To Conquer and Keep, volume 2 1811 to 1814

This second volume of ‘To Conquer and Keep. Suchet and the War for Eastern Spain, 1809 - 1814’ focusses on the years 1811 to 1814. It is another superb addition to the hugely diverse and excellent ‘from Reason to Revolution’ series.

This volume follows the same pattern as its predecessor, with a massive amount of detail squeezed into its 300 or so pages. The book includes a general history of this stage of the campaign and contains what in my mind are detailed accounts of operations and the key battles and sieges, such as Sagunto and Valencia.

The narrative is supported very well by some excellent full page colour maps, numerous colour and black and white illustrations and 10 excellent appendices. These detail the orders of battle for the French (including a veritable pot pouri of contingents from all over the Empire), Spanish and British armies engaged in the campaign. The author also gives plenty of space to discuss the guerrilla and counter-guerrilla operations which Suchet failed to contain.

For me this volume, and with volume 1, provide a nice counterweight to books that are more often that not focussed on the role of the British and Wellington in the Peninsular War. Indeed it is refreshing to consider the campaign from the French perspective, and equally refreshing to be reminded that there was a sizeable British contingent operating independently from Wellington’s army in collaboration with growing numbers of Spanish regulars as well as irregular forces.

Suchet was undeniably one of Napoleons better Generals/Marshals, but despite his success in conquering Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia his forces were unable to maintain control, ultimately leading to the French withdrawal from Eastern Spain.

This book, indeed both volumes, succeed very well in discussing this often ignored theatre of war in Spain, and for that the author and Helion & Co are to be commended. They’re certainly well worth it whether the reader is a dyed in the wool Napoleonic guru or a more casual reader.


ISBN: 978-1-804513-96-5 soft back, 307 pages.

Napoleon - What I thought of the Movie

 

Where to start? Me and my good lady went to see the movie this afternoon. Here’s our combined thoughts, in no particular order:

• Disjointed narrative
• Episodic.
• Badly edited.
• Lighting was dreary with the odd bit of true Ridley Scott which was good.
• Dialogue was poor.
• Was it a biopic, an historical epic, a romance, a war movie? It didn’t know either.
• Music pinched from Pride and Predjudice, the Keira Kightly one. Other tracks sounded like those out of Black Hawk Down or Gladiator.

• Failed to explain historical stuff so if you didn’t know you’d be lost. 
• Some poor casting. Vanessa Kirby wasn’t too bad as Josephine and Miles Jupp as Emperor Francis was amusing. Rupert Evert as Wellington was a joke. Indeed many of the persons depicted were mere caricatures. 
• Some characters were introduced with a little caption, others were not, e.g. Davout, Ney. No logic.
• Some glaring errors, e.g. referring to Francis as King rather than Emperor, Napoleon at the execution of Marie Antoinette, ‘Italy’ surrendering? Napoleon doing stuff he didn’t do, like leading cavalry charge. Using J as only reason N abandoned his army in Egypt, bollocks but very romantic.

• The battles were pretty dreadful. The Paris mob scene was actually good. Toulon was ok but didn’t look right as I thought Fort Mulgrave was an earthwork. Egypt was, well, someone’s imagination ran wild. Austerlitz was very wrong. Borodino was even more wrong. Waterloo a joke.
• Whatever happened to Marengo or Wagram?Left handed cavalry charge still in. So many flags! As many as in Kingdom of Heaven almost!
• Borodino and Waterloo had both sides dug in WW1 style! Actually, same true of Austerlitz where the French were dug in or hiding under tarpaulins. Eh?
• The frozen ponds at Austerlitz were more like the Great Lakes! I didn’t think it was that snowy either.
• More about the relationship between N and J which is not a bad thing as somewhere I have a book of the letters they exchanged over the years.
• The uniforms looked good and they did change as the years progressed so that is a plus point.
• I’ve just remembered there were mounted Lifeguards guarding N on St Helena and they showed him dying by sliding sideways into the end credits.
• The cannons did recoil and the balls didn’t explode which is good.

I went with an open mind on the basis that a movie is first and foremost entertainment. This was barely that (ok a little harsh, just), but a self indulgent exercise by Ridley Scott. Katherine with a lay person’s perspective thought it was  rubbish. It could have been so much more…..but I don’t regret going to see it, and I am looking forward to the extended directors cut on Apple TV whenever it comes out.

But don’t let me put anyone off going to see it. 

The Conquer and Keep

To Conquer and Keep. Suchet and the War for Eastern Spain 1809-1814, is volume 1 of a two book series by Yuhan Kim. This volume covers the years 1809-1811 is an informative and really enjoyable account of an often ignored yet vitally important part of the Peninsular War. The French commander, Louis-Gabriel Suchet fought an impressive and successful campaign against the Spanish regular army and guerrilla forces and took control of much of Eastern Spain. In fact he was arguably the only French commander to come away from Spain with his reputation intact.

This book focuses on the sieges of Saragossa, Tortola and Tarragona, and the campaign in Catalonia and Aragon. Every major battle where Suchet was in command or where his subordinates were acting on his behalf is examined in great detail, and it is possible to picture some of the horrors that accompanied the storming of a ferociously defended city.

As ever, there are a good number of colour and black and white images of various personalities and troop types, together with half a dozen really handy and well drawn colour maps. A plethora of appendices give us detailed orders of battle at various stages throughout the campaign; those of the various Spanish armies are especially interesting.

Overall then, this is a tremendous book, bringing to the fore the details of this campaign often regarded as a bit of a sideshow when compared to the more ‘exciting’ campaigns to the west. I look forward to seeing the second volume, which takes us up to the ejection of the French from Spain in 1814.

Behind the Scenes: A visit to the Burrow from Wargames Soliders and Strategy.

This week I had a visit from Guy Bowers of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine. We’d spoken earlier this year when he asked about my French Revolutionary Wars collection, with a view to photographing it to support a forthcoming magazine theme of Napoleon in Italy in 1796. Now, my figures are not in the same league or even same planet as many that have appeared in magazines and continue to do so, but are (I would say) at least better than average wargames standard, whose only aim is to provide me and my mates something to use to game with. 

I can’t reproduce any of the pictures that Guy took until after the magazine has come out, but it was an interesting (and tiring) day setting up the table for Arcola and then Caldiero, moving the figures around, together with lots of generic shots. I’ve seen many of the pictures taken and they look pretty good so I look forward to seeing some of them them in print.

Thumbs up from the director, cameraman and lighting engineer all rolled into one. My main role was to ferry troops on and off the table, make bacon butties for lunch and hold up the backdrop (see later - I must get one).

Camera! Lights! Action!

Massed cavalry.

Austrian troops lining the river shooting at the French who had to march parallel up a raised roadway to reach the bridge at Arcola.

A ‘singles’ shot of a base of Frenchmen.

Massed cavalry again.

Imagine…..Me holding the sky up.

Back to normal now once I’ve done tidying up as John the Red is coming for a game on Saturday. I also have lots of reviews to finish and even more Russians and Swedes to complete. We are planning to be away in January and February next year so I need to squeeze in as many games and as much painting as I can in what remains of the year.

The Battle of Tigranocerta 69BCE

[Note that this has nothing to do with the similarly named fort in eighteenth century North America].

After his last visit ooop t’north, Steve the Architect had offered to run a big Ancients game, so on Saturday we had the pleasure of engaging in battle between the Caesarian Romans, I think, and Late Successor types and Armenians. Apologies if that’s not quite an accurate introduction but I know little about this chunk of history, my Roman preference being the later more degenerate types of the fourth century AD, but who can’t like tough Roman legionaries vs cataphracts, phalanxes, imitation Romans, scythe chariots and similar. An Ancient World version of Charles the Bold’s mash up of the best bits of everything which together were somewhat less than effective.

Anyone interested in the background can find it Here.

Paul, Jim and I were the Romans and John, Nigel and Conrad played the army of Tigranes the Great. We used Hail Caesar 2nd edition, which to the uninitiated are the same as Hail Caesar 1st edition with new photos.  Somehow I got to be the Roman commander in chief, so my contingent began the game being harangued by my character to stop counting their loot and leave the camp to help the rest of the army strung out in column of march as the enemy army appeared on their right flank. I was too engaged in the game to understand what went on at the other end of the table but hopefully the photos will tell the usual story as the game unfolded. Any bias is purely intentional as this account will be read to the Senate.

Gallic observers view the battle from the safety of the encampment.

Tigranes the Great and his loyal lieutenants.

The Romans have turned to face the enemy and my command in the encampment has been convinced to leave and support their comrades. Paul on the far left commanded all our cavalry and did a great job throughout the battle neutralising and keeping the hoards of enemy cavalry off our flank.

My elite legionaries forming up to leave the encampment.

Super hard legionaries advancing rapidly.

Tigranes’ army begins its attack on the strung out Roman army.

Some nasty looking phalanxes advancing towards a gap in our centre.

To the right of the phalanx we’re several units of imitation legionaries. They may look the part but can they fight?

These next two are of general aspects of the battle, in the centre of the table, but in reverse order. It was a bit of a this way and that way affair, with the legionaries being more than a match for everything that was thrown against them. Good Generalship of course Jim.

My command marching as fast as their legs could carry them as they moved to roll up the enemy left.

Some of Jim’s legionaries 

Now in action against Iranian cavalry.

Our centre.

The phalanx attacked our flank but the Romans were able to turn to face and hold them off.

More of the grinding match in the centre. The legionaries held their own against the enemy cataphracts.

Caught in the flank? The legionaries just shrugged it off.

The end of the battle with my hard marching legionaries about to roll up the enemy flank and attack their rear. Apart from that my command didn’t even unsheathe their swords! 

Well, that was a tense few hours. I thought we were for it when the phalanxes turned up on the flank of our central legions, but they were held and beaten off, as were the cataphracts and other nasty Iranian and Armenian cavalry, who were driven back by the legionaries and ultimately broken. Paul did his job of keeping the enemy cavalry off our left flank, who were worn down and unable to engage effectively, or even ineffectively. Of course my command won the battle by threatening the enemy rear, and with one or two of their commands broken Tigranes the Great fled and a Roman victory was proclaimed.

A tremendous game. In truth my command did nothing as the real fighting was over by the time they were in position to strike at the enemy rear. A hard fought game, great company, lovely figures and an all round great way to spend a Saturday. Thanks to Steve for trekking up from Trentland and putting the game on. I’d forgotten how much I liked Hail Caesar, certainly the better than Pike and Shot and maybe even Black Powder. I do like the break test concept every time a unit has a ‘6’ scored against it rather than an automatic disorder. I have tried that in BP and it worked well so may give it another go sometime.

Next week there’s a big ACW game at the club but I can’t go, so John the Red is coming over for another game. Napoleonic probably……

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Russian Napoleonic Jäger Skirmishers.

I finally completed the first group of early Napoleonic Russian jäger to give the army some skirmish ability. The light green uniforms and turquoise facings work well together.  These are venerable Casting Room Miniatures and rather nice they are too. Another dozen to finish later this week.

The Scandie Noir version.

Foundry/Casting Room have launched their 2023 Xmas sale, so if I can pull a decent sized order together I will get 25 percent off. What do I need? Not a lot. What do I want? Mmmmmmm?

This School has a British Battle Honour

 La Martiniere School Lucknow

This is an interesting little video. Made by a British guy. Typical YouTube stuff but nicely done. I make no claim for its accuracy but from what I know it is spot on. I certainly didn’t know the school had been awarded the battle honour.