Necoechea - ( Lasalle for South American War of Independence )

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Necoechea - ( Lasalle for South American War of Independence )

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Started 2 years ago by seldon
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seldon
Member

So, even before Lasalle came out I've been working on painting armies of the South American war of independence, the Andes campaign in particular, with the minis and materials from Greandier Productions. My armies are not yet ready, but being here in Buenos Aires one of our local gamers managed to get out his over 10 year old minis that he painted ( 1:72 scale ) for the Chile campaign.

Lasalle is probably one of the few sets of rules out there that fits these actions very well since the battles of the South American war of independence have the size of actions that one fights with Lasalle. Of course in this case we would call the rules "Necoechea", him being a renowned Argentine cavalry commander :).

So last Saturday we gave it a try, here is the after action report.

The battle is based on a what if scenario for the battle of Chacabuco. San Martin finished crossing the Andes with his army early in 1817, and in a fast action managed to engage and defeat a royalist army on Feb 12 before they could even be reinforced.

In this scenario we assume that the patriot army advances more cautiously giving the royalists time to bring reinforcements. The battle takes places in the surroundings of the Chacabuco farm ( instead of the original battlefield, slightly to the north).

The patriots advance on the farm in two divisions just as the royalists are about to take positions to await reinforcements from Santiago de Chile.

The patriot army took the role of attacker and the royalist took the role of defender ( the royalist chose the side of the table and deployed first). I did my best to get armies that would seem balanced.

-------------------------------The Armies----------------------------------

Patriot Army ......................................................

CiC: General Don Jose de San Martin

Central Division

Sub Commanders : Bernardo O'Higgins , Gregorio Las Heras

*No 1 Chilean Infantry Bt - amat/reliab/SK 1
*Converged Grenadiers and Cazadores (skirmishers) companies from bats. 7 and 8 in one unit - exp/valiant/SK 2
*No 7 and No 8 Argentine inf bats. - exp/reliable/SK 0 ( since their skirmishers are deployed )

* Three squadrons of Argentine Horse Grenadiers converged in one unit - large unit exp/valiant/shock/pursuit
* one horse battery of four light guns

Reinforcement Division:

Sub commander : Soler

*No 11 Argentine inf bat. - exp/reli/SK 1
*Cazadroes de los Andes inf bat. - exp/rel/SK 2
*one squaron of horse grenadiers + one squadron of the general's personal escort converged in one unit - exp/valiant/shock/guard
* one battery of horse artillery with two light guns

Royalist Army.........................................................

Chacabuco troops:

CiC: Mariscal Marco del Pont
Sub commander Rafael Maroto

*Chiloe/Talavera/Concepcion inf bats. - exp/rel/SK 1
*Converged grenadiers from all inf bats. - exp/valiant/SK 0
*Chillan inf bat - amat/rel/SK 2
*two skirmish bases from the valdivia battalion
* one battery of foot artillery with two light guns
* one unit of Dragones de la Frontera - exp/valiant/shock

Reinforcements:

* large unit of combined squadrons of Concordia Hussars and Carabineros de Abascal - exp/rel/pursuit large unit
* unit of Dragones de Chillan - amat/rel
* one horse battery with two light guns

( to be continued )

Posted 2 years ago #
seldon
Member

The Royalist troops deployed anchored around the converged grenadiers and the Chillan battalion. They supported their center with their artillery to its right and with their Dragones on the back. The left flank was defended by the Chiloe battalion and to the right the talavera battalion was sent on the road to capture the estancia center while the concepcion battalion reinforced with the valdivia skirmishers were deployed in skirmish and sent to the ploughed fields in the estancia.

On their side the patriot army deployed mostly in march columns. The central attack under direct supervision of San Martin was composed of the large unit of horse grenadiers and the artillery, to the right O'Higgins led the no 7 and no 8 battalions plus the converged grenadiers and cazadores who were deployed in skirmish to capture the right hill ( most hills were difficult terrain and the terrain was very enlcosed due to the area which is at the base of the Andes mountains ! ).

Finally on the left Las Heras took the No 1 Chilean infantry to capture the chacabuco estancia.

soon O'Higgins rushed forward and captured the Los Tauretes hill, he even had to move his close order infantry on to the hill to make room on the center for the cavalry. All this while the patriot artillery bombarded the royalist center.

At this time you can see that Soler's division has just arrived in the back ( very early ) and are moving to position, on the other hand the Royalist reinforcements are nowhere to be seen !!

Posted 2 years ago #
seldon
Member

On the left side Soler moves forward the no 11 inf battalion and the cazadores de los andes infantry battalion to support Las Heras who is having a firefight in the center of the estancia

On the other side the royalist Chillan battalion moves to the rough terrain ( though in close order ) to avoid the threat of the royalist cavalry massing on the center and to try to engage the no 7 battalion. The Chiloe is on a shooting duel with the converged grenadiers and cazadores ( both enemies deployed in line ).

The patriot player maneuvers to prepare a massive cavalry charge in the center, the royalist players observe nervously

Posted 2 years ago #
rusti
Numero Deux

Fantastic, thanks for the pictures!

Posted 2 years ago #
seldon
Member

Finally the Patriot launches his cavalry charge. The patriot has been very cautious in preparing this charge. This is a risk since he is wasting time while the royalist reinforcements have not arrived yet, however the royalists are not in luck and have failed every roll to bring in the reinforcements, even rolling a 12 on the last turn before they will come in automatically !!!

The horse grenadiers and the general's escort charge forward on the Dragones de la forntera, who have moved forward in abreast formation. The converged grenadiers have formed square due to the risk of the cavlary charge.

The patriot cavalry is superior in number and quality, the patriot will roll about 20 dice and the roaylist 10 !

But we know that nothing is sure in war, and you can see the royalist die rolls here

The elite patriot cavalry bounces back !

Also now a sure thing ( turn 14 ) the royalists reinforcements arrive

The royalists have now retrieved their dragoons and attempt to break the patriot cavalry with musketry and artillery. The patriot cavalary still in shock fails to recover their lines, and when attempting a second charge this time against the infantry the general's escort is stopped cold ( 3 disrupts).

The horse grenadiers engage the royalist converged grenadier infantry. The royalist takes a very big risk and stays in line hoping that the combined cannister and musketry will break the enemy cavalry but this doesn't happen and now the infantry will fight in line against the cavalry.

Again the odds are on the patriot side, now even more than before, but again luck is on the royalist side and the horse grenadiers bounce back !!!!!

Posted 2 years ago #
seldon
Member

The patriots are demoralized due to their failed cavalry charges and start to retreat, the royalist reinforcements are attempting a counterattack to take the initiative.

But it is too late, the sun is setting. The last cavlary charges are the hussars and carabineros on the horse grenadiers that have turned around, the dragones de la frontera on the retreating general's escort and the dragones de chillan on the patriot skirmishers on the hill. The carabineros + hussars are bounced back by the horse grenadiers, and the dragones de chillan fail against the skirmishers, while the shocked general's escort finally routs before the dragones de la frontera...

No army managed to break the enemy and though ALL yes all the bonus turns have been played ( a patriot 6 roll on the last :) roll for bonus turns ) the armies have to retreat to lick their wounds at their camps and the battle is a draw.

( the referee -me- plus the owner of the minis )

( the royalist commanders )

As expected, Lasalle ( or Necoechea :)) fits like a glove for the South American war of independence, allowing us to play the full battle of Chacabuco ( even with some extra what if reinforcements ).

The game was great, everyone had lots of fun. It ended up in a draw mainly because of luck, the unlucky patriot was unable to break the enemy in those two critical charges and the royalist reinforcements didn't get to the table until turn 14.

The terrain was pretty tough, much less open than our standard napoleonic game, and this happens when you are fighting at the foot of the Andes. Artillery has a very reduced role here since there is only small batteries and they are all light.

As a referee I enjoyed the game very much and now I am eager to finish my 15mm armies for the South American war of independence... The objective is to be able to play Maipu ( the last battle of the Chile campaign) by the end of this year !!!

There was a lot of curiosity from the local players about the rumor that Lasalle might come out in Spanish soon ?

Cheers,

Francisco

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

Great stuff Francisco. Great game room, too.

[ about the rumor that Lasalle might come out in Spanish soon ?]

Yes, but I don't know when. You'll have to ask Jesus Serraño Mateo, in Spain. His company is doing the translation this year.

Posted 2 years ago #
Nicofig
Member

Seldon > You can write a pdf for this add-on ? It's very nice.

Sam > No news about a french edition ?

Posted 2 years ago #
Sam Mustafa
Le Grand Fromage

[No news about a french edition ?]

I had a person contact me, offering to do a French translation, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Since the languages have differing length of words, type-set, etc., there will inevitably be issues getting the same text on the same pages (page number references might be different, graphics might have to be shrunk, shifted, expanded, etc.)

What Jesus is doing is a true Spanish re-print of the entire book. He bought the rights from me to use the names, words, images, etc, and he has a couple of people who are laying it out, page by page. And then he will print an agreed-upon number and sell them, himself.

(Of course that means that if you're using the Spanish edition and have a rules question, the answer might be on page 62 in Spanish... but page 64 in the English version, and so on.)

If there is a French printer/publisher who is interested in an arrangement like that, then yes, I would certainly like to speak with him.

Posted 2 years ago #
Phineas
Member

Excellent work!!!! Congratulations.

I wonder where to get the Lasalle rules.

I've just got the booklet for the Battle of Viluma 1815 (Sipe-Sipe) and I would like to wargame it.

Posted 2 years ago #
seldon
Member

Phineas,
What booklet did you get ? One of John's Fletchers ? Sipe-Sipe is probably a very colorful battle, some nice uniforms on both sides...

You really need to get a hold of Lasalle, it is the perfect set of rules for that theater... !!

Let me know if you ever get something going, I'd be very curious..

I've been working on my 15s before Lasalle came and I was using a basig system that matches the honour system

here are some pics:

I have the No7 inf ready, the cazadores de coquimbo, + Horse Grenadiers,+ Dragones de la Frontera, cazadores y some artillery...

the full album of pics is here:
http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll269/wargameserize/myarmies/SAWarofIndependence/

It will take some time to finish but it will be fun..

Nicofig, what did you want on pdf ? I should be able to get a pdf but I am not sure what you were asking for. We used pure Lasalle rules..

Francisco

Posted 2 years ago #
Phineas
Member

The close-up pictures look wonderful!!!

I will buy the rules and start practicing. I know it will take a long time to set up an army but I would like to test it first and later decide which campaign to game.

The Sipe-Sipe battle is indeed an interesting one with a lot of strategy an tactic. Unfortunately the Patriot side did not have a good commander to respond to Pezuela. Also the uniforms are very colorfull. It is a pitty that this battle is disregarded, both by the Argentineans, because they were defeated, and by the Spaniards as they do with all the battles of the South American Wars of Independence, for sure the outcome of the revolution has somthing to do on this.

The booklet is an digital publication from Regimientos de America and you can see it at this URL http://www.regimientos.byethost11.com/index.php?p=1_7_Books

Best Regards

Posted 2 years ago #

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