Saturday, June 05, 2010

More Black Powder

Jim's French v. Rich's British + Allies.

For simplicity we had 2 identical armies.  Each had 2 infantry brigades of 1 grenadier & 4 line, a cavalry brigade of 2 each cuirassier, dragoon & hussar & 4 guns.  Each had a CIC & 3 brigadiers.

We used half distances to match the 15mm figs.

The French deployed their horse on their left, infantry centre & right, artillery in the centre.  The Brits made a matching deployment except with their artillery on their left.

The Brits made a massed infantry attack of 8 line infantry on the French right with grenadiers on their right & guns on their left.  The French attacked with their horse on the left and with the infnatry in the centre while defending on the right.  The 1st pic is from behind the French right - note the Allied columns, the French advance in the centre & the cavalry in the distance.

The French cavalry attack went haywire when their cuirassiers were beaten by mere dragoons.  Eventually the French cavalry was defeated by just the Allied hussars & dragoons but the consequent freeing of the cuirassiers was not taken advantage of as they moved back & forth between right & centre.

In the centre the French infantry advanced on the Allied grenadiers and drove them back into the wood.  The massed Allied infantry attack failed to break through quickly while the French grenadiers & artillery attacked their right flank.  The centre Allied brigade was shaken leaving the other one with its flank exposed & doomed - see pic 2.  When that brigade broke, the Allies failed army morale.

It was an enjoyable little battle - BP certainly produces lots of hair raising & entertaining ebb & flow.  We used a modified brigade morale test - fail if more routed than unshaken or if all shaken or routed.

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