Our first game at Julians for 2026 saw Chris and I as the Brits take on Julian and John. A small action set in Spain - the game started with Mr Sharpe and his small command retiring rapidly, having stumbled upon a larger French force while scouting ahead of the main army. The French had three units of dragoons in hot pursuit and had the potential to catch the scouting party before they made it back to the larger supporting unit of British infantry. Chris took Sharpe, I had the other Brits, John led the dragoons and Julian had the main French infantry forces
The initial layout below- Sharpe in the middle, Brits on a hill at the far end. The French infantry were off table at this point, the dragoons behind the wood to the bottom left were on table and in pursuit!
Fortunately, Sharpes card came out early in the first turn and he made a decent move. I advanced the main British force slightly to close the distance
I had one small unit of Light Dragoons - not much to counter three units of dragoons!
And speaking of French Dragoons......
The French infantry advanced in column, supported by two units of voltigeurs
Sharpe and his men sprinting across the hot, dry Spanish plain....
With those bloody dragoons right behind them!
With great skill (or luck!) Sharpes command made it back to the British lines and managed to turn just as the leading dragoon unit caught up with them - a crashing volley rang out across the field
The charge was stopped dead, with half the dragoons tumbling lifeless from their saddles. A second round followed shortly thereafter .........
And the dragoons departed for the safety of the nearby woods!
One the other flank a good dice roll enabled me to send in a line unit supported by a light infantry unit to clear out some cheeky voltigeurs
And my small unit of Light Dragoons also rolled well for movement
Allowing them to catch the retreating French heavies in the rear!
The second unit of voltigeurs tried their luck, charging the superior British numbers - and came out with a win, pushing my boys back whence they came!
The French dragoon unit was wiped out and their colonel captured- huzzah!
But the British cavalry, with traditional impetuosity, took their charge one step too far; attempting to catch the French infantry column in the flank, they overlooked the fact the French had three "command" cards sitting unused, which allowed Julian to interrupt the charge and change formation into a square - I think it ended up 3 dice to 15 or something like that - bye, bye, Light Dragoons!
After suffering several minutes of galling fire from the voltigeurs in the woods, the Brits finally got annoyed enough to put in a decent volley and wiped the Froggies out!
With the dragoons all dead or fled, and the voltigeurs severely depleted, only the main French infantry column remained (the French command was also now dangerously low at 4, having started at 11)
The Brits advanced, with Sharpes command pouring fire into the massed ranks of the column
As it was after 1030pm, we decided it was time for the French to pull back - all we needed was an attractive female character to interact with Richard Sharpe, and we could have the basis for another best-selling book!
The lone survivor of the British Light Dragoon unit - he escorted the French colonel as a prisoner from the field and so avoided the denouement of his colleagues!
A fun game - well for Chris and me, anyway - but it was strange how easy it was for Sharpes infantry to see of the initial dragoon charge - with the Brits being lights, supported and having first fire bonus, it ended up being something like 12 dice for the infantry v 10 for the cavalry. John was incensed and didn't stop moaning about it for the rest of the night - I did think it seemed a bit odd the cavalry was not at some kind of advantage but thems the rules!
My latest Temu purchase below
It is quite narrow, vehicles added for scale
And I wonder how long it will be before I try purchasing one of these....
Not a huge choice available so far but perhaps only a matter of time.....?
Sounds like a game of Warhammer, with Sharpe as Aragorn and the French taking the role of the orcises! 😀
ReplyDeleteI will have to take your word for that, James., having no idea whatsoever about anything to do with Warhammer!
DeleteA very Hollywood type game there Keith with lots of near misses at the beginning and then a big comeback by the hero.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking bridge. Doesn't look like it would support/fit a Tiger tank though 😁
Cheers Ben, it was a fun game for the British!
DeleteAgree re the bridge, OK for heroic liberators but not for Fascist occupiers!
Do you plan on turning Sharpe’s little adventure into another AI-driven comic strip?
ReplyDeleteNah..
DeleteI don't have good enough images of the figures Jon.....but there is another comic book presentation hovering in the wings....
Really love that tyoe of games with unexpected stuff :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Michal....me too!
DeleteVery good looking game--very cinematic, too.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ed, a fun game, for sure!
DeleteGreat game there Keith and a 'Huzzah!' for our brave boys getting one over on Boney's Boys;)! But seriously, I tried SP back in the day, but found it too complicated unless you played it an awful lot, plus the card activation etc could really spoil a game, or give strange results. But what do I know, as it's very popular!!!
ReplyDeleteA nice bridge there and a similar design to one I contemplating for my games. Nice other stuff to tempt you too, especially the 250 variants:).
Thanks Steve - yes, there is A LOT more to the rules than appears to be the case at first glance - and we don't play it very often - like every set of rules at Julians games - we swap between a multitude of different rule sets and never really get to know any of them particularly well!
DeleteGlad you like the bridge - it could be a tad wider, but it will do for me!
Superb game. I need to give Sharps practice another go at some point
ReplyDeleteThanks Scotty, I don't think we have had a bad game using these rules, although we have probably missed things most times because there are lots of "little bits" in there we overlook or forget about!
DeleteGreat game and report. Straight out of the novels.
ReplyDeleteThank you Richard!
DeleteI do get the impression that Sharp Practice is more a game for infantry than cavalry. I suppose if you look at it as a bunch of French dragoons skirmishing near a British line as opposed to a massed cavalry charge it is not unreasonable that they come off second best. A fun game to ease into the year.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence and you have a valid point...let's assume the game is one to one...so six dragoons tried to attack six light infantrymen, supported by six rifleman, who all shot at them as they came in.....so half of the dragoons were killed and the rest legged it...probably quite a realistic outcome!
DeleteA cracker of a game, Bernard was taking notes for sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray - I cant wait to see the film although Sean Bean is probably a bit long in the tooth for Sharpe these days!
DeleteSharp Practice doing what it does best - telling a good story.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm - totally agree, it drives a very narrative game!
DeleteJust give the batrep to AI and it’ll trot out the novel for you I suspect. Top stuff as ever.
ReplyDeleteThanks JBM....now, that is an idea......
DeleteThat battle report could have been a description of an encounter right from one of the novels! Very fun, with some surprising turns of events.
ReplyDeleteThat Temu bridge looks better suited to 15 or 20 mm from here? Or perhaps it's supposed to be a foot-bridge?
Thanks Dai, it was fun for Chris and me...maybe not so much for John and Julian!
DeleteI will use the bridge for all scales although your point is well made...it will look quite impressive with 15mm vehicles!