Battle Report - Bussaco 2 - Ney's Assault

After trying the scenario of Reynier's attack on the left, Will and I thought we would have a go at Ney's assault.  For this battle we swapped sides; I took the French and Will the Allies. Once again we used Command and Colors (C&C) rules.

Here is the C&C map of the battlefield:

And the battlefield laid out looking across from the Allied positions on the ridge, with the village of Sula in the centre.  The Allies have pushed light troops out to the left of, and in the village itself.  Looking to the right there is a second small village, Cerquedo.  Both of these villages would be the scene of bitter fighting.

The battle began with the French moving in the centre, to clear out the advanced light troops and secure Sula as a jumping off point for the attack on the Allied ridge:

The French piled in more infantry and quickly overwhelmed the defenders of the village and the Allied light infantry were pushed back.

Looking along the ridge, the French attack is pushing into the Allied centre.

With cavalry in support the French infantry continue their push into the centre, but casualties are mounting and the Anglo Portuguese units begin to consolidate their defence on the ridge.

With the French assault in the centre beginning to slow down the french launch a second assault on the Allied right with the aim of capturing the village of Cerquedo and turning the Allied flank

The Allies form a defence line to resist the French attack

The French, pushing forward, run into stiff opposition

It's a classic case of French column vs British line and to make matters worse for the French the left hand British troops are Grenadier Guards, whose volleys are devastating.  In short order the three French columns are destroyed.

The assault in the centre is also beaten back as the French begin to run out of steam.

The French exhaustion point is reached and the Allies win the day with a resounding victory.  It looked so promising at the early stages, but the heavily defended ridge proved too much for the French.

As before, we used Command & Colors rules.  All of the figures were from Will's 20mm collection and very fine they look too!