Battle of Evora table top and terrain musings…

Good evening everyone, busy weekend this week so didn’t get much done, but I did manage to set up a trial layout for the solo refight of Evora i’m planning in a few weeks time.

Battle of Evora from the French table edge. Evora is middle top.

For those who don’t know, Evora is a lovely town in Portugal, steeped in history and the Battle in 1808 between the French and a Spanish-Portuguese force was a short lived affair, but my research has led me to conclude the town looks wonderful.

I’ve struggled to find any historical references for Evora, particularly maps and other reference material – so if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, then let me know. I relied quiet a lot on WargameRabbit and his scenario of Evora for the terrain layout – you can see more on his blog post below

Battle of Evora 1808

Love this illustration of the Battle from WargameRabbits blog.

One of the things I needed for the refight were some city walls to represent Evora, and I found some excellent, pre-painted walls on eBay, available from seller Markryvan

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/markryvan

City Walls with some Portuguese Infantry for scale

Evora with some houses inside

The city of Evora. The walls have been rebuilt in modern times but certainly they provide a considerable obstacle

Another view of Evoras Walls

Evoras old town is actually a UNESCO world heritage site and there certainly seems to be a lot of history packed into a small area. To find out more about Evora you can click on the link below

Visit Evora – Top 10 reasons to come to Alentejo, Portugal

Evoras fortifications

Evoras Walls

Evora

I am still missing one or two aesthetic items – I need about 4 more buildings, ideally one windmill, but I don’t want to pay a fortune for it. I have also run out of brown felt roads, so need a couple more pieces of felt just to ensure I have enough.

Red circles indicate where additional buildings are required. There are no rivers or streams on the battlefield – just I ran out of roads.

The size of the table here is about 5ft x 6ft. Annoyingly I can’t really get anymore in due to my large office corner desk as i’ve been working from home nearly 18 months now.

To be honest, I’m puzzled as to why the Portuguese and Spanish chose to fight outside the walls of Evora. Maybe they thought it would save the city from being sacked?

My representation of Evora.

Walls with troops for size comparison purposes

If anyone has any comments or tips about terrain, then let me know – particularly when it comes to making cheap roads and rivers.

If anyone has visited Evora or lives there, then please feel free to add your comments below.

All the best for now – hoping to get some Spanish Line infantry for Bailen painted next weekend – the Evora re-fight will need to wait now until my new buildings arrive 😉