Viva Mexico Sharp Practice Game

I needed a quick game to drop on table last minute so we opted for a Sharp Practice tonight using my Mexican Adventure figures.

Making a particular effort to give the French clear superiority in quality and the Mexicans in numbers.

A unit of Bandit skirmishers have stolen a wagon of rifles intending to sell them to the Republicans. Unfortunately for them the axle has broken slap in the middle of the table and as the Republicans send a column to recover the rifles, the French send their own column to stop them.

The race is on.

As well as the Bandido's armed with smoothbore carbines the Mexicans have:

A formation of 2 x 8 groups of regulars with rifles and a level 2 leader

A group of 6 Irregular cavalry with a level 1 leader

A group of 6 dismounted rurales with rifled carbines with a level 1 leader

2 groups of 10 National Guard with smoothbore muskets and 2 level 1 leaders

The national guard a particularly poor having both poor shots and no first fire bonus and amongst the only troops on table without the rifles. They will have to get close and that will be costly.

The Bandido's were not supposed to be part of the Republican force morale, but as we shall see I managed to forget that to my cost.

The French meanwhile have a smaller more professional force:

A formation of 2 groups of 8 Zouaves with a level 2 leader

A formation of 2 groups of 8 Turco's with a level 2 leader

A group of 6 Foreign Legion Skirmishers with good old Sgt Knocker a level 1 leader

A group of 6 Belgian Skirmishers with a level 1 leader.

For many of these it was the first time on table and it showed!

I decide to push the Bandits forward to get to the cover of the wall, unfortunately I roll a two and two ones and move not very far at all.

The Zouaves loose an effective range volley inflicting three casualties and 3 shock and the Bandits are in real trouble.

A bad things happen followed by a further volley that inflicts more shock and a loss of force morale.

Steve has however not used his controlled volley so will now have to keep firing at the Bandits even after they have gone until he gets his troops back under control.

The Mexican infantry is slow to get forward but the French and Belgians are closing in so I push the cavalry forward with a lucky run of cards to try and distract and slow down the Zouaves in particular.

The Cavalry wont make a dent in a frontal charge so I decide a volley from the saddle out of the Zouaves arc of fire is my best choice. Two dead and two shock is helpful but the Zouaves cant respond as they dont pass the control test and continue to fire at the Bandits.

The Irregular cavalry really be a 8 figures unit but I only have 6 finished! A mounted volley inflicts one dead on the Zouaves but forces Steve to respond distracting him a little from the infantry advancing on the cart in the centre and slowing him down a little. A further volley inflicts the second dead and 2 shock. The cavalry are very exposed though.

Steve responds by wheeling the Turco's and volleying the cavalry, albeit with only 8 of his 16 having line of site.

The volley inflicts a bunch of shock but no casualties and forces the cavalry back and a "bad things happen " roll which this time I pass.

 After their compulsory retreat I decide to get the cavalry out of harms way and try recover their shock to make them useful again.

In the ruins the French and particularly the Belgian skirmishers are taking a pasting from the Mexican regulars and Regulare skirmishers.

I have my formation of Regulars in place and a series of effective range volleys sees the Belgians take 4 casualties and enough shock to force them back twice, whilst the Legion Skirmishers are also forced back with excess shock, although with no casualties. Steve's Force morale starts to suffer.

The Regulares prove decent skirmishers although my movement rolls have them reluctant to advance, like much of the Mexican force.

The Legion are forced back again and then a third time whilst the Belgians take a volley inflicting 5 casualties killing both remaining troopers and their officer and wiping them out. The subsequent tests take 3 more force morale from Steve taking him to 5 out of 10. Meanwhile I have 6 out of ten having forgotten the Bandits are not an integral part of my force and shouldn't count, Doh! Three more than I should have.

My National Guard finally make it to the wagon only to be blasted by the Zouaves who are finally under control, two volleys see them down to half strength and forced back by shock. The second unit is nearly in range but at long range with no bonuses they cant stand up to volleys from the French so it will be a very uneven competition.

At this point we need to call it.

A surprisingly enjoyable game, I had been told that this period with the predominance of rifles didn't work quite so well for Sharp Practice but that has not proved the case, although the Militia are at a massive disadvantage with smoothbores, as they should be.

Interesting to see what the addition of Machete armed town Militia does to the game next time!

Its all still to play for with the French skirmishers on their left virtually destroyed but their two formations in good order.

In contrast the Mexican National Guard are not doing too well, but the Republican Regulars can now join the battle against the Zouaves and Turcos and are both almost untouched and already in touching distance of the wagon.

Another hit on the Legion Skirmishers will likely see Steve start to loose command cards and shift the balance of power a little, another 40 minutes might of seen a conclusion but its late so we pack up after a very enjoyable game. Cheers Steve.

Hope you enjoyed it too, thanks for stopping by.

Belgians for Mexico

 One of the Key units I wanted to do for the Imperial Mexican army was the Belgian Legion.

A very pretty unit that saw lots of action although they probably shouldnt have.

When Maximillian of Austria, the Emperors younger brother, was offered the Imperial Crown of Mexico his father in law, King of Belgians, gave him permission to recruit a Belgian Legion to support him.

All volunteers the troops were green but enthusiastic. Two battalions were raised, one of Grenadiers and one of Voltiguers. Initially as Palace guards their commander lobbied for action, sick of insults from French officers, and was granted his wish. 

These first figures are for the Grenadier battalion with red lace, the Voltiguers having green lace and will follow in due course.

All Gringo 40's figures and lovely, a slightly limited range I am expanding by some simple head swaps with Officers for Tonkin whose uniform is a good fit.

Then there are these 7, I picked them up from ebay, not cheap but a good fit and a decent headstart, not keen on the painted eyes so the faces may need a little work to be closer to my style and I will add leather gaiter toppers at the calf but other than that and some minor scratches these are pretty much done once I remove their bases. 

I particularly like the officer.

So those two take me to 13 out of a 20 man unit, the standard bearer is probably going to be the most challenging as Gringo 40's dont really do them and even the Tonkin range would need hand swaps to facilitate this.

I glued the last lot of Belgians to bases before realising I hadnt taken pictures, apologies so here are some of the extras on their bases.

French Officer of Contra Guerillas with head swap on the right.

Advancing Legionnaire on left.

Separate command figure for Sharp Practice.

Republican Mounted Commander is cloak.

French Indo China officer with head swap and hand swap for open hand to facilitate the flag, carefully put together by chum Chris Charlton, cheers Chris.

Hopefully have these based up to share in next week or two.

Until then thanks for stopping by.

Sikh Wars Partizan Prep

Having decided that Sikh Wars would be the theme for our T'other Partizan game we needed to decide on rules.

I have been working on my own set but these are much more focused on 2-4 players, both our test games and show game are more likely to include up to 8 players most of whom would not be familiar with my rules.

Initial thoughts were to use Valour and Fortitude with the stats from last years Boondock Sayntes Aliwal game. So Steve and I organised a quick game.

Our game had 4 brigades a side, with a small village occupied by one Sikh Brigade.  The Sikhs having just one extra foot battalion and mounted regiment.

As we had no real intention of playing a game through to conclusion, this was all about seeing if the rules worked. Whilst they did and the rules additions for Sikh Wars had some very interesting mechanics to reflect the reality of the conflict we were unsure if they would work for our group.

I was surprised to find the Sikh Gorchurra rated as good as the Bengal Native cavalry, this did lead to a bit of a kicking for the British on the right flank.

Elsewhere the ability of the British forces to lead with the Queens regiment but spread casualties over the whole brigade, along with forcing the Sikh guns to target counter battery where they could gave the numerically inferior British a fighting chance of closing with the Sikhs. 

On balance an enjoyable game, however we are concerned about trying to get 8 grumpy blokes who dont know the rules to play them through with two of us who also dont know them very well taking the lead.

Blind leading the grumpy blind springs to mind. This may lead us to use Blackpowder which, whilst more vanilla, is at least familiar to our Generals.

We decided an immediate follow up game with Black powder was in order. Below are the current stats we use for Sikh Wars.

So, a small meeting engagement to test rules.

We gave the British a 3 battalion brigade of foot, a two battalion brigade and a brigade of three regiments of horse, each brigade had a gun.

The Sikhs had no regulars, a mix of tribal and matchlock armed foot. Three Brigades of foot totalling 8 battalions and 2 brigades of horse totalling 5 regiments, and 3 guns. So 8 units vs 13 but with the British having the edge in quality with most Sikh Generals as 8's and most British as 9's.

The idea was to get cracked on, check our understanding of all the rules and the various amends to rules we already use or want to add so we are ready for the bigger test game next month.

The Sikhs went first and straight off both sides were attempting to get to grips as quickly as possible. Once the initiative handed over to the British I charged my Light dragoons at the Sikh horse supported by the Governer Generals Body Guard.

Unfortunately the Horse artillery failed to move at all (I forget they get a free move if limbered) and the Bengal Native Light Cavalry blundered making a move to their left.

The Light Dragoons inflict a decent amount of casualties but the Sikhs stand with some great saving rolls, with a draw both sides pull back.

The rest of the British push forward.

The tribal troops finally get going, we moved these into Warband formation after this photo.

The artillery gets a good shot into the Sikh Cavalry with limited effect. Pretty much the only artillery to score casualties for the British.

Two unit of Tribal irregulars approach within 16" and trigger and uncontrolled charge test.  The irregulars were quite volatile and hard to control so this is a rule that adds flavour to the pot. One unit of Sikhs fails and hurls itself at the British line.

The uncontrolled charge closes on the British line, taking 2 casualties form closing fire, this doesn't stop them and they close. Despite being roundly beaten the Steve makes a whole bunch of saving throws and rolls well for his morale leaving the melee to continue into my turn. 

On the right wing my Bengal Light Cavalry has got going and is immediatley charged by the left wing cavalry.

One of the best rolls I have seen for a long time I get 6 sixes from 8 dice, giving me 8 out of eight hits. A draw leaves both sides pulling back to reform.

On my extreme left two regiments of Tribal infantry charge my native infantry, they hang on for one round of melee and then are finally pushed back in dis-order starting to create a gap in the line.

At that point we stopped, all to play for but its 10.30 and we need to pack up having learned all we needed. Plenty of fight left in the game with neither side getting a significant advantage yet.

So amends we already use that will stay in;

1. Firing is before moving

2. Brigade break Tests when a brigade loses half or more of its units excluding supports

3. If a unit fails an order a Brigadier cans till try to issues an order to subsequent units with a -1.

4. All movement and ranges reduced by 1/3

Amends we will look to include:

1. Zambureks range of 24" always fire one dice only have long or effective range

2. Zambureks take an action to set up but once set up may man handle up to 8" in movement

3. Heavy artillery moves at 6" per action and cannot be moved once deployed. It may be man handled 1" per turn.

4. Sikh artillery must counter battery where possible unless infantry & cavalry units are closer than the supporting guns.

5. Casualties on attacking HEIC infantry by artillery can be shared across the brigade if units are within supporting distance of the lead British unit (6 ")

6. Sikh guns can re-roll a miss if they have at least 2 misses from a gun. 

7. Uncontrolled charge for tribal units, tribal units within 16" must test for uncontrolled charge of nearest enemy 1 or 2 they charge but only move whatever number of actions they get. units within 8" test for charge and go in on a 1,2 or 3.

8. Tribal units are warbands and move at 10" per action, they cannot change formation, wheel or turn but flow from the front centre in the direction players require.

9. Crack special rule added to Bengal Horse artillery, re-roll a failed morale save if no other casualties so far.

All these should add flavour for the period and reflect some of the challenges and solutions the sides had during these conflicts. 

So bigger game next month watch this space.

Thanks for stopping by.

Finished Units for Mexico

With a bunch of bases back from Steve having the grout added to bases and sealed with a layer of paint I have been able to get a bunch more finished for the Mexican project.

First finished unit are Irregular Mexicans, bandits, Guerrillas as you like. Useful for either side but will mainly be republican irregulars. 2nd and 3rd from left are Boot Hill, the other 4 are Knuckle Duster. 

First of the French Zouaves, the French had a I believe 8 battalions in Mexico so 2 seems a good number for me. Perrys with a Flags of War flag.

The finished box for the French and Imperials is starting to overflow, 5 battalions of French and 2 of Mexican supported by 2 squadrons of Chasseurs D'Afrique and one of Mexican Lancers. 

Geoff (Ellies Dad online) said he wondered how I fitted everything in, last year I invested in some new boxes and a load of Jenga, they are all full now so I need to consider re-visiting that. 

Mexican Militia/National Guard, real mix of manufacturers with this lot. And mixing in with existing figures to finish units off.

These command bases finish off 4 battalions, mix of Foundry, Perry, Wargames Atlantic, 1898 miniatures.

Mainly Foundry Peons with a couple of Wargames Atlantic prints.

These two bases of Machete armed Peons, mainly 1898 Philippino Guerrillas

The finished units are below, again the box is full and Jenga is required. 5 battalions of Militia, one of Regulars and the cavalry squadron. Add to this 3 or so battalions, 2 gun batteries and a squadron from Chris pretty much gives is enough for a game.

That's probably it for a month or two as I prep for Partizan but as I am not quite halfway with the project certainly more to come.

Thanks for stopping by.