"Favourite Peninsular war battle/skirmish" Topic

What is your favourite Peninsular war battle/ skirmish to reproduce on the wargames table and why. Is it because of the choice of units involved, Commanders, location etc.Looking for ideas for first game.I am collecting 10mm figures at the present for larger/medium size battles, but considering 25mm/15mm figures for skirmish games.

Talavera

Albuera and Fuentes d'Oro. Skirmishes are usually not historical, more Bernard Cornwell.

Albuera and Barossa. Have played both using 28s and 18 players with good fun for all.

The best refights I have done are Albuera and Talavera. Both have great potential for each side and a great variety of troops for the tabletop.

Albuera.

River Coa. The best the Light Division can do is survive, while Ney, with overwhelming force, has the problem of deploying it effectively to catch the Brits before they can escape.

I would suggest Vimiero or Rolica if just getting started. Both are easy on the figure count, fairly small map area and coincidentally both were learning experiences for both sides. Can you time a three pronged attack better that Junot? Can you pull off a better fighting retreat than Delaborde?

Vimiero is pretty much impossible for the French to win.
Albuera is a great one as it is not too big and both sides have a chance.
Castalla is also a good balanced battle.

Vimiero is a good start; have to disagree that it is impossible for French to win. Group I used to game with played it twice, using "Over the Hills" rules. First was a good British victory, but second was a very definite defeat for them.
Rolica is another good starter battle, particularly if you play the second stage when French have withdrawn to the ridge. It's a tough fight for the British and needs a Wellesley in command to win it!
Take a look at the Devon Wargaming groups blog on Peninsular battles:

devonwargames.blogspot.co.uk

I played vimiero once with a variable oob and fog of war rules. A very tense game since hindsight about actual troop strength and where they would go didn't enter into the game.

I recommend variable oob when ever possible. My method is to use a card draw from a pool of cards that offerranges of up to 20% above or below the historical strength, with lots of dummy units (we use dominos) so that a smaller force is not immediately apparent. The player need not reveal his draw until end of game.

Thanks for all of your comments and advice.Much appreciated.Still new to hobby and need to do some serious reading and research, so much to cover with the Napoleonic period, uniforms,campaigns,army organisation,the list is never ending, but fun!