Unclaimed Victory: Fuentes de Onoro

Unclaimed Victory: Fuentes de Oñoro is the next game in the Glory & Empire system which took place from May 3--5, 1811 on the border between Portugal and Spain. The French Army of Portugal had just completed its retreat from Portugal after being confronted with failure due to the extensive fortifications of Torres Vedras ringing Lisbon. The French army, under Marshal Masséna, arrived in Spain bereft of much of its equipment and artillery. The British army, under Wellington, followed and harried the French out of Portugal, investing the Portuguese frontier fortress of Almeida and attempting to invest Spain's opposing border fortress of Cuidad-Rodrigo. Wellington believed that it would take the French many weeks to recover from their trials in Portugal and with a small number of staff officers headed to the south to prepare the siege of Badajoz. Masséna had other ideas and energetically set about reorganizing his army to prepare to revictual Almeida. He managed to rebuild his army much sooner than Wellington believed possible and took the field on May 1 concentrating his forces around Cuidad-Rodrigo. Wellington hearing reports of French activity arrived back at Fuentes de Oñoro in the nick of time. On May 3 the French pushed back the British Light Division and Cotton's cavalry and marched on Fuentes de Oñoro. The armies were closely matched in terms of raw numbers although the British had more cannon than the French while the French had more cavalry. Masséna displayed some of the brilliance for which he was known, but ultimately was unable to overcome the British and Portuguese forces and unable to retrieve his reputation as one of Napoleons finest marshals. The Series Glory and Empire is a game series devoted to grand tactical command, maneuver and combat during the horse and musket period. The map scale is 125m per hex. Units are battalions and companies for infantry, regiments and squadrons for cavalry and companies for artillery. Each strength point is 100 men for infantry, 50 men and horses for cavalry or one section, or 2 guns, for artillery. Turns are 20 minutes. Unit counters and some markers are 5/8" and other markers are 1/2". The Game The main Fuentes de Oñoro game has three 34x22 maps and six counter sheets. There are 10 scenarios which covers the fighting around the village of Fuentes de Oñoro and the French left hook around the British right flank. Most of the fighting occurred on these three maps in the southern portion of the battlefield. North Map The entire battlefield of Fuentes de Oñoro was quite extensive. To manage this without requiring an excessive number of maps the game splits the battlefield in a south and north part. The north map adds one 34x22 map and an additional sheet of unit counters. There are 4 additional scenarios for the north map, some of which can be played in conjunction with the south map. Marshal's Game With Fuentes de Onoro we'll introduce the Marshal's Game which is a simple grand tactical scale system which overlays the main Fuentes de Onoro map and the North map. The Marshal's Game Add On, provides an additional 34x22 map and a sheet of 3/4" counters. The Marshal's Game will not only cover forces moving between the two tactical maps, but will also allow the players to maneuver their forces in a different manner than occurred historically offering much more replay and what-if opportunities. The Marshal's Game for Fuentes de Onoro covers from May 3-8, 1811 which allows players to be as tenacious as Wellington and Massena. The scale of this map is approximately 4x the scale of the tactical maps. It uses an area movement map and has rules for entering and exiting the tactical maps. Players can maneuver their forces on the grand tactical scale map to enter the tactical map at different locations to try alternate strategies. The south map, north map and Marshal's Game will be offered in a single game. No add-ons, no gimicks, just a game with a lot of play value. —description from the publisher