Maida 1806, Shadows of the Eagles

[vtsaogames]

In the toe of Italy, a British landing force comes toe-to-toe with the French force putting down a local insurrection. In the actual battle, the French were defeated in short order with heavy losses.
I tried the same French approach in a 15mm battle fought with work-in-progress rules: https://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/2020/02/maida-1806-shadow-of-eagles.html

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

Rather like Waterloo, refights of this battle seem to favour the French fairly heavily; I rather suspect that the French had spent too long resting and were a little rusty in the real thing (plus the British had a load of battalion commanders who later became famous).  In this case, you seem to have managed your cavalry (if not the horse artillery) better than Reynier - although possibly this is because you are a wargamer and hence use all cavalry, however light, as shock troops!

[vtsaogames]

We played this again and the British managed a victory rather similar to the actual one. My report will be delayed by Real Life, perhaps until later today or more likely tomorrow.

Edit: also, the cavalry was able to respond quickly to a threat on the opposite flank. Their brigadier made no fuss about giving up his cavalry regiment. But then almost all rules, even more complex ones, would allow this. I want simple rules that avoid hangovers from too many calculations.

In the actual battle, the British were rested and had not yet begun to suffer from malaria. (They were camped near swampy terrain.) The French had made long forced-marches through the intense heat of a South Italian summer, the battle being fought on July 4th. I still might tweak the scenario before posting it.

[vtsaogames]

Here's the account of the hard fought British victory:
https://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/

[Baron von Wreckedoften]

It is a fascinating action and just the right size for teaching any newbie a new ruleset (it's how I learned the General de Brigade rules).

[vtsaogames]

It has me looking for actions of similar size in this period. Historical battles attract me way more than hypothetical ones.