Face to face in the village - a Sharp Practice AAR

Yesterday was my first chance to play Sharp Practice for months, for obvious reasons.  It was also my first opportunity to get my recently painted 61st Foot Flank Company skirmishers on the table. 

The game would be an encounter between an Anglo-Portuguese force and a small column of French Infanterie Légère, supported by a medium gun.

Both sides would be trying to secure the village of San Jorge con Pantalones.

The British were first to arrive, with Lt Barnaby Thorne and a single group of the famous 95th Foot. They took up position behind a low wall surrounding a small plantation of fruit trees. Unfortunately, I then pushed them up across the road into danger and they were heavily defeated in Fistucuffs, forcing them back into the fruit trees. Luckily, the gallant Barnaby Thorne lived to fight another day.

They were soon joined by some skirmishing flank company troops from the 61st Foot, led by veteran sergeant Harry Stottle, who was soon wounded by accurate fire from a group of Légère Voltigeurs, leaving him in a dazed state and unable to exercise any command for the rest of the game.

The French were also beginning to arrive, as two groups, led by Lt Poulidor managed to seize control of a cottage on the main road through the village.

The Portuguese component of my force soon put in an appearance; three groups of Fuzilieiros from the 20th Regiment, led by Capt. Horacio Cataplana. You can see them here, flanked by the rest of the 61st' Light Bobs, led by Lt. Archibald Leach.

Volley fire from the Portuguese, supported by the 61st, soon took their toll on the French, who were forced back to hide behind one of the village houses.

The rest of the 61st Foot arrived, led by the estimable Maj. Molesworth, forming a second line behind the 20th. Slowly, the British began to advance into San Jorge. My plan had originally been to bring both formations up to the main road and use the skirmishing light infantry to protect their flanks, but the mauling given to the 95th, meant that the Portuguese would have to move obliquely into the trees by the road.

Elsewhere, the French began to advance around the far side of the village.

The French cannon was soon deployed. I knew that I had to eliminate this threat to my line troops, and I pushed the flank company skirmishers around the house on my left flank, even though it was occupied by French skirmishers. I judged it a risk worth taking.

 

Taking up position near a boggy patch of ground, I was able to use four command flags to give the Light Bobs an extra free round of firing before also activating Lt Leach. This proved devastating and wiped out the crew of the French gun, and also giving its supporting infantry a hard beating. The tide was turning my way.

The Portuguese moved up to take up position along the road, while the 61st moved up on their left.

The French charged through the small coppice into my line, but only one group made contact. Even so, they fought well, killing the Portuguese leader, Capt. Cataplana and three of his men. However, I killed six of them and inflicted considerable shock on them too, forcing them to flee.

So, the village ended the day in Anglo-Portuguese hands, with very few casualties on the winning side, apart from the unfortunate Portuguese officer, whose demise will have to be revenged at at future date.

En Avant ..... Au Double! - Day Two

Here, as promised is the second day, Sunday, of our Peninsular War Sharp Practice weekend. My partner had decided to try and get an earlier flight home because of Storm Ciara, so I was playing solo for both games. Lots of photos, but, once again not a great deal of glory for my Anglo-Portuguese.

Onto the action! My first game was all about trying to get two-thirds of my force across a bridge over a river. Personally. I'd have preferred to be the side trying to stop the French crossing the river, but that wasn't to be. It would be a long trek.

Once again, I would suffer from the attentions of French artillery, which pretty much swung the game away from me. It wasn't so much the casualties, it was the double shock from cannister that made my task so hard.

I'd got my Atiradores to secure a wall, preventing the French musket-armed Voltigeur skirmishers from peppering my infantry columns as they advanced towards the bridge.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from other games;

Now, back to my game. I'd pulled the Atiradores back from the wall, to help contain another French threat, together with a group of Portuguese Granadieros.

Meanwhile, at the bridge, the French attack columns were advancing. 

Halfway along the road, I'd foolishly halted my 61st Foot and deployed them against the threat that my Atiradores were dealing with perfectly well. A definite mistake.

My Portuguese Fuzileiros held the bridge, throwing back the French and subsequently making their escape across the river, but it was too little, too late. This game went down as another minor French victory.

The final game was a clash between French and Anglo-Portuguese to control a strategically-important plateau and road.

I started out with a pretty coherent position, and I hoped that things would work out OK.

French Dragoons, advancing against my right flank.

My Rifles, protecting my right saw off the Dragoons, removing one threat.

The 61st advanced on my left, protected by the Atiradores, who did sterling work seeing off the Voltigeurs in the woods ahead of me. I repeatedly used Sharp Practice to keep the Atiradores loaded, so that they could make the most of their firing as my left flank pressed forwards.

I hoped that my Portuguese Line would be OK, holding the centre as the 61st made good progress.

Unhappily, Rob's Voltigeurs attacked over the hill, defeating the Rifles, who were caught unloaded in Fisticuffs, pushing them back to the edge of the table. Before long, they would be gone, leafing the Portuguese line with an undefended flank.

This led to the breakup of the line, and their eventual defeat.

We were running out of time, but things had kind of turned into a stalemate. My 61st and Atiradores held the heights on the left, and were inflicting casualties on the main French line but my right was reduced to a single group of Portuguese who had little hope of survival. 

In the end, we called it a draw, but my Force Morale was plummeting.

In the end, an excellent weekend of gaming, and one that has given me much food for thought. I may well have to venture back into buying and painting up more British, flank company skirmishers with muskets, not Rifles.

En Avant ..... Au Double! - Day One

In other words, a Sharp Practice Peninsular War weekend event at BIG here in Bristol, organised by Phil and Jenny, who are regulars at these events.

This followed the format of other similar events, with two games each day, spread across several tables, each of which was a real work of art. The games were designed so that there were a pair of players on each side, with the pairs staying together over all four games. Unfortunately, because of the dreadful weather, my partner for the weekend, Rogier had to get an early flight back to Rotterdam and wasn't able to take part on the Sunday.

Each pair of players was in charge of an army totalling 110pts, using the Cerro Manteca force rosters developed by David Hunter. As Rogier was flying over, I provided the complete force for us, using my Anglo-Portuguese 28mm troops.

Anyway, there was much fun had by all, in some extremely challenging scenarios, and here is a selection of pictures from the weekend. In the first scenario we played, the French were trying to capture a Spanish priest so that he could be dragged away and executed, due to his extreme anti-French sermons. The Anglo-Portuguese were trying to protect him. We failed in this, so the game ended up as a minor French victory, because they hadn't managed to get him off the table.

Here are more photos from a selection of other games, all from the Saturday session.

 

What a lot of Dragoons, including some as Infantry, and elite company ones as skirmishers.

The Anglo-Portuguese in action, trying to stop the French crossing the river, so that an Allied engineer could blow up the bridge.

All weekend, apart from in the last game, the Anglo-Portuguese suffered heavily from the attentions of French artillery.

Oh dear! The French are running riot on the wrong side of the river. Another defeat,

So, my gallant Anglo-Portuguese didn't cover themselves in glory on Day One. The problem was twofold; French cannister shot and swarms of French skirmishing foot.

I have very much come around to the view that Allied skirmishing light infantry with Baker rifles are an expensive luxury, because of the slow reload of the rifles and the high cost of the actual troops themselves. I am considering buying a Victrix plastic British Flank Company box and making up some Light Bobs with muskets to replace them. However, then I'll have to paint them and I really cannot face doing any more Napoleonic uniforms for a while. A project for later this year, I think.

I will do a second post later this week to cover the Sunday games.