Virietor vs. JuanModesto

[Note: This battle was played as part of a campaign]

I have to admit that I did not expect such a battle at all. From the introduction of the scenario, its brevity and the terrain, I thought it would be a rearguard action not much more important than the previuous action at the forts of Salamanca.

However, when my formidable dragoons reached the bridge of Castrejón de Trabancos, trapping the Light Division on my side of the river, and informed me that they had recognized Sir Arthur Wellesley himself I realized that it was much more serious.

In fact I feared that the enemy had more forces. In the end my numerical superiority was overwhelming.

There were only two factors against me. That I could not pass the river except at a few points and, perhaps more serious, that Marmont was not present. Consequently, my battalions and squadrons were slow to regain order. So I had to pawn the battalions as they came to the front and withdraw them to be replaced by fresh battalions.

The sacrifice of a dragoon brigade (only 32 horsemen were left unharmed) and the effectiveness of the heavy British artillery safely deployed on the other bank left a very bitter taste, but it was partly compensated by the satisfaction of decimating the famous Light Division and later having their heavy cavalry trapped and cut to pieces between rake fire of waves of French infantry arriving simultaneously from Castrejón and from the North.