Two columns were converging to attack a large Carlist force in the Guipuzcoa mountains. A column of Government troops was cooperating with BAL troops to attack a massed Carlist army. The Government force was in three brigades, a small van of two units of cavalry was leading the way, followed by a brigade of four infantry units and a mountain gun, in the rear was a third brigade of 5 infantry battalions.
The BAL contingent consisted of a mixed brigade of two units of Riflemen and two units of lancers followed by a brigade of four infantry battalions and the another mixed brigade of three infantry battalions, a gun and a rocket battery.
The Carlists were spread along the Northern end of the valley. They had three brigades of infantry, two of 6, one of five with a piece of artillery attached to it and one cavalry brigade with three units of cavalry.
There was a small caserio just south of the Carlist line, a wooded area flowed west of it with small paths through it. The Carlist marched south, trampling down the crops of the unfortunate family.
The Carlists tried to move their cavalry up but the cavalry commanders insisted that the infantry go first, especially as the area was wooded and they didn't want to be caught strung out on the narrow paths.
The infantry subsequently advanced and could see the government troops moving in their long, slow lines down the mountain trail.
Their commanders thinned the center of the line and sent on whole brigade up to occupy the caserio and the woods just north of it using it as an anchor to the break between the first and second infantry brigades.
The second brigade advanced to take up a position just north of the caserio and parts of it skirmished in the woods between there and the area where the third brigade was advancing to meet the government troops.
The BAL got their cavalry shot up as they moved down and past the farm house
with the carlist troops in it, the other unit of cavalry moved up and
silhouetted themselves on a hill and were easy pickings for a host of Carlist
units and were driven back off the hill shaken from the experience. The
infantry passed by the farm house and smashed into the Carlist second brigade or
tried to drive the militia troops from the west side of the farm house.
A close combat ensued with units moving into and falling back from the mass
melee for the remainder of the game.
Eventually the militia would be driven off and two units of BAL would quit the
field and a third would be in no shape to continue.
The riflemen apparently failed to notice the two units of carlists behind the
farm house and dashed across their front trying to drive the skirmishing
Carlists from the woods. Their attack met with as much success as you would
expect and the two units of skirmishers were destroyed as the Carlists piled
into them.
The attack on the Carlist right wing proceeded more slowly. The government
troops slowly made their way down the mountain and formed up in lines and
advanced on the Carlists. Some fire was exchanged between the lead elements of
both forces before the Isabellinos surged forward and caught one of the Carlist
units in a terrible crossfire which it could not stand. Shattered it streamed
away to the rear.
The cavalry had now made it through the woods behind the infantry and tried to
remedy the situation by charging into the infantry but despite attempts by two
of the units the cavalry was driven off and the infantry, worse for ware, still
stood.
The rest of the ifantry came up at this point and fired point blank into the
Carlists as they were trying to develop a holding position on top of a small
hillock.
The Carlist drove at them after this but were driven back and eventually under
the pressure of the nine battalions of government infantry the Carlist brigade
broke and fell back through the woods.
The Isabellino cavalry drove straight up the middle of the field and caught a
Carlist unit skirimishing just out of the woods, smashed it up and drove it back
before retiring itself.
Night started to set in at this point and the soldiers started to settle into
camps on opposite sides of the valley. The BAL force was shattered and had
retreated back south, but the Carlists cavalry and one of their infantry
brigades were gone, fleeing North. The next day would determine who would win
the battle as a the battered second Carlist brigade and the first Carlist
brigade took on the, more or less, intact Isabellino force.
gets his hands on some fields and fences.