Battle Monesterio 4th January 1811
Setup
The French had no siege artillery at Badajoz. Thirty four captured heavy guns and ammunition were transported from Seville via Merida. The artillery lagged miles behind. Gazan’s infantry was guarding it and due to heavy rain and hail, as well as drivers abandoning 300 carts made issues worse. A Spanish force tried to move on a side road to get at the artillery or march on Seville. Battle in game time 12 turns.
The terrain map was put together with brown wrapping paper – 80gsm 750mm x 50m Kraft Wrapping paper. Overlapping in the middle set to size 6’ by 4’ (the actual battlefield is 6’ x 3’ – so between the dotted lines) with side edge extra for strength of a few inches – glued with PVA / glue stick. Terrain map basic layout courtesy of Michael Hopper’s - Rise of Albion scenario book. So I sketched out to scale and painted on with Acrylic paints to designate the hills (gentle and steep), roads, lake / impassable river (an adaption I chose from the lovely maps created by Colin in our 20mm campaigns – see Simon’s blog on http://www.servicerationdistributionhobby.blogspot.com ). Found with 15mm figures the 2D maps are the easiest and Michael’s maps and positions of terrain make all the difference in the battle. So cheap, easy to store, and if you are finished with it then environmentally easy to dispose of.
In this map the hills are gentle and steep (centre and bottom right), and all water impassable except at bridges, There are woods which are orchards on the far left (not shown in this picture). With roads and the built up area of Monesterio in the centre. Orange dotted line – Spanish deployment zone, Blue dotted line French deployment zone (on above setup picture).
I am playing the Spanish CinC Ballasteros who has 1 LFA (light Foot artillery moves just 2”, needs 1 turn to limber before moving, and fires as Horse artillery effects), with Gastelu as General who has 4 Poor Infantry. Moreda the next General with1 Poor light Infantry, and 3 Poor Infantry. Also Sisternes who has 2 Poor cavalry. Alan is the French CinC Mortier with General Pepin (1st Brigade) who has 3 Light Infantry plus 1 skirmisher, and 3 Average with 1 skirmisher. Finally Briche who has 1 Light cavalry (Hussars). The Spanish setup first, all on defend orders. The French are second to set up, on new orders. The French 4 baggage trains are more for atmospheric look, they make a 3” move up the road heading North each turn in single file (we put a marker on the road in the initial turns as Pepins force blocked the way to show where the baggage should be) – they were protected by another brigade by Marasin (who had a force equal to Pepin’s but they stayed on the road to protect the baggage and are not in this scenario). You would get the full scenario details in Michael’s book - Rise of Albion. We played this on the 2nd of February 2025.
The Spanish with all 9 poor troops had it all to do against the 7 average battalions. They almost pulled it off until turn 9, when sequence turn worked for Pepin and top scoring volleys and melees that took out Gastelu in 1 turn (who was so close to turning the French flank and blocking the road).
Historical Outcome:
The Spanish withdrew after a short skirmish and minimal loses after a three hour fight. Gazan pursued Ballesteros. | 
