Vilcapugio 1813

Having reminded myself how to play Liberated Hordes, I had a go at a historical battle yesterday - the 1813 battle of Vilcapugio, which saw an ascendant General Belgrano up against a new Royalist commander, the competent General Pezuela.

The Patriots fielded five regular infantry, four militia infantry, two regular cavalry and one regular artillery. The Royalists have six regular infantry, four militia infantry, one militia cavalry, one regular artillery and, as an off-table reinforcement, one element of militia gaucho cavalry.

Belgrano is Poor and Predictable, whilst Pezuela is Good.

Here's the setup, with the Royalists deployed between two steep hills, and the Patriots outside the town of Vilcapugio.

It made no sense for the Royalists to move from their position, so the Patriots were obliged to attack.

They did so, with their cavalry attacking the weaker Royalist militia facing their Patriot left flank.

The militia held, and the Patriots lost an element to Royalist musketry on the other flank. Belgrano also rolled the first of s series of poor PIP rolls as well, causing the attack to stall.

This meant that the Royalists saw a chance to counter-attack, and did so, pushing the Patriots back.

They brought up their cavalry, but it was quickly driven off. However the Patriot infantry was collapsing.

The Royalist reinforcement arrived in the Patriot rear, as the Royalist army slowly swung onto the Patriot right.

Belgrano recovered from his command paralysis, but it was too late. His cavalry pressed home a series of attacks against the Royalist foot, but couldn't break them.

And now he was under threat himself, and the unit he was with came under attack. He pulled back some militia infantry in support.

But on his left the cavalry not only failed to break the Royalist militia again, they were routed from the field as well.

This broke the Patriot army, although Belgrano survived another attack, and was able to flee with a few survivors.

This was something of a rout from the start. The Patriots' initial attack failed to make any impression, and then the command freeze meant that they couldn't do anything to rectify the situation by committing reserves. The Royalist counter-attack simply rolled them up whilst they barely resisted.

Historically Belgrano started with a successful attack that looked set to defeat the Royalists, but then then for some reason the army held back from the final push and, at the same moment, the Royalist reinforcements arrived in their rear. The Patriot army collapsed and routed. 

The Poor and Good traits of neither general didn't end up affecting the battle - Belgrano's Poor trait was never triggered, whilst Pezuela simply didn't need to use his. Belgrano's predictability (where you roll PIPs a turn in advance) was a winner for the Royalists, who saw his poor rolls ahead of time and knew that they could attack with no chance of a viable counter move.