Corunna Game 2: A Vintage Blue Nun and the Battle of Postelthwaite's Merkin.

The Duke of Lancaster’s Own 4th Foot

Captain Quilp,Leader, Status III      (9)
Lieutenant Sheridan Bucket Status I   (3)
One group of 8 Grenadiers, Muskets (7)
Two Groups of 8 Regulars, Muskets (12)
Ensign Wellard Leader, Status II      (6)
Two Groups of 8 Regulars, Muskets   (12)
Sergeant Postlethwaite Jaggers Leader I     (3)
One Group of 6 Light Company Skirmishers, Muskets (8)
Jeremiah Catchmole, former Poacher and Marksman (2)
Point Value: 60




Captain Quilp, 4th Foot
From: Lt. Gen Sir John Moore
Astorga, Dec 24th 1808

Ah, Quilliup,
How is youwr eyesight these days... Haw... Haw...Haw...

It will come as a shock that we will not be fwighting a bwattle here twooday.
The army will be retweating.
You will have the honour of being Wearguard here at Astworga.
A squadron of the 15th Hooussars will stand by you.
The Fwench will come over the mountains from Leon.

The Wearguard will be commanded by Brigadier General Urgent-Cummings, the Earl of Fagg.
Weport to him on complweetion of your mwission.

Gwood Luck owlde boy...

Mwoore

Note from Chief of Staff:
Captain Quilp,

You must hold the French with your company until nightfall or until you are outflanked. They will probably try to use the direct route westward over the Pine Ridge.  Choose your ground.  You can hold them at the fords of the Arroyo del Convento, or on the roads over the Pine Ridge.  Astorga will be fired as the Army withdraws.   A Squadron of the 15th Hussars under Lieutenant Hawtrey will be at your disposal.
One last thing...

The Sera Convent lies to the North of Astorga.  Send a small force to protect and escort our agent "the Blue Nun," to your position.  She is guarding a big box and has a mule to carry it. This box must be delivered to the main column after your mission to delay the French is complete.  Do not allow it to fall into the Enemy's hands.
More importantly do not entrust this mission to Hawtrey of the Hussars.  The Good Lord has not blessed him with  a natural intelligence, and he cannot be trusted with a lady, even an elderly nun.
I say... Ding Dong...old boy...
Do not allow your Force to be cut off and destroyed.

Desperate times Captain...

Orders from Captain Quilp

I shall send Lt. Wellard with the light company to escort the ‘nun’.

I will take half our line troops (two groups?) and take up a position in the treeline on Pine Tree Ridge, overlooking the fords. We will deploy in open order (individual groups) and harry the French, with ‘skirmish’ fire as they cross the fords.

The remainder of our force will take up a reserve position  at the junction of the two roads behind Pine Tree Ridge, under Sgt Postlethwaite. Here they will form line.

We will not attempt to make a stand in the woods but fall back on our reserves when pressed. The whole force will then reform line and hopefully cover the retreat of Wellard and the ‘nun.

Cpt. Quilp (4^th Foot)

Wellard and the Convent

The Convent battlefield

The Sera Convent

Choosing my chips

And that's a shock for Wellard.  Those are Spaniards

Information from Pancho the woodcutter.  "Lots of Spaniards around here Senor..."  How useful

But up in the Convent Guerrillas or Bandidos, take your pick... 

The Guerrillas loose off their old blunderbus and pistols and kill one of Wellard's men

Wellard's men shoot back and kill off most of the bandidos

But the Spaniards are the head of a battalion column.  Will they help the British and Save the Day.  Not likely...

Wellard gets to grips with the Nun and her huge box.

Wellard rescues the Nun but fails to get the Spaniards to Support his Captain at the crossroads to the South.

Quilp's Ridge, 
(Or  the battle of Postlethwaite's Merkin)

The French Plan.
2 groups of Voltiguers to advance on both roads.  We will support any successwith the second groups.
2 Groups of French Line to advance on the left (Southern) road. 

So... that looks like a big chasm and once again its not on the map.  The bridge has fallen in.  bad news for the French plan.

The chasm revealed...

Captain Quilp and his men line the trees

A Fat French Officer leads the Voltiguers on table, not all of them pointing the right way I note.

Sergeant Picard on the left gets himself shot dead in the first fire from the British.  The skirmish line here stalls.

Major Finguin gets stuck in with one group giving the other covering fire.

But out from the ranks... Corporal Christophé Cabbagé

And Major Finguin retires wounded, losing four more men.  Hell on Officers this game.

Corporal Christophé Cabbagé demonstrates his worth.  Quilp is also wounded

Quilp is helped away by his drummer boy

Young Lieutenant Sheridan Bucket leaps across the gap and takes control of Quilp's men.  He has them volley and then manages to disengage them and attempts to run for it.  Well done boy!

The French charge fails to contact

And Sheridan Bucket, hero of the hour, goes back to his own group and activates them for a volley into the flank of those french Grenadiers, killing no less than four!

In a shambles the French redeploy to the right.  The plan has gone wrong, and the commander is dead.  morale is not good.

Sergeant Postlethwaite orders the line forward whilst Quilp and his drummer boy head for the Physic.  Talking into his hat as per usual Postelthwaite shouts "I`m up like an owl Mother???"

The Cambridge Historian Dr Quentin Whiteflour revealed in his "Postelthwaite's Peninsular diary" that the Sergeant carried his mothers merkin inside his hat as a sentimental keepsake, and that it was to this that he addressed his rhetorical questions. 

The event chip appears and with it Dick Wellard and his nun's box.

Sheridan abandons the ridge

As the French crest the ridge they must push through the trees to see beyond

And the view is startling.  Postelthwaite has brought four groups into line with the fifth retreating towards him.  In this condition the French may have captured a secondary deployment point but they are finished for the time being.

We beat them again Mother!
I should explain that my Sergeant Postletwaite character carries a halberd as his symbol of office.  During this particular game I noticed that some of the kapok I use as gunsmoke had attached to the tip.  The explanation is clear, this is the merkin once worn by Posteltwaite's "sainted" mother.  During the 18th century pubic wigs would be worn by prostitutes to hide the fact that they had syphilis.  Clearly Postelthwaite's enthusiasm for battle has aroused him to the extent that he has mounted the merkin in the end of his pole arm to inspire the troops... 

The 4th Foot have four leaders, and this gives them a distinct advantage over the French.  SP2 is however really harsh on Officers.  Captain Quilp needed only cursory treatment, but Major Finguin is in a sorry state, and poor Picard is no more.