Napoleonic's: The Bank Job, part 1

For the final adventure in our Napoleonic campaign both sides have converged on the bandit stronghold with the intention of securing the pay-roll. The French have the cannon with which they can knock down the gate and pierce the house wall. We planned to play this game over 2 weeks and increased the points to 800 a side. 

The Spanish would shoot at the closest enemy within 24" on each clock card and needed to be cleared from the walls to stop them doing this.

Due to the number of troops on each side we deployed half the units we had on the table at the start and then would be able to bring on the rest once the 3rd clock card had been drawn.

Both sides left their cavalry off table and deployed their infantry with the aim to move towards the compound and also seize the wagon. The wagon could be used to transport the gold much faster than if it was being carried by hand.

The opening moves saw the French lay down accurate cannon fire that quickly breached the gate and then the house wall. The French line infantry also forged ahead with a series of rapid moves in column towards the compound whilst the British infantry was rooted to the spot.

This meant that a unit of French Grenadiers was first to enter the compound whilst other French Line units reached the wall running along the road whilst the British had barely left their starting posistion.

The French cleared one wall of defenders but took several causalities whilst doing so.

The French consolidated their position outside the compound but their shooting was largely ineffective as whilst they managed to score several hits on the British their powder must have been wet as they could not convert these into kills.

By this time the first three clock cards had been drawn and the off table troops started to move onto the table. The British line had also started to get into the action and they advanced towards the French lining the walls.

It was going to be a tough ask for the British to shift the French from their walls but they positioned themselves to unleash volley fire into the enemy.

The double volley didn't cause many casualties but the leading French unit's morale did waver and it retreated back from the wall closer to it's friends.

Further fire from the British Light's caused more French casualties and the Fusiliers retreated further back allowing the British to advance themselves.

On the British right the Light Dragoons had seen the French lining up their cannon to fire on the advancing line troops so they dashed into combat and put the French to flight. This did open them up to fire from the Voltigeurs massed on the French left who thinned their ranks.

In the compound things had turned to the worse for the French as Spanish fire started to take it's toll and the unsupported Grenadiers made a run for the exit.

On the French left more fire from the Voltigeurs emptied saddles and the Light Dragoons looked to be in very bad shape.

In the centre things looked better for the British as their infantry gained the wall along the road and their reinforcements started to arrive as well.

This is how the battle stood at the end of the session with all to play for still. The French have taken the greater casualties but neither side holds an objective so it's all still very much in the balance.

Napoleonic's: Campaign Gear-up

This week we played The Wayward Cannoneers scenario I trialled a while back as we built up towards starting a campaign. 

I opted to leave out any line infantry from my force and went with a skirmisher heavy composition. This had the advantage of meaning all my troops moved a minimum of 5" rather than 4" and all apart from the cavalry would not be slowed down by fences or rough ground. I included the cavalry as a counter-measure against the French Hussars that Mr T had been playing, though in the end he did not field any.

1 * Light Officer

2 * 6 Light Infantry (Sharpshooter)

1 * 4 Riflemen

1 * Guerrilla Leader

2 * 8 Maquisards

1 * Light Cav Officer

1 * 8 Cav

The French opted to use dismounted Dragoons instead of the Hussars alongside their normal compliment of line infantry and Voltigeurs. 

The idea for the campaign is a simple one based around the achieving of extra objectives over the course of the games. I've not decided 100% but I think we will be drawing two objectives and then deciding which one we want to try and achieve. Winning the battle will give you 1 VP and completing the bonus objective will also give 1 VP. Below is the list of objectives I've drawn up, most are centred around the leader of the force. 

The overall framework for the campaign will be a series of actions being undertaken by the scouting forces of two encamped armies who aren't yet ready to undertake a pitched engagement. The actual scenarios will be decided on a week by week basis with us both hopefully coming up with something interesting as we go along.

In the game we played I managed to secure the right hand cannoneer by dashing my cavalry forwards and then beating a retreat whilst the French did much the same on the British left with their Voltigeurs.  

The British cavalry managed a round of fire followed by a charge into the French Grenadiers which caused heavy French losses. They they suffered heavy casualties from French fire and the remaining men fled the field.

In the middle both sides moved forwards with the British Lights causing heavy losses to the Fusiliers but that was not enough to stop the Dragoons escorting their prisoner to the cannon and taking control of it and securing the victory for the Emperors men.

Napoleonic's: Sound of the Gun

It looks like the next game we start playing after the summer holidays have been taken is going to be Shakos & Bayonets by Studio Tomahawk. I'd decided it would be nice to have a cannon as an objective for the game so picked one up from Perry miniatures. The rules do cover artillery so it could be used in a game so I went for a Spanish crew who could fight on either side. 

The models are all metal and fit well with the Spanish I already have though these being regular troops they are in a uniform. The Spanish artillery wore a rather fetching blue with red facings uniform so they look rather dashing. If my memory isn't failing me then I think the artillery was the bravest/best arm of the Spanish army so these chaps would fight to the last man.

I also realised I didn't have a leader for my 5th Batt. 60th Regiment troops so I purchased a rifles command pack at the same time.

I painted up the bugler and two NCO's to add to the riflemen I already have which takes me up to fifteen riflemen in total. I'm not sure how good rifles are in the rules but with so many of them I should be able to field a decent contingent.

We also got a last game of Carnevale in with Mr T once more fielding the Strigoi and I had a go with The Guild. I think it's the first time I've played them and I went with a decent shooting group and then a good melee group.

The shooters proved to be pretty effective and they forced the Vampires into making charges they didn't want to take. This let the melee group pick off the Vampires and The Guild ran out winners.

Napoleonic's: First Battle

No Deadzone this week but I did manage to get my first game of Shakos & Bayonets in when Stu popped over for his fourth game of the festive period. This was the first game I'd played in a while as the festivities and Covid disrupted the normal playing schedule.

As this was our first time with the rules I went with a couple of small forces so we could get used to the game. 

French

Grenadier Officer (veteran) - 26 points

Light Officer (scout & musket) - 28 points

Grenadiers (8) * 2 - 184 points

Voltigeurs (6) (veteran, sharpshooter) - 128 points

366 points

British

Line Officer - 25 points

Guerrilla Officer - 25 points

Line Infantry (8) * 2 - 176 points

Guerrilla Infantry (8) * 2 - 134 points

360 points

As outlined over on the Cirencester Wargames blog the rules use a combined deck of activation cards with each player taking it in turns to either play a card or use command points to take a special action. The type of card used to activate a unit is determined by it's type so for instance the Guerrilla's use the Irregular cards and the Grenadiers the Line card. Each side has it's own coloured cards for each unit type so you only ever activate one side's set of units at a time. 

The fact that your opponent could play one of your activation cards (this will certainly happen multiple times during a game) and then you could use command points to activate the unit again mean that you could seize the initiative pretty quickly if the cards fall your way. But each side & unit type only has a certain number of activation cards (generally 3 or 4) so the units will run out of steam at some point. In the activation desk are three Clock cards and once the third of these are drawn the discard pile is re-shuffled so it's likely that some unit types won't see all their cards in one 'round'. Rounds aren't really the right word for this as the game continues in one long stream of activations until the end of the game. 

The books don't come with many scenario's but the ones that are included have the game end when the red clock card (there are also two green ones) is drawn for the 5th time. This means the length of the game is pretty variable but is likely to be longer the more different troop types you have.

The game itself moved along at a good pace with the spotting rules that I thought could slow it down not proving to do so and units caught in the open under close range (<12") musket fire dying reasonably quickly. One unusual feature of the game is that it uses a D10 as counting from zero to nine when normally the 0 side is a ten. So this tempers the normal excitement on seeing that 0 come up.

In the game itself the French got the early activations and got into some good positions with one unit of British Line being roughly handled by some Voltigeurs. The Guerrilla's made a name for themselves when one unit forced a Grenadier unit to flee after taking heavy casualties in two rounds of fire. 

The game ended with the second British Line unit charging in to the Voltigeurs to exact some revenge for their fallen comrades but with the French closest to the wagon.

So all in all it was an interesting game and it was good to get Stu over and the models out onto the table. With the rules not including many scenarios I will need to get my thinking cap on to see what I can think up.