Napoleonic: El Perez-ish

An away game at Dave's place.  He set up a scenario based on the El Perez scenario in the Black Powder book.

Brits: Mike & PeterC: 
4 inf divs & a cav div.  Command 8, CIC 9.
Objective to get at least 3 divs over  the bridge.

French: Jim, Chris & Dave:
3 inf divs & a cav div. Command 8, CIC 9.
1 hussar unit was on the far side of the bridge, 2 more can come on a British flank when the dice are right.
Objective Destroy the Brits before they can get across the river.

 The French have come onto the near edge of the table.

The French advance was plagued with poor command dice that allowed the Brits to get a good start back towards the bridge & set up a reception committee for the flanking hussars - half of them were broken before they even charged home.  The British artillery has driven the hussars back from the bridge. French dragoons have charged down the road to try to pin some infantry down, but the infantry has been slow to come up in support.  

All the French hussars have been broken while the dragoons have failed to break the square.  Rifle & artillery fire has whittled away at the advancing infantry, but 2 divs are finally getting close.

The British have a division crossing the bridge.  The French dragoons have bounced off the square. Finally the French infantry have engaged on both flanks, but their column attacks did not go well, failing to break thru.  On the right the French have now formed line.  Their 3rd div is still not up to the front.

The Brits suddenly decided they were doing well enough to win the battle on the field & revered their retreat over the bridge.  The French thought they were making a mistake as they renewed their attack with a fresh second line against shaken troops.  Alas, good tactics don't work when the dice gods are against you and on both flanks fresh units broke charging shaken line.  Instead Brit divs breaking, the French divs was now on the verge of doing so& the British change of plan suddenly became a stioke of genius - very Wellington.

The Brits now counterattacked with a vengance charging their cavalry through through a gap in the line, pushing fresh troops up to the front & assembling a grand battery.  The cavalry charge did not go well being halted by hot shooting by the artillery, but it distracted French infantry from the main game and was a good move regardless.

The only French success at this stage was to finally break the British div on their right - which was a very mixed blessing in that it cleared the line of fire of the grand battery.  

The French kept going for a while because they could, throwing in some last desperate charges hoping the dice gods might be feeling guilty, but no dice.  Reduced to 2 divs verging on breaking the French conceded.