I really ought to post here a bit more, especially having left Twitter, but seem to be using LinkedIn for most work and even work/PhD adjacent hobby stuff - which currently doesn't leave much else. But certainly might be worth documenting some of my XR work here. Will see what I can do.
The Rose Hill Wargaming Group had a great game of the Battle of Albuera (1811) on 22-23 Feb 25. Three big tables giving 20' x 14' of playing area and relatively small forces meant that there was plenty of room to manoeuvre.
The game started on blinds, but it was soon apparent that Soult was going for the historical option of the southern flank and the two hills. Beresford had other ideas though and went onto the offensive, storming across the Albuera and catching an extended French northern wing in the flank. Beresford followed this up with crossing over the river just south of the bridges and gradually beat the French back through the olive groves and back up the Seville road! All this though meant that the Spanish had to hold the southern flank more or less on their own. There was a big cavalry battle around the two hilltops, and then the infantry clashed - right on the northern hill as per history.
As we left it on Saturday night we thought it was all over for the Spanish, there was even an extreme flanking move by the French onto the western table, but come Sunday morning the Spanish held firm, but paid a dear price in doing so. By lunchtime the French had lost their third Brigade and were about to lose a fourth, and so as per the scenario Soult decided that trying to reach Badajoz was too expensive and it was time to return to Seville. The Allies won a Marginal Victory, their own losses being too great to claim a Decisive Victory. Some bragging rights ensued as we'd more or less switched the commands over from Fuentes de Onoro, which the British won, so some people (no names) had two wins in a row!
We're now planning our next game, which will be Salamanca, with around 3000 20mm figures on at least the same size table - so we'll probably need twice as many players. It will probably be on 21-22 Feb 2026 - so if you'd like to provisionally book a place let us know.
The full photo library is on our Facebook page, but here are a few choice ones.
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| Quite like this "panoramic" shot of the Spanish and French lines clashing |
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| Another shot of the main fight, looking N to the Spanish line, ENDEX positions |
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| Spanish infantry holding the line |
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| We start the games on blinds so that intentions aren't clear |
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| More Spanish heading into the fight |
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| Note the rain sign - tiles were periodically hit by rainstorms - as happened in the battle |
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| The Portuguese getting in on the action too! |
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| Blake reflecting that the day has gone well |
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