Three's a Crowd Sharp Practice 40mm Peninsular AAR

So whilst there were 5 of us we did have 3 different sides in this game.

We decided to have another 40mm Sharp Practice at Steve's place inviting chum Simon over to join us alongside regulars Chris Charlton and Chris Flowers.

Steve had designed something a bit different as it turned out. As he started putting British and French on both sides of the table we all looked a bit puzzled but he had a plan.

This would be a three sided game, a local Guerilla leader has recruited British and French deserters alongside a company of Spanish regulars who hold a house full of booty. 

Both British and French had dispatched separate forces to recover the booty and punish the deserters. The French and British need to recover the booty and ensure the other doesn't, the Spanish and deserters need to stop both forces. 

Chris Flowers starts of with 16 mixed deserters, lets refer to them as scum to separate them from the line troops. 8 French and 8 British. Despite being deserters these are just as good as those facing them mainly due to their desperation, if they are beaten and caught it might not end well.

The leader of the mix of Guerillas and deserters is bizarely a Portuguese officer with an eye patch!

First off are the British and Chris C's 16 line infantry and 3 lots of 6 rifles get moving pretty quickly.

On the right I eventually meander forward with my 16 grenadiers and 3 lots of 6 Voltiguers.

Initially facing the French is a unit of 6 Guerilla skirmishers, including a couple of armed monks in a wood covering the cottage with the loot.

On the left the British rifles push forward very quickly and take casualties pretty early on. Chris F and Simon decide to gang up on Chris C and I am pretty much left to my own devices.

On the right my Commander gallops forward and is lucky the Scum dont take advantage, the rest of the French are pretty happy to meander along.

On the other side the company of Spanish regulars join the deserters in punishing the advancing British.

Probably my favourite looking unit so far Regiment Hibernia, Irish in Spanish service.

The British continue to press forward as the Deserters and Spanish get pretty much all their units into position to fire on them and Chris is now taking casualties on all of his units.

tHE 

Meanwhile my French continue to meander forward with my front unit of Skirmishers exchanging the odd shot with the single unit of Guerilla skirmishers facing me.

Chris's British are hit by a devastating volley from the Spanish, he rolls for effect and gets six 6's, added to the casualties he already has he is in real trouble.

The French bumble along happily, one casualty from the Guerillas and one inflicted back in return.

The British return fire, supported by a unit of rifles now on the flank of the Hibernians and do some damage to the Irish.

Amongst the hits the commander of the scum is knocked down. Only temporarly though.

There are some bonkers dice being thrown, this is what you want when you throw to hit needing 5 or 6.

This is how you respond to that kind of dice throwing, well done chaps.

The French close in on the cottage and a well time series of volleys from all 4 units sees the Guerillas mown down to a man and nothing between them and the supplies.

On the other side the British force morale finally collapses and they are out of the game.

The French however have achieved their objective with virtually no casualties and will march off with the spoils of war. 

The Spanish and deserters still have a fair few troops and force morale is in reasonable shape but they cant stop the French marching off with the supplies and we declare the French winners. Hurrah!

Very funny game thanks everyone.

More 40mm British

There is nothing like an impending game to chivvy me along with the painting. As usual I was basing the last of these the night before the game.

The big gap in my Peninsular project has been the British line so ahead of a couple of planned games I have got stuck into these. With 12 already completed I really needed another 12 to give us a game.

These form another part of the 88th Connaught Rangers also known as the devils own who earned a fearsome reputation in Spain.

All Perry Miniatures, I have made sure I got a mix of heads and a mix of trouser colours to break them up a bit.

Perrys dont do a line Sergeant so I have used Sash and Sabre figures, in the case of the NCO's in particular these are really quite nice.

I do like this dynamic figure giving his lads a good tongue lashing.

I also completed a few other figures, this Voltiguer will be an NCO to give me another much needed command figure for the French,

This un-based Volitguer will give me 4 towards my next unit of 6 skirmishers so just a couple more gets me a further full unit.

Lastly, and completely un-related I got another Sikh officer done so thought I would share him at the same time.

So thats the latest. With a 24 man British line unit completed I think next will be finishing off the unit of French skirmishers then looking to add some British Light Company troops for the Devils Own so watch this space for more on the 40mm,

Sikh Wars AAR

Its been ages since we had this collection on table and whilst I am still hunting for rules, Black Powder works ok so we got a wee game on.

Chris and Chris took the Sikhs, 8 battalions of regulars, supported by 2 regiments of regular horse and 2 guns. 8 battalions of irregulars supported by 2 guns and 8 regiments of irregular horse.

Steve and I had the Company troops. 10 Battalions of foot in three Brigades and 4 of Cavalry in one Brigade, these supported by a field gun, horsegun and rocket. 

The Sikhs would be defending the crossroads with troops coming on at different times so we British needed to get forward and try beat them early.

I took the cavalry brigade on the left with an infantry brigade to my right, Steve then took the other two foot brigades for our right flank. The Majority of the Sikh Cavalry also deployed facingmy horse.

Steve is able to push forward quickly on our right with no opposition, that will change fairly soon though.

The British Generals discuss which map is the right one and argue about where the Sikhs are coming from whilst the troops struggle to overcome the ferocious Sikhs.

A fair old lump of armoured Sikh cavalry rolls forward to take on my horse with two regiments of irregulars supporting.

The First Brigade of sikh foot deploys in the middle of the table blocking our route to the crossroads with a large battery of guns in their middle.

The British Cavalry have taken some time to deploy with some poor orders but finally get themselves moving forward.

Steve occupies the hill on our right flank and deploys his rocket battery. This quickly inflicts casualties on the Sikh regular cavalry, rockets on target for a change, which promptly charges him.

Chris's Sikh Regular Cavalry charges and gets enough distance to over run and wipe out the rocket battery, they then get a sweepign advance intot he foot at the rear but are seen off with casualties.

On the left the Sikh Cavalry also charges and is counter charged by the Light dragoons. The Sikhs are seen off but the Dragoons have too many casualties to follow up.

On the left my Bengal Light cavalry advance on the Sikh Cavalry for another engagement which they win ut not quite convincingly enough to make a difference.

In the centre Chris has advanced his Sikh regulars on my brigade and shuffled two regiment of irregulars over to support the guns.

On the righ the next brigade of Sikh regulars closes with Steve and a further brigade of irregulars arrives ont eh extreme right to support Chris F.

There is a fine dust up on the right and the Sikhs begin to get the advantage.

On the left I have seen off the Sikh Cavalry but my leading troops are in no condition to follow up, the supporting Lancers remain unable to advance and add their steel to the battle. 

In the centre the British battalion has been forced to retire after a hard fought melee with the Sikh regulars but the Sikh regular unit has also had to move back leaving honours even.

On the hill to our right Steves British are finally forced to retreat by Chris F's regulars and a gap opens in our lines, so whilst Steve is able to push forward where our forces meet the risk of doing so is too great as it opens a hole in our centre.

There is still plenty of game left to play but the Sikhs have effectively held the British foot. The horse could potentially still hook around the left but its taken too long and we would need to re-organise ourselves significantly before having another go,  

In the end the tenacious Sikhs have stopped the British in their tracks and we must admit to having been thwarted for today.

Despite not being our favourite set of rules this ended up being a really fun and hard fought game which had a feel for Sikh Wars. Still looking for the perfect set but in the meantime we know Black Powder can give us a fun game.

Thanks for the game fellas, hope you enjoyed reading folks. See you again soon.