Grand Old Duke of York comes to mind

Just when you thought, no, I can't go into it, one step forward and ten back, no!

Right, on the bright side friend Rob agreed to come over and help me fight the SYW battle I had arranged, I duly spent quite a few hours reading up on the rules as I did not want to spend a lot of time with my head in a book. Honours of War are an easy set of rules but I suspect with a lot of depth in them the more you play and remember.

Rob arrived and promptly chose the French who were defending a fordable stream and bridge from the British, this little affair took almost my entire SYW forces. I should have made the table 8x5 for the 28mm figures but I had already set them up and didn't want to change everything at the last moment. My plan as such was to advance my infantry and slowly wear down the enemy to my front, my cavalry were ordered to smash the French cavalry and threaten their left flank. Things did not start well as Rob diced and got two Dependable generals and one Dashing young blade, while I got one old Dependable and two Ditherers!

The advance went well while we were outside musket range, but as soon as we got into range my boys got the worst of it thanks to the French artillery, my line faltered while I tried to bring as much firepower to the front as possible, this was proving a long process. The French meanwhile were doing well at confounding my plan. On the right my cavalry got into position but the stream meant that unless I got a double move I could be stuck halfway across and then charged so caution got the better of me as I inched forward, centimetered forward doesn't have the same ring. Anyway I have forgotten to mention the lack of moral fibre in my two Ditherers, this meant things went even slower than normal.

Halfway through I did manage to create a hole in the French center as the regiment Lorraine ran, hopes rose, I had also stopped an aggressive move by Rob to advance over the bridge so the cavalry of both sides still sat and stared at each other. Despite the at times heavy cannon fire I threw my infantry forward to take advantage of the gap, the long red lines looked really good, Rob threw in a battalion of Gardes Francaises and to both our surprise the 33rd Foot stood then routed the Gardes things looked really good.

The French now retired most of their line out of harms way, frustrated I tried to follow up but my Generals would not have it. On the right the French cavalry under their Dashing leader charged forward, two troops of British horse fled the field while the enemy lost only one, so much for threatening the French left. On my left my Highlanders closed with the Irish mercenaries and came off the worst, I was losing too many battalions. I still however had one almost full brigade, half of which were grenadiers, onwards I shouted at their leader, now! Sadly said leader instead led his men to the rear, I looked over the shattered field of honour, my remaining cavalry troop had done well but were still outnumbered, one battalion was holding on from First Brigade and my one and only full strength brigade had retired leaving my artillery way out on its own. I called a halt and retired to prepare courts martial papers.

What went wrong, well let me tell you. I had inadvertently given the French a mainly superior army and it showed during the musketry, I have since read that I did this wrong, the mercenaries do not get superior status. I also should have downgraded the French fire when my lads were in the stream and should have had cover from the banks. My main problem however was my two Dithering commanders, Rob also got some rolls where he could not advance but he was happy to sit and wait, I on the other hand needed to get as many men up front as I could and this proved elusive. I also have to admit that in the first half of the battle I sent my men in piecemeal rather than getting my grenadiers and the rest into a half decent line, mea culpa. No matter, I really like the rules and it was a terrific game.

In other news, I will base and finish my Paras this weekend, I have also just taken delivery of an extra Waffen SS squad to give me some reserves. Before I start them however I am going to paint those 25 Prussians for Rob. My interest has once again been restored for the SYW period, so once all this stuff is off the table I can see me getting some more, two more infantry battalions for each side and maybe two cavalry troops. I am now going to add Hanoverians to the British forces. Oh, Duncan handed in an excellent book on German armour at Arnhem last week, I found everything in use there from PzIII's to King Tigers, what really got me going was a battalion of French Char B's which had been turned into flammpanzers, this information will come in really handy when Too Fat Lardies get around to completing their Arnhem book.

As I pack away the SYW what next, I would like to get a War and Conquest game in otherwise back to WWII more than likely, maybe some Bolt Action this time.