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.

The 10th North Lincoln Regiment for Sikh Wars & Basing

The next unit is the 10th North Lincoln regiment. Now these were one of the few units still wearing the bell top shako with a white cover. I came across these lovely Perry Carlist War figures on ebay with the shako's already converted and snapped them up. Thank you mystery converter you did a great job and I hope I have done them justice.

I also thought I would take the opportunity to share how we base figures for the hotter climes.

After gluing to the plastic or MDF bases in the position I want I add a layer of pre made polyfilla, being careful to scuff it a bit as this will give a better effect later in the process.

 I then add rocks, some people use budgie grit or ground up cork I use fine fish tank gravel, mainly because I have loads from an old fish tank.

 Scatter a small amount on and then press it into the filla. Not too much its just to suggest a few rocks.

 I then paint the whole lot with Colour Party English Civil War Buff, a most useful colour. Two layers are usually needed just to get in all the cracks.

 Once dry I use a a pale ivory colour to dry brush the result, this is where roughing up the filla earlier pays off as it gives a much nicer effect.

Then just add tufts, in my case a smatter of different colours I think works well and then you have the finished result. Simple really. Hope someone out there finds it useful.

There were 18 figures I picked up from Ebay and my standrad sized units are 20 so I added the mounted Foundry officer to fill in the gaps, I think he fits in really well.

The 10th Foot served in Stacey's Brigade in Major General Dicks 3rd division.

Really please with these guys and it takes me to 6 Battalions painted and based with a further one painted awaiting basing for the British and EIC forces.

Enough for a game I think. Watch this space int he coming weeks.

The Supply Base Sharp Practice 2 AWI Game Report

We were due another game at Steves and chum Chris Charlton was keen to have a run out with Sharp Practice. We duly set up a slightly larger AWI game with lots of different troop types.

The British objective would be to capture  Patriot supply dump. The Patriots simply had to stop them without being destroyed in the process.

So the Rebels, ahum, Patriots, have:

2 x 6 Rifle skirmishers Level 2 leaders
1 x 6 Militia Skirmishers level 1 leader
2 x 8 Militia in one formation level 1 leader
3 x 8 Continentals in one  formation Level 3 leader plus level 1 sub commander
Level 3 commander in chief

58 troops in total.

I have these guys.

Chris Charlton and Chris Flowers have the Tories, or Loyalists as you like:

3 x 8 Veteran Militia Level 3 leader
1 x 6 Militia Skirmishers Level 1 leader
1 x 8 Jeager Skirmishers Level 2 leader
1 x Gun level 1 leader
1 x 12 Indian level 1leader
1 x 8 Light Dragoons level 2 leader
Level 3 commander in chief

62 Troops.

I get 2 deployment points the British just one and one of my units of rifles is already on table.

My cards all come out quickly with the Continentals deploying to the left of the supply dump supported by a unit of rifles, the rest of my force starts to occupy an orchard they can use as cover to defend the front of the supply dump.

I manage a shot off at the Dragoons with my rifles and inflict 2 shock on them. Chris Charlton in return pours a volley from his Veteran Militia into my rifles killing one and dropping some shock on them.

Meanwhile my 2 groups of militia march to help out the skirmish screen whilst my continentals start to march towards the sound of musketry.

I push my stuff forward but both the Jaegers and in particular the Indians are not moving very far for the Tories. However they still have a full firing line, gun and Jaegers wearing down my two skirmish units in the orchard, I eventually pull back the militia skirmishers and march my own militia up to the fence and volley the Tory veteran militia. Not many hits but I do get a couple of kills.

My Rifle company has now been decimated but the militia is in place and trading volleys with the Tory militia supported by the gun and Jaegers. Meanwhile my Continentals have marched into range and Chris Flowers Indians are blundering about in the woods and the light dragoons trot around the edge of the table without a care in the world.

Next move and the Light Dragoons go u to a gallop and are suddenly right there on my flanks. The continentals open fire on the veteran militia and do some serious damage but I have a real worry on my flank, the Indians are within 4 inches of the edge of the wood but Chris roles a 1 for movement, modified by 1 for the terrain he doesnt move at all.

Another devastating volley into the Veteran Militia and they now have 9 casualties and plenty of shock, I turn my Rifles around and fire into the Light Dragoons with virtually no effect at all.

The Indians finally arrive at the edge of the wood and fire into my Rifles from the rear, minimal injuries but notice has been served, I about turn two of my three groups of Continentals, Chris's Militia have been withdrawn out of range so these guys are much better used firing at the cavalry, unfortunately my volley is pretty poor and the Light Dragoons occupy my deployment point taking another of my force morale points.

The Jaegers have kept up an ineffective fire on the Militia along with the gun and moving forward at a painfully slow pace.

Next move the light dragoons trot forward and take control of the supply dump winning the game, despite inflicting far more casualties on the Torie's and having my continentals entirely untouched I have lost sight of the objective and been roundly beaten. Doh!

Another fun game and opportunity for chum Chris Charlton to get to grips with the game, we will play another in a  couple of weeks but use a different period so the game has a different feel, Chris plans to use SP2 for Apaches and Mexicans which should work really well.