Sharp Practice-French Indian War

 

A couple of weeks 4 of us got together are the Abyss for a game of Sharp Practice. This was my turn to host. I had only arrived in Montreal late the night before so I did not have much time to put things together. This was made complicated by the fact that I was a bit unclear on what figures I had. I also had little time to put a terrain together. But I go things together that morning and fortunately Graham offered to pick me up.

Myself and William took the English while Rob and Graham took the Canadiens. We decided to play the first scenario in the book which is a simple attack on each on each with the goal of mutual destruction.

The setup was a bit rudimentary

But there was lots of action

Myself and William surveying the British attack

Thanks to Rob for some nice photos. I thought the game went pretty well, I am not sure if we did the forest los, movement and cover correctly. I just have not had a chance to check. But overall I was happy how the game went, it was quite bloody and there was lots of shooting, tactical movement and combat. If I remember correctly the British won the game.

An aside:

We played another FIW game on Sunday with 4 of the board members of our club, basically the same terrain and same troops (but with a different organisation) using the Muskets and Tomahawks rules. 

I forgot to take any photos and this time myself and Graham took the Brits while Iannick and Luis took the French. The game are differently mechanistically for sure but I enjoyed both of them. I think the organisation is a little more straight forward with SP but M&T has a lot of flexibility in organisation but a slightly more novel mechanic. Both are card activated but the card playe

d can be chosen to a certain extent in M&T. SP does cover more periods and might be a little more narrative in a sense....if you want to be Flashman in the First Afghan War or Sharp in in the sack of Badajoz, SP is your game. But this does not diminish the command nuances of M&T. And I see that Studio Tomahawk has just released an ACW supplement Kepis and Bayonets.

Sharp Practice-ACW

 

Two weeks ago, I got in my third Sharp Practice, this time set in the ACW. William set up the game and Graham provided the terrain. Myself and Rob were the hangers on.

This game set several groups of Confederate Regulars against a mixed force of Union Regulars and Skirmishers. We both took very similar supports. It was a good game although a little more work is needed in dusting off the rules. 

Game

The Conderates

Suicidal Charge

The Union, a lot of time in the rulebook.

I am looking forward to our next game.

Huzzah 2026

 

This past Saturday I drove up to Portland, ME for the annual gaming convention put on by the Maine Historical Wargamers Association. I played a two games.

Sharp Practice FIW

This game was put on by Jack Breen, and he really did a great job. The scenario who put together was a lot of fun. Essentially a French warband comprised of Milice Canadien, Coureur de Bois and Indiens had attacked an English settlement 2 days before, burning several buildings as well as wiping out the settlers. One of the settler's daughters convinced a mixed British force to go back to the ruined settlement to gather up gold, silver, liquor and food that had been hidden in the village. This force made up of Regular infantry, Colonial militia and Rangers had to gather this by task rolls once making contact with the areas where the goods were hidden. The French players had no idea what the British players victory conditions were. It was a lot of fun and quite a bloody engagement but the British pulled it off.

Great Terrain

No end of gun fire

What a Cowboy

This game was put on by Tom Ballou, there were 9 players with one character each divided into 3 groups; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly! I would not have thought this would have worked as I am used to games where each player has 2-4 characters but it was enormous fun and Tom did a great job creating an excellent gaming scenario. I think 2 of us had played the ruleset before but the other 7 players figured it out very quickly and the session was enjoyed by all.

The Terrain

The Character Plates

Tom made us all throw in a dollar as the prize

Tom explains the rules!

Other Games

I wish I could do Teddt Bear fur like this.

This topographical terrain was very well done with styrofoam and vinyl spackle.

My friend Mike's CoC game, this is a great mat.

Another nicely done table

ditto

Naval Theatre, a new WWII ruleset put on by Adam

It was a great day, really enjoyed the 2 games I played. Two terrific games masters and generally a lot of nice looking games. Look forward to next year.

Sharp Practice-ACW

 

A couple of weeks ago William put on a game of ACW Sharp Practice. Myself, Graham, Rob and William got together at the abyss for the game.

William and I played the Union while Rob and Graham played the Rebels. Here are some photos from the game.

It was a clear victory for the Confederates when Graham's line troops opened up on the William's troops.

I was very rusty with the ruleset and the game was quite a challenge for me, but after the game I had a good look at the rules and now feel much better about our next game which is this coming week. The good news is I got in a French Indian War game with Sharp Practice at Huzzah yesterday with an excellent games master so things are quite clear for me now.

Escape; A Sharp Practice Scenario

One of my favourite characters in the Sharpe compendium is Colonel Simmerson, he is really an absolutely despicable character and a perfect foil for Sharpe.

Digging through the TFL magazines for another scenario to play, I found Escape. This was written by Kevin Major, and I suppose for copyright reasons he uses the name Major Silverside to represent the leader of the British force. Here we have a British Light Column trying to evade a French force. A British force running, a perfect opportunity I thought to bring Simmerson into a game. The forces used are listed below, I felt a little bad substituting Sgt Harper for Sgt Brisket but fiction is fiction.

The scenario writer suggests that you use a French Light Column for the British opponents abut I only have unmounted dragoons so I substituted the standard 1809 force. I have really enjoyed playing 28mm Napoleonics again and although I will paint some character figures for the games, I have no plans ever to paint cavalry again.

We played our game this past Thursday, as you can see the French force is a few less points than the Brits, we tossed some dice P-Y ended up playing the French and picked an extra Deployment Point as well as a Marksmen too make up his force. The French started with a FM of 11 while the Brits had 10.

Maybe I should be a little more thoughtful in setting up the terrain, a town was called for at the British entry point but putting up so many walls really makes it tough to move formed infantry about as you will see from below.

Terrain, the British enter from the left.

It was a little unclear where to place the deployment points so we place the British one on the road to the left and the French one on road in the foreground.

The game was characterised by an early appearance of the Tiffin chip almost every turn. There were no French chits in the first turn but they were placed in the bag in the second turn. Because of this the French got all their forces on the table before the British had half of their forces down. As you can see the 3 French forces are all in good position with the large British formation just entering the road. The British Rifles are advancing on their left flank with Harper leading the advance.

Simmerson manages to get 3 of his groups in one formation in line but you note he hangs back in a cowardly way with his 4th group to protect him. Unfortunately Lt Sharpe takes a wound early on and is reduced to Level I and loses 2 of his men. He realises that he needs to join up with Harper so makes his way around the house. Colonel Ducos is advancing toward their position with his evil lackey Sgt Challon. The honourable and brave Major Dubronet advances with 2 groups of formed infantry towards the British line. He appears to be undaunted by the fact that he is outnumbered 3:2 but he calls Pas de Charge!

He slams into the Brits, but the Brits are unloaded so 

in Fisticuffs, the Brits end up with no dice to the French 6d6.

The Brits are driven back, as they lose by 2. Their formation is broken and they have to take a lot of FM tests, they are still not broken though and if only Simmerson would move into contact they might yet be saved. But Simmerson being Simmerson hides behind the wall as you can see. He does manage to send his 4th group to support the Rifles on the wall.

The French Skirmishers move into position and rain fire on the Brits, one unit breaks and although the French formation is being pounded by the Rifles behind the wall, Ducos fails to fall. The British FM drops to 2 while the French still have a FM of 10. Game over.

Well another fun game, hopefully I will win one soon.

I will be off line for the next three weeks as I am working every day this week aside from Tuesday until we go on a 2 week vacation the week following. This Tuesday, however, we start playing the Fangs of The Wolf sub campaign in Eero's Winter of No Surrender magnificent Winter War opus. I can not even start to describe the complexity of this campaign. I am playing Colonel Sharov, the Soviet SL of a large force trapped on the road north of Suomussalmi in mid December of 1939.  Suffice to say I have a massive force of Soviets who are cold, hungry, poorly supplied and out of gas surrounded by the White Devils. 

Level I/II Leaders for Sharp Practice

 

I thought I would never paid any 28mm Napoleonics again, but I am need of a few personality figures to use as leaders in our games. Brigade Games has some nice personality figures especially related to the Sharpe TV series so I went ahead and obtained some. I painted up to figures over the weekend. These were primed white, I then used AP Speed paints with some touch up with some acrylics.

Everyone will of course recognise Sgt Hakeswill, the second figure will be a French NCO.

Depending on the scenario they will be Level I or II Leaders

Next up will be Major Ducos and Major Nairn. 

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.