Neil and I met up for a SoN bash, a 1000 points of Nigel's Imperial Guard Vs Neil's beautiful Russians, all in glorious 10mm. My list was basically the same as last time, except my infantry divisions now each had 4 x Young Guard (who, at present, look very Prussian), and I've reduced some of the cavalry assets, and dropped full casions for one infantry artillery unit and other items.
Neil fielded eleven batteries of artillery, a unit of dragoons, two units of jagers and a lot of line infantry.
We both had a light cavalry brigade in reserve.
At deployment, it quickly became apparent quite how outnumbered my force was going to be! 11 infantry units vs my six, my three on table batteries plays 4. Plus a unit of dragoons.
At least I out cavalry him, by one, but he held the initiative each round.
Neil's beautiful army stretches wall-to-wall, mine barely covers one flank! On the left, a Young Guard battalion covers the flank. My Guards Heavy Cavalry brigade advances onto Neil's right Neil would try to advance his left to threaten mine.
On turn one, my right hand brigade of Guard was witting in the open and Neil's massed guns had a bead on them. One unit of the Old Guard was hit by three out of the four Russian artillery batteries. Taking nine hits on a four base unit was pretty scary (deployed skirmishers don't count for unit strength). In most armies, you would write a unit off at this point. Thankfully, I managed to rally off some with a 0 point rally card, and the brigadier joing the unit, but still had six hits on it, and I had to lose two bases to avoid losing the battalion completely, which at professional means a lot of lost points. The battalion was effectively out of the fight (gifting Neil a VP at the end of turn) and was withdrawing to guard the guns, it's spot filled by Young Guard and was masked by the other Old Guard battalion, who also had enough hits on it to give Neil another VP, and had to rally their hits off in subsequent turns (you lose a VP if your unit damage is the same as the bases in the unit, they break if your damage exceeds the unit strength and don't rally by turn's end).
I had also tried an intense cannonade, but Neil's dice rolled hotter than mine for his guns! His right hand battery did suddenly find itself with a rather empty ammunition supplies. It must have been sent to the centre batteries. I did manage to sew some 'command confusion' where Neil's commander dropped two of his order cards as his vodka cabinet was hit by a stray shot, and as he got off his horse to pick up a bottle, the horse kicked him and knocked him out (senior commander wounded)!
On the left, a quick march allowed my cavalry to advance, along with a battalion of Old Guard. Neil formed his sixes of Russian infantry up into squares from two brigades. He paid to rally of my artillery hits from the previous turn, costing him more points. With some careful card management, and my horse artillery plugging away at the right-hand square, my Guards Dragoons plunged into Neil's denuded artillery battery. To be fair, this was going to be a one sided fight, but he did manage to hit with both his bases in melee, but I hit him seven times and won a VP! The artillery routed, and with it cost Neil another five VPs.
Neil launched a 'fierce cavalry charge' with his dragoons over the hill (the card which netted him an extra two dice, and a hit bonus). His five bases of dragoons smashed into the four Grenadiers a Chevel. Both of us throwing heavy cavalry at each other, my saving grace was I was a level of quality better, Neil's eight dice vs my seven. Neil's dragoons beat me by one, and the Grenadiers a Chevel fell back, picking him up a VP. I paid another VP to rally them (which they did perfectly), and being professional they fell neatly back into good order, while their brigade commander wandered forwards to take a point off the Dragoons of the Guard too. Neil also rallied his troops, but not very successfully with the squares por the dragoons, but the dragoons formed up in good order on their hill, meaning they would be incredibly difficult to shift. The Russian squares were under sustained fire from my artillery (you get a bonus to shoot squares) as the guns from both the foot batteries and the horse targeted them, while my two cavalry regiments intimidated all around. With the approach of an Old Guard battalion, the centre square broke, and the Tsar himself saw the issues that were approaching, and intervened and pulling the Russians out. 
A second victory for the Guard. It was about 15-5 to me by this point, and with two extra squares now vulnerable to combined arms attacks, Neil called it a night as I was about to accrue an awful lot more points. Combined arms is a real threat in this game, and the sharp end of the assault had the advantage in drawing Neil's attention, and cards, away from his massed artillery batteries, stoppin gthem pummelling my Old Guard units. The Guard now have a target well and truly painted on them now, as all my club mates who play SoN want to be the first to take them down.
A rematch is booked for two weeks, where I am sure Neil will get his just revenge.
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