Mark and I met up for my third game of Soldiers of Napoleon. I was using my Anglo-Allied (or just Anglo) again, with three bridgades at 700 points. One had a vet line, one light infantry, two line infantry and a battery of 9lbers. Second brigade was two line battalions and a verteran, with another 9lber battery, both with full cassions. My cavalry was two units of Hussars with an attached 6lber horse artillery battery. I also thought I would give British Rifle attachements a try, which promptly put me on +6 to initiative rolls (+1 for British, +2 for two Hussar units, +3 for 3 rifles attachments) This would drop to +4 with losses, but Mark never beat it, it also gave me +1 reroll for my CinC and the choice of deployment.
Mark was using a pure French force, with three freshly painted dragoon regiments with attached artillery, and two infantry brigades with one seasoned, one trained and two units of militia, plus a battery each.
What was going to be telling was my morale value was 19 points, whereas Mark's was 26!!! The battlefield fell with a dense and an open wood top left, an open wood bottom right (just out of shot it didn't do much) and a fordable river straight down the middle of the table! I took the more open side.
Mark deployed his two infantry brigades to the right of the stream, and after much thought his three dragoons and his artillery on my left. Two were treking through the wood, one was coming round the outside. Three heavy cavalry vs two light cavalry, tight match up, so I had also deployed one of my veterans across the stream to assist (off camera).
That's a lot of French out there! Mark massed his batteries, on the right are two French regiments in line too. My brigade of four British infantry feels worried, as my brigade of three is a long way back.
Mark shows how lethal his artillery can be. Two hits straight away on one of my Hussars. He is also sending half a brigade across the stream to support.
My Scots veterans also felt the wrath of the French guns, while my artillery, joined by the second battery, takes a few pot shots at various of Mark's units. 
Mark, rolling two dice per regiment for cavalry movement and picking the best, clears the woods, while the second regiment falls behind. I also lose one of my Hussars to Mark's artillery, it's only the second turn, and I give away 6 MV points on the first break roll - gah! I'm down to 13/19 already, and left with one unit of Hussars to hold off a brigade of dragoons.
A brigade of dragoons that is trying to envelope them. 
Mark's artillery still targetting my Scots (the card behind his battery is to remind him that he has a battery low on ammunition, which means rerolling hits, which saved me a lot of grief, but not quite enough to save the Scots)!
General situation in the centre, my horse artillery is covering the ford, and my middle brigade advances across table on both sides of the stream. To the right, my light infantry and the Saff Essex have cleared the wood and are advancing. Mark losses an infantry unit in the centre and takes 4 MV of damage, but I take another 6 as the Scots disappear, leaving me on single figures of victory points left!
On the left, my Hussars throw back an assault by the French dragoons. The hussars successfully countercharged, stopping them getting flanked, and we out-rolled the French, costing them a victory point (each melee won is a point).
With a lucky card of cavalry charge (gifting me an extra two dice) despite being disordered, the British cavalry chase off the tired French dragoons (two fights for two wins against better opponents), a massive risk, but it was worth it to break a dragoon unit for a tidy Victory Point boost. I have also got my cavalry commander too close to the action, which costs me a card each turn until he was out the 'at risk' zone. Difficult, but a great mechanic.
After a quick rally and reattack, my Hussars see off a second cavalry unit, certainly making up for their sister unit as Mark's morale points tumble, but as it was on a card rather than brigade activation, my general still is not out the fire, but he did fail his 'At risk' roll and legged it to a safe distance at the end of the turn, meaning my card count was back up. Mark was also down to single digits now. I had been ridiculously lucky here, Mark should have hammered my second unit.
Denumant, with both of us heamoriging points, could we scrape enough points for the win? I boosted my chances by using a 'kill a high commander' card, and using my final reroll from my CinC to roll two dice on a +5. Six, yes!
That's two victory points to me, and Mark is permanently down a card for his command. Not helped by me also playing a card where he loses d3 command Cards in the next go. Mark was in trouble, but so was I, but I had a massive initiative advantage!
So, what happened?
I rallied as much as I could without losing MVpoint (0 card, nice). Mark had three units on equal stands to counters, which gave me three points and we were down to1 point each (and the rest of the club watching on) I use my horse artillery and remaining hussars to attack and eliminate the last French cavalry unit. On the right, I also caused lots of hits. My second Hussars were the stars of the night, more than making up for their bretheren! 
Hell of a close run game. One point in it! Cannot believe the closeness of the game and I had held on by my tips of my fingertips to scrape a bloody win. Shows how balanced the games could be. Great game.
My expensive but small force carries risks, as any break leaves a big hole in your line as well as your victory points, losing 12 points out of 19 in two turns was heart wrenching, but we held on. Mark has asking for rematch next week. Time for the Brunswick brigade and more MVs!
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