Game of the Week, March 31 - April 6

We return to the Napoleonic Era with our title this week. Bonaparte's Peninsular War from the Napoleonic Battles series of games is on sale now through Sunday April 6th for 25% off normal pricing.

The Peninsular War was one of the longest and most drawn-out campaigns of the Napoleonic War; a piece of Imperial regime change designed to close off the last European ports open to British trade, which instead developed into the "Spanish Ulcer" that sapped the strength of Napoleon's empire and left him to fight a two-front war that would ultimately destroy him.

After 1808, Napoleon left the Peninsular conflict in the hands of his brother Joseph and of the marshals and generals commanding the various French armies. No one man was given supreme command of all French forces in Spain, and French operations —though frequently successful on a local level—were marred by a lack of cooperation. This was made yet worse by Napoleon's own attempts to run the war by remote control from Paris, sending written orders that were out of date even before they were dispatched.

Though often defeated, and similarly bereft of central control for the early years of the war, the Spanish leaders kept on putting fresh armies into the field, while the civilian populace refused to surrender and fought a bloody guerrilla war against the invaders. This tied down a large part of the French forces, limiting the numbers available to pursue further conquests. As a result, once their initial occupying army had been driven out in 1808, the French were never able to conquer Portugal, which was defended by its own reorganized forces and by a growing British contingent. The British were led by Arthur Wellesley, a man of outstanding ability who would subsequently get the better of Napoleon himself at Waterloo. Although initially the French had the upper hand, the reorganization of the Portuguese army by Beresford and the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras secured Portugal from French conquest. Thereafter, Portugal would become the base for the Anglo-Portuguese army that would eventually join with the Spanish to evict the French from the Peninsula.

Bonaparte's Peninsular War will take you through battles and campaigns focused in and around Portugal, but will also branch out into Spain for some of the early war actions of 1809.

From the outset, it was clear that it would be impossible to incorporate all the actions of this conflict into a single game. It also quickly became apparent that neither a strictly chronological nor a strictly geographic distinction could be made to divide the war into two manageable portions. The main focus of this first title is on the defense of Portugal from the three successive French efforts to capture that country in 1807-08, 1809, and 1810-11, with the last of these campaigns leading on into the fighting for the strategically vital border fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo, Almeida, and Badajoz during 1811 and early 1812, as the allies began to shift back to the offensive. In addition, this title also includes the battles fought in Spain in the immediate aftermath of the uprising of 1808, and the battles fought in south-western Spain during 1809 and 1810. The Spanish campaign of 1808, however, which represented Napoleon’s own personal intervention in the Peninsula in order to crush the massed armies of the Spanish insurgent Juntas as well as the British under Sir John Moore, has been set by until the second title. The “Bonaparte” of this game’s title, it should be stressed, is not the Emperor himself but his brother Joseph, usurping King of Spain.

To read more about how and what content from the Peninsular War was divided and why, as well as historical background information and details on bringing the game together, check out the Design Notes.

Bonaparte's Peninsular War includes 175 scenarios both for play against the AI and for Head-to-Head / Play by Email play. Many of these scenarios are in the small to medium size range, which makes them quite manageable compared to other monster engagements like Leipzig or Waterloo.

The major battles included are:

Alba
Albuera
Badajoz
Bailen
Barrosa
Bussaco
Fuentes de Onoro
Medellin
Ocana
Oporto
Medina de Rio Seco
Rolica
Sabugal
Talavera
Ucles
Vimeiro

There is a wide sampling of variants and "what if" situations included as well. And, as this was a multi-year conflict, many of the locations were fought over repeatedly. 

In addition to the stand alone scenarios, Bonaparte's Peninsular War contains three campaigns which bring an additional 76 scenarios into the mix.

Note: The version now in the Store is the newest, 4.09.2 - the balance of the series will be getting the new update soon as well.

Before we move on I want to point out a past blog post - The Designers Corner. This focuses on Andrew Bamford, who was one of the contributors to both Bonaparte's Peninsular War as well as Wellington's Peninsular War and the more recent War of the Austrian Succession. He is a historian, published author and game designer. You can pick up a copy of one of his books below as well, as it is the first in our recommended list today. 

Then we have the multi-volume set from Sir Charles Oman covering the breadth of the Peninsula conflict. Here's the link to Vol. I

Next, we have a series of videos on the conflict from the Youtube channels Epic History and Kings and Generals: