Battle Of Roliça - Allied Playthrough: Setup & Turn One

IN this scenario from Mike Lambo's Battles Of Napoleonic Europe, I will command the Anglo-Portuguese army, which, along with its commander Sir Arthur Wellesley, consists of five units of infantry, two of cavalry and one of artillery.

The allies will attack from the bottom of the map

To win I have to occupy the hex outlined in blue near the top of the map before the end of turn 10.

I have to set up first, and my troops must start below the red dotted line.

Unlike in the ECW book, where artillery had unlimited range but had to remain on the rear row of hexes, artillery here has a range of six hexes, but can move about the battlefield.

Artillery can only fire directly along a line of hexes, whereas infantry can shoot anywhere to their front, so I suspect siting artillery can be a crucial decision, but since this is my first game I am basically making it up as I go along, or at least experimenting with a clean slate.

In the end I have gone for a generally classical setup with infantry in the centre, flanked by cavalry, but with artillery rather unusually sited on the left flank, where for the most part trees should not interfere with aiming at the enemy.

I have put my units as far forward as I reasonably can, with Wellesley in close attendance*

In the real battle the French were heavily outnumbered, but, Lambo explains in the book that "the armies have been levelled up here to provide more of a challenge."

I am far from sure I like this approach. I would prefer the refight to be more faithful to the real battle, making sure the terrain features that hampered the allied attack in 1808 were given due prominence.

Be that as it may, in Lambo's scenario, the French, as well as their commander General Delaborde, also have five units of infantry, two of cavalry and one of artillery. If it made the first scenario rather easy for the human player, then sobeit.

The AI's infantry are placed in a compact line behind the high ground, while the siting of the other French units, including Delaborde, is decided by rolling dice.

The AI has placed its artillery on the French right-flank, screened by cavalry*

As usual I will write up the battle as it progresses.

TURN ONE

My first task is to roll three dice, which will show me in which areas I can activate units.

As can be seen, the battlefield is 10-hexes wide, and is divided vertically into five areas of two files each.

I roll 2 and two 1s, and can reroll any number of them once.

I decide to keep the 2 as it is reasonably useful since it means I can activate my artillery and left-flank infantry, both of which are on files in area 2.

Naturally I would want to reroll one of the duplicate 1s, but I decide to reroll both, getting 4 and 3.

Thanks to the rerolls, I can order a general advance in the centre

I am able to activate every unit except my cavalry, and I do advance all such units one hex.

I can almost hear drums beating and see flags billowing as the allied infantry advance

The AI gets four dice, and they give 6 and three 2s. The AI gets to reroll the 6 (this would not be allowed if Delaborde had already been killed in action) and any duplicates, in this case two 2s. The rerolls come up 6 and two 3s.

The AI has had to discard the rerolled 6 and one of the threes, meaning Delaborde can only activate units in areas two and three - however six of his nine units are in those two areas

The cavalry in area 2 are first to be activated (lowest-numbered areas are selected first for the AI's turn, and within each area the units furthest down go first). Since it cannot attack any enemy, a die is rolled, landing on a 4, meaning it wants to advance towards the nearest enemy infantry. Two of my infantry units are within four hexes, so the cavalry want to move nearer the unit further up. The AI's rules show they must do this with a vertical move (rather than a horizontal one), and the cavalry move two hexes directly down the map, finishing in trees beside the river.

The further-down infantry in area 2 roll 6, meaning they move straight down, occupying high ground in the process.

The other infantry in area 2 roll 4, meaning they occupy high ground - the only high-ground hex available to them being on the extreme right (from the French view) of the ridge.

Delaborde advances directly one hex down the map as this makes him adjacent to three friendly units (as will almost be seen later, units benefit from having the commander next to them).

The infantry in area 3 occupying the objective hex move forward on to high ground, and the infantry behind them advance obliquely to occupy the objective hex.

The French infantry are occupying the ridge, but the advanced French cavalry, despite taking shelter in trees, look vulnerable

*I inadvertently placed the British infantry and one of the French infantry units so they were showing a strength of two instead of three - I turned them over to show their real strength of three at the start of turn two.