Against Spain - Defend the Battery

 As we have reduced numbers at the club it was a two aside game from my Against Spain book tonight. 

Following on from the Advance on Guanabacoa scenario a few weeks ago we played the next scenario from the book, the Spanish attack on one of the British batteries firing on Manila and El Moro.

The Spanish rowed men across from Havana and the moved up from the coast, attacking from behind the British position. Appearing from the cover of the trees the Spanish caught the British napping and the three units defending the battery had their work cut out as the Spanish commander Dave, chose to send two units round each side of the battery and his remaining unit of marines and sailors to demonstrate against the centre of the British position. 

In response I brought the scratch unit of gunners and assistants up to the breastworks at the rear of the camp along with the 60th, while the Grenadiers tried to get out of the camp to take on the Moreno and Pardo militias. However using Rebels and Patriots grenadiers are shock troops and have a reduced range for shooting, to encourage them to close. This time however Dave managed two decent first volleys which caused a fair amount of casualties to the Grenadiers, so they were pulled back pdq!

I managed to keep the marines and sailors back and a low morale throw disordered and then broke them, but the Blanco's and the Havana garrison were edging closer. Only the cover provided by the breastworks was saving the British from losing men, but the Spanish were getting into short range - my shooting wasn't great and even the militia would start to whittle the Brits down once they were closer.

I brought the grenadiers out to the right of the camp to try and shoot away the Spanish regulars and for once my shooting resulted in a decent volley from both the Grenadiers and the 60th. This halted both the Pardo militia and the Garrison men. It was the last act of the grenadiers though as they were wiped out in the firefight. This left just two British units. 

By now the Havana blanco's had got into the camp, but a sharp volley ended their incursion and they were wiped out, this left Dave with three units, but the Pardo's were pretty shot up and the Garrison regiment had lost a quarter of their men. They took further casualties trying to close from the 60th and failed their subsequent morale test. Now at less than 50% they were disordered and retired and at that the Spanish had lost more than 50% of their men and the game was over.

It had been a close thing. The British were getting decent morale rolls but poor shooting. The Spanish, bring mostly militia (green), suffered from poor activations the two good volleys I managed to get in coincided with poor morale thrown from the Spanish and that saved the day for the Brits, who were close to losing their second unit and the game.

Historically the British were able to drive the Spanish off, both sides suffering high casualties, so this game was a historical result. A second sally from Havana with more regular troops as well as militia was repulsed more easily and then the British received reinforcements and fresh supplies of powder and shot and the fate of El Moro and Havana were sealed.

All of the figures (other than the pickets, the Caribbean camp follower and the casualties) , were from Crann Tara Miniatures, (now available from Caliver Books) , and include the Moreno militia which were designed specifically with this campaign in mind.

If you'd like a copy of Against Spain, please use the contact box on the right to drop me a line.