A Thorough Drubbing Sharp Practice AAR For 1798 Irish Rebelllion

With another game to prep and still enthused by Sharp Practice 2 Chris Charlton offered to set one up using his 1798 Irish Rebellion collection. Fantastic figures from Trent Miniatures and beautifully painted by Steve Shann I was looking forward to playing with these.

We rolled a dice and I got the Irish.

6 groups of 10 pike with some shot mixed in and a 6 man unit of Skirmishers.

66 foot with 4 command figures.

Steve was the British 3 Groups of 8 regulars, 2 groups of 8 light infantry and one group of 8 yeamanry with three leaders in total.

48 figures.

The terrain was pretty closed down with lots of hedges and a couple of small houses, my deployment point was the only other feature on table a nice big hill.

Never having played with these troops before I wasnt sure what to expect so decided to deploy on the hill taking advantage of the cover provided by the bushes and await the redcoats advance. Turned out that despite (or because) it was historically accurate it was not a particularly clever strategy.

The Loyalist skirmishers open up a galling fire on my Irish and we start to take casualties. Half my force is moving the rest is available to fire but as they have mixed weapons only half can fire, as the target is skirmishers and my dice are awful we cause no casualties. Unfortunately for me I cant say the same for the British fire.

Another volley from the Skirmishers as the British mainline forms up and the Irish are already in trouble.

The second command of Pike try to push around one flank but get caught up in the hedges and make very little progress, whilst the Skirmishers are the last to appear but are at least able to add the odd casualty onto the British as they open fire.

Added to my poor Strategy, awful tactics and mis-understanding of what turns out to be some important rules (you can change facing for free who would have thought!) I also have some absolutely awful dice. My thorough kicking continues much to the amusement of Steve and Chris.

The British mainline is now in range and opens a devastating close range volley hitting on anything but a one and my Irish troops are litterally being mown down. On the upside I finally get my troops all facing the same way when its pointrd out I can do this at the start of a move for free. However I now have a real issue, if I want to advance on the British (the only way I can inflict any casualties) I have to climb over the hedges losing one of my two movement dice. I now have so much shock that I will loose 4 inches of movement from the remaining dice, its pretty much impossible, for the same reason I cant withdraw over the hill and reform (what I should have done in the first place) oh well every day is a school day.

Not surprisingly with this huge ammount of damage a second volley sees the formation break and two of my four groups leg it.

My other two better groups of Pike have finally negotiated the hedges either side of the lane and set off up it at a brisk pace. They charge the Skirmshers holding the left flank of the British but they simply evade away and we are back to loosing one dice to cross the hedge and the shock coming off the movement of the remaining dice and unable to move. I decide to go for the cavalry instead. Meanwhile my main force is in headlong retreat behind the hill and my skirmishers and being whittled down with very little effect on the British in return.

With my Irish marching up the lane the Skirmishers come back and give my flank another volley before the Yeomanry charge home. Now the Pike get a lot of bonus's here which is just as well. Historically the Yeomanry suffered a lot of casualties charging formed pike.

The melee is brutal, I loose a couple of men but the Yeeomanry loose 4 and are forced back. However with the Skirmishers pouring fire into my flank on double shock its time for my last troops to leg it.

Unfortunately my dice remain absolutely awful and my movement dice give me only 3 inches so more galling flank fire to deal with before we can run off table.

I manage to stop one group of my Irish behind the hill as the rest flee off table and my brave boys have seen off the cavalry but this has been a proper thumping, the main British line has not recieved a single casualty.

On the up side this has given me some useful ideas on how not to use the clansmen when I come to play with the Jacobites. Open fields with a downward slope are a better idea.

Still it provided plenty of chuckles and continues to be my one night game, rule set of choice.