General D’Armee: Vitoria Campaign: COMBAT AT OSMA

Our first game of Dave Brown’s General D’Armee rules (Reisswitz Press).

This was a slightly scaled down version of the ‘Combat at Osma’ scenario, from the Vitoria Campaign book. I didn’t have enough 15mm battalions, to furnish the Reserves on both sides, so just went with the on-table forces, for this trial run.

The French, who were supposed to be on the defensive, went with a forward deployment. The stronger Brigade {Fririon} on their left, the weaker Brigade {Gauthier}, with the Artillery, in the centre and Menne’s Brigade screening their fairly open right flank.

The British deployed Halkett’s Brigade on their right, Haye’s Brigade on the centre and Spry’s Brigade on the left. Finally Ompteda’s Brigade was held in reserve, on the road.

On turn 1, the French successfully rolled all their ADCs, while the British only rolled for 2 of their 4 ADCs. The British subsequently lost the initiative roll. This was a trend that was to follow throughout the rest of the game!

Both sides pushed their skirmish screens forward, while the British galloped their horse artillery forward, to bombard French centre. However, Haye’s Brigade refused to move up in the centre (despite a Brigade ADC roll), leaving this artillery exposed.  Gauthier’s Brigade moved up, to engage the gunners, with volley fire. Things did not go well for the gunners!

The French then pushed Fririon’s strong Brigade forward on the left, and this crashed into the far left of the Allied line, in a Brigade massed infantry column attack. The left-most French battalion charged, supported by two other Battalions and despite sustaining significant casualties from the British musketry, succeeded in carrying the British position.

Spry’s Portuguese Brigade started to try to envelop the French right, but the French skirmish line was being effective here and the French right flank battalions moved to prevent the flank being turned.

In the centre, not much happened!! The British artillery continued to get a hammering from the Gauthier’s infantry, while Haye’s Brigade still refused to move up to support.

On the French left, Fririon pulled back the battered left-most battalion, while he himself led a further massed infantry column attack on the next British battalion in line, with the same result, with the French just carrying the British position. However, this now left Halkett’s Brigade ‘Faltering’.

The British deployed Ompteda’s reserve brigade, to shore up their crumbling left and to try recover the initiative, Spry’s Portugese launched an infantry column attack on the far left flank. However, the French had anticipated this, deploying their right-most battalion into line. In a reverse of the normal line-vs-column, the French drove off the attacking Portuguese. At this point, the British called off the attack and withdrew.

General D’Armee seems to play well. Pretty frequent reference to the 4 page QRS, is needed, plus looking up a few things in the rules, but this was our first play. General D’Armee does seem to be one of the few rulesets to successfully reflect massed infantry columns, which is no mean feat! Dave’s British were VERY unlucky, with both ADC rolls and Brigade activations. So much so, that one Brigade (Haye’s) did not move at all!! This can be pretty frustrating aspect of the rules. Simon’s French had a better time of things, twice successfully running a knife edge of massed infantry column attacks on British line. Both of these could easily have been driven off, massively exposing the French left, but fortune favours the brave.