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.