Hougoumont Resupplied Redux-SP

This past week we again had another game of Sharpe Practice, we decided to play the same scenario but we switched sides with P-Y taking the French and myself taking the British-Hanoverian force.

I will not go into the details of the game but suffice to say unlike the past game the British were crushed this time with a FM drop to 2 while the French finished with a FM of 8. Unfortunately, the small force of British Light Infantry escorting the ammunition cart to Hougoumont was taken out before the cart had moved more then 10". I had to send a unit of my Hanoverian Jaegers to take up escort duties. They were able to get there but not before my FM dropped to 2 and I was forced to withdraw. Here are some photos from the game.

Breaking initial escort party

I am able to flank some of the French Infantry with my main Hanoverian force to give them a good spanking!

I am able to get my 2 Hanoverian formations in good position before The French main force can approach.

Unfortunately, they crumble fairly quickly with the Light Infantry in Hougoumont give little support as they still have yet to be resupplied.

I do break 1 unit of French Infantry

Lots of Smoke!

We again had a lot of fun and plan to have another game next week, but this time a different scenario from the Lard Magazine.

Hougoumont Resupplied- Sharp Practice

Last night myself and P-Y had another game of Sharpe Practice over Discord. This time I took a scenario directly from the 2020 Lard Magazine. I was directed there to get some stats for the Hundred Days (these are not included in the rulebook) and found 3 excellent looking scenarios there. I should also say that the stats for this period were absolutely comprehensive. 

This scenario sees a small British force with an ammunition wagon trying to get to Hougoumont farm to resupply the beleaguered garrison troops. They are supported by 3 units of Hanoverian Jaegers with rifles but who did not arrive until the 2nd Tiffin card comes up. Trying to prevent British from arriving at the farm are 4 units of French conscript ligné as 2 units of regular voltiguers. All the skirmishers on both sides are classified as Light Infantry.

FORCES

British-FM 11

Cpl Graham Level I (deploys in Hougoumont)

2 units of Guard ( (skirmish light infantry)-12 men

Sgt Fraser Level II (deploys with ammunition wagon)

1 unit of Guard ( (skirmish light infantry)-6 men

Capt von Reden Level II

Sgt Lindau Level I

Musician

3 units Hanoverian Jagers (skirmish light infantry)-18 men

French-FM 9

 S Lt Le Petit Level II

2 units of voltiguers (skirmish light infantry)-12 men

Capt  Dernier Level II

Sgt Popotin Level I

4 units of fusliers (conscripts)-32 men

THE ACTION

Sorry for the bright colour, I did not have time to finish off the mat, still have to dry brush  it. The Hougoumont model is unfortunately a 15mm version but as it is a beautiful model I put it down anyway.

So we started the game with all units off table. P-Y got the Brits on a little quicker than the French arrival with Sgt Fraser arriving first. I did get my voltiguers on fairly quickly and they were able to get some early ineffective shots off at the wagon party. Cpl Fraser's 2 units also arrived quickly followed my Sgt Linda who came on with a single unit of Hanoverians. Next came on von Reden and finally I got my fusiliers on. I bought the ligne on as a 4 group unit which in respect was probably a mistake as they were hard to manoeuvre. I was worried about bringing on a formation with a Level I leader.

Anyway on to some photos.

Cpl Graham with 2 units of light infantry

Sgt Fraser with the ammunition wagon, you can see Sgt Lindau with a unit of Hanoverian light infantry (I do see that they are actually Brunswicker's)

The French trying to get out of their deployment, unfortunately 3 flags ended up in a pall of smoke.

overview

The voltiguers approach

It is all about the dice now, as the ammo has arrived and von Reden is giving support.

I then had the most amazing bad luck with the dice, I try to bring my voltiguers in as a screen so I can get my fusiliers close enough to unload on the Brits. All my save hits are 6's and the only time I roll 1's is if I am checking to see if one of my leaders is hit. Before I know it both Sous Lt Le Petit and Capt Dernier are down. The voltiquers fall back.

No further words needed as you can see, my line falls apart my FM is 2, game over.

Although it was one sided game with me being on the losing side, I am appreciating that SP2 is a fun ruleset once you figure out how it works. We will play this scenario again next week but switch sides. I will use some different dice!

Normandy Campaign- Hermanville-sur-Mere Redux.

Myself and Jur got together this past Thursday for our next game in his Normandy campaign. I again was the German defender in Hermanville-sur-Mer as I had forced the British to withdraw in our last game. Mikko, a friend in Finland joined in as an observer. I have quite a few members on my Discord Server and  anyone is free to join in if they see game is ongoing. Jur brought in a fresh platoon as he has 2 platoons in each company. I used the same platoon but it was only missing 2 men so it was a pretty equal battle.

Forces

British 3rd Infantry Division/ Company A-Platoon 2

FM 11

Standard British Rifle Platoon

Supports-5

Extra Rifle Squad

German 10.Kp.IR.736 (zug #1)

FM 9

Standard German Grenadier Platoon (less 2 men)

Supports-2

Adjutant

Barbed Wire

Free Minefield

The Game

We played this one as Flank Attack, against the rules in ATSE, but added some variation to a repeat game.

I felt that Jur again got the better of me in the patrol phase, he had 4 free moves and by the time of the actual Patrol Phase he already had 2 of my PM's locked down. 

Jur deploys his yellow squad opposite the church, I try to hold off to a double phase

Jur adds his blue squad as well as an SL and the 2" mortar

The double 6 shows up so I deploy by my green squad to fire at the Brit yellow squad , I also deploy my blue squad in the house on the other side of the cross roads so the Brit yellow squad gets a bit of a pasting, but as you can see my green squad has had some losses.

The Brit yellow squad breaks after losing it's Bren team, the British FM is now 8.

I move my green squad off the wall and them around the church to be able to defend against the British blue squad. As you can see my yellow squad is suffering significant attrition as Jur has deployed his support squad in place of his routed yellow squad. Now we are both at a FM of 8.

By now we have both suffered significant loss, the British have 2 platoons to attack Hermanville-sur-Mer and I only have one to defend, I see that the writing is on the wall and withdraw. Hermanville fall to the British.

Butcher's Bill

British Platoon #A2 (3rd ID)

FM 8

4 dead 2 missing

CO +2

MO +1

HQ Outlook Secure

German Platoon 10.Kp.IR.736 (zug #1)

FM 8

5 dead 3 missing (7 dead now in platoon)

CO -1

MO -3

HQ Outlook Happy

Tactical Decisions

10.Kp.IR.736 (zug #1) to withdraw to Périer-sur le-Dans

5.Kp.IR.736 (zug #2) to hold Sainte Auban-sur-Mer

12.Kp.IR.736 (zug #3) to stay in Douvres-la-Délivrande 

Sharpe Returns-SP2

As I have discussed in the past, Sharpe is the reason I got into wargaming. The hero in the Bernard Cornwell novels and the subsequent TV series, galvanised me to start wargaming. I remember looking at my son's collection of 28mm LOTR figures and saying maybe I would like to do that, but I was not really into fantasy. Twenty years ago, I was enjoying the Sharpe series of novels and the shows staring Sean Bean and I said why not. An off I went. I subsequently painted over three thousand 28mm Napoleonic figures but then decided they were not going to work for tactical wargaming so I sold them all and with the proceeds bought 4000 painted 18 mm figures! At the time I was dabbling with Sharpe Practice so I held back around 100 figures. I do not think they ever saw the table as by now I was heavily into other historical eras. I had played a few games but there was something about some of the mechanisms in SP2, that confused me, especially in respect to Napoleonic wargaming. At the same time, I discovered Muskets and & Tomahawks ( I love SAGA) and used this rule set for 18th century skirmish wargaming mostly though for the French Indian War. A recent blog article by the Tactical Painter made me reconsider this and a couple of days ago when I was searching about for something to play with my friend Pierre-Yves, I suggested why not try SP2. I knew he was building forces for Infamy Infamy, so this would be a nice sequa as they are quite similar. I pulled out my figures, dusted them off, and found my 28mm Spanish terrain that I have never used and set up a game. I watched a couple of videos, I found the On Table Top introduction video pretty helpful and at 1930h were were set up on Discord and ready to play.

FORCES

British-FM 9

Lt Sharpe LIII

Sgt Harper LII (chosen man)

Sgt Hakeswill LI (filth)

2 units of South Essex (line)-16 men

1 unit of 95th Rifles (lights)-8 men

1 unit of the 60th Rifles (lights)-8 men

1 unit of 95th Rifles (skirmish light infantry)-6 men

French-FM 11

Major Ducos LIII

Major Dubronet LII

Sgt Bouef LI

5é legére (skirmishers)-6 men

33é ligne (conscripts)-8 men

2 units of 24é voltiguers (line)-16 men

2 units of the 4é Dragoons (grenadier)-16 men

THE ACTION

We decided to play scenario 2, I did place 3 markers as instructed in the scenario in each of the buildings as well as placing 3 civilians. But once the game started I had no idea how to work this so we skipped it as well as not adding any supports. This was P-Y's first game and my first in a very long time so best to keep it simple.

We played for about 2 hours and did get in quite a few turns. I will post some photos with some narration but we finished up before there was a meaningful conclusion but P-Y was ahead on FM, but  believe I had killed a couple of more men. A lot of shock on both sides as you will see from the photos.

Sharpe with Obadiah.

I brought the South Essex on with Obadiah, with the 95th Rifles with Sharpe south of the road, it was important to keep Obadiah on a short leash! Harper lead the formed 95th and the 60th Rifles down the road. As you can see they got a bit of a pasting.

A Portuguese priest

The South Essex were able to cross to hedge rows without a lot of difficulty and gave the 33é line conscripts a bit of a pasting but P-Y was able to bring the 4é Dragoon Grenadiers (you are allowed to substitute when you only have 100 figures) in line under Major Ducos. As you can see quite a fire fight erupted.

Back to the road, this was a bit of a mistake as the 24é voltiguers were able to give it to Harper and his men.

overview

Some sabot work still to do.

A Fish Wife

Sgt Harper

A dangerous Portuguese lad with a knife, Sharpe knew better then to confront him.

We both quite enjoyed the game, we had a few questions which I believe we have clarified. I am still not sure about the Present-Controlled Volley-Uncontrolled Volley sequence but I suspect I will be able to work it out. I suspect we will have another game next week.