Sharp Practice French & Indian Wars French v British

A return to Sharp Practice, this time the French and Indian Wars using Jerry's wonderful figures and terrain. Dave took the British, I had the French and Jerry had the Natives allied to the French. The objective was for the Natives to get a group of captives off table:

Trees, a river and some rocky/marshy ground:

Some British colonist skirmishers arrive looking for the captives:

The first of the Natives scouts ahead:

British Rangers move to cut off the Natives:

The first of the French appear, some Marines:

They move quickly to try to support the Natives:

They hope to catch the Rangers before they can turn round:

The Natives attempt to move the captives but are attacked by Colonists:

The Natives are wiped out and the captives rescued:

The Marines push through the forest:

More colonists attempt to cross the river but are scattered by the sudden appearance of an angry grizzly bear:

The French have killed a few of the Rangers but the captives are well on their way to safety:

The French give up and retire to try again another day:

A wonderful looking game with Jerry's excellent scenery and figure collection on display, especially as we played the game at the club! The British quickly overwhelmed the Natives and my French failed to give them much support leading to recriminations from both of the allies about whose fault it was!

Sharp Practice AWI American v British

My last game of 2023, an AWI Sharp Practice against Jerry and Dave playing a scenario from the 2023 Lard special "Raiding the Wilderness". Jerry took the British with Indian allies, I had the American Militia and Dave commanded the Continentals and State Line.

The British and their allies were attempting to raid a Rebel farmstead, seize supplies and ideally burn it down to show the Rebels the price of disloyalty!

All is quiet at the farm:

Beasts lurk in the woods while one lucky Native tries to drag three women off from an isolated hut:

The British are coming! Some militia skirmishers prepare to contest the farm:

A messenger sent back to the local Rebel commander has run in record time and returns with some State Line and Riflemen:

The Riflemen lead the way:

More Militia gather at the farm while the British send some Loyalist skirmishers into the woods. No sign of the Natives yet!

The Natives appear! Fire from the Militia is effective though reducing their numbers:

Fighting rages around the farm:

Natives mass on the flanks, the Militia are determined to defend their homes though:

State Line move up to threaten the flank of the British line:

The Natives have not managed to co-ordinate their attacks and the farm holds out:

One group of Natives charge home against the Militia! 

The State Line advance ominously on the British line:

The Militia hold the farm against the Native attack. Continentals charge the Natives in the rear!

With the farm solidly in the Militia's control, the British line heavily outnumbered and their Native allies fleeing the British withdraw and victory goes to the Rebels:

Another excellent game of SP with a bit more movement than usual. The variety of units was interesting and the scenario seemed better thought out than many. 

Jerry couldn't really co-ordinate his Natives into a single attack leaving them to be picked on one by one and the early appearance of Dave's State Line and Continentals didn't help either. The Militia also resolutely defended the farm to the death!

Sharp Practice Napoleonic French v Spanish

An outing for my 28mm French against Gary and Jerry using Spanish. The objective was to rescue a spy held in the courtyard of the building on the left:

Spanish Line appear on the road into town:

French Voltigeurs deploy and quickly rescue the unguarded (for some reason!) spy:

Hoping to distract the Spanish Line infantry French Dragoons deploy on their flank, if they can charge in before the Spanish turn around it could be messy:

Adding to the Spanish problems the Voltigeurs manage to shoot one of the Spanish:

The plan is executed! Dragoons at the gallop crash into the Spanish flank:

Considering they have every advantage possible the Dragoons don't do well killing only two men and forcing the Spanish to retreat:

More shooting from the Voltigeurs reduces Spanish numbers further:

The Spanish turn and face the Dragoons who prepare to charge again:

Meanwhile masses of Spanish guerrillas and milita are held off by a second group of Voltigeurs covering the escape of the prisoner:

This time the Dragoons smash the Spanish routing them:

The Voltigeurs with the prisoner start their dash to safety:

The main French infantry body arrives together with a horse artillery gun:

The Dragoons and Voltigeurs make rapid progress:

It looks like nothing can stop them now:

The prisoner is taken to safety:

We played on for a few moves as the game hadn't taken long. The Dragoons try charging frontally Spanish infantry along the road:

Heavy losses on both sides, the Dragoons fall back:

The Spanish have shot down the French gun crew and the game has drawn to a close:

A fun game which again perhaps showed the unbalanced nature of SP scenarios which depend very much on when and how many units you can activate each round. 

With the French gaining control of the prisoner quickly and having units turn up much quicker than the Spanish there wasn't much Gary and Jerry could do to influence the outcome especially as the Volitgeurs escorting the prisoner moved with great rapidity! 

The game certainly looked great with Gary and Jerry's scenery which really added to the overall look.

Sharp Practice Sudan Egyptians v Dervishes

After four games with the Dervishes taking on the British we thought we would try something different so I used the Egyptians and Dave took over the Dervishes. 

We basically replayed the second scenario in which an Egyptian column is attempting to return to it's base on the Nile, probably after an unsuccessful attempt to locate and punish a recalcitrant local tribal leader or preacher.

For the same points as the British had in the scenario the Egyptians mustered eight groups of Fellahin, two of scouting cavalry and a medium gun all with appropriate leaders.

The battlefield set up. Scouts indicate the Dervishes approaching from the lower table edge (the Black and Green flag deployment points):

The Egyptians send their cavalry forward while half the infantry follow in column. The remainder of the infantry form a firing line to cover the advance:

A smaller force of two groups of Fellahin and the artillery defend the camp on the Nile:

The cavalry swing round to scout the hills and palm grove while the rest of the Fellahin form into line with surprisingly effective drill on display:

There are Dervishes in the hills! The cavalry draw their fire with one unit deciding discretion is best and retiring to the infantry line:

The Dervish skirmishers drawn out by the cavalry are forced to withdraw by accurate Egyptian fire. Meanwhile the main Dervish horde arrives and begins a rush towards the Egyptian lines. The Egyptians hope that they will get enough shots into the Dervishes to weaken (or ideally stop) them before they can contact the Egyptian line:

The Egyptians open fire and knock over numerous Dervishes, while in the distance the remainder of the Dervish horde arrives on table:

The Green Flag Dervishes suffer numerous casualties (but not so much shock) due to Dave's remarkable ability to throw sixes for his casualty rolls! 

The other Egyptian cavalry unit attempts to intercept a Dervish cavalry group that has worked it's way onto the flank of the Egyptians guarding the camp:

They don't arrive in time and the Dervishes hit the flank of the Egyptians:

Surprisingly the Egyptians fight back furiously and turn to face the Dervishes:

Further combat sees the Egyptians cut down to a man while the Dervishes also break after huge losses:

Meanwhile both the Green and Black Flag Dervishes begin to rush the Egyptian line. They have a considerable distance to cover over open ground though so speed is of the essence for them:

The Green Flags have taken heavy casualties and split up badly:

The Black Flags have also split up but one group manages to contact the Egyptian line with a second in support:

The Egyptians are wiped out but once again the Dervishes in combat take sufficient losses themselves to break and flee:

The Green Flags also manage to get a unit into combat but again the Egyptians fight off the weakened Dervish unit and break it:

Close range fire drives off the last of the Green Flags breaking the Dervish army's morale:

Another great game and I'm really enjoying these Sudan modifications to SP, with the Dervishes having to get into close combat it makes it a very different game from the usual SP shooting match. As with the last two games this one was quite close with the Egyptians ending up on 5 morale, a couple of Dervish close combat wins would have taken them over the edge. I also think Dave was a little unlucky with his movement rolls when trying to get into combat as some poor throws lead to the Dervishes making scattered attacks rather than charging in one mass.

As for how the Egyptians compare to the British (which was what I was most interested in) they lack the British special abilities (Sharp Practice and easy Crashing Volleys), fight much worse in close combat and tend to have a lower starting morale. However, they have numbers and more officers on their side which I suspect more than makes up for the disadvantages, six groups of Egyptian infantry with two Lvl III leaders and breech-loaders puts out an awfully large amount of firepower hardly affected by them being 'bad shots' at all.

Finally it has also been great to get these veteran (probably 20 years old plus) figures into action again! They are certainly not some of my best painting, having been done quickly with colours just blocked in and a wash of dilute black oil paint (aka 70's and 80's 'quick shade'!) but I think the overall effect is nice and they have something not all armies I paint develop, a bit of a personality!