Napoleonic's: Heart of the Inferno

Over the last couple of weeks we've played out the Heart of the Inferno scenario for the Shakos & Bayonets book. This sees one side attacking and the other defending in the context of a larger battle. The scenario includes extra rules to make it feel part of a larger engagement but as they played such a small part of the initial game we dropped them for the second one. The main meat of the scenario are two objective tables which mean the attacker and defender each have their own objectives. The key to winning is to achieve your goals whilst thwarting the plans of the opposing commander.

The French went with the same force for both games with a elite force being spearheaded by a large unit of extra fighty Hussars. 

1 x Voltigeur Officer + Scout trait 27 pts

1 x Grenadier Officer + Veteran trait 26 pts

1 Hussar Officer + Mounted & Swordsman trait 29pts

1 x unit of 10 Fusiliers 100pts

1 x unit of 5 Voltigeurs 43pts

1 x unit of 5 Voltigeurs 43pts

1 x unit of 10 Grenadiers 116pts

1 x unit of 9 Grenadiers 104 pts

1 x unit of 8 Hussars + Grizzled (veteran) & Panache (swordsman) trait 109pts

In the first game the British called up Spanish allies and went with an all infantry force that would mostly move quickly through difficult terrain.

1 * Centre Company Officer 26 points

3 * 8 Centre Company 264 points

2 unit as Grenadiers 20 points

1 * Guerilla Leader         25 points

1*6 & 1*7 Maquisards 113 points

 

1 * Light Officer 27 points

2 * 6 Light Infantry (Sharpshooter)124 points

For the scenario I rolled 'You've been forgotten' which meant I had no orders, the base order then was to keep at least 50% of my force alive. The French rolled Blockade so they needed to keep me from getting a 1/3 of my force within 24" of their base edge.

As this game was two weeks ago I can't really recall exactly what happened, I do remember that my Lights where very deadly and seemed to be killing 2 - 3 Frenchmen each time they shot. I managed to see off the cavalry with shooting from the Spanish so they played little part in the battle.

With my right performing a holding action my left managed to push forwards well into French territory.

With time pressing on and the British having overwhelmed the French right we called it a British win.

For the second game I was the Defender and we both rolled objective control scenarios. This mean that a total of five objectives where placed in my half of the table for the forces to fight over.

I also changed up my forces to go with an all British list, heavy on line infantry.

2 * Centre Company Officer                   54 points

2 * 9 Centre Inf         198 points

2 * 8 Grenadiers         196 points

1 * Light Officer         27 points

2 * 6 Light Infantry (Sharpshooter)        124 points

This game started with the French pushing forwards across the line and their Hussars launching a charge into the British centre. This wiped out one unit of light infantry and roughly handled and centre company unit before being whittled down.

The French infantry however had stalled and preferred trading long range fire with the British rather than closing in with cold steel.

On the French right they did make a push for the village towards the twin objectives being held by the British.

After a melee and some accurate British fire the French Grenadiers who had pushed on where driven back leaving the British in control of the objectives.

The game ended with the British on control of all but one objective so again they carried the day.

In the end we didn't get through a second shuffle of the activation deck in either evening so I think we need to reduce the points down from 600 to around 400/450 to get more turns in during the evening. Despite that we did manage to get to the point when a winner was clear.