Sunday 2 February 2020

Arroyo Molinos - A Blücher Participation Game

We'll be putting on a couple of Blücher participation games at the Hammerhead Wargames Show. One will be the Vyazma game that we'll be playing all day, people can join in if they want. The second will be a boot-camp style game.

I've been looking around to see if there's a real battle that could be played in about an hour with small forces without too much complexity. I wanted it to be in the Peninsular as that then fits with what units I have available after contributing to the Vyazma battle.

The battle I've decided to go for is Arroyo Molinos. On 28th October 1811, General Hill assaulted General Girard's forces in a surprise attack. It's a really small battle but has quite a good story behind it and manoeuvre over relatively open ground by both infantry and cavalry on both sides. Something Blücher is good at simulating. Of course it's a foregone conclusion as the French are heavily outnumbered and will always lose, but this scenario is all about how long they can last!

I just finished the first trial game with my son and it took the 1 hour needed to play it through. It also was a lot of fun. We managed to get about 17 turns in! I think if he'd used his cavalry a bit earlier he'd have reached victory a lot quicker!



Above, the French defensive line. The hills behind are the impassible Sierra de Montanchez. I will make a specific model of those ready for the show.


The French forces are scattered at the end of the battle, but in this game the British didn't fair that well either!

So, please do come and say hello to us at Hammerhead and get a game in!

2 comments:

  1. Great work- spreading the love of the system! Have you seen the Armchair Draagoon battles on YouTube? More inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, I'm aware of them. I've not watched them yet.

      Delete