15mm Soldiers of Napoleon - Anglo-Allied vs French, Battle of the Blure River

Phil asked for a game of Soldiers of Napoleon at Leighton Buzzard, who was I to refuse. It was only his second game, but his beautiful 15mm French were going to be a challenge.

He asked for 750 but three brigades, a difficult build with my Anglo-Allied units, as all the allied are very cheap and means you have more than three brigades for the points, it results in three Anglos and no allied...

1st Brigade
5 x Veteran Infantry
5 x Light Infantry
2 units of 5 x Line Infantry with attached Rifles
2 x 9lbers with full Cassions

2nd Brigade
5 x Veteran Infantry
2 units of 5 x Line Infantry, 1 with attached Rifles
2 x 9lbers with full Cassions

Cavalry Brigade
2 units of 4 x Hussars
4 x Light Dragoons
2 x 6lber horse Artillery

Moral value total: 21 (+1 for pregame initiative)

I was also guaranteed a loss as I had finally based up my troops after 12 years, and even expanded one of the units!

 My Brits, with +5 on pre-battle scouting, (+1 for being British, +3 for the cavalry, +1 for the rifles). took a defensive stance, and the 'Hold the line' objective, with no reserves, I would have to wait for turn 6 to claim those victory points. If I lasted that long.

The table, pretty much, feels open but was quite packed by the time two brigades of infantry each were to the left of the river. My cavalry started on the right behind the (fordable) river, with a hill to shield them.

Pretty quickly, it became evident that the main fight would be on our left, Phil used the hill to mask a four unit advance, all his uits had six bases, a tough set up. They were led by a unit of Legere in extended line, which shielded his attack columns from my fire, and with a unit of Swiss in there as his veterans, a real hammer blow coming, this was a powerful move.

My artillery, light infantry, a unit of Scots (veteran line) and the KSLI had adanced to clear my deployment area and allow me breathing space, braced for fisticuffs while the 'Saff Essex' moved right as a reserve to assist vs Phil's Polish brigade that was coming down the middle.

He had massed his batteries in the centre, and soon the KSLI felt it! 

In the centre, wave after wave of Poles debauched towards us, spurred on by their commander. To their right, Phil's horse artillery moved to firing range of my central line, while his lancers advanced and my Hussars moved to secure the river.

Phil moved his battalion commander up to help encourage his troops, at this point I learned a new rule, Battalion Commanders can take a point of morale disruption off if they join a unit. Nice idea. I moved the Scots up to put said commander 'at risk' within 10 and remove one of Phil's command cards a go 

What, with 20/20 hindsight, I should have done was recall skirmishers, and rely on volley fire, but a large skirmisher screen had worked before against Mark, it might have worked now?

Until I get a snazzy ADC group like Phil's, the green tiddly-wink denotes last brigade moved...

 

In the centre, my Royal Scots move inwards to avoid getting hit in the back by my own artillery as Phil advances with an extended line shielding his columns. He also pointed out extended lines are harder to hit with artillery, mitigating what had been a telling factor in previous games and adding a tasty twist to allow French units to advance quickly.

 

On the left, I badly mistimed my actions, and the Highlanders feel the wrath of two charging assult columns of French. I had used this brigade last on the prvious turn, and did not want to damage them by moving again straight away this turn. Unfortunately, my timidity allowed Phil to reach me irtually unmolested.

 

The result was horrendous! My highlanderrs took 11 hits (and dealt out one to each attacking column in return), and were pushed back in a lot of disorder. Eleven hits is more than you can rally in one go (the odds of rolling 11 x 6 on the dice is pretty astronomically high), but jus short of givin g away vvictory points for a 'massacre'. I did have one surprise in my hand where two units give volley fire on a 2+ to hit. That put a lot of ouch into the columns and they took 6 hits each, plus one for the melee, it was a fitting final act from the Highlanders.

 

Which was enough to disintergrate the two attacking French units while my Highlanders routed too. Both of us lost a goodly amount of MV points for this!

 

In retaliation, Phil launched two sets of 'intense cannonade' cards against my KSLI, who to rally had to take most of the unit off in casulties, in fact this proved completely unworkable, and the unit was no more, along with the brigade commander who was attached, and was swept away by the rout!

 

He launched another twin unit assault, this time into the light infantry, which broke them (they were lucky to hold onto their standards and I again avoided 'massacre' points), but it did mean his two attacking units were now in cannister range of my 9lbers, who were throwing everything at the French in the hope of survival!

 

The cannister forced the French units back over the hill, and all Phil's rallying was costing him vital points of morale, just as I was able to claim my 'Hold the line' objectivve as turn six appeared and Phil had not reached my deployment area..

 

But not the ciost of that objective was counterbalanced by Phil's artillery costing me! The Saff Essex reach the point of no return, and leg it! Both sides are now down to a handful of points each, and the chance of each side winning gloriously was sliding away. Phil also assassinated my divisional commander, costing more MV!

 

In fact we were both down to one point, when I spotted a weak point in Phil's line, my artillery hammered his second unit of Poles and was joined by several turns of my skirmishers on the left of second brigade concentrated on them and the first unit, causing the second unit to eventually break (I had been saved by at least two point rally cards, buying my survival, phew)! By this point I had only one MV left of my own 24!

 

On the left, Phil's brigade had pulled back into hiding behind the hill, while my artillery is all that is left guarding the flank! 

 

And on the right, neither brigade of cavalry has moved! We were so concentrated on getting the infantry battle won, that the cavalry fell into second place.

 I had won by one point, again! Incredible, but nerve racking. Ths game is brilliant, so tense and right until the end you could not tell which way it was going to go. Phil had me on the ropes, and I was suffereing, but it turned and we succeeded in getting a result for the British. Cannot wait for my next game!