The Battle of Busaco, September 27^th, 1810

The Battle of Bu�aco (pron. IPA [bu.'sa.ku]) was a battle of the Peninsular War, fought by British and Portuguese forces under the command of Lord Wellington on September 27, 1810, to check French pursuit of his retreat to the Lines of Torres Vedras. Having occupied the heights of Bu�aco (a 10-mile long ridge) with 25,000 British and the same number of Portuguese, he was attacked five times successively by 65,000 French under Marshal Mass�na.

Mass�na was uncertain as to the disposition and strength of the opposing forces because Wellington deployed them on the reverse slope of the ridge, where they could neither be easily seen or easily softened up with artillery. The actual assaults were delivered by the corps of Marshal Ney and General Reynier, but after much fierce fighting they failed to dislodge the allied forces and were driven off with a loss to them of 4,500 killed or wounded, as against Anglo-Portuguese losses of about 1,250. Massena then moved off to the right to flank the position, and Wellesley resumed the retreat of his army into previously fortified lines at Torres Vedras by October 10.

Mass�na, finding them too strong to attack, withdrew into winter quarters. Deprived of food for his men and harried by British hit-and-run tactics, he lost a further 25,000 men captured or dead from starvation or sickness before he retreated into Spain early in 1811. Wellington had now freed Portugal from French occupation except for Almeida, near the frontier. This was the first major battle of the Peninsular War in which units of the reconstituted Portuguese Army fought.

Text taken from Wikipedia

For more detailed account of this battle, go to https://www.britishbattles.com/peninsula/peninsula-busaco.htm

������ The Map

The Allied force of Portuguese and British (red) are here arrayed across the long ridge from which they threw back determined French assaults. Be advised that only the large 2 story buildings in the villages are capable of garrison, so no need to level entire town. Also, there is a garrisonable church/convent on the ridge. The Allied left flank (map right) is somewhat protected by very difficult terrain, though it is traversable. A sizeable portion of the Allied army is Portuguese troops, here played by both Cacadores (light infantry) and also Bavarian line infantry. The French have a sizeable heavy battery but is of limited use against enemy positioned on and behind a ridge, as was the case here. �The French are advancing in 3 columns (blue) and are obligated to attack. No map rules or objectives, and no up-grades.����