Paraguayan Horror. War of the Triple Alliance Game #2

Yesterday saw another run out for my new Paraguayan War armies, this time using Valour and Fortitude. I had been planning to use BBB but decided at the last minute to use V&F just to see how they worked and because I wanted to put my entire collection (as it stands now) on the table.

There were six of us playing. The Alliance were played by Jon (Brazil), John (Argentine) and John (Uruguayan). Conrad, Nigel and I were the Paraguayans, Nigel taking the role of the dictator López. The objectives of the game were simple. The Alliance were tasked with capturing a Paraguayan fort covering a tributary of the Parana river.  The Paraguayans needed to destroy as much of the Brazilian and Argentine forces before the Uruguayans arrived ( when John the Red had finished dad’s taxi duties). A passive defence was unlikely to work. The Paraguayans rather sneakily had another emplaced battery of heavy guns across the river ready to enfilade the Allied attack.  

Terrain wise, there were a number of small impassable lagoons, lots of marsh and broken ground/scrub and the river was deemed to be twice as wide as represented on the table so the heavy guns would only be able to fire at a limited number of Alliance forces. Here are a few photos which hope will give some idea of how things unraveled or developed during the day.Blogger has as usual buggered up the order of the photos but I’ve made an attempt to put them back in the right sequence, I hope.

A view of the Paraguayan line.

Conrad commanded the entire Paraguayan cavalry arm, and deployed all seven regiments on our left.

Despite starting the game amidst the scrub and difficult terrain the Paraguayan cavalry advanced as quickly as they could in order to attempt a flanking attack on the Alliance forces.

Conrad’s horsemen massing to envelop the Argentinian flank. 

Paraguayan cavalry threaten the rear of the Argentinian infantry. Two battalions were forced into square.

On the left Jon’s Brazilians were struggling to make any headway against the fort but did pile the pressure on my infantry between the fort and the river. One cavalry attack was   beaten off.

The Paraguayan  left about get overwhelmed by the Brazilians

In the centre Nigel’s infantry closed with the Argentinians and held them up. Casualties were heavy and several battalions on both sides were broken.

An expanded view of the fight in the centre.

Our cavalry were poised to outflank the Argentinians but were held by several charges by the outnumbered and outclassed Argentine cavalry.

A nice view of the fort.

In the nick of time the Uruguayan division arrived to save the Allied army. They blunted several attacks from the Paraguayan cavalry. 

Paraguayans getting the worse of the fight against the tough Uruguayans.

In the centre one of Conrad’s regiments broke an Argentinian square. President Mitre above was almost captured.

The last throw of the Paraguayan dice as the sole surviving cavalry regiment took on a regiment of Argentinians. 

The fort looking packed full of Paraguayans. They infantry were all militia types and not as good as Nigel’s veteran troops in the centre .

 

The Brazilians had meanwhile annihilated my division by the river. 

Another shot of the gallant Uruguayans who saved the day. 

Well that was superb and much fun. Highs and lows were me forgetting to fire my artillery across the river most turns, me forgetting the rules until well into the game, the tenacity of the Paraguayan cavalry was remarkable although they were wiped out in the end. The Brazilians under Jon wiped out my division by the river but were struggling to make any progress against the fort. Interestingly nobody put their infantry into skirmish order where such a thing was allowed, and the skirmished rule was forgotten until well after the battle.

I think the statistics for the Paraguayan army seemed to work. I maybe need a little more thought regarding the Alliance forces as some of the troop stats didn’t seem right and I wanted to separate out Volunteers of the Fatherland and National Guard. I think the artillery was possibly a little too powerful as I’d used two guns per battery as it looks better. Jon struggled against the fort but maybe that’s accurate? 

Anyway, everyone enjoyed the game and the rules so we shall try them again soon. Maybe the Austrian-Prussian War of 1866?  Meanwhile ai had some fun with ChatGPT or whatever it’s called.

John as the Uruguayan commander

John ‘President Mitre’ Hogan

A battered me

    
                 Conrad above and Nigel        below

Jon the Brazilian