaults elsewhere.

* When placing units behind a town to counter attack, leave a gap for fleeing units to go past without interpenetrating.

* Choose a road and use that to place a LOC after all other terrain is placed.

 

And the most important lesson: Find someone who is not as experienced to play against, or find another game to play. Dave is a great teacher and has taught me the rules very well and with great patience, so it is no fault of his, he's just so much better and experienced than I am. I would need to have an actual army to USE and not borrow to do this, or play a team game, neither of which is on the horizon.  The only other person I know who has a British army I could borrow is the man who wrote the actual book (ie- the rules) which is not much of an improvement to have a more equal chance of success.

I can't even get close to THREATENING Dave's army. There seems no hope of getting even close to a draw. The Russian/Moldovan armies have better and more artillery, more infantry, more and BETTER light and skirmish cavalry and only lack shock heavy cavalry. 

This must be how the French felt when facing Wellington. 

The British army needs a Wellington. I am not Wellington, which makes it hard when you try and command Wellington's army.

A record of the latest disaster : Field of Glory Napoleonic. Anglo-Portuguese vs Moldova in Spain 1809

The Sun rises to the east. An Anglo-Portuguese corps advances to liberate an Spanish town held by the forces of Napoleon...a army from far away Moldova.

The Battlefield facing East towards the rising sun. Spain, 1809.

A new army list idea after the latest latest disaster

A new idea after more lessons learned. It gets most of the units I want.

 

It includes all the units I want, though the Spanish Guerrillas are missing their cavalry and the British Line Infantry units are small and not large. It lacks Portuguese Cavalry too.

1st wargame after Lockdown. A complete disaster. A long list of lessons to be learnt.

 Field of Glory Napoleonic : British/Portuguese 1811 vs Moldova. 

I lost nearly the entire British Light Division (every unit bar the Spanish Guerillas) and the entire British Calvary division. I disordered one of his units. For a turn. A complete and unmitigated disaster.

Lessons learnt (a lot of them :( )
Do Not Attempt A Frontal Attack In Spain.
Do Not Attempt A Frontal Attack Over Steep Hills.
British Light Rifle Infantry Cannot Assault Conscripts On Top Of a Hill If They Are Unsupported.
Charging Heavy Shock Cavalry THROUGH Moldivan Grenadiers won't actually disorder them (WTF).

Use the Spanish Guerillas as a support unit for the charging light infantry. Also they make very good unit in extended line in difficult or rough terrain where it is very hard to charge into them. 

Light Infantry should be in extended line unless being charged.

Do Not Put Down Terrain Where I plan to attack. 

Put Trees on cover I don't want someone to shoot through.

Put Trees on rough or Steep Hills to remind me not to try and walk over them or shoot OUT of them!

If choosing to defend, I need a artillery unit. This can force the enemy to attack my units.

If I AM defending with a smaller army, and the enemy is doing an envelopment, stand back and wait till they disclose their attack flank position. 

If the enemy has the option to do an envelopment, a PROBE mission can help defeat it. Probe is also good to do if I have 4 divisions and not 3. 

Take a road for terrain and place it where I want my LOC to be, behind my army. Portuguese Militia or Spanish Guerrillas can make a useful defense unit for them.

I need a cheap division to extend the line and allow the rest of the army to strike elsewhere. 

Veteran troops do not need a command point to do 1 thing. Allocate command points to brigades that do not have veterans. Give divisions that don't have Veteran units a command point. 

 When charging the division, attach the division commander to the key point.

I need a skilled Corps commander to hand out 2 command points to one or two divisions.

I should station my Heavy Shock Cav in the middle of the line or behind a infantry unit. A complex test is needed to move through friendly infantry so they need a commander ATTACHED to them before declaring the charge to make it a +4 rather than +5. Veterans roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 for drilled so using KGL light cavalry can be a good way to do it if friendly infantry has spent the previous turn firing at the enemy infantry.


In Conclusion I feel right now I should just give up attempting to play wargames. Much like my army, my morale is shattered. I feel like the only army I should attempt to play would be an Allied one for the Gallipoli campaign...and it would end in the same result. Perhaps fight the same way the British did at New Orleans in the war of 1812.