Historical Note
Maida was fought on July 4, 1806 between a French force of 6,240 men commanded by Général de Division Jean Louis Reynier and a British force of 5,236 men commanded by Major-General Sir John Stuart. It became known as the battle where the British first showed they could beat the French. Some even claimed it clearly demonstrated the superiority of British field tactics.
British Field Commander :
Major-General Sir John Stuart :
On July 1, 1806 your force landed in the Gulf of Southern Euphemia. Under orders to support
the local uprising you have been marching inland in search of the rebels. You find the French positioned on
a ridge and would they be intent on holding it you would have no option but to withdraw, but instead
holding their position the French have crossed the Lamato and began to deploy to your front.
It is now 8:00am on July 4 and you have deployed your force with your right flank on the Lamato stream. Observing
that the French are not yet fully deployed for an attack you have decided to go on the offensive.
French Field Commander :
Général de Division Jean Louis Reynier :
On July 1, 1806 a British force of some 5,000 men landed in the Gulf of Southern Euphemia.
You have decided to push this force back into the sea. You have chosen to leave your strong
position and engage the British because you are worried about the possibility of Calabrian 'banditti'
either attacking your rear or joining up with the enemy, whilst you could expect no reinforcements
for at least twelve days. This being the case, an immediate attack on the British would find you at
your strongest and them at their weakest.
Confident of an easy victory last night you ordered your commanders to attack "pas de charge" (cold steel). It is now July 4 and your forces are deployed in a staggered formation on the field. A few moments ago
you ordered your troops to ready themselves for the attack. It is now time for action.
Maida Map :
After Action Report
We were able to fight this battle three times over the course of six hours. The initial deployments remained unchanged and on each occasion both sides simply pushed forward and attacked the forces to their immediate front. Kempt's brigade was routed in all three battles, which then made it next to impossible for the British to win.
In the first round, the British launched the initial attacks against the French. These piecemeal assaults were effectively handled by the veteran French and the British right dissolved in short order.
In the second round, the British took a more conservative approach by allowing the French to advance and launch the initial attacks. The French field commander in turn disregarded the 'order of the day' to assault with 'cold steel' and opted to use firepower to wear down the British, prior to attacking. Once again, the veteran French prevailed by shattering the British right.
Prior to the third round, two key adjustments were made in an effort to balance the forces on the table. Firstly, to reflect the disorder of the French on the field, all Veteran and Elite status was removed. Secondly, both commanders did not receive initial TPs (Tempo Points) for the small independent units attached to their forces. This brought the initial British TPs down to four and the French down to three.
In the third round, a general French advance was hampered somewhat by the diminished TPs and the removal of the Veteran and Elite bonuses prevented them from rolling over the British as was the case in the two previous rounds. Though Kempt's brigade was forced to leave the field, the engagement was a far closer affair than previously experienced and had every opportunity (but not a favorable die roll) to push off the initial French assault.
Overall, the small forces engaged in the action clearly magnified the impact of morale modifiers. As well, the small brigades could not stand up to prolonged pressure and the loss of one or two of these formations would represent half or more of the fielded forces.
Since the French won all three battles and never lost one unit they clearly won the game. The best chance for the British was noted after the revisions to French troop quality were implemented.
Further research of the British force at Maida has revealed that a sizable portion were veterans of the Egyptian campaign, thereby upgrading their status considerably. We look forward to a re-fight with these latest revisions.
The action at Maida demonstrated the importance of timing the volleys so as to have the greatest effect. The question raised was why historically the British line was more effective than the French. We know of the benefit of the two rank line, and of the British training, but this does not provide the answer. It seems that the timing of the volleys was critical and fire-discipline. To illustrate this point, the 78th who were nearly all new recruits, managed to stop the 1st Swiss cold in their tracks. Furthermore, the British volley that broke the 1st Légère was delivered at point blank range.
