The Colonel's Wine After Action Report

After much anticipation, we were finally able to play our game. I was quite pleased with how the scenario turned out, though I had some concerns early on. The French, while outnumbering the British, had a longer distance to travel to reach the objective, the barrels of wine. Addtionally, their units got farily jammed up at the starting point. Despite all of this, the game moved ahead and was quite exciting. Both sides entered the table and it was apparent that the French hoped to stall the Brits by moving quickly to the ridge overlooking the church.

After several turns, the British light company was able to splash across the ford and gain access to the church's courtyard and the wine. Sharp's men took up poisitions close to the church in support.

At the same time, the French supply wagon and two groups of infantry used the road to try to get to the village and into a position to grap the wine for themselves. A random even had two of the men dash ahead into the village to try to find some female commpanionship!

It took awhile, but the main forces of both sides finally came into range and the shooting started. Sharp's men were able to take out a formation commander that really put a crimp into the French strategy.

Things were looking pooly for the French. Their major sprained his ankel early on, slowing his advance, and their skirmishers were losing a lot of men trying to hold back the men in red.

When all appeared to be lost, the French grenadiers charged the British line with drums pounding. They wiped out the British group of grenadiers and drove back three center companies, but at a terrible cost.

The second to the last turn saw two groups of French infantry Pas du Charge the British supply wagon, but they came up two inches short!. All the while, British morale was depleting.

It would all come down to the last turn and who's card would be drawn first. Alas, it was the British supply wagon that was able to scurry off just before the French infantry pounced, thus winning the game

It was a fun afternoon of gaming.

Sharp Practice Upcoming Game: The Colonel's Wine

After a couple of years, two friends are coming over Sunday afternoon for a game of Sharp's Practice. The forces are equal in points, but the French outnumber the Brits as the Brits are better quality troops. The scenario involves some of the best wine on the Peninsula. The vineyard at a small church in western Spain produces some of the best grapes in the region. The French colonel, a man of extravagant tastes, has heard of it and has ordered a detachment to fetch him some. The British have gotten wind of this and will do their best to prevent this from happening so they can secure the elegant vintage for their brigadier general. I have a couple of vineyard pieces that I have just added to my collection that will sever nicely as a centerpiece for the battle. This is one of the vineyard sections with the church behind it. The wine barrels will be in the courtyard on the side of the church.

This is the French entry point.

The French force:

It is comprised of one large unit of four groups, a unit of three groups, a unit of two groups, one group of grenadiers, a group of dismounted dragoons, two groups of voltigueres and a supply wagon to take the wine back on. The British entry point is on the opposite end of the table:

This is the British force:

It is made up of a unit of three groups of infantry, a unit of two groups of infantry, a group of grenadiers, two groups of 95th Rifles, two groups of skirmishers and a supply wagon. Units using the roads and in a column will get to add a die to their dice roll. There are also little groups of livestock scattered on the table that will be worth points if they are collected. The winner, though, will be the side that secures the wine onto thier supply wagon and is able to get it at least one move back towards their end of the table. Here are more shots of the table.

Infamy, Infamy additions

I have added a second cohort of three groups of eight to my Roman Infamy, Infamy forces. I now have two identical cohorts of Roman legionaires, two groups of Roman cavalry. Supporting them are three groups of auxiliary infantry and a group of auxiliary archers. Here are the lates additions:

I was a couple of figures short, so I used some armored figures from my German warrior command sprues. There are some subtle differences, but they mixed in just fine.

Learning Infamy, Infamy

I have assemble two large forces for Infamy, Infamy; one early Imperial Roman and the other Germanic. It is finally time to try to get a handle on the rules. I have to say, they have some similarities to Sharp Practice, but the variations to make it more period specific are making this a challenge for me. For instance, Roman drill versus barbarian fervor is quite complex. The use of signa cards is also very different. Sharp Practice is much more straight forward. Another thing that adds more tedium is the fact that Romans get to allocate defensive dice as well as roll for saves each time. This is perhaps a final straw for me. It is almost impossible to inflict casualties on the Romans! I will continue to work on this as I love the period, but my tolerance is growing thin. To compound matters, the videos put out by Too Fat Lardies rasise more questions for me than they answer.