A Peninsular War Sharp Practice AAR

Yesterday at the club was a chance to have a practice game for next weekend's big Sharp Practice event at BIG. Both Brian and I will be playing, so we decided to play with a limited size force of roughly 55pts a side.

Obviously, I took my newly-finished 61st Foot, led by Captain Nigel Molesworth and Sgt Timothy Peason, and a single group of 95th Rifiles, led by Captain Barnaby Thorne and Sgt Jasper Hyde. With a Marksman, that took me to 53pts.

Brian had a much larger French force, French troops being a lot cheaper than British ones.

We played a modified version of Scenario Two: Sweep The Table, with six McGuffins placed around the table for Brian, the attacker to capture. We marked these with green jewels.

The table was like this;

The British would be defending from the end with these walled orchards, while the French would sweep in from the wooded end of the table;

The French appeared first, quickly claiming one or two McGuffins, but eventually the Rifles got into the larger orchard.

The 61st marched in open column towards the lane between the two orchards.

The French Voltigeurs, supported by a single Line group began to advance across the cornfields.

Elsewhere. more Voltigeurs emerged from the woods as the rest of the Line troops sought out more McGuffins.

British progress was slower, but Thorne's Rifles were in a strong position behind a sturdy wall.

Another McGuffin is captured.

The Voltigeurs open fire on the Rifles, to no effect.

Returning fire, the Rifles inflict shock and a single casualty.

The 95th use Sharp Practice to reload (those two reload actions are a real downside for troops with rifles, as opposed to muskets, and soon get into the woods, while the 61st begin to deploy into line.

The French begin to pull back, having grabbed for of the six McGuffins and take up a defensive position.

Captain Molesworth leads his men across the open ground to get to grips with the French.

With the 95th protecting their right flank, the 61st get within firing range.

Taking advantage of their first fire superiority, Molesworth orders them to Present and Fire. Despite scoring a lot of hits, the volley causes only two casualties and a bit of shock. While the 61st are unloaded, skirmisher fire begins to have some effect.

French Voltigeurs in the woods to the British left mount a sneaky flank attack. They force one group to leave the formation and cause some dead and shock. However, Sgt Peason is equal to the task and in a subsequent round of Fisticuffs, the Voltigeurs are wiped out.

Unhappily, Peason's group is forced to flee within a few turns, due to the arrival of French line troops, who begin to make life difficult for the rest of the 61st.

Things get worse as they are compelled to fall back, and Thorne's Rifles suffer from surprisingly effective Voltigeur fire.  Their Marksman is notably ineffective, so I doubt that I'll have one on the roster for next weekend.

We call a halt at this point. The British are too weak to continue and the 61st are carrying too much shock to do anything.

I think that I've learnt a bit about the weaknesses of the British when limited to such a small force., especially when the Line is out in the open.

Anyway, I have more ideas about what I might need to do next weekend, and one thing is to include a Musician for 1pt, and here he is (I finished him off this morning);

He's OK, not great, but he looks better from a distance, and I am annoyed that I didn't notice that the join between the two halves of the drum was so prominent until I'd inked the model. Anyway, the force I used here, without the Marksman but with the Musician, comes to 52pts, so I am seriously considering taking another 61st Foot Status I leader for 3pts. It might be time for Sgt Jack Spratt to get called to the colours.