Almonacid 1808: French v. Spanish

A scenario from Wargames Scenarios The peninsular War 1808-1814 by Jon Sutherland & Dianne Canwell.  In the real thing Sebastiani, though outnumbered nearly 2 to 1, attacked Vanagas deployed on a line of hills & won.

The Spanish (Renfrey, Chris & SteveJ) deployed further back than Vanagas (on the far side of the table).  The French (Jim & Mike) deployed much like Sebastiani with the intention of following his plan to attack on his right.

The French advanced in column then deployed into line before engaging the enemy.

The Spanish made minor adjustments to their line as the French advanced. The only aSpanish dvance being their cavalry on the far flank where they had 4 regiments to the French's 2.  The French infantry division commander on the left misunderstood his orders & advanced over the ridge prompting a furious message from Sebastiani to pull back to the reverse slope & defend on his flank.

On the near flank the Spanish have formed columns on the reverse slope.  On the far flank the Spanish cavalry is slowly advancing, hampered by their poor command rating.

On the near ridge the Spanish managed to time a counter attack of their massed columns perfectly & poor French shooting gave the Spanish a real chance of success, but the dice gods favoured the French in the HTH combat.  

As the Spanish division on their left flank crumbled & broke, the adjacent French brigade pressed forward.  On the far flank the Spanish are trying to mount counterattacks out of the town & with their cavalry.  The left flank French infantry deploy to defend themselves on t& behind the ridge, while their cavalry, outnumbered 2 to 1, hang back to delay the clash.

On the far flank the Spanish have finally got to grips with the French cavalry & infantry.  In the centre Spanish cavalry have made desperate counterattack on the French dragoons as the French infantry begin to wrap around the now exposed Spanish left flank.

The French dragoons have swept away the Spanish cavalry as a second Spanish infantry division has been broken by the French flanking attack.  On the far flank the French hussars have been defeated, but the lancers have broken through the Spanish cavalry.  The French infantry battalion on the far end of their line has repelled a Spanish column attack but is now being attacked by a second wave.

On the far flank the lancers are trying to distract some of the Spanish cavalry but 2 Spanish cavalry are moving towards the French left.  The valiant French infantry at the end of the line has finally been broken, but it has bought time for a defensive line to be formed facing the Spanish cavalry. 
However, in the centre, the 3rd and largest Spanish infantry division has now broken under converging attacks from flank & front.  The Spanish are reduced below half strength & fail army morale.  French losses are 1 infantry battalion, 1 cavalry regiment & 1 battery.

Our points system actually rated the French force about 10% better than the Spanish, so the result vindicates the points system.  But while it ended up a decisive victory, if Renfrey's defence on the Spanish right had been blessed with a bit more luck, the result could have been different.  Outnumbered as they were, the French had to win fast as they relied on poor Spanish command delaying counterattacks, & they lacked the numbers to survive a battle of attrition.