Albuera 2011 Refight

Well after a fair amount of preparation and planning, on Saturday the 14th four of us met at Schloss Sparker to refight the main bicenntennial battle for 2011, Albuera. The previous post has outlined what a bloody battle this was, and our refight was also something of a hard fought stalemate.

 

Instead of having just another wargame, I wanted to try and recreate certain aspects of the battle, whilst still allowing the players free rein to exercise their tactical ingenuity, or lack thereof!

To encourage this, a complex set of victory conditions for scoring victory points was circulated to the players prior to the game:

Victory Points (Gentlemen, its all about attrition! These have been carefully designed to influence you to act as your counterparts did on the day, so please take the time to mull them over) :

  

French score 1 Victory Point (VP) for every small (2 units) Allied Bde broken

French score 2 VP for every large (3 line units+) Allied Bde broken

French score 2 VP for every British Infantry square broken (none for breaking Brit units in line or column), other than as part of the broken Bde criteria above

For example, if a unit of French cavalry defeats a British square, pushing that large Bde to broken, then that is 4 VP in total, 2 for the Bde, 2 for the broken square and stand of Colours. 

The initial table set up, looking from the West to East

 Victory Conditions

The British must attempt to keep the field for the entire 15 moves, to prevent Soult from relieving the siege of Badajoz – no retreat, no surrender!

If the French fail to achieve 6 VP by the end of 15 moves, it is a British victory. If the French fail to achieve 4 VP by the end of 15 moves, it is a major British Victory with Tea and Medals all round. If the French achieve 6 VP it is a draw. If the French score 7, it is a French Victory. If the French score 9 VP by the end of turn 15, it is a Major French Victory, with Dukedoms and Baronetcies being showered on the French team like confetti.

I would ask that no matter what the vagaries of battle all Commanders strive mightily to do their duty until the end of the 15^th move to allow the other side’s team to attempt to maximise the extent of their glorious victory!

Note – there are 4 large and 3 small Allied Bdes for a total of 11 possible VPs up for grabs through attrition.

 

Allied Reinforcements

Myer’s Brigade will arrive at the halfway point on the British table edge in Column of Battalion lines at 3” intervals at the start of British move 7, with the leading Bn therefore about 1’ into the table. If that ground is occupied by allied forces, the column will arrive immediately adjacent to left or right as decided by the French team. If that ground is occupied by French forces, the Brigade will not arrive until that ground is clear, and will count as 1 French victory point if it has not made an appearance by move 15.

The 'Spanish Bde' - Minifigs Austro-Hungarians

The resolve of Spanish Units

During the battle the Spanish Regiments initially displayed great steadiness in the face of overwhelming French artillery and infantry fire, and then inevitably started to falter as the day wore on. This was reflected in an amend to their 'steadiness':

In the orbat the Spanish Brigade is neither steady nor unsteady. This will be tested throughout the game as shown. Once failed to be steady on this test, the Spanish are considered neither steady nor unsteady for the remainder of the game and no further testing is necessary, they take break tests as normal.

Move	State
1-3	Steady – ignore all break tests
4	Count as steady on 23456D6 – ignore first break test
5	Count as steady on 3456D6 – ignore first break test
6	Count as steady on 456D6 etc
7	Count as steady on 56D6 etc
8	Count as steady on 6D6 etc
9 - 15	Not steady, not unsteady - apply break tests

Rainstorms

During the battle, the French cavalry took advantage of the reduced visibility and firepower to launch successful cavalry attacks.

The French Cav Commander may initiate a rainstorm at the start of his move by throwing a 1D6, up to a total of 3 times successfully during the game.

The rainstorm will last during this French and the following British move. No small arms fire may be issued during these moves, except by the 95^th Rifles and KGL Light on throwing a 456D6

In order to encourage the British to advance boldly across the field in square, as the originals did, we also suspended the Black Powder 'must form square' rule in favour of this table:

Forming Squares 

We shall not use the the forming squares rule. Any Infantry unit charged by cav may, as a response, attempt to form square a D6 throw as follows:

Number of moves req’d by Cav to contact	Score needed on D6 to form solid square	Cav ‘Pull up’ distance
3	23456	2’
2	3456	1’
1	6	6”

Should the infantry succeed in forming square, the cavalry may pull up at the exact distance shown, or continue their charge. Should the Infantry fail, they are caught out of formation and disordered. Either way, no closing fire may be issued by the unit attempting to form square, although Infantry and Artillery within supporting range (6”) may issue closing fire

Players may of course attempt to form square at any time during their own moves.

Some pretty standard 'house rule' amends also applied, to reflect my idiosyncratic views on artillery effectiveness:

Special Rules

Canister/Grape range 18”

British 9 Pdr range 5’

French 6 Pdr range 4’

French 12 Pdr range 6’

The Players: 

John ensures those dice get a fair shake!

John, left, took on Latour-Maubourg's role as French Cav Cdr. Mark, centre, took charge of the allied Infantry brigades and the Brit Cav, with Jason, right, as the overall Allied cdr and directly controlling the British infantry Brigades. Since it was such a hard fought confrontation, we sorely felt the absence of the rest of our mob!

I had asked John, my fellow Frenchman for the day, to arrive early so that we could hatch our knavish plans. Over the phone when preparing for this game he had expressed his view that the key to victory was successful all arms cooperation, particularly between the cavalry and the infantry. Regular views of this blog will know that in our previous game the French cavalry had been unable to make much impact in the game, and he had clearly been mulling this over. I therefore agreed to detach a small 3 Bn Bde from Girard's division to him as Latour-Maubourg. After all, a game also has to be about developing an understanding of period tactics rather than slavishly recreating the pattern of the historic engagement. This was to cause comment after the game... 

Our plan pretty much followed that of Marshal Soults' on the day, well you would, wouldn't you! I would find, fix and flank the allied infantry in the centre, whilst John would attempt to send at least some of his cavalry around the deep flank so that together we enveloped the enemy. Clearly this would first involve despatching the single small Allied cavalry Bde first, which we happily presumed wouldn't take too long! 
As an aside, I remarked to John that I had deliberately placed the Allied cavalry within 4 and 1/2 feet of his as yet undeployed Cavalry March columns. If Mark, as the Allied cavalry cdr, both spotted, and took, the opportunity, a bold attack at the outset would catch the superior numbers of French cavalry on the hop! We speculated whether he would go for it. I doubted, at the outset of the game, that Mark would have the time to notice such a detail, but John predicted that he would, and that he would not hesitate to charge! 

French feint attacks across the bridge consisted of both Cavalry and Infantry assaults

The major characteristic of Albuera, apart from the appalling casualties, was the fact that the Allied Commander, Marshal Beresford, made an imperfect appreciation of the ground and assumed that the French would attack from the East, straight into Albuera across the only bridge over the intervening rivers. Soult duly obliged with a series of feint attacks from that direction, whilst unleashing his main forces in a flank attack from the South, which our table concentrated on... 

Coleborne's Bde, facing the feint at the outset of the game. Hoghton's Bde, behind, arrives facing the right way!



Since we were light on players, the action in Albuera and the various feint attacks were modelled only, and did not get 'wargamed' as such. I felt it was worth portraying the town and river on the table, though, to help the players feel grounded in the overall battle...

The French feint attacks were utterly convincing...



But eventually the penny dropped...



Since I played on the French side, and we tried to progress each turn with the both player on a side acting simultaneously, inevitably there will be some aspects of this action packed game that I failed to notice.. For example, Mark did indeed spot the opportunity to catch the French cavalry while they were still deploying...but failed the command throw to launch a 'pre-emptive' attack!

From my perspective the action seemed to fall in three sectors, the Cavalry scrimmage of to the high ground on my left, the high ground to the west, the central sector where the action was fought over one of the shallow mounds that marked the battlefield, and on my right, in front of La Albuera, the Spanish sector.

Girard's Division reaches the assault positions having forded the river.

The British had the first move, and with a succession of poor command throws gratefully took advantage of the one automatic move I had allocated them for this opening move to prevent the French rolling over their exposed flank and ending the game in move 1!

The charges go in against the Spanish. To the rear the Portuguese Loyal Lusitanians are hurrying up in support...

I opened for the French with an all out assault on the Spanish Bde with mixed feelings. As I player, I was hoping to smash through them quickly, but as the scenario creator, trying to reflect the stubborn resistance of the Spanish on the day, I was hoping that my steadiness table would allow them to recreate the doggedness of their historic counterparts of the Murcia, Canarias and Leon Infantry Regiments...

In the centre, I also launched an all out series of attacks, hoping to gain the high ground to my front before Coleborne's Bde could establish itself securely and link up with the Spanish. I was just pipped to the post by Jason, and we settled in for a long round of hand to hand combat.

Over on my left, John was meeting greater resistance from the tiny British Cavalry Bde than we had anticipated, again allowing Jason to get Hoghton's Bde up forward.

But at least we, the French, were exerting pressure all along the line...

Returning to my right, Eastern flank, I need not have worried about the ability of the Spanish to fight the good fight. Clearly this would not be a quick win....


The Spanish stand firm despite heavy casualties from artillery, skirmishers and attack columns...

Over on his flank, John was having to fight hard to keep to the plan of a deep envelopment. Mark was achieving a lot with the British Cav, and by now Hoghton's Bde was on scene in square, securing that flank for the Allies.

In the foreground, the Light Bde covers the allied infantry. To the rear, the Dragoons attempt to go deep left flanking

Instead of our planned strategic flanking move, the left flank was become quite bogged down, and it seemed that it was actually the British who were demonstrating good all arms cooperation between Infantry and Cavalry! Nevertheless, John persevered...

British Light Dragoons and Brunswick Hussars hold their own against the odds...

So at this stage of the game, around turn 5, the Allied players had regained some confidence at managing to hold off the initial French hordes...

The centre holds - just. (No Bavarian units were present, but other Rhinbund units were...)

At this point the numbers and aggression facing the Spanish eventually told, and they fell back to the protection of Albuera.


During move 6 though, a concatenation of poor dice throws seemed to rob the British regiments in the centre of their renowned firepower, and the French, despite heavy casualties, seemed poised to breakthrough in the centre, as well as on the flank.

However, in pushing back Coleburne's Bde, the French had suffered so grievously that they had become a broken brigade, and so were unable to exploit forward. It would be left to an envelopment on the flanks after all to secure victory for the French - but could they achieve this in time to cut off the Allied reinforcements...

Only light troops and artillery holds the allied centre, but the centre French Bde has been fought to a standstill!

Because of the sweeping advance rule, both the French Bdes on the flanks were able, with respectable command throws, to exploit forward and meet Harvey's Bde in a pincer movement:

Harvey's Fusilier Bde arrives on table to a warm reception!

At this point the Allied players resolved to go down fighting, and so Harvey's Bde put up a magnificent fight despite being beset to their front and on both flanks...

In desperate fight ...

We did not continue the game until the 15th move, once the French had achieved all their victory points.

Staff Officers are always the first to point the finger!

The Post Game discussion.

Overall I was quite pleased with the game, not simply from being on the winning team, but in designing a scenario that had reflected at least some of the salient features of the original. However I agreed with Jason that allocating Infantry to the French cavalry commander skewed the action on that flank, as well as being unhistorical.

I also regretted dropping the British firepower factor to 4 from the 5 value I usually assign them. I have been criticised for this in the past, but I shall stick to my guns in the future.  The only alternative would be to artificially limit the French to assaulting a British line with one column at a time, which seems too contrived.

We all agreed that if we were to play this scenario again we would reduce the length of time the Allies had to hold out to 12 moves, and bring on the reinforcements a little earlier.

But all in all, a well thought out and well fought out game, a fitting end to Napoleonic Bicentennial commemorations for the 1811-2011 campaigning season. Now start the feverish preparations for 1812-2012, with more action in the Peninsular and the Russian Campaign to mark in fitting style!

Some thoughts on our upcoming Albuera refight...

Regular guests to this blog will know that it is my aim to commemorate the larger of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars on or about their 200^th Anniversary. I have been following the Bicentennials of these Wars since 2002 to try and get a feel for the length of these wars in terms of a human lifetime. With 1812-1815 coming up, as it were, things have been moving apace!

Next on my list is the bloody battle of Albuera, fought on the 16^th May 1811, and which we will be refighting on Saturday the 14^th May.

My connotations of the Battle of Albuera have changed slightly since I have to come to know more about it. I first heard of it in a very positive context, when a young teenager in the Army Cadets. We had a fantastic and memorable day as guests of the 3^RD Battalion The Queen’s Regiment at their base at Connaught Barracks, Dover, one fine day in the fall of 1981. These guys really pulled out all the stops for us; we had a go on the Close Quarter Combat range in the moat, we ‘fired’ simulated MILAN Anti Tank missiles, fired real sub calibre 84mm Carl Gustav Anti Tank launchers, you name it. For a kid who didn’t get out much, it really was a red letter day!

So when the soldiers were talking about the forthcoming Albuera Day celebrations and how much they were looking forward to it, the name lodged in my memory as a positive event. They explained to us that it was unusual for  all three of the constituent Regiments that were amalgamated to form the Queen’s, at that time ‘England’s Senior Infantry Regiment’, to each have earnt a Battle Honour  at the same battle, Albuera.

I have had a long standing interest in the Peninsular campaign, but most of my favourite authors;  Weller, Glover et al. seemed to skim over it, probably because it wasn’t one of Wellington’s battles. Now that I have studied the Battle more dispassionately, mainly in light of Peter Edwards’ eminently readable but authoritative ‘Albuera’, I find that in some respects it is a disturbing battle from the allied standpoint.  A lack of leadership and direction led to appallingly high casualties, and all for little real strategic result.

Factors in designing a historical scenario.

One of the drawbacks in attempting to game a historical battle is the large number of constraints that immediately occur. Not only do you need to represent the terrain and troops present with some claim to accuracy, you also have to depict at least one on the key aspects of the original battle, or it all becomes little more that just another game.

Now I am embarrassed by a serious deficiency in the Portuguese and Spanish make up of my model armies, with the honourable and much exercised exception of the 4^th Cacadores I have no Portuguese or Spanish figures in 28mm. Perhaps unfortunately Anglo-centric of me, although I defend myself with the fact that there are no cheap plastic figures for these nationalities out there yet…Fortunately my mate Jason has undertaken to provide some Loyal Lusitanian’s so the Portuguese will be represented, if not reflecting their real contribution on the day.

The Spanish Problem…

The problem comes with the Spanish contingent. In many Peninsular campaigns and battles their contribution was more in the form of intelligence and partisan activity rather than sustained formal combat, which for the usual reasons; poor administration and leadership;  they were not renowned for during this period. But any serious study of Albuera will show that on this occasion the Spanish Infantry Regiments displayed an outstanding, and for contemporaries, astounding, level of gallantry and tenacity in defence equal to that shown by their Portuguese and British counterparts. This for me makes it at least one of the key aspects of the battle that deserves reflection on my model battlefield.

Minifigs Austrians - Can I get away with using them as the Spanish ?

The only option I can think of is to represent at least a Brigade of Spanish troops by fielding my Austro-Hungarians. At least they wore white coats too! I am sure any purists will forgive this lapse in accuracy in the cause of representing the valour of these Spaniards on the day.

Key Aspects of the Battle – Soult’s outflanking move…

As well as the standout performance of the Spanish, saving Marshal Beresford’s bacon by holding off the main French thrusts for the first half of the battle whilst he attempted to reorganise, the main driver of the battle’s narrative is that Marshal Soult completely wrong footed Beresford by feinting towards the town of Albuera itself, whilst unleashing his main effort at 90 degrees from his feint, with the potential to roll up the Allied Flank from the outset.

As stated above, the stubborn resistance of part of the Spanish forces gained sufficient time for Beresford to stabilise the situations, at the expense of a close range and murderous exchange of musketry and grapeshot which saw the opposing forces thus engaged suffer over one third casualties.

The Polish Cavalry Charge…

As the British Brigades moved up in support to the right of the dogged Spanish line, they in turn suffered in the firefight and attracted the attention of a Polish Cavalry Brigade that charged their now open right flank and decimated three British regiments, capturing 5 Colours. Now as I have ample numbers of Lancers and Hussars, this is a feature of the battle I would like to recreate.

The problem comes with how to persuade the British to repeat the mistakes of the day in exposing their flank to the Polish Cavalry, since it will be hard to obscure the cavalry presence from the British commanders as occurred on the fateful day…I may have to factor in the sudden downpours which characterised this day to improve the French chances of breaking the British squares, since I will have little chance of persuading the British team to leave their Infantry in line!

Cole’s Counter attack

At this point, most authorities seem to agree that Beresford, perhaps overwhelmed with relief at not losing the entire army in one stroke, effectively relinquished control of the battle. General Cole’s division had been standing idle, due to Beresford’s concern with either, according to different sources, protecting his line of retreat, or preventing Soult from relieving Badajoz.

At this point General Cole, egged on by Colonel Hardinge decided to act decisively to exploit the exposure of the French infantry’s left flank, which was covered by Latour-Maubourg’s massed Dragoons…The sight of an entire British Division advancing in square whilst the French Cavalry decide how to respond is too good not to include in the game…

Arm Chair generalship…

On TMP and other fora I am always anxious to pounce on armchair generals who decry the decisions of real life commanders from the comfort and safety of their keyboards, and I realise that I am being very critical of Marshal Beresford. He was undoubtedly a tough and courageous man, on one occasion fighting off an attempt to capture him with his bare hands. He was also a dedicated and skilled administrator who made a major contribution to victory by reforming the Portuguese Army.  

Yet both contemporaries, and current historians with Service experience, such as Peter Edwards, have condemned his command performance on this occasion. The final word on his abilities should come from the wounded private soldiers, being visited in hospital by Lord Wellington after this battle, who upon being told by him that he was sorry to see so many of them there, responded that there would not have been so many wounded and dead had he, Wellington, been in command.. .

Additional Factors

Just as young officers have it drummed into them that terrain and environmentals are the key to making a tactical appreciation, these aspects should be reflected on the table top.

Now that I have some idea of what aspects of the battle I would ideally like to see occur in our refight, how should I set up the table orientation and scenery to reflect this?

 The main action clearly occurred to the South of Albuera itself, which is just as well since I am light on Spanish buildings.

Marshal Soult was able to make his outflanking move by using the cover of the Chirapeira River and the woods on its Eastern bank, Beresford having assessed that it was impassable, which clearly it was not. This would make a useful boundary to the Eastern side of the table, and fix the location of the part of the battle we are recreating in the player’s mind, assisting with the historical perspective.

So the terrain I will be recreating will be bounded by the outskirts of Albuera to the North and the Chirapeira to the East. The question now comes, do we play up and down the table, or across it? In terms of the early part of the action, the long drawn out firefights between initially the Spanish, and then also the Anglo Portugeuse Brigades, would best take place along the width of ‘cross’ table. But latterly the advance of Cole’s Brigade onto the flank of the French Line, all the while possibly having to contain massed Dragoon Charges, would be more nerve wracking moving the length of the 12 foot table!

I think I will settle for playing across the table on this occasision, since there are no long range artillery duels, and due to the initial dispositions of the French, I will need room to spread out both the Infantry Divisions and the Cavalry alongside to the flank…

As far as the weather is concerned, somehow I need to recreate the downpour that rendered all musketry much less effective. Since I don’t particularly wish to umpire, this may need to be done on the basis of die rolls each move…

Matching Player to commanders…

This in many ways is the most rewarding part of any scenario preparation. I try to reflect the characters and interests of my mates to the roles of the commanders. So if someone comes across as aggressive and adventurous, they get to command the cavalry, and so on. Clearly I can’t go into too much detail here, as I sincerely hope my mates will read and enjoy this blog! Potentially there could be six of us on the day, so this will require some thought…

Black Powder day at the Hall of Heroes

French Lt Cav Bde - Perry Plastic Hussars and Front Rank Polish Lancers

On Saturday 30th April three of us from Wollongong and the Southern Highlands made the epic journey  up to the big city to join in the Black Powder Day at the Hall of Heroes, Campbelltown, Sydney. http://www.thehallofheroes.com.au/index.php The Hall of Heroes is a new large gaming emporium which seems to devote more of its space and energy to encouraging gaming than in conducting retail sales...truly a FLGS (Friendly Local Games Store). Well local by Aussie standards anyway!

We got a warm welcome by proprietor Matt and the large group of friendly gamers which frequent the store. Perhaps as a snobby Brit, I was surprised at the level of interest and knowledge in the Napoleonic era. Matt and the crowd had said that this was a day to introduce Black Powder rules, since they didn't have much experience with them. However even the newcomers made surprising progress with them as the afternoon progressed.

As it was very much an introductory day for most of the participants, we opted for a small scale version of a well known and iconic battle - Waterloo! However since understandably Matt wanted to showcase the potential of the new 28mm Napoleonic plastics that he stocks, he had asked that most of the figures be confined to these types, which effectively ruled out my large collection of Minifigs. In any case, putting on a smaller game was going to help newcomers into the period. So effectively we did Waterloo light...

The French had 2 brigades of infantry, a cavalry brigade and a massed battery. The Brits had two Brigades of Infantry, and the Prusssians a mixed Brigade of 3 Infantry Bns, a Foot Battery and a small unit of Uhlans. With 6 Line Infantry Bns against 9, clearly the French would have to fight hard to win!

Since Black Powder really moves things along fast, we were able to get two games in during the afternoon. The victory conditions were two fold; the French had to either get a single formed unit off up the Brussels road to spread alarm and despondency, or prevent the Prussians linking up with the Brits.

Picton's Division, with the 71st Highland Light Infantry covering the flank...

Since this was a 'public' game, and very much a learning situation for the majority of players, it would have been wrong to add any of my tinkering and wrinkles with the troop stats, which were taken straight out of the book. It would be interesting to see how the British fared without the extra firepower I like to give them to reflect their greater attention to musketry...

I should add at this stage that it was a pleasure to play on professionally constructed and detailed wargaming terrain, which made all players think harder that usual about the effects of terrain, dead ground, and so on, and perhaps lead to my obsession with using Hal defile to outflank the French...

Dead ground can lead to unpleasant surprises! Front Rank Lancers await Calpe Prussians...

In the first game the French moved effectively to curtail the Prussian deployment, despite some heroic efforts by the outnumbered Prussian Uhlans...Unfortunately owing to a misreading of the 'must form square' rule, the Prussians were hampered by being constrained to constantly form square. At the time Jason, the Prussian Commander was told that any infantry units within a foot of enemy cavalry had to form square. Subsequently in the second game this was investigated more thoroughly and our interpretation is now that this clearly only applies to Infantry units directly charged.

Reese, commanding the all important central British Brigade covering the Brussels road, opted for a passive defence with his Line Battalions, but used his Artillery and skirmishers aggressively to disrupt and break up the French assaults for as long as possible...Meanwhile out on the British Flank, I planned a daring lightening stroke designed to single handly win the day! I would sneak my Bde up the 'Hal defile' on the Western edge of the table and emerge to outflank the French left, thus gaining eternal glory! My brilliant career was still born as a succession of poor command throws left my Bde stranded in the gulley, no real use to anyone....Effectively all I had contributed to the game was to weaken the British centre, which meant that eventually the repeated French attacks broke through to Brussels, handing victory to Gus and John despite the odds. Whilst I felt that the British could have done with more firepower, this should not detract from the achievement of the French players, since we all felt right to the end that they would be unable to break through.

After a brief break for lunch and some retail therapy - including some Perry plastic Prussians, we reconvened for a second game, but reshuffled the players, those that were prepared to fight a second battle swapping sides. So the Prussian command was given to Mark, and Phillip now joined me on the French team, John and Gus taking the Brits.

Since I have now played many games with Mark,  I felt confident in making some assumptions that he would fight with the Prussians in his usual aggresive style and concentrate in achieving the victory conditions, heading straight for a link up with the Brits, thus exposing his flank. I thus suggested to Phillip that he take his infantry Bde and the Cavalry and concentrate on taking the Prussians in the flank, thus preventing a link up with the Brits; since we both agreed that the chances of achieving a second breakthrough to Brussels was unlikely...I would merely feint at the British centre and take advantage of any gaps that might develop, and pound away with the grand battery...

Imagine my consternation when Mark used his opening moves to promptly swing his Brigades, not to his right to link up, but straight across and around to attempt to hit us in our flank! Simultaneously, the entire British Line started to advance, edging towards the Prussians...Truly, no plan survives contact with the enemy!

The British deploy forward...

 At this point we felt that we had to regain the initiative, and Phillip used his cavalry in a series of charges to attempt to delay the Prussians, although of course now we were wiser about the 'must form square' rule this was not as effective as in the previous game. In the centre Gus continued to engage with his skirmishers most effectively, disrupting my efforts to coordinate a tactically sophisticated and breathtakingly brilliant assault...Deep down at this point I felt that we were losing, but determined to at least launch one successful attack in order to go down with guns blazing, as it were...

The skirmishers conduct their 'petit guerre'

However, just as the darkest hour comes before the dawn, French hopes were revived with a British Command blunder forcing the centre British Brigade to retreat off the table - the road to Brussels was clear, if only we could exploit the opportunity...Phillip duly threw a great command roll to advance two regiments of light cavalry up to within a couple of feet of breaking through to victory. I was encouraged to keep on at the stubborn British Line, and attacked the 26th Cameronians. They were as steadfast as the origianls, and we settled down to a series of melee rounds...whilst all the while I was conscious of John marching his British Bde round to my flank. However it was time for all or nothing and we continued to concentrate on the Brussels road.


French Infantry assault the 26th Foot. Victrix leading, Perry in support.

Eventually we broke through, the British Bde becoming broken since all supporting units have to also take a break test, and the road to Brussels, and Glory, was open!

All in all a great day out, a chance to meet new mates, and increase our understanding of Black Powder rules, and hopefully raise the profile of Napoleonic gaming amongst the gaming community at large. My thanks to Matt and all at Hall of Heroes for making us so welcome!