From my side of the table... The Battle of Oriamendi 1837

Greetings...


Last week (Friday to be precise ) Michael Perry hosted a Black Powder First Carlist War game to celebrate a visit from our good friend Adrian Shepherd...


The battle he picked was Oriamende... 15-16 March 1837


The Cristinos under George de Lacy Evans had advanced from their base at San Sebastian in an attempt to take the Carlist held town of Hernani...
On the 15th they attacked and took the ridge overlooking the town...
The following day the Carlists made a counter attack... this is the action we gamed...


Adrian and I took command of the Carlists and Alan Perry and Dave Andrews took the Cristinos.


We decided to follow history and make dashing frontal assault with two thirds of our force and a cunning flank attack with the rest...

Hernani looking rather peaceful ... well if you ignore the artillery.

Our brave fellows await the order to attack...

Our enemy got their orders first... there's a lot of them isn't there...

Come on do something... you are getting in everyone's way now...

Oooo! they're pretty... Hang on that's the enemy... Booo! ugly men with pointy sticks...

Hmmm! there is a lot of them and they are getting a bit close....

The men inside Hernani cheer on as one of my brigades move through Adrian's troops and make for the enemy...Hurrah!

The plan was that Adrian was going to swing to the left round that building you see here...
But instead he rolled a blunder and charged full tilt at the Cristinos... and then proceeded to stamp all over them and send them back in confusion... obviously part of a secret and cunning plan...I'm sure...

Encouraged by our surprise success my men rush from the town.... Hurrah!

The trap is sprung... as our flanking force make a somewhat leisurely approach from the rear..

On the other flank there starts one of the longest standoffs in history... this picture doesn't change much for a while...

Our centre moves forwards to engage the enemy...

The standoff... still standing off...

The Cristinos attack the men from Hernani...

After a prolonged fire fight and a lot of ... below average dice throws... by me... our centre breaks and makes its way off the field of battle... Booo!

Again rather surprisingly the men from Hernani see off the Cristinos and break their brigade...
That's two brigades down each... the next one will cost the game...

With small brigades we play that they don't break until both battalions are shaken ,stirred and disordered...
Here we see the now christened 'Lonely Battalion' waiting for the enemy or more hopefully our reinforcements...

Our daring flank attack... mills around while the Crostino centre make a beeline for the Lonely Battalion... Eek!

We are standing off here...

We are milling about here...

We are not very happy here... and feeling a bit more lonely...

Is that another blunder... sadly not the charging wildly in and stomping all over the enemy kind of blunder...

The enemy ... rather unfairly stand off and do Shooty Shooty while I fail to move back out of range...
One more casualty and they are done for...
If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of milling around to the right of the Lonely Battalion... sigh!

Hurrah!... end of standoff...

Boo! end of the Lonely Battalion...


And the end of the game...


In the real battle the Carlists coordinated their counter attack well and won the day...unlike us
We were all over the place... Standing off, Milling around and... well... running away.


A splendid game in splendid company.


All the best  Aly