Refight of

The Battle Of Vittoria

21^st June 1813 using Napoelonic Principles of War

By Richard Denning

Introduction

Triples at Sheffield is a great show and for a group of us from the October Wargames Association and friends has now become the high point of the Wargames calendar. For the last 6 years we have attended and put on a large Napoleonic wargame using the NPOW rules. This has included Dresden, Borrodino, Bautzen and 2 years ago in an attack of megalomania Leipzig. The games usually attract a fair amount of interest. Although we are an untidy group with cans of coke, bars of chocolate and a variety of purchases all over the table a lot of action goes on, the battle moves and flows and we get quite a few spectators.

So this year we chose the Battle of Vittoria. I think all of us enjoyed this game more than its predecessors. It kept our interest to the last move. Indeed the very last dice roll was still important. A special thanks to Tom Penn (NPOW author) who came this weekend and acted as impartial umpire and was able to field the usual questions.

Historical Overview

By the start of the 1813 Campaign the Peninsular War had been raging for some 5 years already since Napoleon lead his armies into Spain in 1808. He had invaded Spain and Portugal in an attempt to force Britain to make peace. Britain responded by sending an army commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley (the later Duke of Wellington) to the Iberian peninsular. Although small compared with the vast forces that would oppose the Emperor in Germany and Russia this professional force would become the best army Britain had ever fielded. Aided by the Portugese and Spanish he inflicted defeat after defeat on the French. The war did not always go well however and twice he had to retreat to Portugal. Despite this in Spring 1813 Wellington was able to lead his armies into Spain for the last time on a campaign to drive the French armies of King Joseph back to France. The armies finally came together at Vittoria. There 150,000 men would determine the fate of Spain.

The Armies

Vittoria is on the River Zadora on a plain surrounded by mountain ranges to the North and South.

Allies

Wellington had 80,000 troops at Vittoria. He had divided his forces into several columns who marched to come at the French from North, West and South. A further column had attempted to come in from the east but would not arrive in time.

The first column under Hill would attack south of the River Zadorra , climb the Puebla Hieghts and out flank the French. He commanded 20,000 men.

The Second column under Wellington would advance to the crossings of the Zadorra then attack up the Valley toward Vittoria when the Puebla heights had been cleared. Wellingon personally commanded these 26,000 men

The Third column was nominally under Dalhousie but his Division was still approaching via the mountains so Picton’s division was told to wait for Dalhousie and then attack the North flank of the French. On the day Picton on his own initiative attacked without waiting for Dalhousie. This force was 13,000 strong.

The Forth column was under Graham was to attack from the North East and try and cut off the French escape. He has 20,000 men.

The French

The French had about 69,000 men at Vittoria in 3 Corps.

Gazan’s Army of The South was deployed along the east of the River Zadorra on 2 ridges facing west and had 34,000 men.

D’Erlon’s Army of the Centre was deployed West of Vittoria also facing west and had 17,000 men including the dubious help of King Joseph’s personal Spanish troops.

Reille’s Army of Portugal was initially deployed near Vittoria but move to oppose Graham along the Zadorra and had 18,000 men.

Nominally King Joseph was in command but in reality it was Jordan who commanded at Vittoria.

The Game

The game began at 10AM Saturday and went onto to 5.30 PM Saturday , then from10am to 4pm Sunday. We played 16 moves representing 30 mins each. The battle began about 8am on 21^st June 1813.

Initial orders

French are on Hold orders. Sarut’s Division of Reilles corps MAY be on Retreat/ Engage orders back to the river.

Gazan is impetuous and likely to send support to both his wings if they are attacked , each move on a 5,6 he has to send at least 1 unit to the wing attacked.

Hill and Wellington are on attack orders, Hill along the Heights and then to Vittoria via Breostigueta ,Wellington to advance to the River crossings south of Tres Puentes. He may cross the river and establish a bridgehead no more than 6” deep. He then waits on the River pending the clearing of the heights (Hill’s forces must have made progress 3 feet from the table edge eastwards)and then attacks across the River toward Vittoria. He may scout the crossing at Tres Puentes with Cavalry.

Dalhousies Corps is actually on attack orders. BUT Dalhousies division will only arrive after turn 6 on a 6 - increasing by +1 each turn .

That means Picton is left on table BUT under engage orders to the River when he reverts to Hold orders until Dalhousie arrives, however he is impetuous which means  each turn there is a chance he changes his own orders to attack. This occurs if he rolls maximum initiative. If this occurs even if alone he will attempt to attack from the River and toward Vittoria.

Graham is on attack orders toward the eastern two roads and the French baggage area but is cautious  and so will probably move to engage (BUT never hold or  retreat) if he rolls minimum initiative.

Terrain

Roll on the terrain chart to see if the River is fordable in addition to the bridges or marked fords.

The built up areas are all defence 1 and speed 3.

Moving up/down the slopes of the Puebla is at speed 2. Movement along it is normal.

Objectives

French decisive victory if hold Gomecha and Vittoria and destroy 20% of the Allied forces.

French marginal if hold Vittoria and both Eastern roads are open and they have lost less than 20%.

British marginal if capture Vitoria but have not taken the eastern roads providing they have not lost more than 20%.

British decisive if capture Vitoria, baggage, eastern road and destroy 20% of French.

Note : the above were our victory conditions. I feel it would have worked better if I had simply given Vittoria, Gomecha, the eastern roads and the baggage 20 pts each to the army in control.

Changing Orders

Corps/ column commanders may change their own orders to suit local conditions IF they roll a maximum initiative. Likewise Division/Brigade commanders may change their own orders IF they roll a maximum.

In our game the French were able to reach perhaps a little too quickly so perhaps saying they cannot begin to try and change orders till turn two would be better. Mind you in a different game none of them might have rolled high so I am not too concerned about this.

LOSSES and Divisional Morale

Commands may only be operate under ATTACK orders or be given ATTACK orders if they have at least 66% of starting strength. If they fall below this they revert to ENGAGE orders.

Commands may only be operate under ENGAGE orders or be given ENGAGE orders if they have at least 33% of starting strength. If they fall below this they revert to HOLD orders.

The Historical Outcome

Hills attack worked well and he advanced along the Heights in effect outflanking the French under Gazan. Picton attacked without waiting for Dalhousie and outflanked Gazan from the North. Gazan panicked and sent a lot of troops to protect his wings which enabled Wellington to attack up the Road and drive the French to his front. Meanwhile Graham’s attack which should have crushed Reille was delivered in a fairly half-hearted manner. Despite this the French position collapsed and soon Redcoats were rampaging through the French baggage looting a fortune in gold, gems and art treasures- the wealth of Spain which Jospeh had plundered and hoped to escape with. The French lost 8000 men at Vittoria and almost every cannon. The Allies lost 5000 men. In the chaos that ensued Wellington was able to sweep the French as far as the Pyrenees and lay the basis of the final advance into France in 1814. The effect of the battle was felt as far away as Germany where the armistice collapsed and Prussia, Russia and Austria declared war again on France.

Our Refight

As I said at the beginning the players had a ball with this game. We managed to play though the 16 moves – just in time.

Hill (Pete Heatherington) had a hard time moving along the Pueblo Heights. Indeed Bob Watt with a small division of Gazan’s Corps and a truck load of luck on the dice delayed him for most of the weekend.

Wellington (Pat Campbell) launched into a battle of attrition with Gazan’s Corps under Peter O’Brien (also Jordan) and Dave Whelan. This ground on all weekend but eventually he managed to climb the ridge west of Arinez with Gazan in tatters.

Graham (Greg Carslaw and myself) pushed across the Zadora and soon got heavily engaged in a chaotic battle with Reille (Mike Pearson) and D’Erlon (Ian Hall). The Allies initially advanced easily but after the French commited reserves were soon in shambles. The battle turned again after Picton (Neil Heslop) and later Dalhousie (Peter Scott) were committed by the allies between Wellington and Graham.

As the battle moved to a conclusion Graham captured Arriaga and moved on Vittoria and the roads to the east. Spanish cavalry from the south reached the baggage but lost control and rampagaed through it.

Hill finally emerged onto the plain east of Berostigueta while Picton and Dalhousie pushed past Gomecha.

The French were in danger of being completely cut off. Yet in the end another division under Bob held the gap open while the last of the French cavalry under Pete O was thrown at Hill. Finally as the sun went down on the battlefield the last attack by Graham was held outside Vittoria by Ian’s lucky dice roll.

Casualties in our game were very high. Some divisions were all but wiped out. Personally I commanded a division of Portuguese and a cavalry division under Graham. I started the game with 80 strength pts and ended with just 10. That might be extreme as my troops were heavily involved all weekend but reflected the fact that all the players were aggressive, enthusiastic and pushed hard for a win. Which providing all have a good time is why we play wargames.

As I say it was touch and go. Great game guys.

Now as for next year……

GAME FILES

I have bundled a map and OOB in this file