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I wanted to play again so I asked Dan to throw down some games with me at our Friday night meeting. Also, since we're hosting three tables of SDS action at the December meeting, it was an opportunity to get a few of those players introduced to the rules.
We laid out one large table and divided it down the middle with a strip of blue felt. The two battlefields are not linked in any way and are fought as two distinct battles. One table featured the church and the other table was a hodgepodge of builds and walls and stuff. Then we divided up the players and went at it since Dan had already per-generated a handful of 400 point forces.
We kept it at 4 players per table. In SDS, only one player is "active" at any one time, so with 4 players that keeps the downtime to a minimum. Even with another player or two it would not be terrible, since a player's turn can complete very quickly.
Anyway, we all had a lot of fun - I didn't get a ton of pictures at all the right times - as I was busy driving my British riflemen forward (and sucking at doing so). The Church battle looked fun...there were big actions inside of the builds! The padres have a little "clean up on aisle five" before they can hold the next mass...
On my table, Jeff and I were two groups of British riflemen. We faced Colin and Larry. Larry ran a group of dismounted dragoons and Colin ran a mixed group of Frenchmen. In his group he had a couple of fusiliers and voltigeurs and even 1 Old Guard grenadier!
As Jeff moved alongside the main roadway, I chose to move through a field surrounded by a fairly high stone wall. This was not so bright. The delay caused me in this maneuver meant that Jeff bore the brunt of the enemy's action. By the time I got to the fight, Jeff had lost three good men, including two chosen men!
So by then it was all about trying to cover Jeff's retreat. In the last turn of the game, my men dropped two Frenchmen, including that Old Guardsman and Jeff's remaining men dropped a dragon. So we lost 4 men in all and caused 3 enemy casualties - but the French most certainly won the skirmish! Nice job Larry and Colin! Jeff, sorry about the lack of timely support - I'll do better next time!
Onto the pics...
On my side of the table it was pretty much fought to a standstill. Scott and I raced to get into the misson with our Dragoon and Grenadier units. Greg and Rick brought in there British Light and Portuguese Squads through the opposite side of the complex.
ReplyDeleteMy Grenadiers ran across the plaza and went for the big double doors into the main Church building. Unfortunately Greg's Portuguese got in there before me and the fight to get through that door began.
At the same time Scott's Dragoons went left tnrought the gate and ran up to the second floor while Rick entered inot the lower floors.
Back at the double door i was able to crash it down right after the Port. barred the door. My Grenadiers assaulted the Drummer that locked the door and even though er outnumbered him he actually fended off the first attack and actually knocked down the other. The fight was on!
While I was stuck assaulting the door Rick got his Lights into ghe building and manned the windows. He startedpeppering my assault force that was having a hard time pushing into the door. Rick was able to wound tow of my Voltigeurs whick took them out of the battle and knocked down my Officer with Aimed musket fire.
While this going on Scott's Dragoons decended inot the hall where the Lights were manning the windows. The Dragoons got in there and started shooting down the Lights from the windows. The lights were losing ground ans their officer was also sot down whiched forced a morale check. He still had an NCO but with only Two Soldiers left they barred themselves in a room.
One of many highlights of the game was when Scott got a lonely Dragoon into the Church's second floor and started to shoot at the Portuguese fighting at the door. The Dragoon was knocked down one time but got back up to take more shots. Greg finally got tired of the harassing Dragoon fire, stepped out with his Officer and with his Pistol shot the Dragoon from ghe balcony. Nice one Greg.
So it ended up withme losing two Grenadiers, two Voltigeurs and Scott losing a Dragoon. Rick took the brunt of it and lost 3 or 4 men to battle and failed morale checks. Greg fought hard and I believe he finally lost his two Cacadores and that pesky Drummer that was giving my Grens such a hard time. A nice highlight for Greg and his deadly Officer was during e melee for the door one of Grenadiers fell to the ground. His officer charged him and stuck him where he laid. If you are fallen and just losing a melee it is a quick kill.
So as Tony mentioned, we had a blast! Can't wait for the club meeting for more Nappy Skirmish! Thanks Tony for brining in all ofnyour Terrain and troops, and thanks to all of the players that came to play.
Dan
So the mission was in contest