First Carlist War-Rules Adjustments

 

In this post I'm suggesting minor rules adjustments to better capture the tactical dynamics of the First Carlist War.  These are for Field of Battle but are surely transferable to your favoured set. Also, we are going to see my latest units for that conflict. The Carlist General and staff officer above

Another look at the Carlist Navarre Lancers above.  These fellows have worn out their issue off white overalls and have secured some infantry issue winter trousers by way of replacement.  Below, my second unit of Isabelino line cavalry with their General and aide.

As a rule of thumb a hierarchy of infantry speed existed in the First Carlist War.  In order of swiftness it went like this.  Carlists, Isabelinos, British Auxiliary Legion and British Royal Marines.  I want to capture this.

Above we see the Movement Cards from Field of Battle 3.  Below, British Marines.

 

 

I intend to give Carlist infantry units an option for a plus or minus 1 on their Movement dice score. You will see why the minus option shortly.  The Isabelino Movement dice scores will be unchanged. All British infantry Movement dice scores will be minus 1.  That should do the trick for movement.  I should add that movement in Field of Battle 3 is variable by design.

Carlist infantry could be short of ammunition.  There is an Incident Card in FoB3 that relates to Ammunition.  I'll add this to the Card Deck. When it is turned this happens.

Any Carlist unit whose fire roll is both odd and lower than that of the target unit is now out of ammunition for the remainder of that turn.

This means their opponents will have a fire advantage and that is the historical effect I want. 

Carlist infantry favoured cold steel.  They liked to charge.  In FoB3 a unit that scores both higher and even on its movement dice can enter melee.  Hence the minus 1 Carlist movement dice option above. This should result in more chances for Carlist infantry to charge home.

 

Above and below, probably the fanciest dressed troops of the War. 

A high quality Isabelino unit, the Princess Hussars.

All we need next is game report.  That will follow in due course.  

Next week we are off to India or Russia or maybe Late Roman Britannia.  All are among my current interests.  It's a great thing about the hobby-you never know where it will take you.

 

First Carlist War- Foreign Troops

Three notable contingents of foreign troops served on the Liberal side in the First Carlist War.  These were respectively the Portuguese, the French Foreign Legion and the British Auxiliary Legion.  Some men from all three ended up fighting for the Carlists.  That, as they say, is another story.  For another day perhaps.

The Portuguese Civil War had recently installed a Liberal regime.  It wanted a like minded neighbour on the Iberian Peninsula. Good quality regulars were duly dispatched by the thousand.  I don’t have any of these troops yet, but I might get a unit or two.

 

The newish French Foreign Legion (FFL) was also deployed. 

A mixed brigade of Foot, Artillery and Lancers was sent.   The Lancers were mainly Poles who well knew their business.

The FFL were the most effective combat soldiers of the war.  Outside of combat they were terrifying to friend and foe alike.  I'd suggest the infantry battalions are given a very high combat and morale rating.

The British Government approach was odd. it intervened but wanted to pretend it hadn't.  The object was deniability I suppose, in today’s jargon.  It claimed British Auxiliary Legion (BAL) was a purely Spanish initiative replete with Spanish style flags. Then spoiled the pretense by openly deploying the Royal Artillery and Royal Marines there. 

In theory then, the BAL was a Spanish formation.  It was commanded by a British General and comprised of British troops. The latter in numbers being English, Irish and Scots respectively.  It was uniformed, trained and equipped to British specification. It was deployed with British regulars and backed by British subsidies.  In reality the BAL was a newly raised British Division for service in Spain.

The BAL adds flavour in gaming terms.  A dash of red in a sea of grey and blue uniforms.  The BAL was different in other ways too.  Its formations were very slow moving, not as slow as the Royal Marines mind. This seems to have been a product of training. Thus, the thoroughly trained Marines were slowest of all.

All of the British infantry units (not the rifles) were slower than the Isabelinos and much slower than the Carlists.  A bit of historical nuance there and I want to capture it on the table top.  Accordingly, you will note I've based my BAL troops in closer order than the others.  It will serve as a visual reminder and I rather like the look of it.

 

Nor was the BAL a particularly high-quality outfit. Most units should be rated raw or trained. All this makes them very interesting on the table top.  De Lacy-Evans commanding was an average General.  The BAL did not lack aggression for all that. The infantry tactic of choice was volley and charge.

Here's a thing.  The Irish soldiers in the BAL would have immediately noticed the high numbers of commanders on both sides who had Gaelic names.  These were mainly the descendants of the Irish nobility exiled after the Nine Years War. That's a story worth a post some time.

I'd rate the Royal Artillery and Marines as regular.  I'm currently working on the Marines and we will see them in another post.  We will also see the Westminister Grenadiers because I couldn't resist doing them.

First Carlist War in 15m – The Isabelinos

 

There was a lot more colour about in the Isabelino Army certainly when compared to the Carlists. That's before you got to the foreign troops.

Points to note.  I'm going to be using Field of Battle for my Carlist War games.  It, and any other general rule set will require some slight adjustments to achieve proper period flavour. In other words you should adjust your set to reflect the reality.  Expect a separate post on this.

Here is a rather fancy brigade.  It is also a rather formidable one, consisting of Guard units with supporting light infantry and artillery.

 

First, the Royal Guards here.  The fellows in grey are the Reina Gorbanedora light infantry armed with Baker rifles.  Figures from QRF.

Above, Provincial Grenadiers in their bearskins with a Mountain Gun battery.  Very handy in pretty much any situation.  All from Capitan.

Most Isabelinos were not quite up to that mark.  Many of them were nowhere near it.  A more typical formation might look like this one.  Light infantry out front. Let us be charitable and assume all the soldiers are trained rather than raw. They could be either. Figures from QRF.

In either case they preferred to rely on fire power rather than close steel. 

The Carlists, often short of ammo’ were the opposite.  They loved a charge, the earlier the better.  They could do it from skirmish order too.

These Isabelinos have a supporting battery too.  Front rank from Capitan, rear and cannon QRF.

 Above more Isabelinos from Capitan.

Isabelino cavalry was mostly good, some of it very good.  There were some poor units too.  Above, in green, a light cavalry unit.  Could be rated regular and on a good day maybe veteran.  In yellow, line cavalry, either trained or regular as suits the occasion.  Now, only the first rank carried lances, the second sabres.  I have some figures and will turn 1 unit of line lancers into 2.  Like so.

  

Figures from Capitan.

 

Above National Militia from QRF.  I have two such units and may aim for three.

That’s it for now.  I do have more and we will see them.  Next time we will take a look at the Isabelino foreign troops.

First Carlist War in 15m – The Carlists

 

I should begin by saying these are big 15mm figures, more like 18mm really.  You need to be mindful of that should you chose to substitute figures from other ranges. Most of mine come from QRF.  The rest came from the Spanish company Capitan/ Warmodelling.  The two are compatible in my view.

We are about to see my entire First Carlist War collection in a series of posts. Today, we are going to look at the Carlists.

You may notice that my painting style evolves in the following pic’s. This is due to the glacially slow release of the QRF range.  That said the QRF range is happily now complete. 

The Carlists were very much of an up and at them attitude.  Partly because of disposition and also because they were often short of ammunition. Consequently they liked to charge sooner rather than later. 

The other thing to note is that Carlist infantry moved faster than their opponents.  They were also masters of difficult or broken ground. A Carlist Mountain Gun battery above.

Carlist brigades often deployed whole battalions in skirmish order backed by a reserve battalion in column. Unusually, Carlist skirmishers would charge home without forming into closer order.

Now, let us look at the cavalry. The first pic is of QRF Carlist cavalry.  If you can get past the identical horses QRF have the fullest range of First Carlist War cavalry anywhere.

I think the use of a single horse figure let down the QRF (one piece casting) cavalry.  A shame, because the riders are fine and the variety of units commendable. The normal solution is to substitute horses.  You cannot do that with one piece castings.  

 

I chose instead to mainly opt for the Capitan ones.

Carlist cavalry was often very effective.  Lancers were popular.  That said the Carlists never had anywhere near enough horseflesh to match the quantity available to their opponents. Above Merino's Lancers and the Ontoria Hussars.  Both crack troops.  Other Carlist lancers are perhaps best rated as regular.  Interestingly, Carlist cavalry did not perform outpost or scouting duties.  They were in short supply and reserved as battle cavalry.

 

While we are talking about QRF let me recommend their range of First Carlist War artillery pieces to you.  They really are very nice.

My latest Carlist unit here.  The Portuguese volunteers with their distinctive green boina.  Note the two Totentaz grenadiers.  The rest are QRF.   Totentaz have some lovely Carlist War figures.  Alas, the range is far from complete.

I seem to have enough figures for another two battalions and another squadron or two of lancers.  I'll also be adding some cavalry command bases that will enable the cavalry to go further.  I'll show them here along with the Carlist Generals when they are done.

Next the Cristinos aka Isabelinos.