The Gin Pit again.

 Another Sunday and once again Grange-over-Sands echoes to the thunder of cavalry, the sound of guns and the rattle of musketry, or in other words another grand Napoleonic game organised by Rob aided by Stuart. I missed the last one so was looking forward to this one.

We had a choice of multi-coloured envelopes to choose from and inside was a brief note on the game with details of your forces, I got the French, a brigade of heavy cavalry and a brigade of infantry, five battalions plus artillery, my companions were Paul, Michael and Fran, the enemy were Rob, Ed, Julian and Stuart. The game was to be a battle of attrition, the British had 886 infantry, 168 cavalry and 16 guns, the French were outnumbered with 678 infantry, 156 cavalry and 16 guns. I think up until now the French had the numbers but the lads have been busy painting more British/Allied troops. Winners would be the side with the most points for breaking the enemy or capturing objective points.

A quick conflab and Plan A was born, I asked and got the left flank as the terrain there was fairly open and I thought this would be good for my cavalry of which I expected great things. Michael was a free agent next to me, then Paul was holding a farm complex and part of the main road which were objectives and Fran on the right had the Guard, he was to deliver a right hook, hopefully get a church and the other end of the main road for an overwhelming 15 points along with knocking Julian out of the game. Simples.

Julian's lovely lancers.

British on the left, French on the right.

The cavalry arrive.

The cavalry of both armies were on the table and I set my cavalry off to demolish Ed's, they were not keen and Ed ruined my attack by a bold opening move, although he did not win he had blunted my forward squadrons. I recovered and counterattacked, this worked well and just as the enemy infantry turned up his cavalry were swept from the field. I decided against taking on the infantry and withdrew the troopers to the far left hoping at some point to get in a flank attack once they had reorganised and recovered. With my cavalry threating the Allied right and pulling away a couple of battalions I decided to overwhelm the three that were left with my infantry and set off, cautiously as it transpired. Michael's cavalry had not done well and were pulverised by Rob's horsemen, opposite Paul Stuart's cavalry had decided to ride hell for leather at the nearest enemy (a blunder) and sped towards the waiting guns and infantry, chaos and disaster followed. On the right the Scots Grays and French lancers dueled.

My cavalry.

Those lovely lancers again.

My troopers discomfited.

A very aggressive Rob had moved on Michael and I noticed a brigade of his infantry was in a position to threaten my own flank, I had to turn a couple of battalions to meet this threat, or one of them as one decided it knew best. My own attack on Ed's line was getting nowhere, the only consolation being that neither was Ed. I wandered over to the far right and although Fran seemed to have pushed forward on his right the bulk of the guard seemed static, had Julian stopped the peacocks? There was now a gap opening between myself and Paul, Michael was under severe pressure from Rob and his forces were in a mess, I now decided to stop with my useless efforts to break Ed and start to move to my right, one to support Michael and second to stop the British getting a nearby tower worth 5 points.

My infantry, some of them, advance.

Stuart's cavalry in a mad charge.

Rob and the reluctance of my brigade to move stopped this as he fell on my flank, things looked decidedly fraught and the fighting was intense, as the smoke cleared I had survived, just, and made Rob's men suffer, but they had stopped me moving toward the objective. by this time I had left one cavalry unit to continue to threaten Ed's right and brought the other two around to possibly threaten Rob's brigade but time was running out. 

My cavalry come back to support the infantry.

The struggle in the middle.

Michael under pressure.

The Guard arrives.

Another trip to the right and I saw that Fran had weathered the late arrival of Andy's Prussians and given them a bloody nose and was at last turning on Julian's flank. The battlefield between Fran and myself looked like a dreadful mess but the British were advancing, a wild cavalry charge brought the tower under British control and crushed the artillery defending it. 

The British pensive.

Rob attacks my flank.

The struggle on the French right.

More nice cavalry.

I had been holding my own up until the last turn against both Rob and Ed, I also saw an opportunity to slam a cavalry charge into one of Rob's battalions in an effort to succour my infantry and grab some points, my cavalry declined, and in fact retired from the field (the final blunder), then one after the other as Ed unleashed volleys of musketry at close range my remaining infantry fled. It was all over.

A quick count up saw the British with 130 points and the French with 127, if only my guys had just held, three points! Nonetheless, a good day with a good bunch of guys and a great game of wee sojers.