Peninsular War

[Nikel]

Well, finally the new games are not Napoleonic and read elsewhere that Rahamy will not comment on HPS Peninsular War, so perhaps in the meantime the rest can post links or whatever related with it that you consider interesting

There are some maps in Napoleon Series but probably these are less known for English speakers


Maps from the Spanish National Library


http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/Search.do?text=&field2Op=AND&field1val=Mapas+españa&numfields=3&field3Op=AND&colection=Geografía.+Biografías.+Historia|Historia+de+España&field3=todos&field3val=&field2=todos&field1Op=AND&exact=&advanced=true&field1=coleccion&media=&field2val=&pageNumber=1

 

[Nikel]

High quality maps of Bailén and can be downloaded

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/bibliotecavirtualandalucia/consulta/resultados_busqueda.cmd?id=627&forma=ficha&posicion=1


High quality map of Fuentes de Oñoro from the War OfficeTopographical Dept. But do not see how to download the complete map

http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.map-rm374-v

 

[Marshal Lannes]

Albuera - Guy Dempsey - 2006. Book has full coverage of the battle as well as Fuenteds de Onoro and the double siege of Badajoz. Has good modern photographs of the battle site from the French and Spanish viewpoints. The stone bridges look impressive.................the terrain is surprisingly flat and dry.

 

[Nikel]

Yes, nice book

Includes an appendix with casualties, as high as 85% in the 3rd foot!

The hunters, Lanciers de la Vistule also suffered, a 22% of the 591 men present


I think that Oman's History of the Peninsular War is still considered as the first reference. Some of the volumes are available in google books, I, II, III, V y VI. Unfortunately IV is not, it is the III though it is said to be IV. Volume VII was published in the 30s, so I suppose it is not in the public domain and so not available here. Note that depending of your location you may need a proxy in order to have access to the pdf

http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:OCLC52911742&id=G23PQwAACAAJ&hl=es&as_brr=1


Other related Oman's book is

Wellington's army, 1809-1814

http://www.archive.org/details/wellingtonsarmy100omanuoft

 

[Nikel]

This spaniard reference is better, many maps of spanish, french and british origin from the spanish Ministerio de Defensa

Go to busqueda and search or to obras and browse


http://bvpb.mcu.es/cartografia/es/cms/elemento.cmd?id=ms/cartografia/paginas/Presentacion.html



Portuguese maps. the source of the ones in Napoleon Series is Sorianos's História da Guerra Civil...

http://purl.pt/12103/3/


The maps seem to start at H.G. 7352 V.. Click on it and the on the left on mapa

Example direct link to Porto 1809. Wellesley attack by surprise Soult that had occupied the city

http://purl.pt/12103/3/hg-7352-v/hg-7352-v_item4/P281.html

 

[Nikel]

Osprey will publish in November an atlas of the PW in their General Military series. Will HPS Peninsular War be available before?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peninsular-War-Atlas-General-Military/dp/1849083649

 

[eastwindrain]

Wellington in the Penninsula 1808-1814 by Jac Weller is really good, but will be out of print.
Easy read but very detailed on terrain, weapons, battles, tactics and the bigger strategic picture.
I've bought a lotta books on e-bay over the years but don't get dragged into a bidding war.

Some of the early primary sources are dated, dry reading, and lack the kinda detail were after.

 

[FM WarB]

If you are in the Wellington was a genius and the thin red line won the war school, Weller's your man! One can say a book such as Wellington in the Penninsula 1808-1814 is anglocentric if there are two french, one spanish and 125 British sources cited in its bibliography.

OK, perhaps for the British army, but look elsewhere for info on the other forces in the war.

 

[eastwindrain]

If you are in the Wellington was a genius and the thin red line won the war school, Weller's your man! One can say a book such as Wellington in the Penninsula 1808-1814 is anglocentric if there are two french, one spanish and 125 British sources cited in its bibliography.

OK, perhaps for the British army, but look elsewhere for info on the other forces in the war.

Passed thro Vermont recently on my way from Boston to Quebec, I like the easy reading and maps in books by Scotty Bowden and Charlie Tarbox, James R Arnold and George F Nafziger but a good French source for uniforms is Napoleons War in Spain The French Peninsular Campaigns 1807-1814 by Commandant Henry Lachouque, Jean Tranie and J C Carmigniani but again very dry reading but the translation would'nt have done any favours.

 

[Nikel]

Jac Weller is the author of several books on Wellington, so perhaps he is Wellingtoncentric

Wellington in the Peninsula though republished by GrennHill in the 90s, was originally published in the 60s.

More modern writers like Esdaile, Gates, Dempsey cite not only english sources, and the role of spanish guerrilla and army is emphasized, Wellesley did not won the war alone...


English line won over french column theory was established by Oman, has been recently reviewed

http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/maida/c_maida.html

Though whatever were the causes, the truth is that W. won more battles than lost


Lachouque, Tranie and Carmigniani book on the PW is full of pictures and very nice for that reason. Was translated to english, so easy to find. The rest of the books on the Napoleonic wars were not, and they are expensive.


Though started the thread saying that rahamy will not comment, my intention was the contrary... Come on, tell us something

 

[Marshal Lannes]

It does not take a military genius to work out that Eylau and the 1807 Campaign is the next gane to be released by HPS. After that , it is anyone's guess. As for books - it is probably best that you stick to stuff that has been coming out since the 80,s. Bowden and Tarbox are specifically targeted for wargamers but are now hard to find in bookshops. As for Jac Weller - the books are detailed and ahead of their time but lack an objective causality. I personally would rate Wellington as a good general but lacking in inspiration. He was a methodical tactician who rarely took blatant risks. His mediocrity would have been exposed much earlier if he had been confronted by Davout in the Peninsular or Napoleon. Remember, Davout is the only French general who never lost a battle and he would have whipped Wellington's butt back into place in the history books as a so-so commander in India. Napoleon is first, Davout second, Jean Lannes would have been third if he had lived and Wellington might make it into the top ten , depending on whether it is a sunny day. That said , Wellingtons eye for defensive terrain and failure to be intimidated by the French pre-nuptual noise and bluster when going into battle which put the fear of god into most opponents is commendable. :smoke: " Vive L'Empereur ". "A Bas le Wellington".

 

[Nikel]

1807 campaign will be the next? Has it been posted somewhere?

AFAIK Rahamy is developing HPS PW for some years and it was done before by Charlie Cutshall. The fact that it is taking so many years perhaps it is due to that will be released as a single game covering from 1808 to 1814? Just a guess of course.

Bill Peters is the developer of Austerlitz and also 1807, so it is Rahamy's turn now


Davout vs Wellesley, nice battle, both highly professional commanders. But perhaps Davout would have also failed, PW was a very complex theater. It could have also happened in 1815, but Napoleon chose to leave him in Paris, probably another mistake

 

[rahamy]

1807 is not next & its in my court...that's all I will say for now.

We do have a new nap title entreing testing, and another well into testing, so production continues on this series.

 

[Nikel]

Thanks for the comment rahamy

I hope the second one (well into testing) is PW.

The other... 1813?

 

[Marshal Lannes]

Thank goodness I am a military genius. Looks like the odds for PW are quite good but anyhow , it is nice to know that there are two titles in the pipeline. First one is not Eylau but second one is................................probably not EYLAU and possibly will not be EYLAU, so we can infer from that , that EYLAU is definitely not the first. :devious:

 

[Sgt_Rock]

Well guys as usual you know the usual answer: HPS Simulations does not like for us to tell you of future titles. It saves them on "when will that one be out?" and so on. So be easy on Rich and please do not email the company about the titles spoken of here. That was nice of him to mention 1807 and PW. You will get nothing out of me!

Suffice it to say that I am very busy on game development. I may also move into the boardgame world as well ... have a few ideas on a game featuring the WW2 SAS ...

 

[Andrew Bamford]

For what it's worth, if there is an official PW game in preparation, I have a database that I put together when doing my PhD which has the monthly strength figures (present, absent, sick, deaths, desertions, horses for mounted units, etc.) for all British units serving in the Peninsula, 1808-1814. Data transcribed from the original returns in the National Archives. I'm still using it for research purposes, although I intend to get it online once the current project is finished. In the meantime, if there is someone out there working on a game please feel free to get in touch if you think the figures will be of use; I also have some data on British and Hanoverian troops in northern Europe if there's an 1813-1814 game in the pipeline.

 

[Xaver]

Is good see that we can have 2 titles in a near future??? maybe can see the first before Big Red One arrive??? hehehehe

Of course i prefer over all the nap titles i prefer see one covering the war of independence not the peninsular war because peninsular war is more close to British point of view and out are more battles... but i think that before peninsular war we can see something covering the end of napoloenic wars, Leipzig maybe, or they can do something covering the Italian campaigns, both options are good, not the best for my taste but are good :laugh:

 

[Nikel]

Andrew, where so you plan to publish it online when you are done, Napoleon series?


Xaver, Peninsular War is the way it is called in english (also in portuguese I think Guerra peninsular). War of independence is how we call it in Spain, but the conflict is the same.

Other thing is that for commercial or practical resons, HPS releases the game in several parts, for example A Wellington's Peninsular Battles, by years,... I also would like to see the whole war in one game, but after all they published 1809 campaign in two parts and also commented the possibility of releasing 1813 in 2, so...

 

[rahamy]

It will not be broken down into a year by year handling, of that I can assure you. More than one title to cover the 6 or so years, most likely, but not 6 seperate titles.