Wednesday Night Game - Sharpe Practice Reprise

 I arrived at Julian's after work to find him half way through setting up the table for our second run through of Sharpe Practice. With most of the table features in place Julian asked me to come up with a scenario while he fetched some trees to complete the table dressing

A quick look at the table and I came up with an idea - which to be fair after we had set it up, I realised was very similar to the previous game - but never mind.

My suggestion was - a French Exploring Officer was in the small cabin in the centre of the table, and had rendezvoused with a group of Voltiguers, who were there to escort him, and his vital information, back to the French lines. However, the Exploring Officers activities had been discovered and the British are in hot pursuit to prevent him getting his intelligence back to head quarters. A unit of six riflemen and another of six light infantry start on the table in woods not far from the hut occupied by the French.

To activate reinforcements, the French have to send one of the Voltiguers back to the far table edge to raise the alarm. Once this is done, the French player rolls a D6 each turn, 1 to activate reinforcements on the first turn, 1 or 2 on the second turn and so on. The occupants of the hut cant just up stumps and decamp - they have to wait for the relief party to arrive. The British on the other hand, can start rolling for their reinforcements to arrive from turn 2 - this was Julian's suggestion which, given he had offered to play the French this time, seemed rather sporting of him!

Anyway, on to the action:

A general view of the table, you can just see the French clustered around the building in the centre and the first few riflemen in the woods below the road junction

A close up view of the riflemen's first volley - 1 dice per figure = 6, extra dice because they are expert shots, extra dice because it is their first fire, plus 2 dice as their leader is grade 2 - 10 dice in total at close range (12" or under) needing 4-6 for a possible hit. Once hits are achieved, roll another dice for each, requiring a 6 to kill or a 5 to cause shock (because the French are in hard cover) Achieving a hit is range related, determining the effect is target and cover related EG if they were in the open, 3 4 5 or 6 would be a result.

And the result was - 2 killed. I then rolled a dice to determine if the officer was a casualty - as I had 2 killed, a 1 or 2 would indicate the officer had been hit - and he was! Annoyingly, it was just a Knocked Down result - if I had killed him, that would have been the end of the game!

The Light Infantry got in on the act too, and killed a further two voltiguers (I had considered targeting the one voltiguer who was out in the open, sprinting down the road to summon assistance, but thought that would be rather unsporting!)

The results of a couple of rounds of fire - of six voltiguers, only two remain, and they have more shock than effectives - they were forced to pull back (which in the situation, was actually beneficial for Julian) We decided to use the "carrying a weight" rule, so the voltiguers dragged the unconscious officer with them, rolling two dice minus one for each element of shock they were carrying. (,This was actually advantageous to the French as otherwise, As mentioned in my intro, the scenario said they had to stay put and wait for the relief force to arrive, which given subsequent turns, would have been a very hard ask)

Meanwhile the British reinforcements had arrived on turn two or three and moved towards the building to back up the riflemen

The retiring voltiguers and their heavy load make for the French table edge

The Brits advance en masse, whereas the French had only just arrived! I did make a costly error at this point however - if you look at the top left, you will see the four remaining LI plus their NCO entering the woods - six French Voltiguers were on the other side. This was a mistake.....

......because after a round of French fire, they were reduced by 50% and had two shock markers. I should have pulled them back instead of rushing gung ho into the woods....BUGGER!

The French were very hesitant to advance, rolling 1's and 2's very often - even when attempting to run, I think Julian got a total of 7 with three dice, and had to deduct 2 because they were moving over rough ground!

The LI had attempted to leg it but the Voltiguers got back within firing range and caused another shock - now they had more shock than remaining troops and had to roll on the "bad things happen" chart - which caused a reduction of 2 on my army points table (Julian had forgotten to do this when his voltiguers were in the same position earlier, so he did it now and had the same result!)

We basically called the game at this point. The officer eventually rolled a 6 at the end of a turn to recover consciousness, and in any case, the voltiguers had successfully carried him to the French lines anyway. The British had full control of the centre of the field, with one unit of eight line infantry occupying the house, the second unit to the right in line ready to volley and the riflemen back in the woods, securing the flank from the French voltiguers. Apart from advancing just for the sake of it to prolong the game, it seemed illogical that the French would do anything other than pull back with their rescued Exploring Officer. We did set up a "fisticuffs" situation (above) between a unit of French and British line infantry, just to see how it went - seemed a very simple and straight forward process.

So a win for the French but it did not feel like I lost, so good feelings all round and the game was over in less than three hours, including a half hour meal break. I think there may still have been bits we missed but we are getting the hang of the core mechanisms I think.

And finally, because Stew requested it last time, here is an image of your correspondent, in situ chez Julian during the afore reported game

This is probably the first "selfie" I have ever done, so its not the best - mind you, the subject matter doesn't help!