The Return Of The Spanish

It has been some years since my Spanish army has made an appearance. They were brought out in a defensive struggle with some historical army composition in mind so that not every cavalry unit I had for them would be fielded. The Spanish suffered from a deficient cavalry and artillery arm and so this battle will reflect the difficulties not commonly discussed. The French are seen marching onto the field, confident and ready to rush in.

The center of the Spanish line with the singular Spanish battery. To the left of the battery the Regiment Irlanda is present. On the French side, the Irish Legion also makes a guest appearance.

The Spanish left has light infantry followed by two units of guerillas and a battalion of militia. This flank should be less involved in the fighting and so the stream will be the main defense in slowing down an enemy attack.

The full Spanish line can be seen in the upper portion of the picture. A redoubt manned by a converged grenadier battalion protects the objective, the town. Behind the town is a small reserve of some militia and cavalry but unfortunately no additional artillery.

I had considered finding some way of increasing the defense of the town such as maybe giving the Spanish a sapper for the engineering rule for defending a town. double the garrison perhaps? The problem with the Spanish army on the field is that their weak morale is always a disadvantage for melees. They rarely could field any sizeable amount of artillery and so good dice rolling is the only real hope.

Seeing the French dragoon brigade moving up quickly and boldly positioning itself for an assault, the reserves break right to prepare for filling any holes. It isn't pessimism, it is simply experience.

The French leisurely make their way toward the Spanish left. The Spanish reserves might end up being useful down here but the amount of enemy cavalry on the other side makes the matter more pressing.

The reserves fan out to form a third line as this appears to be the main thrust from the French. The French horse artillery deployed and opens fire at extreme canister range.

The Spanish artillery opened fire on the French artillery as it deployed. The first exchange failed to accomplish anything but on the sescond exchange the French artillery was forced to limber up. After it was determined the Spanish artillery would need more fire power to deal with the French horse artillery, they decided to hit the dragoons. In retrospect, going after the dragoons from the beginning could have had a change of events on this wing.

Two dragoon regiments attack the square. The Spanish managed to form up confidently enough, but failed to score any hits in the melee and were broken.

French foot artillery deploys and bombards the grenadiers in the redoubt. The rest of the Spanish left wing moves forward to try and cover the crossing and the bank of the stream.

The French center pushing forward along the stream.

Now the French are gathered for the push across the stream. It appears they're going for a frontal attack along with a smaller flanking maneuver coming down from the hill.

Meanwhile in the center right of the Spanish line, the Regiment Irlanda found it did not have enough space to form square and had to rely on fire power and melee to save itself. The subsequent firing was ineffective.

So the extreme right of the Spanish line had two squares get smashed and the hussars tried in vain to counter charge the French dragoons, only to get pushed back. Here the mounted guerrilla cavalry decided to try their hand at a charge with also less than successful results.

The artillery not having the intended impact upon the grenadiers, the only other option was an infantry assault. On the right, the Swiss unit in Spanish service is facing off against the Irish Legion. The Swiss had been expecting some dragoons to rush at them and so had formed square in advance of the expected charge. The Swiss failed to reform as a charge reaction when the Irish Legion decided to take a chance and charge.

The infantry in square were broken in combat and the Irish advance forward along with some dragoons to break the Spanish center. This square will manage to hold but the Spanish have suffered some heavy losses and aren't going to be on the field much longer.

The grenadiers were overwhelmed in their defenses and the Spanish light infantry aew shot up and broken. The guerrillas to the left and the militia holding the town are just a nuisance that's not going to stop any French advance.

The French foot artillery crosses the bridge in an effort to secure the holding on the Spanish side of the stream. The town is going to be overwhelmed and taken.

The last guerrilla unit is shot to pieces and broke. The French can now swing around behind the town and cut off the defenders and roll up the rest of the Spanish line.

The last Spanish square manages to hold on and is cut off. The Spanish cavalry is pushed back after multiple ineffective combats during the battle. The only reason the Spanish cavalry survived is due to its speed. The Spanish losses at this point were over the 50% breaking point and the French did not have to storm the town and take it by force.

Although the Spanish army may look nice on the field, it is a affirmation of why they are so often neglected or scorned. To win with them is difficult. One must look for major mistakes in your opponent in order to have a fair chance of victory. It wouldn't be correct to change their characteristics or to severely handicap the French. Putting them on to the field has to be for the joy of recreating history and appreciating what it was and not what you can remake it to be.