Back to Sharp Practice with 40mm Peninsular

 My turn to put a game on and I went with 40mm Peninsular Sharp Practice.

A scenario straight from the rules and forces only slightly altered from the book too.

The French have a 16 man formation of line with a level 3 and level 1 leader. Another 16 man line with a level 2 and 2 6 man skirmish screens with a level 2. I add another 6 man skirmish unit with a level 1.

The French have to escort a wagon with the pay chest from one side of the table to the other, there are two entry points. The French dice for which one they come on and then for how many moves on table they get.

I am French and I get the left entry point with 3 moves on.

Steve is British he has 4 entry points, he rolls a D6 and on a one to 4 gets the numbered entry point but a 5 or 6 he gets to choose. He rolls 5 and chooses entry 2 back left.

The Allies have a 3 unit formation of British foot with a level 3 leader, a 16 man Spanish unit with a level2 a 6 man skirmish unit with level 1 and I add a 6 man rifles unit with a level1.

The difference in the forces was quite marked initially but I may have diluted this in adding the extra skirmish units.

First on the rifles deploy and fire with no effect on my Voligeurs.

My return fire is a little more effective and inflicts 3 shock.

The British line is pretty much in place now, reckon I ma going to need to find a way around this block of quality troops rather than punch through.

The Spanish then turn up to complete the Allied line.

Everyone is now on table and I am hoping I can pin the Allies wiht my left and work around the flank with my right and the convoy.

The Rifles get the worst of an exchange with the French skirmishers. 

But the French line are already taking casualties which is not encouraging.

I start to pepper the Spanish but that block of British line is completely untouched.

The Rifles are driven back with multiple casualties. But the French lien are taking a pasting from two formations of Allies.

Hit again the French formation is split as group retreat with only 2 figures left, the other is not much better off.

The convoy and my right flank formation are making progress towards the table edge but the French left is in tatters and it depends on whether the British can redeploy to pick on the fresh French right. 

Again out of time, a cracking game and easy enough given its straight out of the rule book. Fair to say the British had the edge but it was far from over and the French still had marginally more force morale than the Brits.

Good fun, thanks Steve.

General D'Armee AAR Playtest

 Steve has been keen to try these rules for a while so we had a nice Russians vs French game.

Went pretty well as it happens.

The French hold two villages with three small brigades of foot, two six pounder batteries and two small cavalry brigades.

The attacking Russians have 12 pounder batteries with 3 larger brigades a large and a small cavalry brigade and a reserve guards brigade.

Chris F and I would attack with Russians whilst Steve and Chris C defended with the French.

Each side has a number of dice they can roll to get extra things. ADC's typically who can re-roll failed orders. Given that all units need an order to do anything except fire these are pretty useful.

Steve and Chris occupy each village with a battalion and set reinforcements behind them, their left flank is covered by a small brigade of fo0t and another of horse with one of the 6 pounder batteries. The French under Chris Con their right have a battery between the two villages and a larger cavalry brigade covering the extreme flank.

The Russians get forward quickly although Mr Flowers has his usual difficulty when rolling for movement so one brigade stalls. Artillery on the villages causes minimal casualties.

I decide I want to exploit my slight cavalry superiority so the Hussars are pushed forward as quickly as possible.

Move two I roll well on command dice so spend some to add artillery assault to one battery which increases the casualties on my target unit, the village is blocked by my own advancing infantry so I concentrate on one of the supporting units causing devastating casualties and forcing it to retire in disorder.

We quickly close on the Russian left and assault the village. My first assault bounces off with casualties to both sides but the rest of the briagde is well placed to carry on the assault.

On the right we are not quite close enough yet but closing on the further village. 

Next move we close with right hand village, I don't have an assault order so it will be a little harder, as with the left village the first battalion bounces but another is in range to carry on next turn.

On the left we have charged the village again. The advantage here is that the French are still disordered from being charged last go. We bounce off again but the village is weakening.

The cavalry close and the superior numbers of Russians tell, a narrow victory to the Russians pushes the French back but doesn't allow the Russians to follow up.

A third attack on the left village is repulsed but only just.

The village on the right is just as beleagured but manages to push the Russians back again.

On the right Chris's columns are finally moving forward with a view to smashing into Steves French who, in a bit of historical irony, are in line on a reverse slope.

The Russians storm the right hand village for a fourth time, each of the four battalions has taken a turn at charging in, wearing the defenders down and giving them no time to reform.

On the right we are having our third assault, this time it goes to second round and the French throw in supports pushing the Russians out and exchanging the mauled defenders with the fresh battalion which, however, remains disordered by the combat.

Its nearing the end of the night and Chris is gathering himself for a mighty knock out punch against the French left.

The French however seem unpreturbed and ready for him.

In front of the right hand village the Russian Guards have arrived. They charge the village and make it look all too easy.

On the left my Russian line have finally taken our village and pushed the French back.

But what's this? Steve has left a gap through which a small unit of French Hussars can charge my disordered Russian line.

A desperate closing volley has no effect and the French cavalry are in amongst my infantry and the battalion is broken.

The guards however are happy enough occupying the village.

On the left with one last throw Chris C charges his remaining untouched battalion at the left hand village, a good closing volley disorders him and he retreats from the ensuing melee badly mauled.

Chris marches over the slope into the waiting muskets of Steve's French. Steve assures us it wont be as one sided as it looks but we have run out of time so wont get to find out.

With both villages taken and the French left in disarray its a Russian victory and a great first test of the rules.

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable game and I look forward to playing the rules again soon.

Spanish Buildings for 40mm Peninsular

Freind Chris Charlton surprised me with an early Christmas Present, donating some lovely buildings to the 40mm Peninsular project.

These are out of production Old Glory and are oversized 28mm which I feel fits perfectly.

Chris has done a fantastic job of painting these and basing them to give nice paved areas. Having languished in an out building they just needed a little tidying up. So whilst giving them a brush down and wipe with a damp cloth it was the ideal opportunity to take a few snaps of them.

The Church is probably my favourite, Chris has done this lovely model proud, I love the warm colour scheme he has used, the addition of some shrubbery adds a bit to it as well. The rooves all come off so figures can sit inside. 

The Villa is a slightly different style, much paler as I suppose it is meant to be a nicer build. Perfect for a garrison headquarters or game objective. It also has a lovely little coat of arms over the porch. Chris has added the base with walls and paving and made a cracking job of it.

This little block of houses vies for first place for me, a lovely compostion again with a paved base added by Chris and a tree that was once a Bonzai by all accounts. lovely this one. Again all 3 tiled rooves lift off.

Lastly is a small farm, complete with a base with small patches of farmland and paving and two Bonzai that needed a slight amount of repair.

Taken as a whole this is more than enough buildings for my planned collection, along with some of Steve's very large trees our terrain is all set for this mini project.

A few shots with a couple of armed Monks to give you an idea of scale, I think this is perfect, proper 40mm would probably look a bit on the big side, these oversized 28mm look perfect to me.

I cant wait now to get the figures finished so we can get this lot on table. Fingers crossed a few more weeks and we will be there.

Chris also very kindly picked up a couple of hand made trees from the last valley beautiful big things perfect for 40mm, I included a base of skirmishers for scale. You can just see behind them the boxes with 30 or so extra 40mm figures I also picked up at York

So we are well on our way, just need to paint the French, is there a theme here?