So two Fridays ago, for the first time since March, it was back to NBHW for face to face wargaming.
Obviously new rules and regulations were in place due to Corvid19, those imposed by the village hall we play at and those we have self imposed. Our games are now limited to four players plus an umpire max and dice and tape measures are not shared. Also we are limiting those who set up and pack away the games as well as leaving our miniatures boxed after games for at least 72 hrs. So with all this in place it was back to gaming.
The game was a Peninsular War encounter scenario between French and Spanish forces. It was set up using the points system from the Albion Triumphant One supplement to Black Powder and played using the 2nd Edition of these rules. Each force was 600 points and by god were we rusty with remembering the rules, even having to look up some of the really basic stuff.
There were four objectives worth victory points, the crossroads just outside the near village, the centre farm, the far village and the wooded area to the right.
I had command of two brigades of Spanish infantry with a half battery of artillery each. My co commander had a cavalry brigade, which he split into a heavy component and separate hussars, and a large militia brigade plus half battery.
The French had a large infantry brigade plus artillery battery and a large cavalry brigade.
Using upgrade options we removed the "wavering" special stat from the Spanish units but this still left everyone except the militia as "unreliable" meaning they would need to role less than the commander's SR to execute an order, so six or less on two D6 then, what could go wrong!
The french got the better of early movement and soon occupied the farm. A re-role of a failed command roll (C-in-C rule) saw a blunder resulting in the Spanish heavy cavalry charging at full speed across the board into the waiting arms of some Polish lancers, some good French dice and poor Spanish soon saw the Spanish brigade broken.
My infantry in the centre managed to assault the farm only for the brigade to get broken as well after some heavy fighting.
The Spanish militia brigade also suffered this fate as they were met by waiting french infantry as cavalry after fighting through the woods on the right flank.
So with three out of four brigades broken it was a French victory. Despite the result it was great to get back to actual gaming.
More on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming.
Tony.
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
