Sensei Andrew B. , rules guru and tactical swami, has taken pity on me and has deigned to share his enlightened ways with a poor student after reading of my plight in the last posting.
My goal is now to reach the heightened state of enlightenment by following his teachings. I am sharing his wisdom with all in the attempt to spread his wisdom far and wide.
Ommmm!
"Hi Ben,
I was reading your blog this morning and I noticed in your comments section in your latest battle report, you mentioned replaying the crisis moments to see what you could have done differently. This made me think of what I would have done in your situation. Since you go to all the effort of taking pictures and writing battle reports I thought I would do a masterclass with you.... Feel free to put this on your blog if you want.
Firstly lets get started on the deployment of the battle
French side
C C G A I I I A I I I I L L I I
D D A B B A B B B B B B B P P P P P A S S
British side
Legend
C - Cuirassiers
L - Lancers
A - Artillery
G - Old Guard
I - Infantry Battalions
D - Light Dragoons
B - British Battalions
P - Portuguese Battailions
S - Spanish Battalions
I noticed that both sides have set up to attack the left side and hold on the right. However you are outnumbered 5-2 in cavalry regiments. Including the two Cuirassier regiments.
This to me would rule out any offensive action for the british as you cannot afford to engage in any cavalry melees as numbers will guarantee your eventual defeat. I would begin the battle deploying the British into a defensive line, probably anchored lines, supported by cannon. Deploy your cavalry behind the infantry, keep the RHA with them to deploy in a critical area later in the battle.
What you did was advance toward the French allowing your cavalry to be defeated in detail. In a situation a when you have cavalry superiority a draw or a minor loss is actually a victory for you because it allows your extra regiments to charge the blown cavalry with a guaranteed victory. (What happened in your battle)
Cavalry is a threat as long as it remains on the field, the hardest decision for cavalry and one that many people at the club struggle to fully understand is when is the best time to charge and when is it actually better to leave them in a threatening position.
I'm not sure if you realised, but you actually had the best unit to neutralise the Cuirassiers..... your Spanish infantry! If you had them on your left flank in squiare with the Spanish battery the Cuirassiers would not be able to charge and defeat them, and the Cuirassiers wouldn't be able to stay in charge range without suffering losses from the artillery.
Let me know what you think and if you want me to talk more tactics
Andrew"
Hi
ReplyDeleteOne thing is true in wargaming: any unit formed in square would face indefinitely enemy cavalry. The ony way to break them is the cooperation with infantry and/or artillery.
Best regards
Rafa
When heavily outnumbered by cavalry a good tactic is to remove your cavalry from the front line and place them in reserve on each flank. (As you stated Andrew)You can use the cavalry threaten the advance of the enemy's infantry without running the risk of your cavalry being charged by the enemy cavalry. Artillery on the flank will aslo force the enemy cavalry to keep their distance.
ReplyDeleteWith the troops available to both sides I think the French did not have enough infanrty to take advantage of their cavalry superiority and the Britsh did not have enough cavalry to take advantage of their superiority in infantry.
The best tactic for the British, I think, would have been to let the French attack and to look for possibilities to launch counterattacks.
Tim
The problem I'm finding at the moment is my initial dispositions. Once the battle starts I can see where I should have put my troops, but by then it's too late! In this particular case I realised, too late, that I would have had more chance in disrupting John's infantry if I'd kept my cavalry behind in reserve.
ReplyDeleteHopefully I'll be able to put all this into practice this Friday, Tim :-)
M. Rosbif as we will meet on the field of battle soon I don't wish to be too helpful but ...... in a points game such as we play on Friday nights with 1200 -1500 points I tend to do the following, make both the left and right flank self contained (inf art cav) such that it can defend against that most evil of attacks - combined arms. I have no centre as both the left and right flank rest on each other. About one third of the infantry is held in reserve and that is the force I'll use to attack with. (re the Russian game when John and Malcolm were my commanders.) It's not necessarily a recipe for success but the chances of losing are greatly diminished.
ReplyDelete