Sunday, January 30, 2011

1st Battle "Fundo de San Francisco"

A fictional battle between Royalists and a detachment from the Army of the Andes.  Rules used were based on a set I got from John Fletcher's plus many modifications I have come up with.  The units were assigned points by me based on their type, bonuses and number of companies.  The officers are costed very high because in this rules, when they activate, they can order every unit in their command range to perform an action with their modifiers added.

Forces:
Royalists (982):
  • General Jose Ordonez (276 pts)
  • Coronel Antonio Martinez (120 pts)
  • 2nd Burgos Battalion (250 pts)
  • Arequipa Battalion (136 pts)
  • Infante Don Carlos Battalion (136 pts)
  • Artillery Battery (2 guns) (64 pts)
Patriots (912):
  • General Jose de San Martin (256 pts)
  • Teniente Coronel RamonFreire (134 pts)
  • 11th Argentine Regiment(146 pts)
  • 1st Chilean Infantry (88 pts)
  • 2nd Chilean Infantry (88 pts)
  • 3rd Chilean Infantry (88 pts)
  • Artillery Battery (4 guns) (112 pts)

Deployment:
Two small hills flank the battlefield.  El fundo de San Francisco sits adjacent to the eastern hill.

  • The Royalists set up ,from east to west, 2nd Burgos Battalion behind the farm, Artillery battery, then Don Carlos Battalion and Arequipa Battalion. 
  • The patriots set up the 3rd Chilean Battalion in Column behind the farm.  2nd Chilean, 1st Chilean, and 11th Argentine Battalion followed by the Artillery Battery on the west, behind the western hill.
Setup after 2nd turn
 Battle:
The battle started with all infantry moving forwards and the artillery taking long range shots at a battalion here or there.  Not many casualties.
Some Fire from the royalists, not many casualties
Most Royalist fire was concentrated onto the 2nd Chilean Battalion.  The patriots concentrated on taking out the Infante Don Carlos Battalion.  After a protracted long range engagement the patriots sent the1st Chilean Battalion forwards to engage Infante Don Carlos Battalion in melee.
Infante don Carlos Battalion is routed

The Chileans managed to rout the Infante don Carlos Battalion with few losses of their own.  Unfortunately the Royalist fire had taken its toll on the 2nd Chilean Battalion and it too is routed.

Unfortunately for the patriots, that was the highlight of the battle.  1st Chillean Battalion failed to do an about face (about 3 times) and was flank charged by the Arequipa Regiment, sending it fleeing towards the western hill.

The 2nd Burgos Battalion came up field and gave its flank to the 3rd Chilean Battalion to gain possiton for a charge vs the 11th Argentine.  Fortunately for them, the 3rd Chilean was disrupted and its charge was panicky and disordered, taking more casualties than dealing.  The 3rd Chilean Battalion was routed and had to flee to the south east of the farm.
3rd Chilean Battalion is routed after a flank charge into 2nd Burgos (Sheesh)
 The 2nd Burgos Battalion performed a perfect charge vs the 11th Argentine and routed them.  With that we called the game since all the patriots had left were the two running Chilean battalions, which could have been rallied, but were so far from each other that they would have been killed piecemeal and the artillery battery.

The royalists have held the field, Patriot battalions flee in disorder in all directions.
We had a fun game, it took about 3 hours to play, mostly because we were unsure of the rules,and some of them were made up or modified on the fly.  The more expensive battalions performed better than their cheaper counterparts (as expected).  The 2nd Burgos Battalion kicked arse, being the most expensive unit on the field.