Snappy Nappy Campaign in a Day, Spain Spring 1813: The GM's Report

 

GM Report- Spain 1813 Snappy Campaign

“We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France”

Duke of Wellington.

History background and campaign Development.

Last year (2024) was my 1^st time creating a Snappy campaign. Players said it was a good campaign so I decided why not try it again. This year I wanted to do Spain. I wanted to see some redcoats on the tables. The French and British have always had a natural rivalry throughout the 18^th & 19^th centuries. I always enjoyed playing the Peninsular campaign in W&P. As a matter of fact part of my research included buying & playing another of Mark Mclaughlin’s games “Wellington” which was about the 1812-1814 Spanish campaign. I read a lot of internet articles on the campaign, including Britishbattles.com but the most interesting discovery was Project Gutenberg "A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 6, September 1, 1812-August 5, 1813" by Charles Oman. 

So how to choose a campaign? Portugal 1808? Corunna 1809? Talavera 1809 (done previously)? Salamanca in 1812 seemed interesting. Well, inspiration came from Peter’s basement while playing Field of Battle. Kevin Carroll suggested Vittoria, which I had not considered. Hmmm... I could do another 1813 campaign, build off my previous 1813 Saxony campaign. 1813, This could be my year. The forces were relatively even at the Battle of Vittoria. And to top it off it was a pivotal battle that decided the Peninsula campaign. Sold!

Next I had to find a map. My 1^st map choice was the June 21^st Vittoria battlefield. Do a one day campaign of a one day battle. But the Basque region had so much more to offer, with Rivers, mountains, and a coastline to include the Royal Navy. I then found Peter’s maps of the entire European theatre. I carved out a section of northern Spain. These are very clean maps, but I discovered my table network would be too easy to figure out. Finally, I settled on a random internet map. – Old nostalgic map. A plethora of terrain, roads, and ambiguity to cause some confusion. Plus good Ole Northeastern towns called LaGuardia & Bayonne.

The opposing forces:

Wellington’s army comprised 52,000 British and 28,000 Portuguese troops. An army of 25,000 Spanish troops co-operated in the campaign. Wellington’s army had 90 guns.

The French army, drawn from the Army of the South, the Army of the Centre and the Army of Portugal, comprised 68,000 troops (including 7,000 cavalry), with 150 guns.

George Nafziger online OOB is amazing. It has both armies arranged and detailed down to the regiments and batteries. This was good because the scale I needed to do was not Corps size as is typical of a Snappy campaign, but Division level. Units were represented by Regiments instead of Brigades.

Divisional Game scale: Each Inf Unit = 900 men

Each Cav Unit = 300 horses

Each Art Unit = 12 Guns

I used the actual OOB of the opposing sides for the battle of Vittoria, or in the general vicinity and had participated in the Pyrenees battles in the following month of July. This gave me 15 French and 14 Allied divisions. With this I could accommodate up to 29 – 31 players… YIKES that is a lot of players. We actually had 19 Generals on game day, so it was very manageable.

The miniatures - There were 131 British units and commanders vs 142 French. Two stands per infantry and cavalry unit. I knew Peter had the figures to cover me. I used Jame’s scoring of units based on quality and staying power for a balanced point.

Guards = 12

Elites = 8

Veteran = 6

Seasoned = 4

Conscript = 3

Here is how I went about assigning combat values. The British Infantry were Veterans after fighting in Spain for 4-5 years. The Portuguese were just a notch lower, so I assigned Seasoned. There were Spanish, which we ended up not using, that were a mix of Season and Conscript. The French had some cadres of Veterans, but Napoleon had pulled a lot of veterans out to create a new Armée du Main fighting against Blucher and the Czar. So I created French divisions with a mix of Veteran and Seasoned. Cassange (Russ) had an all Seasoned division. All the 6lb artillery was veteran and I made the 12lb art seasoned. Cavalry on both sides were strong. Most cav units were Veteran or Elite. I did give the British one Guard Cav, and one Guard Infantry unit. No guard units for the French, they were recalled to Germany. Sorry French….Blame Russia.

The British had 9 Inf divisions with an average of 8.7 units.

The French had 8 Inf divisions with an average of 10.3 units

The British had one Cav division and French 2 Cav divisions each with 4 horses

The French had an 18-16 advantage in Artillery.

		British Army		Br Pts
Player 1		Commanding General: Field Marshal Wellington	Pts
	W	Major Arriaga's Battery (9pdrs) HEAVY	6	6
reinforce	W-R	Independent Brigades:	28	34
Player 2	W	3rd Division: Lieutenant-General Sir T. Picton	50	84
Player 3	W	4th Division: Lieutenant-General Sir G.L. Cole	54	138
Player 4	H	8th Division: General O'Callaghan	56	194
Player 5	H	2nd Division: Major-General Byng	40	234
Player 6	G	1st Division: Howard	54	288
Player 7	G	5th Division: Leith	54	342
Player 8	W	Major-General W. Ponsonby Cav Division	46	388
Player 9	W	6th Division: Pakenham	50	438
Player 10	W	7th Division: Lieutenant-General Earl of Dalhousie	44	482
Player 11	W	Light Division: Major-General Baron Alten	42	524
Player 12	G	Spanish Division: General Longa	23	547
Player 13	H	Portuguese Corps: Silveria	24	571
Player 14	H	Spanish Division: General Morillo	25	596
Player 15
		French Order of Battle at Vitoria
		21 June 1813		Fr Pts
Player 1	Joseph Bonaparte		Pts
	S	2 Batteries & Train (5/365)- RESERVE ART HEAVY	8	8
Player 2	S	6th Division: Général de division Daricau	62	70
Player 3	S	2nd Division: Général de division Conroux	64	134
Player 4	C	5th Division: Général de division Darmagnac	48	182
Player 5	C	7th Division: Général de division Cassagne	44	226
Player 6	P	4th Division: Général de division Sarrut	54	280
Player 7	P	8th Division: Général de division Lamartiniere	50	330
Player 8	S	1st Cav Division: Général de division P. Soult	28	358
Player 9	S	3rd Division: Général de division Villatte	50	408
Player 10	P	2nd Cav Division: Boyer	28	436
Player 11	S	1st Division: Général de division Leval	46	482
Player 12	C	King's Spanish Army:	37	519
Player 13	P	9th Division: Général de division Foy	30	549
Player 14	N	1st Division: Général de division Abbé	34	583
Player 15	N	2nd Division: Général de division Vandermaesen	26	609

I arranged the weighted divisional units to create a balanced force structure. In anticipation of a players coming and going, I set the divisions in sequence 1-15 by division to try and always keep a balance on game day. We actually had 3 players drop out, so each side was minus one division, and Brandan graciously gave up his small cavalry division to add to Picton’s command and he took on the Wellington command role. Speaking of Wellington, many AARs (I mean the French ones) are referring to Wellesley as the British commander because they claim he earned the title Duke of Wellington in May of 1814. In truth Wellesley earned his title the Viscount Wellington of Talavera after that battle in 1809. So he is rightly referred to as Wellington throughout my 1813 campaign.

Map and Table design.

The beauty of the Snappy campaign is in its multiple tables, all potential battlefields. Russ has written a great summary about the details of this on a previous Snappy post so you can look that up on the campaign on Peters blog "La Patrie en Danger!" January, 1814 Campaign in France.

My two main goals as a map designer is one to give the players the opportunity to maneuver before battle and two to try and create smaller separate battles. I have heard or read about how sometimes the players all congregate on a single table. No room for maneuver. A slugfest. And LONG turns which may dampen the excitement.

I had 14+ tables (6’X4’), utilizing everyone that the Portal had. To enhance the maneuver of Corps, I watched a video that Russ sent last 2 years about a Spanish Snappy Nappy campaign run by an Australian gaming group. They used additional “Transit Tables” or Transit Towns (X) inserted between actual tables. I added time delays mostly 5 minutes, some longer due to distance or mountains, to simulate the time it takes to march across an actual table. I had 15 of these 8.5 X 11” tables. I made the combatants record in a log the time they entered and the time they left these transit tables. This provided much good information of each division’s whereabouts during the day. Generals were or course on the honor system to wait the appropriate time before moving to the next table. A network of 49 index cards represented the road network. I allowed the players to find their route from table to table.

The double table. I suspected that due to the set up, and victory conditions that the forces would collide along the main road… At Vittoria (T6). Well, that is the heart of this campaign, so that would be good to recreate, right? But if that happened, it could become very crowded on a 6X4 table and break my number two goal. I really would like to avoid that. So I designed a double table to create the room needed. How well did my plan go?... I’ll let report from Major Gen Ponsonby speak for me…

“Ponsonby led the British into view of the city and as the French positions came into view, he realized that Lief and Alten were already within sight of the city as well. Now three divisions who had not been ordered to take Vittoria were staring down the Cities French defenders with a possible two more divisions behind.”

Sometimes you get lucky ! Through the day, there were 3-4 French, and 3-4 British players on the Vittoria table at the same time. The day ended with 3 vs 3. The double table worked out.

The terrain in Northern Spain has a lot of mountains and rough terrain. And of course the Pyrenees mountains were the most dominating feature. I had only one transit town in the Pyrenees, and I put a limit of TWO units ONLY able to travel the road. I think Daricau (James) was the only player who scouted out the town in the mountains.

Only one River, the Ebro, was a major river. This was on the mind of both sides. While 3 tables had the Ebro with bridges (and one ford), I made the main road from Burgos to Vittoria a transit town (Miranda X9) so as not to hinder movement across a major river. I anticipated multiple divisions moving in that direction and didn’t want to break my #1 rule of maneuverability.

Victory conditions:

Objectives: Napoleon needs his Marshals in Spain to repell the British Army approaching the frontier. Taking Burgos would set the British back, as this traces supply all the way to Portugal. He also needs to avoid a major defeat, as that likely would persuade Austria to join the coalition forces in Germany. The British need take the major cities & to push the French out of Spain and capture the main road to Bayonne, which is Frances main source of supply.

I put these Victory objectives into tangible points system.

Control the following

Burgos                        +2

Vittoria                        +2

Pamplona                   +2

San Sebastian          +1

Santander                   +1

Division Exhaustion - casualties exceed 75% =      -1

Enormous Train of Booty - French earn if wagons gets to Bayonne     +1

Control of main road from Burgos to Bayonne - British earn if they can control 3 / 5 tables      +1

British Capture Bayonne        +10

I almost made the capture of Bayonne an Automatic victory, since this would be catastrophic to Napoleons reign to have British occupy a French city while he was facing down the Allies in Saxony.

The French owned 5 VP, British 2VP at the start. That would put the burden of attack on the British. The train of booty and the control of the road I considered bonus opportunities in case of a tight game.

Special scenario rules (or the way the GM annoys the players)

Each side had unique concerns, unknown to the opponent. Supply in Spain’s rugged terrain was an issue for both sides. The British were a long way from their ports in Portugal. It was important for them to capture a Northern Spanish port to alleviate this situation. Only two ports were available, Santander and San Sebastian. Historically the British used Santander. So did our Generals. The French had to deal with Partisans disrupting their supply. I tried to keep the Partisan rules simple. That is garrison certain towns, mainly along the main road or pay the penalty. I marked the 7 towns with a Flag that needed a garrison, failure to do so would result in random moral checks.

King Joseph had the choice to use the Bayonne garrison as a reserve, or disperse to these towns. He chose the latter, relieving the burden of every French Division commander from having to give up a unit for garrison duty. I chuckled when I heard the British post game comments “I wondered why I kept running into all these towns with a garrison.”

Also French messages had a possibility of 5% chance getting intercepted by the partisans. Only one message during the day got stopped.

The British also had the opportunity to involve the Royal Navy. But only for bringing reinforcements to the battle, as this was a land battle game. Pre Campaign Wellington had to determine where his Big guns and Portuguese reserves would land. I needed a specific time and location. The Navy would wait up to one hour for the Brits to capture that port or they would leave without dropping the reinforcements. Wellington chose Santander, 1pm. General Graham made it happen capturing the town at noon and holding it from a pesky French Cav threat. (2) Heavy Artillery & some Portuguese infantry made it to shore.

The French had the “Enormous train of booty” located in the city of Vittoria.  It began moving north around noon.  It moved at a speed of the sum of (3) D6 dice every 15 minutes along the main road until it reaches Bayonne. The French command put a road priority to this loot and did their best to ensure Bonaparte got his wealth. Unfortunately, it ended up behind British lines. All the troops had Beef Wellington that night.

Campaign recap from GM perspective.

1813, June to July. The stage is set. Since April Wellington has continually out maneuvered and out flanked the French forcing them behind the Ebro River. The British are gathered around Burgos. The challenge now is to push the French back beyond the Pyrenees.

The French Armée du Sud is making the long trek from southern Spain and Madrid, coming from the Saragossa area and moving northwest. P. Soult’s cavalry is screening the retreat at Pancorbo. The Armée du Portugal has gathered around Vittoria, ready to make a stand. The Armée du Midi is farther north, having to deal with all the partisan activity, and is now making its way south to defend the territory from the Brits. (GM side note- the French 4^th Division was AWOL, was supposed to be at Bilboa, leaving the right flank exposed here. Unintentionally done, but C’est la Guerre!)

The British are divided into 3 wings. Wellington commanding the center moving Northeast, Graham commanding the left wing heading North, and Hill commanding the Right wing heading East. (GM note – British down the 8^th division also AWOL from Hills command, in the south, which could have impacted the eventual battle of Pamplona.)

Wellington issues his orders. Howard’s 1^st Division to secure Santander. Leith’s 5^th Division to secure 1^st Div right flank and move toward Vittoria. Wellington’s wing will move forward with Ponsoby’s cavalry leading the way up the main road. Hill’s wing to move to the East, and attack on a broad front from the south, crossing the Ebro and pinning the French in place.

King Joseph has his forces start to deploy to protect the Ebro river crossings. Conroux’s 2^nd Division takes up a forward position at Miranda. 1^st Division commanded by Leval is moving Northwest, followed close behind by Villattes 3^rd Division. Daricau 6^th Division secures the environs surrounding Pamplona, a key location. Cassange’s 7^th Division and Darmagnac’s 5^th Division head south along the main road. P. Soult is forced to fall back due to the overwhelming British force coming at him. Boyers Armée du Portugal Cav unit heads to support Lamartiniere 8^th Division’s Vittoria defenses. Both 6^th Division and 8^th Division send out Cavalry Videttes to look for signs of the enemy.

In the North, Graham & Howard secure Santander, being watched by 8^th Div cavalry vidette. D’Erlon splits off couple of battalions to head to Bilboa, while the rest of Cassange’s command makes it way south to Vittoria. In the center, while Leith’s British 5^th Division and Alten’s Light Division make a pincer move toward Vittoria, Wellington bounces Conroux’s 2^nd Division out of Miranda. French commands of Soult & Boyer cavalry take up defensive flanking positions next to 8^th Division at Vittoria. In the south, the 1^st engagement of the day commences at Calahorra, as Byng’s 2^nd Division faces east toward Leval’s 1^st division, on the south side of the Ebro. Villatte’s 3^rd Division takes up position in reserve of Leval. Farther south, Pakenham’s 6^th Division secures Tudela, and is screened by the French 6^th cavalry.

Gen Daricau, having a broken compass, realizes he has headed north with his entire division instead of south and does an about face.

The battle of Calahorra starts to heat up. At Vittoria the retreating French 2^nd Division tries to get into a defensive position as two British divisions are already on his flanks. British 4^th Division under Cole moves to occupy the center of the British advance. 7^th Division is backed up on the main road because Picton’s 3^rd Division is ahead and waiting to enter the Vittoria table. British 1^st Division is consolidating, preparing to move East along the coast road. D’Erlon establishes more garrisons at Bilboa and Gdenes to shore up the French western flank. Daricau has returned to Pamplona and is hurrying forward to confront Packenham who is ready to cross the Ebro but is awaiting further orders from Wellington having already achieved his early objective.

The Battle of Vittoria opening shots fired by the British 5^th Division as they begin to attack the French right flank village of Mendoso while Alten begins a push directly toward the city from on the French left flank. Conroux’s 2^nd Division is in a salient, with the British Cavalry directly in front of them hot on its heels coming from Pancorbo & Miranda. The British 1^st light horse pursue the wounded 8^th cavalry unit as it moves south out of trouble. 1^st Division infantry secures the town of Laredo.

Packenham advances on Tarfella but is bounced by the slightly larger French force of Daricau who is advancing south from Pamplona. At Calahorra the situation is changing. Cole’s British 4^th Division arrives on the NORTH side of the Ebro to even up the battle. Byng’s 2^nd Division has orders to push onto Pamplona. The arrival of Cole enables Byng to take a chance to move North over the Ebro since he controls the bridge. He leaves a rear guard to fight off a Leval’s French 1^st Division at the South side bridge.

At Vittoria the musket fire is getting louder. Leiths 5^th Div is engaging both Fr 2^nd and 8^th Divisions. Ponsoby’s elite and guard horses are attacking Fr 2^nd division cav on either flank of the line anchored by the village of Subijana De Alava. 7^th Division under Dalhousie has taken an alternate flank march and arrives to support Alten’s push to Vittoria.

A 3^rd battle now begins to take shape at Tudela. Daricau has forced Packenham back to the south side of the Ebro. Both sides exchange long range cannon fire. At Calahorra Cole’s 4^th division now faces south while Leval on the other side of the Ebro faces north and is forming up for an assault. Byng has left the battle and is at the town of Estella. Villatte see’s that Byng is threatening the French owned Pamplona and smartly takes a parallel route over the Ebro onto Tafalla, a town Daricau who moments before had just left. The race to Pamplona is on.

At Vittoria the British vice is beginning to tighten. Conroux is expertly delaying 3 British divisions with timely Squares and positioning giving the French time to bring in reinforcements and establish a defensive line at the city. But his 3^rd Division is taking on casualties. Meanwhile to the North the long-awaited British reinforcements arrive. 6 fresh Portuguese regiments and two heavy siege guns. Howard’s 1^st Div looks to force the surrender of the Bilboa and Gdenes garrisons.

Graham commands the Portuguese reinforcements and heads west to support Howard. D’Erlon has returned to try and defend the Bilboa area and has ordered Cassagne’s 7^th Div to about face and march back north to San Sebastian. This will leave the French Vittoria force outnumbered. Soult’s cav must stay on the east flank to watch as Dalhousie’s 7^th Div is extending the British right flank to try and overlap the French position. Boyer’s cav begins to move across the minor river to try and threaten the British attack by Leith’s 5^th Div. Ponsoby and Picton divsions are applying massive pressure on Conroux in the middle. At Calahorra Level is making a methodical attack across the Ebro while Cole’s 4^th Div holds its ground. Farther south the battle at Tudela has subsided a bit as neither force wants to try and make a river crossing in front of an even foe. Villatte has WON THE RACE to Pamplona by a mere 5 minutes. Byng allowed his troops to rest & cook a meal at Estella after their long march and hard fighting at Calahorra.

The wounded French 8^th cav is making it’s way back to French lines, as is the British 1^st cav. Bilboa is about to fall to the superior numbers of the British left wing. The steady British advance at Vittoria continues, as Cassange and Darmagnac retreat north to protect the route to Bayonne. Calahorra might appear to be a stalemate, but Daricau has something up his sleeve. He splits his 6^th Div into two parts. While holding in place vs Packenham he has put a reserve force in the town of Tafalla. From there he sends his cav down to Calahorra to take a look at the action there. Stay tuned…..

Meanwhile another battle has just begun at Pamplona. Byng is beginning to maneuver (my favorite word) to take Pamplona as Villate had won the race to Pamplona and has secured the bridge over the minor river.

The British 1^st Div takes Bilboa and prepares to move east along the coast to Durango. D’Erlon is retreating toward Sen Sebastian with the remnants of the Bilboa garrisons. The Battle at Vittoria is raging. Alten and Dalhousie are making a push on British right flank as Ponsoby cav is wrecking Conroux’s 2^nd Div. Leith continues to attack but is slowed by Lamartiner’s Artillery in Vittoria. At Pamplona Byng’s 2^nd Div is looking for a weak spot in Villattes’s 3^rd Div. Tudela is quiet as ½ Daricau’s 6^th division is defending the route north vs Packenham’s 6^th Div. Daricau see’s an opportunity at Calahorra. He sends reinforcements there and the cavalry moves onto the flank of Cole’s 4^th Div. Cole has the French 1^st Div in his front and 6^th Div cav on his flank. He doesn’t have enough troops to face against the new arrivals. He sends a one word message to Wellington. “HELP”. The Elite 2^nd Dragoon regiment crashes into the British line near the village of Lerma. At Tudela Pakenham makes a flank march across the Ebro and threatens Daricau’s rear guard who falls back to protect the road north to Pamplona. Cassange’s 7^th Div takes up a position just to the west of San Sebastian. Darmagnac 5^th Div arrives to back up the Cassange. They have beaten the British to the port city.

The 4^th Division takes flight back west thru Longrono and heads….North to Vittoria. Leval’s 1^st Div consolidates and begins its march east on the south side of the Ebro toward Longrono. Meanwhile Daricau two half divisions meet at Tafalla. His timing is perfect, as Pakenham’s 6^th Div is hot on the heels heading north from Tudela, but is bounced at Tafalla due to owning the larger force by +1 unit. At Vittoria the noose is starting to tighten on the French as he British continue a steady advance on 3 sides. Dalhousie 7^th Div realizes it is better served at Pamplona, and heads east toward Estella. Howards British 1^st Div arrives at San Sebastian to find a line of French regiments awaiting. D’Erlon small detachment arrives on the British flank with the baggage train right behind coming from Toloso.

At Pamplona Dalhousie’s 7^th Div has changed the status quo. Villattes 3^rd Div is now outnumbered and pulls back behind the river for a better defense of the city. But soon Daricau arrives to bolster the French. However, soon Pakenham arrives throwing the balance in the British favor again. Leval’s 1^st Div soon arrives at Longrono and begins to take out the British garrisons. Cole is at Vittoria, witnessing the British horsemen positioning for an attack on the French cav poised on the left flank. At San Sebastian the British move in for the attack. Darmagnac’s cav moves on the British right flank who promptly form square. D’Erlon is battling to protect the baggage train, and in the process wound the British general Howard. Wing commander Graham is there to steady the troops.

The home stretch. British make advances towards the 3 cities, but the French give ground stubbornly and hold the key objectives. Leval has received orders from King Joseph to move to Burgos. Leval complies. After disposing of the Longrono garrisons, 1^st Div moves through S. Domingo and arrives at Burgos table. The retreating garrison at Gamonal is quickly disposed of. Leval moves in on the garrison at Burgos with Wellington defending with two units. They cannot hold, and the French enter Burgos. Wellington himself is captured. This is devastating for the British cause. Losing their leader and the supply source will cause a cessation to the offensive. At least they got a steak dinner.

Over all the French won on points 6 to 1. While this might seem lopsided, it really came down to the last 10 minutes of the day, as the capture of Burgos was a 4 pt swing. Still would have been a French marginal victory 4-3.

Quote from Wellington: “Victory is the ability to fight 5 minutes longer than any other army in the world”. Apparetnly he was off by 10 minutes this day.

Putting this campaign together was really a team effort. I want to thank AGMs Peter & Mark, and James & Russ for all their assistance. I could not have done this without their help. Also thanks to Nate & Sean help with my pregame efforts and tables. And thanks to the Portal game store in Manchester CT for hosting us.

After the battle of Vittoria, I read….In the expressive language of an officer who bore his part in the victory, “They were beaten before the town, and in the town, and through the town, and out of the town, and behind the town, and all around the town”