Friday Night SP II Game

 Another game of Two Fat Lardies Sharpes Practice II, using Julians collection of Perry plastic Napoleonic figures.

This time, Chris joined the fun, and played with me as the British rearguard, contesting a critical road intersection in the Peninsula with the vanguard of an advancing French force (Jules and John)

French arriving from the right side of the table, Brits from the left. The "hand of God" is Johns, not Maradona's!

Les francais, bravely led by a unit of Dragoons.

Julians command shakes out to the left of the road (nearest the camera) while John went right, through the open woods (light cover) Chris took a long range shot with his leading unit of light Infantry (top left) and put a couple of shock markers on the Dragoons. 

Johns Grade III mounted officer.

Chris's Light Infantry exchange fire with Johns Voltigeurs

After one round of rifle fire from Sharpes Boys (part of my command), the Dragoons took several more shock markers, and bravely redeployed to the rear!

The man himself - another Grade III officer (of course!)

Although Julians' Voltigeurs were within easy striking distance of the BUA that dominated the all-important road junction, for some reason, they hesitated, and one of my line units occupied the buildings...... as you know from last week; I like to have my men in good cover if possible!

From where they were able to engage two units of French Ligne in the open at close range!

Having killed one or two Froggies and put a fair bit of shock on both units - return fire killed one British private - a fair exchange to my mind.

The Dragoons, having rallied off the shock markers, bravely return to the fray....

A general view from the French perspective at the halfway stage

Chris's command opposite John, with my guys in the woods at the top of the hill, including Sharpe and his riflemen.

 Dinner break - very nice Thai take away - washed down with a nice Italian red wine courtesy of Chris again - he has discovered the above, a 1.5 liter bottle for $25 - his new favourite!

Unaccountably, after dinner, I failed to take any more images - things must have got too exciting! Basically, John and Chris exchanged fire on their flank, Chris had one unit accumulate a lot of shock markers and they had to pull back behind cover. My units moved up either side of the occupied farm, and supported by the riflemen and some Light Infantry in the woods on the hill, poured so much fire onto Johns Voltigeurs, Julians line AND the Dragoons (again) that Julian basically withdrew his entire command to the shelter of the woods, and he called the game around 2130 as the Brits were in full control of the farm and crossroads, with the French having no realistic chance of dislodging them.

As we have never actually managed to get into close combat in SP II as yet (known as "fisticuffs" in Lardie parlance), we then did a quick run-through of what would have happened if the Dragoons had managed to bravely charge one of my standard line infantry units at a canter. We calculated the line would get 7 D6 and the cavalry 11. 5 or 6 is a kill, 6 adds a shock too. In the first round I rolled 2 x 6 and 1 x 5 - Julian the opposite, so 3 dead each and I was one ahead on shock - that is a draw, so we had to roll again. The second time around, Julian won by one casualty - so my line infantry was reduced to two men plus an NCO and forced to pull back - but Julian only had two brave Dragoons and their officer surviving - so a pretty Pyrrhic victory.

Another fun game of SP II - well I did win again, didn't I?! 😍💪 Hiding in woods and buildings is really working very well for me - it's an logical extension of the Iron Dukes "rear slope" tactics (well that's my story, anyway!)

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