Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Sharp Practice AAR


The past Friday I put on a SP2 scenario set in the SYW Kleine Krieg.  I had the players draw. For sides and we had Curt and Stacey taking the French and Sylvain the Anglo-Allies.  No pictures I'm afraid.

I ran the Dominant Hill scenario from CS Grant's first book of scenarios.  Basically equal sized forces enter from opposite sides of the table with a large ridge as the objective for both sides.  SP2 gave a good game, with tense moments around the random order of units moving.

We used the Lardies poker chips which I had painted, but not very well.  Basically there is one chip per leader (both blue and red) with 4 command chips fir each side a plus a green tiffin card.  When a leader's chill us drawn he can direct units to move/fire rally them etc.  Come and chips can be used to perform special actions, give a leader more juice or saved til the turn end.  The turn ends when the tiffin chip is drawn, usually before some units get to act.  Unused command chips can activated u it's who haven't yet acted when the tiffin chip comes up.  Then all the chips get chucked back in the cup and we do another turn.








The way the chips fell in seemed like Sylvain got more units moving early in the game and the French getting the edge later on.  Both sides Hussars got shot about by the opposing artillery early on.    However Curt was able to move the Berchenys off to a flank where they were shielded by a wood.  Sylvain's hussars didn't have the same luck and hot pounded for several turns.  Artillery is very powerful in SP2 and we will limit the number of pieces and maybe downgrade their firepower a bit.

Sylvain opted to get his infantry deployed as a big formation and put his jaegers into the village.  On the other side, the French brought their infantry forward as they came on and set a unit of volunteer skirmishers out in front.  The volunteers eventually got shot apart by the thin red line, but held the hill until the line troops arrived.  Sylvain's line got hampered by his own hussars and shot at by line infantry and light troops.  Meanwhile Curt focused his gun on Luckners Hussars who were pushed back and then pushed off table.   Sylvain tried counter battery fire.  While it eventually worked it was a slow process and a poor substitute for the results Curt got in return.

Finally with a French line on the hill, Stacey and Curt used smart command chip play and lucky chip draws to get three shots on the British line before Sylvain could reply.  By this point the British force morale hit zero and they retreated leaving the French controlling the hill.

One nice feature of the rules is that kills are not common, but shock (morale) hits are key.  Get enough shock points on a unit and they'll be unlikely to do anything but run away.

4 comments:

  1. I haven't painted my chips yet...but the rules do look good. I haven't tackled them yet. Were you happy with them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've Gmed two games and played a third. I quite like hhe rules. There's lots if room for character and lots of tension with the drawing of cards o chits. I've used both and prefer the chips as it means the players can't complain about my poor shuffling.
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was a good game Peter. The first few turns were a bit bruising but we benefited with some good luck and placement later. As you said, I think Sylvain cheated himself by sticking to counter-battery fire. Also those volunteers were worth every figure in holding the hill for our regulars to come up.

    This week we'll return to our hero Richard Parp in the Peninsula.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed it Curt. It was tight for a bit but you pulled it out in the end. SP plays out like a small action should. The sides contested the hill and the French pulled back once the result was clear without taking major casualties.
      It was a tough conundrum for Sylvain with his hussars. He had enough shock that it restricted his movement significantly. His best best was likely to turn about in one turn and canter back to his baseline the next. He'd risk having his back turned but he'd get out of the fire zone quickly.

      Looking forward to Mr Dick tonight.
      Peter

      Delete