Sharp Practice Game AAR

Sylvain hits the claret as the French light troops explore the river line.  Small green dice mark the areas scouted so far.  Big red dice were used by Stacy to keep his leaders straight.  la maison Rheault on the far bank was built by Sylvain's pere and is a representation of his childhood home.

This week our local group had a first game with SP2 and using my SYW force.  The scenario was a recon action based on Scenario 13 Finding the Ford from CS Grant "Scenarios for All Ages".  Two forces of equal strength arrive at opposite corners of the table.  A river crosses the table from left to right, which is unfordable except for a rumoured ford that the players must find.  Victory goes to the side that holds both banks of the ford at end of play.

The French line of march.  Hussars at the river followed by Grenadiers, regulars and artillery deployed on the hill.

Sylvain took the Anglo-Allied forces with 4 groups of British infantry, a group of Hessian Jaegers and a group of Luckner's Hanoverian Hussars.  Stacy took the French with 4 groups of infantry, a group of Fischer's Chasseurs and a groups of the Bercheny Hussards.  The red coats and especially the jaegers had a higher point value than the French equivalents.  Therefore I upgraded two French infantry groups to Grenadiers and gave Stacy a light gun.  Adding a musician (Jaeger hornist) to the allies gave an even point total.

The Anglo-Allied advance.  Luckier's Hussars beyond the chalet, jaegers this side of it and regulars in the foreground.

We used Sylvain's terrain boards which are 4'x2' in dimension.  To get the river mid table we ended up with a roomy 8'x6' table, well over the minimum 4x6 that the rules recommend.  In retrospect the extra table was a great thing as it allowed for a lot more maneuver.  The initial turns gave us all a chance to get used to the turn sequence and movement rules and make the inevitable rules screw up when it didn't matter so much.

The Royal Scots bring up the rear.

As umpire I noted 6 possible ford locations and rolled a d6 to pick the actual ford, without revealing any of these to the players.  Units that were next to the river and allocated 1 of their 2 actions/turn to searching would reveal a 12" stretch of riverside.  The searching gave rise to some humourous moments particularly on the French side.  The Hussards were leading the way but always rolled down for movement while the Chasseurs always rolled high and were close to lapping the Hussards before the later finally located the ford directly to their front.

Luckier's Hussars search the riverline.

Stacy got the Chasseurs, Jaegers and a formation of regulars (two groups) across the river before Sylvain arrived in force, while the French gun set up on a hill and worried the Redcoats.  Both sides threw their cavalry away to get shot up by infantry and then it settled down to an infantry shoot out.  Aided by their gun and with fortunate and judicious use of command actions and cards to rally shock, Stacy's frenchmen won the shoot out and Sylvain's redcoat retired voluntarily.

Bercheny's finally get a move on and cross the ford.  Green gems mark shock as a result of highly effective rifle fire from the jaegers on the hill next to the chalet.  Fischer's Chasseurs approach the ford.  The French gun has caused a shock effect on the jaegers.

Thoughts on SP2 to follow in the next few days.

Luckier's quit skulking by the chalet and try skulking by the maison Rheault.  Unfortunately for them, Fischer's got there first and got off an effective volley into their flank.  On the other side of the maison, Bercheny's have rallied their shock.  The Jaegers have run up to the woods but find that they lost their advantage at longer range.  French regular approach the ford.

Having forced the Redcoats into squares, Bercheny's make a bold strike for the Allied deployment point.  The swamp to their front will slow then down in the field of fire and they would suffer the same fate as the french Hussars (both units retreated off board)  However, going into square meant that the Redcoats lost the race to the French regulars and suffered artillery fire.