My fourth and final game of 'En Avant III... Here we go Again!' was against Tom who had a small British force trying to get a semaphore up and running on the hillock known as Little Knob... With the engineers trying to fix the broken signal machine protected by a small force of the 95th Rifles my plan was to sneak my Italians stealthily through the woods then march boldly up the hill to destroy the semaphore before reinforcements arrived or the engineer got it working...
Trying to keep it simple, deploying skirmishers on the flanks and a lot of muskets in the middle - the Volteggiatori pushed up the right flank...
Whilst the Fucilieri advanced through the woods towards Little Knob.
Unfortunately the Fucilieri were a bit noisy and Tom spotted them on his first spotting attempt, allowing reinforcements to be called up to assist the Engineer with his party of 95th.
The second group of Volteggiatori pushed forward to the edge of the tree line...
The 95th opening fire at them but not managing to hit the Italians.
More Fucilieri arrived and marched through the wood...
As the Engineer made his first task roll (he had to reach a cumulative total of 25) - rolling a 1 it looked like it would be a long afternoon for Tom, though some Light Infantry skirmishers arrived to reinforce the British position...
Along with another group of 95th Rifles.
As dribs and drabs of British reinforcements arrived, the Italians pushed forward...
The Volteggiatori advancing on the Italian right flank...
Spotting a newly deployed British artillery piece.
The Light Infantry Volteggiatori opened fire on the Italian left...
Inflicting Shock on the British Light Skirmishers.
Whilst the Volteggiatori on the right also let loose...
Cutting down three of the 95th with some unerringly accurate musket fire!
With the Volteggiatori engaging the British Lights, a column of Fucilieri marched out of the woods toward Light Knob...
Taking a point of Shock from the Light infantry fire, the Volteggiatori losing a man.
Facing overwhelming Italian forces, Tom breathed an audible sigh of relief as two groups of Redcoats arrived.
A group of the 60th pushed up to support the Light infantry skirmishers...
Who had lost a man to Volteggiatori fire and were collecting Shock.
As the Engineer started to fix the semaphore at a rate of knots, one formation of Fucilieri snapped into line to pour fire into the British position whilst the other formation pushed forward in column.
On the Italian left the Volteggiatori engaged in fisticuffs with the 60th, killing the Rifles officer with their own picking up a light wound (Mr Cornwell won't be writing about this eh?).
On the Italian right the British artillery opened fire...
Round shot crashing into the Volteggiatori killing three and inflicting Shock.
The fierce melee continued on the other flank with the Volteggiatori taking on the Rifles and British Lights.
Despite their officer knocked down with a second wound...
They wiped out the Lights and broke the 60th!
The Fucilieri in line then decided to sweep Little Knob clear of the the British by pouring a volley into the Engineer and the surviving British on the hillock...
Unfortunately the gods of war(gaming) decided to have a laugh and let's say the Italian volley was extremely ineffective!
Entering the next turn the Engineer had almost completed his task - but was faced with two columns of enemy infantry and skirmishers on his flanks. Who would the gods of war(gaming) favour by activating first?
The first token was - and Italian flag... Tom asked if I wanted to do anything, nope I responded completely forgetting the fact I had a King's Shilling that could act as a second flag and allow me to activate any of my leaders (doh!)
Next token was a British flag, Tom also had a King's Shilling which he played with the token, activating the Engineer rolling a 4 on his task taking his cumulative total over the 25 to send his semaphore message. Victory to Tom.
I'm still a little bit annoyed with myself for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory at the death by forgetting to use my Shilling to activate either of my formations of Fucilieri - one who could have wiped the loan Engineer out with a volley of musket fire, the other charge up Little Knob and sweep him away by force of bayonets. Tom, to be fair, checked with me twice that I didn't want to do anything before he pulled the next token (he realised I had the advantage) - all I can say it had been a long weekend and my brain was clearly frazzled!
Despite losing four out of four 'En Avant III... Here we go Again!'was a hugely enjoyable weekend and thanks to Phil for putting it on. Looking back at the pictures above I've just noticed the Engineer is wearing a bloody top hat - what is it with my Italians and opponents wearing top hats?!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment