All You've Got: Snappy Nappy BATREP

Initial dispositions: The British Allies steal the march to the crossroads

The third Black Powder Napoleonic wargame this year for Grant and I: must be some kind of record. We determined to throw in our entire collections which included a bit of historical overlap - what the hell. Grant set up the general layout, we mutually dressed the table-top and commenced with initial deployments of our light Brigades, randomly determining for depth into the field. The British got furthest, stealing the march to the crossroads and village about it - first points to the Brits at the cost of bootlaces!

We agreed to dicing 4in6 for our light cavalry (per squadron) to enter on random roads in sequence. If successful, then we diced for the next squadron, and the next and so on until failure or all squadrons of a particular regiment were brought on. After failure, subsequent squadrons of the same regiment may not necessarily join their comrades at the same entry point. We felt this represented swarms of light cavalry scouts roaming the countryside, feeling for each others advancing divisions as our armies endeavored to come to grips. It enabled unforeseen flanking manouvers throughout the game.

Death of a Leader

Before too long, what proved to be the first critical moment of the battle occurred. The British got three squadrons of KGL Hussars onto the table and at just the right spot to jeopardize the French plans. At this point the KGL had already seen off the first squadron of the French 7eme Hussars. A superb command roll enabled the French Lancers in march column (never good) to reform into attack column and charge to protect the exposed artillery limber racing for the hill. A swift melee and the unthinkable happened for the KGL - a complete rout together with the loss of the cavalry commander who was attached. This was to have serious consequences for the entire British game and proved to be the first of several tipping points.

French form up for the first assault.

Our scenarios invariably throw a multitude of delays in coming on which provide for issues of arrival, forming up and reinforcing our battles. This game; however, provided for systematic appearances of whole brigades in column for both sides. Being a Black Powder game the players were nevertheless reliant upon the quality of their commanders whose randomly rolled scores dictated their ability to co-ordinate and maneuver. The British Light Brigade commander who commenced on-table was simply superb (scoring 10) but the French were almost as good and more critically, consistently so. The same could not be said for subsequent British Brigadiers AND Wellington was proving to be having an average day also. None were rolled for until they came into play so neither of us knew what we were getting.

First French Assault

The French first brigade threw themselves into line and pressed the first attack onto the light woods screening the crossroads which was infested with Portugese Cacardores. At the same time the second brigade rolled in, forming up over the high ground the other side of the hedged approach road. In our games this rarely ever happens: a co-ordinated and supported assault in strength! To the left, the Cacadores were cleared with relative ease thanks to poor defensive rolling but the right wing stalled under a galling artillery barrage from a swiftly deployed Royal Horse Artillery troop (top right above).

Second French Assault

Whist the first screen of woods were cleared, the real obstacle was the crossroads itself flanked by two stone buildings occupied by plenty of British Rifles (95th and 60th). With little experience in assaulting buildings, the French assumed correctly it would be hard fought for and threw in both battalions of Guard Grenadiers who were fortunately toward the front of the army. Over about eight turns they attacked, were repulsed, became disordered, rallied, went back in and at one stage were supported by a third battalion of foot. Only after two batteries of 12pdr foot artillery arrived, were the buildings cleared (or rather demolished) where the French were able to exploit the gap in the centre and push forward.

Crawling along the track

None of the French success would have been so decisive had not British reinforcements been repeatedly delayed. With the aforementioned loss of their cavalry commander, all horse units coming into the game defaulted their command to the Light Brigade's Commander. Whilst a superb leader he was simply unable to be everywhere at once and when defaulting to individual unit orders, this increased the instances of dicing a failed order and stalled British responses. Furthermore, subsequent Brigadiers who came on were military clots of such poor quality that the British player dared only risk Brigade orders under the direst of circumstances. The advance of the British columns therefore were staggered and inconsistent and above all, slow.

A Chance

Just when all seemed hopeless, the British player diced on his entire 10th Hussar regiment (all four squadrons) and arrived just behind the crossroads, poised to devastate the shaken Guard Grenadiers after being repulsed by the Rifles. All that stood in their way of catching the Guard in column and in the rear was a single squadron of French Hussars. This was the second critical turning point of the battle and the head of the French left flank assault was about to be cut-off. We find Black Powder games have the capability of see-sawing dramatically (one of the reasons we love it) but today was not one of those days. It seemed all the British luck was spent in getting the Hussars on and with a fierce result born of dramatic dice rolling, off they went just as soon as they had arrived. What a lost opportunity!

Pushing through the village

With the crossroads reduced, a close order infantry assault on the church yard just as quickly and surprisingly cleared the 52nd Oxfordshire Light Battalion from behind their stone wall. A disappointing performance from them. All that secured what was left of the British forward positions was the disturbing presence of the Horse Artillery.

In an unlikely flanking move with only the cover of a hedgerow, a supported infantry assault survived some incredibly ineffective battery fire at close range over two turns, breached the hedge and finished them off with the bayonet! By this time, french infantry and mixed squadrons of French battle cavalry were swarming across the middle ground and harassing the British arrivals.

By this time the best of the British troops were coming on in large numbers. Large battalions of veteran British line, once formed up were likely to arrest the French advance and could even recapture the ground. They would have to do so unsupported; however, as both the rocket troop and the last of their artillery (the 9pdrs) were cut down whist limbered by free roaming cavalry. Just when nothing appeared to be working for the British, disaster struck in what we believe was the final critical point of the game.

Last Gasp

The KGL Brigade, all Veteran infantry has arrived as the core of a still very strong British infantry army. Just as they had reached the rear road intersection, the British player rolled a 'blunder' on his Brigade order. The result was an uncoordinated charge for a full three moves to the front. At least in column of attack, this nevertheless impetuous result threw half the remaining force far out into the disputed field where French cavalry roamed at will. Some of the battalions successfully fought off several attacks but were unable to form square and inevitably collapsed under sabre and hoof. All that was left was for the British to call the battle lost, which it most decisively was.

LESSONS LEARNT

1. Rifles or skirmishers in building work very, very well.
2. Only attach your Commanders to assaulting units as a last resort.
3. The more units under one command, the higher the likelihood of failure.
4. Cavalry are best sent in for attack in echelons of squadron than as a combined regiment. Note: a single demi-squadron is the worst combination as it lacks the higher melee dice of the entire regiment and lacks the advantage it's squadrons have when they combine in 'support'.