They came on in the same old style........

God I have had a bad day and will now try and forget it while I type my report, you will hear about it on Sunday, this is when I could do with a drink as my nerves are frazzled.

Anyway, I had just about made my mind up to give the club another miss when I recieved a text from Andy inviting me to take part in a Black Powder Napoleonic game, what the hell I thought, get me out of the house, so off I trotted.

Andy and Rob enjoy the Black Powder rule sets and it does work well with Rob's Sudan scenarios, however I thought it was a poor ECW set and wouldn't touch it for ACW but then I wouldn't touch anything but Johnny Reb for that anyway, it would be interesting to see how it worked with Naps. As much as I am an admirer of the Emperor and made friends at a safe distance with the giant tortoise which knew him on St. Helena I have never really got into Napoleonic wargaming, and when I have tried it I usually retired with a sore head, really. It does look splendid though.

So on Tuesday night I found myself in charge of the British right flank with a light cavalry brigade and an infantry brigade made up of mainly Scots battalions, the centre and left were under the command of two Germans, father and son who were visiting, Daniel has been to the club in the past but not his father Hermann, who unfortunately did not speak a lot of English and was not a miniatures player. I knew right away if disaster struck Hermann was the fall guy.

The idea was that each side had to control two crossroads, one in a village and one in the open, I was opposite the one in the open, but so as I found out was the French guard units and next to them their feared heavy cavalry. As the game started I threw my light cavalry forward aggressively and mounted a nearby hill all the better to give me an advantage in the coming melees.

The brigade will advance.....

 There was what passed for snorts of derision at my attempt to take on the heavies with my lights, but what did I know, well I did know it was going to be a possible massacre for my boys, but it was either take the fight to the Frenchies or let them bring it to me. My infantry opened up into lines and moved on the crossroads and awaited the Guard, who were coming on in the same old style as Wellington was wont to say. Hermann moved on the village in a huge column and held the southern edge while the French held the north and each side plugged away at each other causing mainly nose bleeds and ear ache.

Into ze houzes.

  My cavalry now charged downhill at the Monsieurs and predictably got beat, but not by enough, they did move back but they were still there, a bit of a shock for Andy. One of  my cavalry units could not get in on the fight so instead forced an infantry battalion to go into square thus stopping them joining the advance on my Jocks, they then haired off in pursuit of some horse artillery, again stopping this from supporting the French left, huzzah lads. At the end of the game I had lost two cavalry units but so had the French!

Get into them!

  I was all set up and willing the French infantry to try and close in their attack columns, but this is where the rules let Andy down, he failed twice in a row to advance his men by failing his command roll, the bad luck continued with his shooting and his shots winged harmlessly over the heads of my stalwart troops. Why on earth would a division advancing on the enemy with hardly a casualty suddenly just stop.

Oh, they'll stand Wellington.

I held one crossroads, Herman ensured the other was in contention and Daniel and Rob had fought each other to a standstill on our left, we won and Hermann was off the hook.

A good game and I didn't come away with a headache neither did I come away any more convinced Black Powder was for me, but I appreciated the game and the work Andy and Rob put in. If I can find a route to Lancaster next week with all the road and lane closures I think it is Bolt Action.