The latest 'En Avant' Peninsular War Sharp Practice weekend was held down Bristol Independent Gaming over the weekend, this time as doubles event, with two players a side controlling a total of 110 points of troops. I paired up with Chris Clark and we used my Kingdom of Italy troops.
Game One:
In our first game we faced Lloyd and Tom with their Anglo-Spanish army, our mission to burn the village and make off with the livestock. With a Spanish cannon in the village covering the road we decided to try and flank it with half our force...
The Italian line Volteggiatori pushed forward to try and suppress the cannon, eventually forcing it to fall back behind the building.
Meanwhile one formation of Fucilieri advanced along the left flank, the second along the road...
...towards a line of presented Highlanders.
Whilst Irish line moved up behind to reinforce the "Diavoli in gonna"
However before they got there, the Highlanders found themselves under fire from some Italian light infantry Volteggiatori in the wood.
And then receiving a volley from the Fucilieri who had marched up the road.
Leaving several dead behind them, the Highlanders tried to charge the Italian line but came up short.
Meanwhile the Granatieri engaged the Spanish Guerrillas who were attempting to flank the Italians...
A well aimed Italian musket ball hitting the Guerrilla leader between the eyes!
The Irish arrived, too late to help the broken Highlanders, unleashing a volley at the Italian Fucilieri to their front.
Meanwhile the light infantry Volteggiatori charged into the village, attacking the cannon.
Capturing it and killing several of the crew and routing the survivors. That task done, they started to set fire to the buildings.
Back in the centre, the Irish poured fire into the Fucilieri breaking the formation and causing two groups to break...
Unfortunately at this point we had to call the game, somewhat finely poised, a draw as it was almost time for the afternoon game to start.
Who would have won? Well the Volteggiatori had almost completed the task of burning one building, a cow was being escorted to safety and we still had a full strength Fucilieri formation on the left, along with the Granatieri and two Volteggiatori units. However the Irish were still in a strong position and Lloyd was moving up his Spanish infantry and cavalry around the village to threaten the Italian left, so only the gods of war(gaming) will ever know...
Game Two:
This time Chris and I had to escort a priest and his donkey to safety, with Leigh and Jack's Anglo-Spanish force trying to capture him!
The Escort Mission gave us three turns of movement before we started pulling leader tokens and if Chris and I had been a little more switched on the light infantry Volteggiatori could have captured Leigh and Jack's deployment point before they got any troops on the table and then we'd have been down the pub!
As it was we missed the opportunity for an early drink and Jack got his Light Bobs on to give us a volley.
Somewhat untypically the Granatieri were well up for a fight and stormed forward along with both the line and light infantry Volteggiatori.
The woods were full of smelly Guerrillas (masquerading here as monks) who opened fire on the Italian scouting cavalry...
Two Cacciatore a Cavallo and their leader fell to the Spanish irregulars fire and the unit took a lot of Shock...
More enemy troops spilled out of the woods, British Light Infantry Skirmishers having a pop at the Italian cavalry.
The fight around the allied deployment point was heating up with the light infantry on both sides trading blows...
The Granatieri snapped into line and poured a volley into the British, inflicting more casualties.
Meanwhile the woods were alive with the sound of Guerrillas as the "monks" pushed forward...
And some Guerrilla cavalry trotted forward looking for a priest and a donkey to skewer!
With the Cacciatore a Cavallo deciding discretion was the better part of valour left it to the Fucilieri to escort the priest to safety...
Back on the flank, the battle was becoming more vicious as the British, weakened by the Italian volleys, charged in on the line Volteggiatori in a desperate attempt to change the inevitable outcome...
They were beaten back, the Light Bob line disintegrating.
Having taken casualties, and suffered a wounded leader, from guerrilla sniping, the Fucilieri snapped into line ready to give the enemy cavalry what for...
However it was on the flank where matters were to be decided. With both sides Force Morale on the low side (British 5/Italians 3), I rashly charged the line Volteggiatori into a group of Light Bobs, commanded by the British force commander, as they were carrying a lot of Shock. My dice rolling however was a disaster, the Volteggiatori were defeated and pushed back and their NCO killed. They were then charged by a unit of Guerrillas hiding in the wood, and wiped out, all the bad thing happen rolls resulting in the Italian Force Morale hitting zero - I don't think Chris was impressed with my gung ho tactics here! :-)
Two enjoyable and fun games there against great opponents. What would day two bring?
What a couple of really good looking games.
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