6th Cazadores Battalion 1811

Gepost op door JurjenB in Internetblog

These are the last of the Cazadores to be added to my expanded Portuguese forces. 

These fellows are from the 6th Battalion, and have yellow collars and cuffs, piped black. The figures are from Brigade Games. 

I made one omission on these troops, since corrected; they should have a bras plate on the black crossbelts on the chest. 
The 6th was based in Minho province, and quartered in Penafiel. 

With 24 Line Infantry units of 2 battalions, and 12 battalions of Cazadores, the Cazadores numbered roughly 1/5 of the Portuguese infantry. 

“Square Eagles” with Will

Gepost op door JurjenB in Internetblog

A few weeks agio I had a new wargames freind, Will over for his first tabletop wargame. Via comments on the blog. we learned that were but 2 town apart here in NW Connecticut. For a first wargame, “Square Eagles” seemed well suited. 

We played Scenario #3, “control the River”, from Neil Thomas’ One Hour Wargames. We added 2 infantry units each to the force of 6 generated by the OHW tables.

Will took the Austrians (white), and I took the Bavarians (Blue), the action doubtless occurring at the outset of the 1809 campaign in April, wit the objective being to control both river crossings. 

Austrian General Eisnerweiss is hit!

After dressing his wound, General Eisnerweiss returned to the fray at the second crossing, and was hit again. “I guess maybe painting those red circles on my white jacket wasn’t such a great idea after all!”!” 

A little more lucky dice for combat and Rallying, and Bavarian General von Andreas has prevailed as dusk falls on the field.
We had fun with the game, which took less than 2 hours to play. Will is a very talented artist, who worked for DC Comics for many years, and now does free lance work. He later told me he was off to a big gaming convention this Spring, courtesy of one of his clients. He did the graphic work for some of their products! He is already hard at work painting up some 28 mm Piano Wargames figures!

3rd Cazadores Battalion, 1811

Gepost op door JurjenB in Internetblog

In 1811, the number of Light Infantry (Cazadores) battalions in the Portuguese army was doubled, from 6 to 12. 

While the brown jackets and pants were retained, the other details of their uniforms changed significantly. 

The yellow lace on the jackets was replaced by black, and many facing colors became in part black; those that were not black were now piped black. 

The shako changed from the Barentina to one more like the British “stovepipe shako”. 

Each Cazadores battalions had 5 companies; one of these were sharpshooter or “Atiradores”, and usually had black plumes as opposed the green plumes of the other four companies. The Atiradores were at least theoretically armed with Rifles, and some other men of the battalion might have riles as well, as available. 

This unit is the 3rd Battalion of Cazadores. It had black collars and cuffs. 
It was based in Beira province, at Aguiar de Beira. 

Portuguese Cavalry Regiment # 6

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The 6th Cavalry Regiment was designated as “Braganza”, after the ruling house of Portugal. 

The Portuguese cavalry had buff belts. This unit carries Carbines The Portuguese Cavalry was generally considered fairly poor. Portugal has very rugged and mountainous terrain, and was not good horse country. Most regiments were chronically understrength and had insufficient mounts even for the men who were on hand. 
My original, sole regiment of Portuguese Cavalry were Minifigs (with the correct uniform details for the Portuguese  cavalry, such as the red plumes on the helmets. They were absurdly overstrength at 12 figures (instead of my standard 8 figures). The officers from the Foundry command sets for the British Light Dragoons were wearing bicornes, which I didn’t like at all, so they were dispatched to the “Command” ranks. Thus a couple of the Minifigs (who were also equipped with Carbines)lightly updated and added to the ranks, one serving as the standard bearer. 
This regiment had red collars and cuffs with yellow piping and turnbacks. 
It seems the natural leather horse furniture was also customary for the Portuguese cavalry. 

Square Eagles: Encounter Battle, 1813, Conclusion

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 We pick up the action with Turn 11:

French retain the initiative; With Victor down, his command gets only 2 orders; blue assigns one to the  Infantry unit that entered last turn but could not advance due to lack of orders. Soult gets but three orders himself. Joining the underperformance, Kleist gets 3 orders,. as does Bluchjer. 

Soult maneuvers to counter the threat of the Prussian cavalry to his Left, and Blue brings up the last opf his reinforcements.
Prussian moves; note the Cavalry to Soult’s derriere! 
French infantry fire is relatively effective, with skirmish fire eliminating the 1 hit Prussian Dragoons!!
The Prussian artillery bombarded the French to its front, scoring a hit. Prussian musketry is only fair. Frederick the Great would be appalled!
Situation at the end of Turn 11
Turn 12
French maintain the initiative; The revived Victor gets 3 orders, and Soult gets 4. Blucher gets 3 orders and Kleist does as well 

Soult and Victor both flub their Rally orders this time, with matching rolls of “1”!
Prussian Orders; a shot by the artillery knocks down some more frogs,  but an Assault upon the ridge by the Prussian infantry is repulsed!
Soult’s troops fire to mediocre effect at best. 
The Prussians get back their musket mojo, as nearly every shot tells, with an especially crushing volley  eliminating one of Victor’s regiments! 
End of turn 12, sees Victor kissing the earth yet again. His men nickname him “le Chat“, as he clearly has 9 lives!
Turn13:
Even without their General, blue gets 4 orders, and Soult (red) only 3; Kleist and Blucher each get enough orders for all of their troops, with the last of the Prussian reinforcements arriving, a tardy battery to support Kleist’s men!
With the clock ticking down, the French consolidate their position on the ridgeline. One of Victor’s regiments rallies without his help. 
Prussians move up to contest the ridge position, as the Prussian artillery picks off some more Frenchmen. Blucher’s men are unmoved by his Rally efforts, though. The Prussian Landwehr Cavalry has shot the gap onto the ridge. The French must have sole control of the ridge to claim victory!
The French do reasonably well with their shooting; importantly, 2 out of 3 skirmish shots hit home on the Prussian horsemen. 
Prussian return fire is slightly subpar this turn!
Situation at the end of Turn 13; note that the the arriving 2nd Prussian battery has moved up. 
Turn 14:
The Prussians seize the initiative! Both Prussian batteries bombard the ridgeline, and  Kleist’s remaining infantry regiment moves onto the ridge; The Prussian Cavalry charges the flank of Soult’s infantry that holds the rear of the ridge; having an unused order, they take a single skirmish shot at the charging bosches, and… miss!  Sound the trumpets!!!
Von Seydlitz turns over in his grave, as the Cavalry fail to score a single hit on their 4 dice (they have 2 SP left, but get an extra die for charging and another for attacking a flank; as they were already on the hill they don’t lose a die for charging up hill; they only needed a 3+; “Schreklichkeit!” The French manage a hit on their single die; the charge is repulsed! Meanwhile, the Prussian infantry all close on the ridgeline. 

A French flank assault also underperforms, and is repulsed. 
More French rallying; note the repulsed Landwehr cavalry. Note the position of the repulsed Landwehr Cavalry. 
Prussian musketry fails to impress!
The French shoot a little better this turn; the unit caught in a “croque monsieur“, has, well, croaked!! 

Situation at the end of Turn 14. 
Turn 15:

The French reclaim the initiative, and roll enough orders for all of their units. At this juncture, Victor’s infantry have  5, 2, and 1 SP’s remaining, with 2 SP’s for his Light Infantry. Soult’s troops have 6 (his far left regiment),1, 4, and 3 SP remaining, with 5 SP for his guns (which have been playing cat and mouse with the Prussian Cavalry). Kleist has 5 SP’s left on each of his 2 batteries, and 3 hits on his sole remaining infantry regiment. Blucher’s boys have 3 SP (middle infantry), 1 SP (his far right infantry), and 1 SP (the cavalry). Time has run out for the Prussians. After the coming French moves, a Prussian victory will be impossible. As dusk descends, they concede the hill to the hated French, and withdraw! 
“Auf Morgen!“, they mutter.