La Bataille de Maida Permission to Photocopy This Page La Bataille de Maida Règlements Exclusif Pour les Règlements de l’An XXX et Les Règlements des Marie Louises La Bataille de Maida Permission to Photocopy This Page Copyright © 2015 Clash of Arms November 2015 Rules marked with an eagle or are shaded with a grey background apply only to players using the Règlements de l’An XXX. All rules herein take precedence over any rules in the series rules which they may contradict. 1.0 INTRODUCTION La Bataille de San Pietro di Maida is a tactical Napoleonic game of Stuart’s invasion of Italy in 1806 and his battle on the 4th July 1806 with Reynier. In 1806, Napoleon had installed his brother as King of Naples, and sent troops under General Reynier to aid him in the suppression of the Calabrians, who had started a guerrilla war, and also to guard against an invasion from Sicily where eleven thousand troops where stationed, protected by the Royal Navy. The British command was convinced that by July 1806 the French had evacuated much of Naples due to Calabrian harassment. The British prepared to send out an expeditionary force under Sir John Stuart to capitalize on the situation, however British intelligence was incorrect. The French garrison in Calabria, although dispersed, was large. The insurgents were hardly a decisive factor, although they were causing problems for the French. Nevertheless, on 1st July 1806, Stuart landed in Calabria with 5200 troops. Some small French units, who reported the invasion to Reynier, observed the landing. It took Reynier three days to assemble his forces and march them towards the British beachhead, a task made easier by the fact that the British had halted after advancing only five miles. Stuart had left Major John Lemoine of d’Watterville’s Suiss Regiment with half the regiment and d’Arcy’s battery of four 6pdrs and two howitzers in a fortified position on the beach. This decsiosn was aided by the lack of horse to pull the guns. By the morning of the 4th July, the two armies came in contact on a level plain bisected by a shallow stream near the town of Maida. The British were advancing to meet the French, who intended to throw the British back into the sea. Reynier was openly contemptuous of the British, although he had been defeated by them in Egypt, in 1801. He deployed his troops in column, without bothering to screen them from the fire of the British. He had three good French regiments. One of them the 1re Légère, was among the finest in the army. With the French were two battalions of unenthusiastic Poles and one battalion of professional Swiss troops. Reynier’s cavalry gave him an advantage, for the British, practically speaking, had none. British advantage, however, lay in the excellent training of their troops. Reynier intended to hurl his columns at the British line without either screening them with skirmishers or softening up the British with artillery fire. The battle opened on the British right with skirmishing between the Baker Rifles of the Corsican Rangers and Tiralleurs of the 1re Légère. The Corsican Rangers were finally forced back and the columns started to advance. The 1re Légère, supported on its right by the 42e Ligne, delivered the initial assault. They attacked the British light infantry of Kempt’s Brigade. The British held their fire until the French were 150 yards away and then fired three deadly accurate volleys, and charged. By the time the smoke cleared, all that was left of the 1re Légère was a crowd of fugitives. Some continued to advance but were stopped in a brief hand-to-hand battle. As the French broke, the British advanced in pursuit, taking hundreds of prisoners. In the centre, Acland’s Brigade, with similar results, pushed the 42e Ligne back. Next, the three foreign battalions came up against Oswald’s and Acland’s Brigades. The Poles, demoralized to start with, soon ran, and the Swiss outnumbered, then withdrew in good order. On the British left, the 23e Légère and 9e Chasseurs a’Cheval became closely engaged with Cole’s Brigade, until the arrival of the 20th Foot forced the French to break off. The cavalry and horse artillery covered the French retreat, and Sir John had had enough fighting for the day, and decided not to press the issue Stuart’s victory was wasted since after some minor pinprick attacks the British retired to Sicily and Naples fell, using British Siege guns from a shipwrecked convoy. Reynier and Stuart had last meet in Egypt at the battles around Alexandria in 1801, where they had both shown much (unauthorized) aggression. General Reynier’s force was mauled assaulting the British redoubts, while General Stuart left his position as Army Reserve to march to the sound of the guns (of the French Camel Corp’s diversion attack). 2.0 RULES QUESTIONS Check the La Bataille forum at Consimworld: http://www.consimworld.com. 3.0 GAME COMPONENTS A complete game of La Bataille de Maida includes the following components: 1. One 12” x 10” map 2. A lot of counters 3. Two Series Rules books (Règlements de l’An XXX, et la Règlements des Maries Louises) 4. One Exclusive Rules Book 5. Charts and tables 6. Two organizational displays 7. Game Turn Record Track 8. Terrain Effects Chart 4.0 COUNTERS The values are approximate, see attached file. Maida 5.0 TERRAIN 5.1 General Order The following terrain requires formed units to enter General Order when entering: Swamp, Woods 5.2 Depots 5.2.1 French: The East Map edge. 5.2.2 Allies: The beachhead to the west. 5.2.3 There is no artillery resupply. 5.3 Terrain and Artillery Ricochet Artillery fire which targets the following hexes terminates in them. Ricochet fire may bounce into, but not through the following hexes. Swamp hexes NOTE: Artillery Ricochet only applies to the Règlements de l’An XXX. 6.0 COMMAND The Organization and Display Charts reveal the command structure of the armies. Refer to them as necessary. 6.1 French 6.1.1 Command Points: The French roll a die for CPs for Reynier. 6.1.2 The ADC & Chasseurs a Cheval may roll to create an MU. 6.1.3 There are no Leaders of Special Ability. 6.2 Anglo-Portuguese 6.2.1 Command Points: The British roll a die for CPs for Stuart. 6.2.2 The Light (Flank) Batallion is always in command 6.2.3 There are no Leaders of Special Ability. 6.3 CP Generation Table Die Roll CPs Die Roll CPs 1 1 5 3 2-4 2 6 3 * On a 6 at least one Brigade must close in column with the enemy 7.0 SPECIAL RULES 7.1 Battalion Guns Designers Note: Recent sources have the British with ten 4-pounder guns, since the British army used 3pdr guns, the source of this artillery is not definitive. 7.1.1 The Britsih guns are represented by a battalion batteries 7.1.2 They move with the battalion. If two bataillions are stacked they may change battalion. 7.1.3 The battery causes a shift right of 1 column on the fire table (canister) when the battalion is in line or square, otherwise no effect. 7.1.4 They are destroyed if stacked with a battalion that is routed or surrenders. 7.2 British Light Companies 7.2.1 Five British “battalions” have a detached flank/light company; it may freely stack with its parent battalion. When stacked with its parent battalion it assumes the same formation as its parent battalion. 7.2.2 When not stacked with the parent battalion the company must be in tirailleur order. 7.2.3 It may never voluntarily move more than 2 hexes from the parent battalion. 7.2.4 The flank/light companies of the Flank Battalion and the Grenadier battalion may be reconstructed by removing 1 increment from their parent battalion 7.3 British Flank Battalion Designers Note 1: The Flank Battalion was formed of 8 light companies and the flankers (grenadiers & light) from the 1/35th. Designers Note 2: The Consican Rangers were armed with the Baker Rifle, Royal Sicilians probably so. 7.3.1 The 3 battalions of the Flank Battalion may stack without a leader. 7.3.2 Each of the 3 units of the Flank Battalion has a light company. 7.3.3 The light company of the Corsican Rangers is rifle armed and not halved at two hex range. 7.3.4 The other two battalions must remain within 2 hexes of the Flankers of the 1/35th. 7.4 Reynier’s Agression (optional rule - historical) 7.4.1 French may only change to tiralleur by passing a morale check. 7.4.2 French must roll to close whenever possible, if they fail they may engage in fire-fights. 7.5 Weather 7.5.1 All game turns are clear weather turns. Maida 7.5.2 Because of the heat, it will take cavalry twice as long to recover from tired / exhausted state. 7.6 Forced March There is no forced march allowed. 7.7 Cavalry Charge The ground was in general not suitable for cavalry charges. 7.7.1 Cavalry does not receive any change bonus for initiating a charge a’cheval. 7.7.2 French Cavalry morale checks, for initiating a reaction or opportunity change, or modified by -6 (worse) 7.7.3 Cavalry does not receive the doubling of melee strength for charging the last 3 hexes in straight line.