Back to First Carlist War AAR

 So, being my turn to put on a game I thought it might be nice to organise a First Carlist War game, its been a long time since we had one.

Its probably the only collection I can say is finished, I have all I planned to get plus the start of chum Chris's collection more than enough for a 6 player game, so barring new releases from Perry this should be it, although as the Isabelino's have 7 squadrons of cavalry and the Carlists only 3..........

Funnily enough being a War few of our gamers know much about nobody is particularly fussy about rules for a change, Black Powder it is with a few house alterations.

For some time we have played firing before movement but we have found the below can give less extreme results.

For our Game an Isabelino Division has been dispatched to destroy a cache of Carlist Powder hidden in a church, the Carlists were always short of of most things. A brigade of Carlists are defending the area and, getting wind of the attack, Carlist reinforcements are being rushed forward. 

The Isabelino Army commanded by Steve was as follows

The Carlist force is slightly smaller and commanded by Chris C.

Chris has the first brigade in light cover in front of the church whilst the second is on table marching to support, the third will enter move 1 from table edge.

Steves Foreign Legion brigade is a move on table whilst his Militia , line and horse brigades are deployed tale edge ready to advance, the Guards brigade enters as support move 2.

Steve deploys his cavalry brigade on the left with a view to flanking Chris's slightly smaller force.

Chris's supports are strung out on the road, in the end they would take a little too long to get in position to be decisive.

Chris is quick to get his reserve lancers forward and blunt Steve's cavalry advance. This proves a bit inconclusive but the Carlist horse do their job buying time for the foot to deploy.

The Militia brigade has also got forward fairly quickly on the left and the Carlists pull back trading space for time.

The Legion are getting forward but the Carlist supports are quicker to get into position. The Royal Guard are really slow though giving Chris too much time to get prepared.

The first battallion of the Legion charge home on the Carlists and push them back without breaking them.

After two failed advances the Royal Guard are almost near enough for musketry.  Hopeless!

Whilst winning the Legion are now pretty exposed with Carlist units on both flanks and unable to break the unit they are engaged with.

Having bolted forward the Militia brigade is now quite happy to sit things out failing move orders.

The Legion cavalry trys to support the foot with a charge, not a great idea on formed foot. The charge home but fail to break the Carlist foot.

Both flanks were engaged but not fully due to an inability to activate troops that had average Generals, the centre unfortunately never really fired a shot so we didnt end up with much of a game.

A shame we never really got to a point where either side had a clear advantage, although Steve's Isabelinos probably had the edge, there was still a great deal to play for.

Not an issue we have had before with Black Powder but lots of confusion and looking up of rules. Mainly I think because we use Hail Caesar too and this is very similar but different enough to confuse things.

As our lack of progress was a little disappointing and I had left my collection at Steve's, the week after we decided to try a Carlist Wars game with Valour and Fortitude.

I played a game of Sikh Wars at Partizan with them but never really got to grips.

Steve assured me we would fly through a game so didnt need much time, leading us to  squander the evening chatting and chomping Jamaica cake with tea. Need less to say we ended up running out of time!

Still they were quick and I did enjoy them.

We did get stuck in so to be honest I didnt take as many photos, However, despite this being a larger game than the week before the rules certainly allowed us to get stuck. Within 3 moves we were hand to hand on the left flank.

I particularly like that the first unit you try to activate, as long as its in command range of your general, will automatically activate. So as long as you choose wisely you can always get the most important unit for any particular move to do its thing.

Also interesting you get a suit of cards and each one represents something that is specific to the Troops you are commanding, one card randomly drawn each turn.

In the centre one Brigade pushes forward whilst the Guards brigade fails to advance at all. Even with this fast paced game its still possible to have whole brigades not get a move.

The Isabelino Marines charge Carlists who already have a number of casualties and are shaken.

The Carlists break, although the Marines are now faced by a fresh Carlist battalion, this time veteran Guides, these were eventually broken in turn.

This game has left me quite intrigued and I am keen to try another Valour and Fortitude.

Hopefully more soon, thanks for stopping by.