Wars of Liberation rules playtest

Chum Matt has been working on some rules for the wars of liberation fought in South America in the nineteenth century. On the basis that if a simpleton like I can understand things the rules must be reasonably clear he asked me to have a playtest game with him.

So we picked a couple of small forces, rolled up the scenario and table (the rules have a section for generating this, along with a campaign system) and away we went.

I had Argentinians, apparently.

As well as the main scenario objective all our commanders also had "side plot" type objectives to fulfil that would gather more VPs.

I'm not even sure what force Matt was using - Chilean?

My cannon was pounding away from the safety of a built up area.

As some of my skirmishers tried to hold my left flank.

A stiff fight broke out on my left.

My white clad foes proved rather superior in this exchange.

Cavalry caught more of my skirmishers in the open and in column. This went as well as one might expect...

Suddenly Matt's reinforcements turned up (I had forgotten I was only facing 2/3 of his army and thought I was doing rather well!)

My brave skirmishers were holding the centre.

But my left was crumbling.

More cavalry arrived to threaten my artillery

However some lucky roles saw my battered infantry ransack the enemy baggage train. Ending the game.

Just as well, as I was in front, but losing ground (my VPs on the right!).

There was just time to snap a couple of pictures of my heroic skirmishers holding off a detremined cavalry charge!

This was very jolly and played well - I'd got the hang of the basics pretty quickly. It did also look very jolly and set me off thinking about small scale Naps...

When he started Matt was planning to use 6mm armies with 2mm terrain but the advent of the comparitively cheap Warlord plastic 13.5mm figures means we were using those with the much smaller scenery. It worked fine from my perspective, but that's the explanation if anyone feels it's a bit odd. The rules work fine with more similarly sized models and terrain and there's no compulsion to do it this way if the aesthetics don't suit you.

Napoleonic Sharp Practice

Scrivs and I have talked about playing Sharp Practice, and maybe a campaign since he returned from America a good couple of years ago. So obviously with him busy packing everything back in to boxes ready to return to the US of Stateside next month now was the ideal time to actually get on with it.

A simple encounter game to remind ourselves of the rules.

A rather more verdant patch of the Peninsular than is usually fought over.

The Lights deployed early.

But swarms of Voltigeurs were soon buzzing about in front of French columns.

I had, somewhat rashly taken some cavalry. I'd neglected to select a leader for them..

The French soon crested the hill.

Off went the horse!

Fire was now pouring down from the hill

And the cavalry took a mighty blast

The Voltigeurs in the pig pen were most irritating.

The thin red line deployed in the corner.

But the French continued to press the centre.

A wide flanking manoeuvre by the French column received a burst of British musket.

The Lights were being whittled away.

Especially once the French line became involved.

Casualties and shock mounted for the redcoats.

Outgunned the British line began to break apart.

And with Voltigeurs in the treeline withdrawal was inevitable

Good fun game. SP is at core a very simple game but my old brain struggles with it.

However we're now going to try and squeeze in at least a few campaign games before Scrivs returns to the Colonies.