Curt's Sharp Practice Aspern Game

Sylvain looks perplexed late in the game.  His troops (in the churchyard in the distance) are getting hammered in a fire fight in the distance.  Mine (in the churchyard closest to camera) are winning the musketry battle but getting slaughter by artillery.

This past weekend Curt ran an awesome huge Sharp Practice game based on the church at Aspern in 1809.  Full scenario details can be found over at Curt's blog.  My shots are included here.

This was an amazing game and full points to Curt for organizing it.  Figures are from Curt's and Greg's collections.  The building are mixed media (foam core, card and balsa) constructed by Sylvain and painted by Curt.  The french were played by myself (left flank), Sylvain (right flank) and Jeremy (in the buildings and reserve initially).  Greg (main assault) and Stacey (facing my flank) took the Austrians.

First wave of Austrians set out to assault Sylvain's forces.

Close up of Curt's figures.  The Austrian could come from any of three sides so we needed to cover all of these

Close up of the church yard on my flank.  Stacey assaults the wall but is repulsed.

Second (or third) wave of Austrians set to assault.  The Austrians got to come back at full strength to recognize a new wave coming up.  We french kept getting whittled down.  We held the first two assaults , barely held the third and would have been swept by the fourth and final assault when we called end of play.

My starting positions.  Again trying to cover all angles.

Another shot of Stacey's assault, this was in the first wave.  He had a second formation to the right of this one but I managed to shoot them up nicely and they never got closer.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge VII

The call has gone out for this year's challenge the seventh annual.  Details over at the Challenge Blog.  Soon this will have higher Roman Numerals than a slasher flick series.

I am entered again with a target of 800 points.  I plan to work on my Great Italian Wars and SYW Sharp Practice projects.

SYW Hessian Artillery

Another set of AWI Hessians, this time a Perry set of metals featuring 4 artillery men and a "Swedish" four pounder.  As with my other troops from Hesse-Kassel (grenadiers and jaegers to date), these are perfectly suitable for SYW as the Hessians adopted Prussian style uniforms for both conflicts.  These were lovely figures and a joy to paint.

Side view of the piece.  Poor photo but the carriage is a very dark blue.

The Perry box comes with a "Swedish" 4 pounder.  These were captured from the French during the SYW and were apparently very nice pieces.  Captured pieces served with the Hanoverian and allied German states during the SYW.  I have painted the carriage a dark blue which was typical during the AWI and later.  Krosnokraf gives sources for a white/light grey scheme with red trim,  but I went with the most utilitarian and less flashy blue.

In action shot.  As always the Perry crews look like they are actually working the piece.

I will of course use these for SP2 actions, which give a standard artillery unit with one piece and five crew.  It also helps a lot if you field a leader for the artillery.  This means that I'll need to add two figures.  Right now the plan is to use a Warlord plastic  infantryfigure to represent hired help to drag the gun around.  For the leader I may use a plastic Warlord officer figure on foot or a Perry mounted figure.

Ground level shot from behind.  Note the drag ropes for prolonging the piece once unlimbered.

Lovely crisp details on the belts and packs

Hessian Grenadiers

These are a set of 9 Hessian Grenadiers painted for my SYW Sharp Practice project.  They are 28mm hard plastic figures from the Warlord AWI Hessian Infantry boxed set.  They have been some time coming as it took a long while to get them together and then painted and then photographed and blogged.  Basically problem children, with many of the problems lying somewhere between the chair seat and the tip of the paintbrush.

These were my first experience with Warlord figures and they were a learning experience!  Ok lets start with the plus side.  

• The box includes enough figures to do a reasonable sized unit and options for  a Prussian/Hessian Fusilier (the early pickelhaube helmet), Musketeer (Prussian style tricorn) and Grenadiers (classic mitre) plus command stand and a handful of Jaegers.
• The figures are well moulded and have a good set of accurate kit for the AWI.  I am fudging the trousers a bit going back to SYW but otherwise they fit the earlier period well.
• There's a good variety of poses, and some of these (firing, loading and priming) are very good.
• The box comes with a good full colour insert with instructions on putting them together and painting, plus flags.
• I managed to put together a usable group for SP2, so they are mostly idiot proof!

 OK now for the not so good.

• They are fussy to put together, way more so then the Perry boxes (the gold standard IMHO).
• As always some of the figures are not so great.  The figure at the trail (the NCO and one ranker in my unit) go into this category.
• Most of the torsos have exactly one set of arms that work with them.  This limits the variety of poses greatly.  I far prefer the Perry approach and love mixing and matching bits from different figures and boxes.
• The heads are two-three piece constructions!  The musketeer hats have to be glued onto the heads and then the pigtails come separate (really?!?).  I went with Grenadiers in part because  their hats come cast on the heads reducing the number of steps/chances for error.  And let's just say that frustration is maximized trying to glue a pigtail on a 28mm figure, or trying to find a grey pigtail on the floor.  Several grenadiers have gone with a more cropped hair style as a result.
• Down at the feet we have more issues, namely the figures have separate bases and the feet end at the bottom of their feet.  This gave me more conniptions trying to figure how to get these painted.  Eventually I went with the Warlord individual square bases.  They'll work well for skirmish games but be a pain in kiester in a larger game.  They are also fall over easily and I had to apply a quick fix in the form of ballast in the base.
• You'll note that I managed to get the facing of the figures off in some cases so some grenadiers are firing at a 45 degree angle to strait ahead and will be hearing from their Sergeant shortly.
• The seemed to take a while to paint, this may be me or it may be the figures.  But I painted a set of Perry metal AWI figures shortly after wards (post to come) and they took the paint very well with far less do overs and fixes required.

Herrs Schultz and Muller need to adjust their aim.  Eyes front soldiers!

Hoffman at least has his eyes on the prize and is aiming dead ahead.  I am not a huge fan on the head down at the trail figure that doubles as an NCO with a swap of a partizan carrying set of arms.

The other problem with the bases, being hollow they don't have much ballast and the figures topple over easily.  I compensated by supergluing a small washer into the hollow space.

Rear view showing the kit and the problematic pigtails (or lack there of).

Again from the rear and above.  Much of the slowness in painting came from the cross belts (and lapels on the front of the figures).   The detail wasn't crisp enough to get it right first time out.

Civilians for the Kleine Krieg

I had these figures painted up weeks so (they featured in my last SP game) figured they better make it on the blog while I remembered them!  This is a set of 8 civilian types to act as encounters, tasks or scenic items as required in my SYW skirmish games using Sharp Practice.

We have four members of the noble or wealthy middle class, one gent a younger lady, an older lady and a young lad playing soldier with a toy musket.  There are also four members of the working classes, a fairly well dressed fellow with a barrel, a labourer with a sack of grain, a female servant with a platter of food and a young lad who is scampering like he's just played ring and run!

All but one of these figures comes from the Perrys AWI range (have I mentioned how much I love these figures recently).  The style of dress maybe 20 years late for the SYW, but my research on Pinterest show that there was enough overlap that they work as well for c1760 as they do for c1780.  The V&A is a wonderful source of info on civilian dress in historical times FYI.  Having just checked my own link I've noticed I am missing a female servant with a broom who is painted but escaped my attention this morning.  I'll check with Fischer's Chasseurs as being likely culprits.

Here's the adult well to dos.  The odd figure who is not from the Perrys is the older lady in red, who participants in Curt's Painting Challenge may recognize.  She is a specialty figure of Maria Theresa from Westfalia miniatures and Kawe produced her as a limit run give away or the participants in one of the most recent challenges.   I carved away the orb and sceptre that the figure carries and I figure that she works exceeding well as a strong willed noble women of a certain age (think Bertie Wooster's aunts).  She is by the way a lovely figure and I wish Westfalia did more mid-18thC types.

V&A pictures show that many fine clothes of the age would be cut from pattern cloths (typical florals) but I opted for solids as I didn't want the fuss of getting the impression of a floral print right.  The colour that I use are based on real life clothes from the mid 18th century and the prints used were often subtle enough that they blend into solids from a reasonable distance.

Here are the lower social orders plus the young noble lad with his musket.  Not the best photo  am afraid but so be it.  The two figures on the right are sculpted as African Americans to represent slaves in the Southern AWI campaigns but I painted them as Caucasians to suit my theatre of war.  I quite like the fellow with the barrel who might easily be a brewer, publican or wine merchant.

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.

Reading, Research and Blucher

http://www.historydata.com/images/graphics/Rd_Rivoli.jpg

This week I've been reading "The Road to Rivoli" by Martin Boycott-Brown.  The book is OOP but I got a copy last year via a bookseller dealing in ex library books.  It came at a good price and great condition, although my wife keeps wondering when I will return it to the library!

Last summer Curt ran a 100 Days Campaign using Blucher, which hot me thinking about creating a similar campaign based on the early Italian campaigns.  Of course that went no further than the "I wonder and Wikipedia" stage, and by the time this book arrived I was on to chains new squirrels.  This summer Curt is running a second Blucher campaign based on Austerlitz, with me playing the French.  This will be blogged about but I am holding my cards close to my chest.

But the new campaign got my thinking again, and that got me reading....stayed tuned but I be got far more progress this year.

Anyway I do recommend the book.  It is a bit of a slog at times, but a good read at others.  There us good background on Boney's early days with less hero worship than other sources.  There is also a ton of wargames potential here - river crossings, mountain actions, surprise attacks etc..  So far I've covered the campaigns in. Piedmont, the crossing of the Po, had grudge at Lodi, the crossing of the Mincio, setting up the Siege of Mantua and the battles of Castiliogne/Lonato.  The early campaign in the mountains is a big heavy but like the Army of Italy things really get going on the plains of Lomdardy!  Next up, the have chasing Wurmser from Bassano into Mantua and the the bridge of Arcola.

Big Lee's Epic Milestone

More shameless pimping here.  Big Lee has hit the magic 2,000,000 hit mark which is an epic achievement (or approximately 25 times the number of hit's that I have attained) .  I am not surprised because BLMA blog is a constant flow of game reports, modelling tips and great photos of real life AFVs etc.

Big Lee is having a prize draw to celebrate e the milestone.  Go check it out and throw your name in the hat, but are sure you stick around to presume what else is there.

Little Cold Wars

A belated shout out to Tim Gow over the publication of his Little Cold War rules (available as a real book or an ebook).  In keeping with my cheap and impatient nature I picked up the ethereal version on Amazon and give it a full recommendation.

The game simulates 1970s cold war actions using 54mmish toy soldiers and toy tanks.  It is played in an HG Wells manner, using match stick firing cannons and dart board anti tank fire!   It's goofy as all get out, a heck a lot of fun to play and gives a very good game. As afar as I could tell it also does a pretty reasonable job of simulating armour and infantry combat in a mid-to-late 20th century environment.  And there are good resources on unit organization, equipment and where to find the silly toys!

I play tested an early version of the game back in 2014 (see the AAR report) and am in fact the Canadian play tester referenced in the rules.  I could sorely be tempted to play this on my back lawn, if I can locate a good source of toys (lacking the car boot sales available to Mr Gow et al).  I fore see clashes in a post breakup Canada between the Cape Breton Liberation Army, Soviet Canuckistan and le Quebec Libre.  Please note that these were not invented by me but by a Nova Scotian comic, a right wing American wacko and a senile French generalissimo.

Later addition - ok I was waaay too flippant on Quebec Nationalism there, which has of course been a recurring theme in Canadian politics for 50 odd years.  I am however thinking of a French French supplied and influenced French Canadian force.  In my experience Quebecois view the idea of influence from Paris with about as much joy as they view influence from London, Ottawa or Washington.

Kardstadt am Eder

Followers of this blog might note that when it comes to obtaining wargaming toys and accessories, my attitude can be best described as cheap and impatient.   Having looked over my terrain and buildings,  I decided that I needed buildings that would be appropriate for my SYW Kleine Kreig project.  A quick flip through tourism guides and photos on the web showed me that the period architecture of Western Germany looked a lot like those beautiful model railway buildings sold by Faller et al.  However a mass mail order of plastic kits wasn't going to meet my budget or attention span.

A better option would be home scratch builds.  I consider myself reasonably proficient with foam core, artist board and scrap cardboard and feel that I can turn out a workman-like final product.  Unlike some members of the fraternity I quite enjoy this type of modelling project.  I will likely turn to this option down the road.  I find that January and February are good times for building construction - a good project when the budget is tight, the nights are freezing and Christmas packaging is a ready source of materials. 

But in the interim cheap and fast gave me a clarion call in the form of emails from Wargames Vault about free samples of Dave Graffam card model kits and deep discounts on Graffam kits.  So off I went.

A completed model of the freebie hovel in the foreground and a work in progress Carriage house in the background.

What you get  are a set of PDF files that you can print out and assemble as buidlings.   The hovel and carriage house above were two of the freebis.  FOr the hovel I rpinted the templates on regular paper and glued them to a cut up cereal box (Gluten Free Chocolate Chex)  with the spray adhesive visible in the background.   I believe that the section of the Leader Post that I used has an article on Canadian Literary icon Margaret Attwood, who is a second or similar cousin on my mother's side.  My maternal grandmother had a regular correspondence with "Peggy" right up to her death at 99 and received signed copies of all of Atwood's works.

Same buildings, different angle.  Note the flaps on the carriage house to attach the roofs.

Given the small size of the model and the stiffness of the cereal box, the hovel is quite sturdy and set to be used on table.  I glued the carriage house onto light card stock, which is less rigid.  Combined with the bigger size, this one will need more support.  I figure on using foam core inside the walls to give it some bulk.  We have a good supply of slightly used foam core thanks to my wife's time as a Brownie and Guide leader.

From another angle.

The carriage house comes with two roof pieces and an optional dormer winder which I will mount in the white rectangle visible above.  This kit is a marvel of options.  It is a layered PDF file that let's you pick wall types (brick, stone or wood), roof options, window and door positions, weathering (see the cracks in the shot above) etc.  You can reuse the same kit many times and get different results on each one. 

A different arrangement of walls, windows and doors on the carriage house

So far I am having fun and am pleased on the results.  More posts to follow.

The finished hovel looks suitable to house Hansel and Gretel.

Close up of the Carriage House.  You can see the need for internal support.

Fischer's Chasseurs

Another iconic unit from the Kleine Krieg, this time for the French Army.  Fischer's Chasseurs were formed for the War of Austrian Succession by Johann Fischer, a German officer who distinguished himself at the Siege of Prague.  By the Seven Years War it included mounted and dismounted chasseurs.  They were one of the best light units in the SYW and served in an awful lot of Kleine Krieg actions.  Late in the SYW , the unit was given to the Duke of Conflates with Fischer continuing as second in command until his death in 1762.

This unit represents 6 dismounted chasers plus an officer.  There were supposed to be 2 groups of 6 plus officers, but it turns out that I can't add.  I ended up with 2 officers and 6 other ranks instead of 12.  Oh well, that will be rectified eventually.   To avoid postal gouging I ordered these to be delivered to my dad when I was visiting the Uk in May.  They were painted up on my return in June and took part in our first SP2 action (albeit with plain bases).  Since then I have added texture and fluff to the bases.

The figures are from From Rank, and these are the first Front Rankers that I've painted.  I have to say that I was impressed with the figures and I will likely get more.  I expect to remain a mainly Perry man for a variety of reasons, but it's nice to have a variety.  In this case I went with Front Rank as there aren't many options for a light infantry figure in a mirliton.

Pike and Shotte Inspiration

Gaze on ye mortals and be humbled....

You have likely seen photos of the game on the Perry's site and FB page.  These two bloggers did the armies involved.

Army Royal

Je Lay Emprins.

Seven Years War Inspiration

I caught this in Monday's online edition of the Guardian.

On a slightly different note I also found this trailer, with similar stunning visuals and equally impressive sound track.

Luckner's Hussars

This unit for my Sharp Practice Seven Years War project was in action a month or back in our first game, but I've never posted pictures of the unit itself.

Luckner's Hussars were a Hanoverian unit and one of the iconic regiments of the campaign in Western Germany.  They were everywhere and heavily involved in the Kleine Krieg.  The figures are from the Perry Plastic box set of Napoleonic British Hussars.  So yes let's hear it from the button counters and war-games fashion police.  I had the box on hand, and except for the leg wear and shabraques the uniforms are pretty damn close to one another.  So yes officially, the shabraques should have the long swallow tailed corners seen on the officer figure instead of thew smaller saddle blankets seen on the other ranks.  And they should have the tight Hussar breeches with leggings and high boots instead of overalls.  I rationalize both of these by saying a hard run unit would have stripped down to more practical wear.  However, the fur hats, dolman and pelisse look spot on and the poses one gets from these perry figures are marvellous.

I've painted these figures (6 plus officer and trumpeter) in the later uniform, white dolman with red pelisse and fur hat, adopted in 1760.  The earlier uniform had a green dolman and pelisse and a  mirliton or flugelmutze, to use the lovely German term.  It was changed as it was nearly identical to that worn by the mounted members of Fischer's Chasseurs in the opposing French army.

The regiment's colonel Nikolas Luckner is pretty much the poster child for Lace Wars Soldeirs of Future.  A full bio can be found at the excellent Kronoskaf site, but the basics are as follows.

• Born in the Palatinate, he joined the Bavarian Army and transferred to a Friekorps unit.
• During the War of Austrian Succession (WAS), the Bavarians rented their army out to the Dutch Republic and Luckner served in the Dutch Army as a member of the Frangipani Hussars
• At the end of the WAS he resigned from the Bavarian Army, by which time he had acquired a rich Dutch Wife
• At the start of the Seven Years Was, he raised his regiment of hussars for the Hanoverian army. He served with distinction throughout the SYW but retired in 1763 at the war's end.
• Late he was approached by the French and Russian armies, and joined the former as a Lieutenant General in 1767.  In 1784 he became a Danish Count and in 1790 a French citizen.
• Still serving the French at the out break of the Revolution he became a Marshall and lead the Armies of the Rhine and North with success.  His successes were memorialized in a popular tune which later became the Marseillaise.
• As the revolution got more radical, he was removed from command along with other nobles.  He retired to his estate but came back to Paris asking about his pension and was guillotined during a purge.

You can't make this sh*t up!

Sharp Practice 2 Thoughts

Curt and I were both planning SP games for this weekend coming, but he got his note out first so mine will wait a week or two.  But the thought process (my brain hurts) made me realize that I had not posted my thought son the rule system following my AAR a few weeks ago.  So here goes.

·         Overall things ran smoothly, and gave a fun game with lots of action.  The system is intuitive and we got into the swing of the play very quickly.  All good stuff.

·         I liked the unit/leader activation system which gave suspense and randomness without being too wacky.  We used cards, but long term I will use poker chips.  I found it hard to adequately shuffle a small hand of cards, much to Stacy’s disgust as he had to take several random event rolls following the appearance of the 3^rd command card in a row.  If I don't get my poker chips painted in time (they are fiddly), I'll resort to fanning the cards and letting players choose one at random.

·         Getting the feel of when to use Command Cards will take a bit.  Stacy and Sylvain tended to hold on to them to make sure that units activated on the tiffin card, but I think that both made use of Cards for “Step Out” actions adding movement or prompted activations out of sequence

·         Movement is based on a number of d6s making it random, but that was just fine by me and it worked in practice.  Cavalry take some thought as they need to take a turn to slow down or speed up. 

·         Small arms fire was a snap to get – lots of d6s with simple to remember scores to hit.  We rarely need to resort to a table.  If three men in their 50s don’t need reminders, the system is pretty idiot proof!  Units need to test to stop uncontrolled fire once they start, which is something that we forgot to do.  

·         Artillery fire is also simple and can be deadly (or not).  Stacy cunningly placed his gun on a hill and Sylvain obligingly deployed on a hill in the line of fire.   In retrospect he could have avoided some of the fire by coming down off the hill but that didn’t seem obvious at the time.

·         I liked the differentiation between musket and rifle armed troops, and formed troops vs skirmishers.  Both sides’ skirmishers were effective, but Sylvain unfortunately turned his Jaegers rifles from a plus to minus by moving into close range.

·          Cavalry is brittle and tricky to use, as it should be.  Both players got their hussars into tricky spots where they were shot apart by musketry.  A learning opportunity hopefully!

·         We used a big table that allowed a lot of flexibility on deployment.  It also had the plus of letting both players get familiar with movement and activations before running into the enemy.  A few units on a big table gave a very nice feel.

·         We never got to fisticuffs so I have no idea how well that works!

·         As commented on the SP forum over at the lardies home, there are some unit points costs issues that need to be sorted out.  I went by the points in the book and may have given Stacy an advantage as the Brits seem overpriced.   We can work this out over time. 

Ad in conclusion I can't wait til we go tho the Penninsula with Curt's lads this week and hiope to go to Hesse soon with my SYW lads.

Shoes to Go With My Army, or an Army to Go With My Shoes

It is not often that one can claim that one has the army to go with one's shoes, but I have succeeded.  I present Exhibit A, a pair of Dr Martens emblazoned with Renaissance Italian Condotierri.  The art work is D'Antonio's Triumph of Camillus (original in the National Gallery)

These were acquired during our sojourn in the UK last month.  I originally saw these during our four day stay in London on arrival, but balked at that time.  However with encouragement from my wife and sister in law I went back during our London segment of the return journey from Bedford to Southampton and voila.  They became my father's day present from my wife, and a damn fine one they are at that.

And for the record I have worn them in public twice so far.  Once to supper at a Thai restaurant in Marylebone immediately after purchase and then again at the local theatre in Regina.  Londoners of course paid no attention to them, but I did get catch some odd glances from fellow theatre goers - I figure that it's good for them to stretch their horizons a little.

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.