Stripped Down for Parts: 1809: Talavera (Fix Bayonets! Volume II)

 

 

Note: I wanted to acknowledge that A Fast Game been very quiet for the last month or so. I’m working on a longer piece which I think will be worth the wait, but I realised I needed to take time away from that to catch upon some of the other things that have been on my mind in terms of wargaming, both incoming games and recent reading, which will push back the project work an extra week or two but I think will help make it better in the long run (as I was beginning not get a little white-line fever dealing with just that).

 

1809: Talavera (Tactical Workshop, 2026) is the second in designer Frederic Delstanches' Fix Bayonets! series, the first technically being the second edition of 1811: Albuera (Tactical Workshop, 2025). The third has already been announced - 1806: Auerstädt (Tactical Workshop, ~2027 – you can sign up to be notified of the Gamefound campaign launch here). The box art exhibits the same trade dress as the previous volume, with an extract of a painting by Richard Simkin (of whom I have written previously), The 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot clash with French infantry, Battle of Talavera, 1809 (c. 1900). The original painting is part of the permanent collection of the National Army Museum in Chelsea.

The box is of what we might think of as “standard size” (roughly 12” by 9”), about three inches in depth, and of solid construction. It needs to be to accommodate everything this game brings to the table.

Box-back.

The box back hints at what we’ll find inside, with a selection of unit counters and administrative markers reproduced to their actual size under map extract showing the town of Talavera, the scene of some of the hardest fighting during the battle. A few lines set the historical context of the battle – the combined British and Spanish forces under generals Wellesley and Cuesta respectively, holding the town of the Talavera and the adjacent hills for the night of the 27^th of July, and some verry hot fighting throughout the next day, finding on the 29^th that the French had retreated in the night, leaving hundreds of their wounded and a battery of cannon.

The play notes advise that the game can be played by one or two players (I think it wouldn’t be too difficult to play with three, dividing the Allied forces along national lines). There is no dedicated solo system for the game, but there aren’t any mechanics that should make it prohibitively difficult to play two-handed (in fact, I’d go so far to say this would be the best way to acclimate to the system coming to it cold). The game’s difficulty is described as Medium to Difficult, with which I would concur (I’d place the system at about a 7 out of 9 for crunch; maybe a 5.5 for the introductory scenarios).

The current Series Rulebook (version 2.7).

The rulebook has been slightly updated from 1811: Albuera – from version 2.4 in the earlier volume to version 2.7. Going over the two rounds of errata (available as PDF downloads here), most of the changes are clarifications to standing rules, with six additional rules introduced, four corrections to existing rules wording, and a dozen or so clarifications of standing instructions.

The rulebook itself is printed in full colour on a nice weight of low-gloss paper, formatted into a double-column in a ten- or eleven-point Garamond (both choices making for easier reading and comprehension) and usefully illustrated. Box-text is used liberally throughout; yellow background boxes highlight key takeaways regarding play (making it easier to home in on specific details at the table) while red text on a white background fills in various historical or design notes in reference to the preceding rule. The whole book is easily navigable, with a detailed Table of Contents (alas, no Index, but in it’s place is a helpful glossary of Definitions, beginning on page 51).             

Rulebook - sample spread.

The rules run to 49 pages; as I mentioned, that count includes a lot of illustrations and pictorial examples, and every effort has been made to make the rules easier to assimilate, but it can’t be denied, it’s a lot to absorb. The Fix Bayonets! system is not a difficult ruleset to understand, but it is a lot to master. If Talavera is your introduction to the system, there’s an introductory scenario that uses just infantry units. Unless you’ve cut your Napoleonic teeth on something like La Bataille, I recommend dipping your toe into the Fix Bayonets! system here (but we’ll come back to the scenarios shortly). I touched on some of the details of the series rules in my unboxing post of 1811: Albuera, so I won’t repeat myself here. Go read that as well, though I should warn you that Albuera is currently out of stock with the publisher..

The back cover offers a visual guide to interpreting the unit counters and markers used in the game Inside of the back cover is a summary of Leader Movement restrictions and a quick guide to handling the Leader cards. These would have been useful on a Player Aid Card of their own, but there’s already so much in the box, I understand not committing to this extra expense (and weight, however slight). I can see some photocopying of these pages in my future. A short bibliography (twenty citations) is also included, which I always find helpful. I’m pleased to note, nearly all of the books cited are in English and many are available at a reasonable price, if you’re looking to extend your Napoleonic library.

The Battle Booklet, offering special rules, scenerios, and fascinating historical glimpses.

The 1809: Talavera Battle Booklet is twenty-four pages in length and materially shares the same qualities as the rulebook. It offers a brief historical background piece, rules for unique terrain types (olive groves and city walls), a rundown of the opposing forces, and historical notes covering the Orders of Battle for the three armies, with particular attention paid to the divisional uniforms.

Battle Booklet - sample spread.

The Battle Booklet also offers five scenarios, running in scope from the aforementioned Night Attack, which plays out in a fourteen hex-length area, twelve rows deep, enough to get a feel for the manoeuvre and combat rules without having to master the artillery rules, to the whole Two Days of Battle. The first two scenarios, The Night Attack and The Morning Assault, play out on a single board; the game is a bit of a space hog, so these will let you get to know the nuances of the game before you commit to clearing the whole dinner table. The remaining three scenarios – A Bloody Afternoon, The Full Day (covering the scope of the action of the 28^th), and The Two Days of Battle – require the full, substantial board, which we will get to next.

The South board, with Talavera and the Targus in the top left corner (the flags
at the bottom edge mark the French approaches).

The contested terrain of Talavera is represented over two map-boards that meet along a short edge, presenting a long front for the antagonists, roughly defined by the Portina brook that roughly bisects the length of the . The map runs north from the town of Talavera on the Rio Targus and extends north to the hills anchoring the British flank. The scale is roughly 120 meters (130 yards) to a hex, and elevation changes are approximately ten meters (30 feet).

The North board, depicting the area that saw most of the British action. The two smaller
scenarios are played on this half of the map.

The terrain is clear (no pun intended) and readable, generally not up for debate. The line-of-sight rules make sense in context of the map, though I’m sure the wilful will find something to argue about. I can’t say in good conscience that these are my favourite tactical Napoleonic maps – I think Sébastien Brunel’s exquisite work on Hexasim’s Eagles of France games still take that honour – but they are perfectly fit for purpose and by no means distracting, which is what you need from a game map.

Counter-sheet 1.

Counter-sheet 2.

Counter-sheet 3.

Counter-sheet 4.

Counter-sheet 5.

Counter-sheet 6.

The unit counters are one of the points where the Fix Bayonets! system really pops. The counters are large (about 3/4”) and beautifully presented, with accurate uniforms and readable digits in, in spite of the saturation of information incorporated into each unit. I mentioned the historical notes covering various divisions represented in the battle in the Battle Booklet. Each division’s distinct uniform is presented in the historical notes, and these are reflected I the unit counters. Each unit features its command affiliation (division) and Regiment/battalion, digits representing the unit’s steps, Fire and Skirmish (melee) values, a TEM score (and number broadly representing the unit’s Training, Experience and Morale going into the battle, a red number will indicate poor training), and the unit’s Movement Factor. Cavalry units are marked with the presence of a horse’s head to the left of the figure, and of course don’t feature Fire quotient. Artillery units have an above view of a cannon on their unlimbered side.

All the units and markers are pre-rounded and punch out pretty cleanly. The plethora of administrative markers suggest a business to the play that is misleading. most of the board-bound markers are mnemonic devices to remind the players of a given unit's current actions, which may need to be responded to or played out, and will not clutter the board beyond the turn. Disordered/Suppressed and in Square markers are cut smaller as to not obscure the unit below, and the elongated Charge and Column and Road Column markers have their game effect values printed on them. The design of every marker has been considered and streamlined into the best version of itself.

Player Aid Card - the outside panel.

The game comes with two duplicate Players Aid Cards. These are bi-fold (two-panel) 11” by 17” cards. On the outer wrap, you’ll find all the necessary martial charts and tables; Fire Combat Procedure and Modifiers, Melee CRT and modifiers, a Special Results Table, Leader Casualty table, and (even) a Spiked Guns Table. 

Player Aid Card - inside the fold.

Inside the fold offers a brief a Summary of Game Effects on units, Sequence of Play – and separate Assault Phase and Charge Segment Sequences – a table of TEM (Tactics, Experience and Morale) Modifiers, Stacking limits (by total Strength Points), a Fatigue Reduction Table, and a Weather & Time of Day Effects Table. God is in the details in the Fix Bayonets! system.

French Army Order of Battle.

Where the confluence of research and production shine brightest is the counters and, by extension, the Order of Battle Boards for the three armies. The OoBs present each army in their command breakdown, delineating the command structure and divisional groupings of the brigades, regiments and batteries.

Spanish Army Order of Battle.

British Army Order of Battle.

Most infantry and cavalry units have three or four steps before they become unviable as a fighting force, which means these units have multiple representative counters. The OoB sheets should be used for hosting the currently unuse counter for each multi-counter unit to negate the need for scrabbling through marker-piles mid-game. This will add to the game’s table footprint but will save a lot of headaches during play.

The Turn and Tracks card.

All the game-related functions are monitored on the charmingly named Turn and Tracks card. Rather than numbered turns, each scenario is tracked by time elapsed. This is tracked on the Game Turn Clock, a clock-face dial in the centre of the card with the outside round numbered somewhat like a real clock, and the inside circle divided into fifteen-minute intervals (the duration of a game turn). There are two clock-hand markers to register the passing of hours and minutes in the game. There are designated spaces for markers denoting morning or afternoon (AM/PM), Weather, and which side holds the initiative.

There are separate tracks for the overall cohesion of the three armies, and another to track fatigue of various formations. Spaces are delineated for the Special Events Draw Pile, the current Activation Stack and the Activated Order Pile, and Out of Play cards (to avoid confusion). Separate holding boxes are also provided for Routed French and Allied units, and for French units located at the Casa de Salinas (this represents an off-map position holding the French Reserve force and some of the Armée’s senior leaders at the beginning of some scenarios.

Card backs.

In Fix Bayonets! games, formations are ordered by their leaders, which are represented on small European-sized cards. I’m not going to get into the tall grass here, but each turn, the Activation Deck is built from the two side’s leader Activation Cards through a kind of bidding system, and these will dictate which leaders and formations get to activate in  that turn. I’ll go into this more deeply when I get to writing up an AAR of either Talavera or Albuera, but suffice to say, this is one of the hallmarks of the Fix Bayonets! system.

Sample Leader cards (top row) and Special Action Cards.

The cards look quite nice. Where possible, an actual portrait of the officer in question has been used in the representation; otherwise, a uniform character similar to those used on the counters has been incorporated. Every card also features the Leader’s name at the top against their command’s colour stripe, their numerical Command Rating just below this on the left, and an image of the leader’s corresponding counter. Senior leaders may command multiple formations; this is reflected in a note at the base of their card.

Along with the Leader decks a small deck of Special Events is also provided. The Special Event cards allow the holding player a small advantage in a given situation. Most are for general use, while a couple have different benefits depending on the side playing the card. After they are played, the cards are discarded.

There is one unique card in the Talavera game. Many will be familiar with Bernard Cornwall’s Sharpe novels or the television movie series that sprang from them. The climax of Sharp’s Eagle is set during the battle of Talavera, the eponymous Sharpe manages to capture a French Eagle, to clear a debt of honour (in reality, the 95^th Rifles – despite their best efforts, having marched over forty miles inside of twenty-four hours – just missed the action, arriving on the morning of the 29^th). To commemorate this favoured fictional event, a special Special Event card has been included. The Sharpe’s Eagle card may be held by the Allied player to play during a defensive melee action, just once, to potentially turn the tide of an otherwise disastrous result. This is a small thing, but it is very much indicative of both the design philosophy and the spirit of the game.

Box and dice (and cards as shipped).

Finally, two dice – d10s, one red, one blue – are included with the game. These are very nice; a good weight that seem to roll quite well. I’m sure they will prove to be fickle at the table, facing an opponent, but that is in the future.

As mentioned, the box is of solid construction with a firm closure but not so much that the lid is difficult to remove. My copy suffered some ever so slight dishing of the top, but no corners were harmed, and with the extremely reasonable surface shipping charge, I cannot complain.

Stripped Down for Parts: 1811: Albuera, Second Edition

 

July and August have seen a deluge of preordered game arrivals at Casa de Juego Rápido, and it seems the flood isn’t yet over. The latest addition to the to-be-played shelf is another Napoleonic game, a revised edition of the first volume of Frederic Delstanches’ Fix Bayonets system from, 1811: Albuera, Second Edition (Tactical Workshop. 2025). The game, as may be surmised from the title, is a treatment of the Battle of Albuera, fought in May of 1811, named for the village in south-western Spain, and historically an important victory for the Anglo- Portuguese and Spanish forces against Marshal Soult. The original release of 1811: Albuera (Tactical Workshop, 2020) was released in 2020, with the second volume in the series, 1810: Busacco (Tactical Workshop, 2021) released the following year. These were print on demand games that would have been exclusively expensive for the likes of your humble correspondent. The second Edition 1811: Albuera is the Tactical Workshop's first run at quantity production, and this has brought the price down to a very reasonable cost, especially as a pre-order. 

As one may draw from the series title (the clue’s also there in the publisher’s name), 1811: Albuera is a tactical game of battalion-level combat. This is my first game from Tactical Workshop, so I can’t compare it to Busacco or the first edition of Albuera (if you’re interested, Eric’s Table – Napoleonic Battles has posted a short video comparing the two editions), but I can say the production is lush, the presentation is well-crafted, and overall, the game holds a lot of promise as a rewarding Napoleonic excursion.

 

The box cover sets the tone for what’s to come. It features the centre detail of The Flag. Albuhera, May 16, 1811, a painting by William Barns Wollen (1857-1936), a noted war artist in his lifetime who was commissioned by the newspaper, The Sphere, to cover the Second Beor War as a correspondent-illustrator for the paper. The Flag now hangs in the National Army Museum, London.

The box itself is of solid construction, and it needs to be. There is a lot of material packed into its three-inch hull.

The back of the box. It hints at the riches inside.

The box back offers a brief historical sketch of the battle, and a briefer account of the parameters of the game. A short box-text features outline the Fix Bayonets system goals, while another offers a precis of the changes in this edition of Albuera from the first. The box-back also presents a goodly portion of the map and some images of sample counters and leader cards.

Along with a manifest of the game’s components, we’re advised that Albuera is recommended for one or two players, that its difficulty should be rated medium-high (I suppose this would put it at about a 7 or 8 out of 10*), and that the game can be expected to run from two to eight or more hours, depending on the scenario chosen. No advice is given as to age suitability for this game; after a superficial look at the rules, I’d be inclined to prohibit anyone under fifteen from trying to tackle the nuances of the Fix Bayonets system.

The series rulebook features Denis Dighton's painting, The Defence of the Chateau
de Hougoumont.by the flank Company, Coldstream Guards, 1815,
which also resides in the National Army Museum in London.

The Fix Bayonets series rulebook is printed in full colour on a generous weight of gloss paper-stock and runs to 56 pages, of which a solid 50 pages are rules (the last four pages consist of a Glossary, a short bibliography, and a graphic explainer of the unit counters on the back cover). The game only having arrived a few days ago, I haven’t spent a lot of time with the rules, but I like what I have seen. I won’t lie; the rules are quite granular, and if you prefer your Napoleonic excursions on the breezier side, this may not be the game for you. But if you enjoy something with a little more weight, there is a lot to like here. There are sensible-reading rules for line extension, various unit states (general order, road column, etc.), infantry line extension, ad-hoc command groups, cavalry screening (line extension), artillery ricochet (for level fire)… I could go on. The controlled movement system is also intriguing, forcing formations to advance toward None of these seem overly complicated at first blush, but should combine to add depth and colour to the play experience.

The system is based on a card-draw activation mechanic, but this isn’t a completely random draw, like the Blind Swords system. The players start with a hand of leader cards and choose one leader from their hand to begin an Activation stack. These are revealed simultaneously. Whichever leader has a higher initiative rating (a process I promise to look at more closely in an AAR), is placed on the top. The other player may attempt to interrupt this card by playing another Leader card from their hand against the top card. In this way, the activation stack is built, and the leaders and their subordinate units ordered in turn. The designer notes that this was inspired by the activation system used in the Tank Leader series (West End Games), while the interruption mechanic has its roots in the Great Battles of History (GMT Games) system.

Exclusive rules and scenarios appear in the Battle Booklet.

The 1811: Albuera Battle Booklet runs to sixteen pages and offers a brief run-down of the historical context of the battle, the forces involved and their respective leadership, about a page of game-specific terrain and special rules, and the all the necessary details of Albuera’s four scenarios. It’s worth noting that two of these scenarios can be played on a single map-board.

The map is impressive and easily navigable. And there is a lot of it.

The play area for 1811: Albuera is comprised of two mounted maps which line up very nicely. These create a 44’ by 29’ map of the battle site. The scale is 120 meters (about 131 yards) to a hex, with elevation denoted by contour lines and changes in colour, shifting from greens into light browns. The hexes are a full inch in diameter.

Counter sheets 1 & 2.

Counter sheets 3 &4.

Counter sheet 5. As always, apologies for the dismal lighting in these shots.

The game comes with five sheets of pre-rounded, easy-punch counters in a hefty weight of brown core cardboard. The back of the box tells us that the set is comprised of the following: 25 arrow-shaped markers, 160 3/8” by 3/4” markers, 205 1/2” by 1/2” markers, [and] 265 3/4” by 3/4” counters and markers.

The counters are one of the areas where the game really shines. The unit cards are both well laid out for readability and quite pleasing to look at. Troops are represented by a figure in the uniform of that unit, while the surrounding values are distinct and clear without being ostentatious. Formal affiliations are indicated by a colour bar at the top of the counter, and nationalities are denoted by the background colour.

Sample Spanish units (from left: Infantry, Artillery, Ammunition Train (Division España),
and two more infantry battalions (Zayas's 4th Division), with Line extension (top left)
and Road Column (top right) markers, and the Melee indicators
(the arrows at the bottom).

Markers are provided to indicate when infantry units moving in Column or extended lines (elongated counters) or readying for a melee assault (the red arrows), cavalry units are committed to a Charge action or providing a skirmish screen, markers for spent units, disordered units, infantry which have formed a defensive square. In short, whatever you may require a marker for, rest assured these have been provided.

Player's Aid Charts (wrap). All your combat tables.

Player's Aid Charts (interior).

Two identical Player’s Aid Cards are included in the set. These are 11” by 17”. These are printed on a nice weight of cardstock and are well laid out. All of the combat-related tables appear on the “outside” of the fold, with the manoeuvre related tables (including weather effects and stacking limits), as well as a Sequence of Play outline, are presented on the interior face of the card.

The layout is eminently readable I find two-panel cards can be a little unruly at the table, but these boards are stiff enough not droop when you’re trying to check modifiers or CRT results on the fly.

The Turn & Tracks display. This is a mini-masterclass in presentation and utility.

The tracking needs for 1811: Albuera have been distilled into one more 11” by 17” card, which incorporates a clock-face turn tracker, separate Cohesion tracks for the French, Spanish and Anglo-Portuguese armies, an overall Fatigue track, a weather roll chart – weather is rolled for each turn, and is influenced by the weather status each prior turn – and spaces for the in play and resolved Activation Cards and Event deck. Again, this is thoughtfully designed with ease of play in mind.

Sample Leader Activation cards. The use portraits of the particular leaders
(where available) is a nice touch.

1811: Albuera comes with a deck of 39 Leader Activation cards. These are mini-cards, and colour-coded to each leaders’ nationality and formation-affiliation. Where available, a portrait of the leader in question has been used to illustrate their card, adding a measure of verisimilitude to play.

Sample Special Event cards. Because everyone needs a little help sometimes.

The game also includes a smaller deck of Special Event cards. These are shuffled at the beginning of the game and are placed face-down in their position on the Track display. When a player rolls a natural 9 (the worst possible result) during the Operations phase of a turn, they draw an Event card for use at an appropriate time (as indicated on the card).

Box and dice.

The Fix Bayonets system is d10 driven; two of these are also provided with the game. They are Free-range dice, unencumbered by any enclosure, so of course they will roll pleasing numbers for the possessor of the game and frustrate their opponent’s ambitions at every juncture. Or at least that is my hope.

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All this, taken together makes for a compelling-looking game experience. As I mentioned at the top, I’ve has a precipitous couple of months in regard to new games, and that, combined with a dearth of gaming opportunities of late, and various other commitments – I’m still barely half-way through my Ten Wargame Challenge list – I don’t think I’ll be able to get to 1811: Albuera in a way that this game truly deserves much before the Christmas season (which, to be fair, isn’t all that far away now, as we’re nearly into September already). I would like to get the game punched, the rules more thoroughly read through and understood, and maybe spend a few hours pushing some counters around, and if I get to do that, I’ll take some photos and write up an AAR of the experience for you, gentle reader. In the meantime, I can tell you that the next game in the Fix Bayonets system will cover the Battle of Talavera, a particular favourite of a lot of fellow Napoleonics gamers, so we all have that in our future. Looking at the results of this revision, I hope that Mr Delstanches will give consideration to presenting us with a revised 1810: Busacco edition as well.

 

* For what it’s worth, the denizens of Boardgamegeek.com place the difficulty at 4.0 out of a possible 5.0.