"MW19 2nd Battle of Oporto: Polemos GdD Refight" Topic

I had a go this morning at recreating the 2nd Battle of Oporto from a scenario published in Miniature Wargames 19, written by Arthur Harman, using the Polemos General de Division rules. Notes, photos and musings here: link

Another great looking fight. I was really surprised that the downhill assault canceled out the Seminary's defenses; the way the fight swirled around the Seminary, I figured it still must have provided quite some advantage.

Perhaps a case of a UK gamer giving UK troops a +1 for everything? ;)

V/R,
Jack

Cheers Jack,

Yes, it is a strange quirk of the modifiers used. Basically in an infantry attack, you have an opposed D6 die roll (very similar to DBA), then:

-2 to the defender for the defence value of the seminary
+2 to the attacker for being uphill
+0-2 to either side for skirmish rating (both sides mainly used light infantry, so +2 to each)
-2 to either side per "shaken" level.

So the reason the fight was quite swirling was that the odds were pretty even. It "should" have been a slight advantage to the Allies from having more artillery support (4 batteries vs 1) but the French battery did so well that was about even too. I think this was probably too easy for the French: a 1 point swing to the Allies seems more where it should be at, maybe on average 2 points if the artillery had performed (tbf the Allied artillery did okay, but the French guns were knocking it out of the park…)

Perhaps a case of a UK gamer giving UK troops a +1 for everything? ;)

Cheeky! In fairness to the Polemos Napoleonics writer, Chris Grice, he is adamantly opposed to these sorts of "national characteristics". And because there are no formation changes depicted, there is no +1 to the Brits hidden in the column/line/square dynamic. In this battle I actually rated the French as uniformly first class, whilst the Allies troops were a little worse on balance.

All the best

John,

"I think this was probably too easy for the French…"
Wow. I must be missing something, need to look at the scenario again. To me it seems like it's almost an impossible task for the French.

"Cheeky!"
Indeed, that was the point! ;) Just playin' around.

V/R,
Jack

Wow. I must be missing something, need to look at the scenario again. To me it seems like it's almost an impossible task for the French.

Ah yes, I only meant for that specific attack. The scenario as a whole is very challenging for the French.

John,

"…I only meant for that specific attack."
Ahh, I see, gotcha.

V/R,
Jack