Soldiers of Napoleon - 15mm - 1815 Anglo-Allied vs French

Last night's game, Dik and I settled down to a civilised game of Soldiers of Napoleon. Dik has many beautiful 15mm armies, so I matched his scale, and then had to decide whether t use my 1806 Prussians of my Anglo-Allied. After some umming-and-ahhing, I plumped for the Anglo-Allied as the second 1806 Prussian brigade still needs more infantry.
We chose 1000 points, and Dik pre-randomised the terrain, A big, empty, centre sector, my left with woods, and the right with a large hill and a hedged field.

My list
British Infantry Brigade:
2 x 5 stand Line Infantry units
1 x 5 Light Infantry
1 x 5 Veteran Infantry
3 rifles attachments
2 gun 9lber battery with full caisons 
Artillery reserve with a 9lber and a Congrave Rocket battery (we were not sure if this was a legal formation, but the rockets did not hit anything all night) with full caisons 

Brunswick Brigade
1 x 5 stand Leibgaurds
2 x 5 stand reserve infantry
1 x 3 Uhlans
1 jager attachment
2 gun 9lber horse artillery battery

British Light Cavalry Brigade
2 x 6 stand Hussars
1 x 5 stand light Dragoons
2 gun 9lber horse artillery battery

In reserve (and never actually turning up)
Dutch Cavalry Brigade
1 x 4 stand Hussar
1 x 4 stand Light Dragoons

All cavalry also had fine horses.

8 scouting points! I chose 'Hold the Line', as it feels right for the army. Dik chose 'All out assault' Both of us echeloned towards the hill!

On the left, the Brunswickers advanced out of their deployment zone, and stayed their all day, happily.
In the centre, a sharp intake of breath as the Hussars and Light Dragoons realise that three units of five dragoons are bearing down on them. While my trops are good, Dik's are heavier and come with 'shock impact' a bonus on the attack dice, whereas my fine horses is a one time bonus. Both of us advanced (me, only slightly with my artillery as I wanted them firing).


To the right, both the French and British infantry brigades pitched up with the hill between them. I held the field system, which with a small move forwards was able to defend the hedge line with skirmishers forwards while the French advance on the hill..


Turn 2, and the cavalry crashed into each other, repeatedly. On the left of the brigade, my Hussars were pushed back, as were Light Dragoons on the right, but in the centre my Hussars push Dik's dragoons back onto the swamp. My artillery also decided to unload cannister into the right-hand dragoons. The issue for Dik was he was in attack column, which he struggled to get out of, whereas I was in line, so I get an extra dice, also I managed a 0 point rally, which put my troops back into good order, so would also be at an advantage while Dik was losing dice for being disordered. He has 'shock impact' on his cavalry, so that evened up the dice a little. Most of our victory points came from this sector as attack and rally and attack and rally kept happening here.


We even ended up with units behind each other! Dik's two right hand units took massive amounts of hits, and I picked up many points from Dik having to rally troops to keep them in the game. I went from being quite a way behind to ahead!


We also hit issues with not being able to withdraw to rally (one of the ways you are allowed), as the enemy was behind each of us. We did swap lost artillery batteries.


Dik also played a battlefield objective, which had to be 'take the high ground', so the Highlanders and KSLI had to leave their nice, safe, field and advanced to contest the hill. On their right, the Light Infantry was suffering from Dik concentrating three units of skirmish fire a turn on them.


Which saw the light infantry break. Thankfully, I rolled low on the random P table, and only two VPs went to Dik, keeping my lead.


By the end of turn three, and the end of our gaming night, Dik had to reduce his right hand dragoon unit to three bases to survive, his rear unit could not unshake, and on the left the too-and-fro continued between our units.


At this point we had to call it a night, I was a whole 1 point ahead! If my reserves turned up, they would have joined the cavalry melee, and then three professional units might have gone from Dik's forces. The hill would be a whole other battle, where hopefully my British line would hold out against the French massed advance. The Brunswickers were nicely safe though! Unusually, neither army benefited from artillery cards or lack of ammo cards. 

Great game, pleasure to play Dik, and a 'Damned close run thing' Now looking forwards to next week when the Guard Imperial take on Mark's Austrians again!