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Here you will find all the important information you will need for the battle.

Order of battle, deployment, games set up etc.

Only DougieJ to post in this thread, many thanks.

Salamanca deployment, on map Dirt Hill

I choose Salamance for the next HB game for the far from usual deployment situation, where we have one army in the field in marching column.
Yes this will not last long once the battle commences, but i hope we can get some feel for the ensuing chaos suffered after a surprise attack on the said columns.

Main aims of Salamanca deployment

The French army is deployed in marching columns and strung out along the field with the leading force on the French left under Themieres dangerously exposed.
The British right under peckingham aided by there Portuguese allies will attempt to cut off and destroy these leading French columns, while the French will attempt to hold back the attack and receive support from the rest of there army.
To duplicate the total surprise achieved by the attacking allies we have all there forces deployed at the very front of there zones,
We have the French left army the same deployed at the very front. This is to ensure that the French columns come under immediate fire once the game starts. The French centre and right side army's are strung out diagonally across its zones with some forces some way back from the initial contact.

The individual deployment instructions with images are as follows.
Please click to enlarge

Brit left.
All units deployed at very front with light infantry left.


Port centre.
All units deployed at very front with all cav on the right ready to move to far right of Brits to be ready in place for the battle to start.


Brit right.
All units deployed at very front with all cav centre and space left on right for Port cav to move into to.


French deployment for a 3v2 game

French right.
Infantry divided into 3 all in marching columns. 1, right side, half way back in zone. 2, centre, half way back in zone. 3, left side, just back from front of zone. All cav centre in rear half of zone.


French Left.
Infantry divided into 3 all in marching columns, all deployed at very front of zone separate from each other, the far left column should not be ahead of the left side of the buildings you see in the image. all cav to be deployed centre and half way back in zone.


This may look complicated but remember you only need to study your own army's deployment instructions, so it should not be to difficult.

If we have 3 players on the French team, right and centre will deploy as follows.

French centre.
Infantry divide into 4 marching columns, two deployed at very front of zone left hand side and two half way back in zone centre right.


French right.
Infantry divide into 3 marching columns, deployed diagonally from very front left to back half of zone on right. all cav deployed half way back in zone on left.

Order of Battle Salamanca.

The historical records of army sizes at Salamanca varies slightly with a very slight advantage given one way or the other.
A fair assumption would be that both commanders were able to field approximately 50,000 men.
With a fairly unusual small percentage of cavalry taking part.
Allies approx 8% French approx 7%

Artillery.
Allies 54 guns, French 78 guns, for our game this translates nicely to Allies 14 guns, French 20 guns.

Infantry.
Allies 44-46,000, French 42-45,000, for our game we have Allies 28 units, French 27 units, a slight advantage to the allied side as it seems was the case.

Cavalry.
Allies 4,000, French 3,400, for our game we have Allies 574, French 492, again a very good reflection of the allied advantage as was the case.
We also get an excellent representation of the cavalry percentage of both sides army's.



Allied Order of Battle.


Brit right army.
1-Gen, 1-6 gun 9pdr, 1-L Drag, 1-KGL Huss, 1-KGL Drag, 1-large size Brit Drag, 1-KGL Light, 1-KGL Line, 5-Brit Line, 1-Highlander.


Port centre army.
1-Gen, 1-4 gun 9pdr, 2-L Drag, 2- Caca, 6-Line.


Brit left army.
1-Gen, 1-4 gun 6pdr, 2-Brit Light, 2-Rifles, 1 KGL Line, 5 Brit Line, 1 Highlander, 1-Foot G.



French Order of Battle 3v3

French left,
1 Gen, 3 Chass-Che, 1 huss, 1x4 gun 6pdr, 4 line, 3 Yguard.


French Centre,
1 Gen, 1x6 gun 12pdr, 2 Volts, 6 Line, 3 Yguard.


French Right,
1 Gen,2 Drags, 1x6 gun 12pdr, 1 x 4 gun Howey, 4 Volts, 2 Line, 3 Yguard.


French order of battle 2v3

French left
1 Gen, 3 Chass-Che, 1 huss, 1x4 gun 6pdr, 1x4 gun howey, 2 volts, 7 line, 4 Yguard.



French right
1 Gen, 1x4 gun 6pdr, 1x6 gun 12pdr, 2 Drags, 4 Volts, 6 Line, 5 Yguard.





Special Notes

Artillery
I could not find very specific information on artillery types so have gone for a nice mixture.

Infantry,
There were no Guard units in the French army at Salamanca, however in our game the allied side is a lot higher cost than the French side, so to redress this un balance somewhat I have included the YG units, these I feel we can easily view as high quality battle hardened line units (not to be used in open order)
There is however an alternative to this that some may prefer ??
That being we just deploy line units for the French as was the case at Salamanca, and drop some allied line and replace with Militia, theses to be viewed as low quality and inexperienced line ?? (Comments please on the chat thread)

All in all I'm very happy with the representation of the actual OOB at Salamanca we have been able to achieve.

Game Date Proposals



Friday the 28st Aug at 2130 GMT

Please post your preference and availability on the chat thread.

Cheers DJ.

Game 1 Salamanca.

Confirmed Players and positions.

Brit right...... FVZ
Port centre.. DougieJ
Brit left.......Smokhammer

French left....frog
French right..G24

OK gents a couple of final things we need to be aware of before we start the game.

Please be prepared
To ensure we get things going quickly, could all players have there relevant OOB's saved and ready, its then just a couple of clicks in the unit picking area and we are ready to go.
Also please be sure of your deployment instructions, many thanks.

Game joining order,
If I could ask Smoke to please host, if thats OK then the game joining order will be as follows.

Smoke (host)
DougieJ
FVZ
Frog
G24

When game action is to start ?
We need a pause at the battle start, nobody is to move until the Port cav has moved across the field to there desired location on the far right.
All players artillery therefore must have “”FIRE AT WILL”” turned off.

The signal for battle to commence will be FVZ on the Brit right opening artillery fire once he sees Port cav are in place on his right.
Basically guys as soon as the first artillery round is fired its game on.

Many thanks to you all for supporting HB battles here at the NBC.
Good luck and have fun.