This campaign will focus on that part of the Napoleonic conflict that the British were most heavily involved in on land, the Peninsular War. The British force that is the subject of this narrative being an offshoot of Lord Wellington's main army, under the command of the young and aggressive Brigadier General Sir William Adamstone. Adamstone is a gifted commander though with little battle experience prior to the outbreak of the war. Under his command are such famed units as the 13th Light Dragoons, the 42nd Highland Regiment, the fearless Black Watch, several regiments of Line Infantry, including the 67th Line, Prince's Own Irish, and two companies of the 95th Rifles under the command of a certain Major Sharpe, who recently distinguished himself at Talavera.
Some of these units, along with two batteries of Royal Artillery, permanently make up Gen. Adamstone's V Brigade.The others, like the 95th for instance, are assigned as needed for the battle or mission at hand. Along with this is a permanently attached regiment of Portuguese Dragoons. The 7th Dragoes.
Opposing Brig. Gen. Adamstone is the garrison French VII Division, under General de Division Francois Jean Baptiste du Grande Fromage, Comte de Chaubier. General Fromage has four regiments of Infanterie de Ligne, two compagnies de Voltiguers, along with two batteries of artillery and the 44th Regiment of Curaissers, and 9th Polish Hussars. Fromage is a formidable general with much experience gained from the Revolutionary wars where he served as a company commander under Bonaparte in both Italy and Egypt.
I had chosen Scenario 13 "Escape" for this engagement. The British army will need to get 3 units off table on the French side, while the Frogs must prevent this from happening. I've scaled down the distances to accommodate 10mm Risk troops, 2" move for Infantry and Artillery, 4" for Skirmishers, and 6" for Cavalry, while shooting for foot units is 6" and artillery is 24" (the original rules allow artillery a full 48" which is longer than the recommended table size at 36"!). The table size is reduced to 24" anyway so the artillery basically have unlimited range in most games.
The first meeting of these two formidable but forgotten commanders was at the little known Valley of San Pedro. The V Brigade was returning to Portuguese territory after a successful raid on a nearby French supply center, led by the daring Major Sharpe. Fromage sent detachments to block Adamstone's retreat to safety. The first to arrive on the scene was a local battery of guns from the nearby garrison at Villa de Plata.
V Brigade advancing in column down a dirt road. Sharpe's Rifles in the van.
A lone French battery blocks the road from the other end of the valley. The adjacent "box" shaped hill covers their left flank as the nearby woods "lace" across their right.
French infantry column "off table" marching to the sound of the guns.
Turn 2: Advance going smoothly, two regiments of French infantry arrive on the hilltop to fire on the advancing British column.
Turn 3: a second artillery barrage is made (first on turn 2, turn 1 was a miss) on the cavalry. 3 hits on each. The 95th wipe their collective brows as the shots tear up the ground around them.
Due to a miscommunication, (Chance card deck drew a 6) the entire infantry column grinds to a halt as the officers sort out the confusion. They cannot move this turn.
Turn 4: the cavalry break into a gallop, attempting to ride around the battery. The guns fire grape shot into the 13th's ranks causing serious casualties, as the infantry on the hill fire additional shots as they pass by. (One may wonder why the French failed to move to intercept the cavalry in the valley. OHW does not allow infantry to engage in hand to hand, in addition to not being allowed to shoot and move in the same turn. So it would've been pointless anyway and would've risked exposing the infantry to additional hits by the cavalry should they charge them. The infantry could form squares of course to prevent this, but OHW disallows moving or shooting once in square, making them a sitting target for artillery or infantry fire.)
Turn 5: A joker is drawn from the Chance deck, enemy unit takes d6 amount of hits because of "Demoralization". It turns out to be their artillery with 3 hits.
The cavalry successfully ride past the guns as the French artillerists look about in confusion and then train their guns on the approaching 95th.
The infantry finally rally and march along the road to catch up. A fresh French infantry regiment and the Voltiguers show up suddenly from the woods nearby intending to flank the Lobsters.
Turn 6: a 10 is drawn, two British units suffer 3 hits each to their morale. The infantry start to worry about the Frogs on their flank.
Turn 6 continued: Sharpe's Rifles sidestepped the French artillery, getting back onto the road and off table by next turn along with both cavalry thus foiling the French attempts to stop the British retreat.
A final volley by the aggrieved French battery inflicts some damage on the Prince's Own Irish, but they press on eventually to make it back to Portugal safe.
Upon returning to HQ, the V Brigade celebrated their success with a hogshead of the French's finest claret for each regiment. It wasn't long though before new orders arrived for the brigade to move out again. This time to march on the nearby French fortress near Villa Doro. But that is a tale for another time.
Overall a good game, and an excellent start to the New Year, I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy campaigning in the Peninsula with my cigar box sized armies. ;) Happy New Year everyone!
What a fun idea.
ReplyDeleteHi, I am pleased to have discovered your blog. I am starting to use 1HW, solo for dark ages and the NW frontier.
ReplyDeleteI would be very interested in an explanation of your deck of chance cards such as when you use them and what instructions they provide if you have the time, please.
Happy New Year
They're in the Solo section of OHW. There's a chart too. :) 1-15 (Each game lasts 15 turns) I use a standard playing card deck. I just pull out a full suit and add a Joker and a Royal card from another suit to designate my 15 and 14 cards respectively. Then shuffle and turn over each turn. :) I've added additional rules for Solo play with two smaller decks of cards representing the opposing armies, with a card assigned to each unit to fully randomize what units taken penalties or bonuses as per the Chance cards drawn that turn. For instance when I draw a card that says 1-3 of my units can't shoot, I roll to see how many and then turn over the smaller card deck assigned to my army. Sometimes I cringe when my infantry can't fire and I'm stuck out in the open with no way to shoot back til next turn. ;)
ReplyDeleteAh, I should have learnt by my age that when I skim read I miss stuff :0) Sorry for the dim question and thank you for the prompt answer.
DeleteI'll take on board your additions as well, I think.
Hi
DeleteI've been reading again and I understand the bit up to rolling to see how many units are affected. Is the card turned up in the smaller the deck using the same table as in NT's book.
Sorry, but I am relatively new to all this :0)
Tend to play with a bias to one side so I try to minimize that with cards for the AI opponent. It helps keep me from picking his "choice" units for Chance mishaps and the same with my side.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds a good thing to me but I see that you are a gentleman!
DeleteSorry I didn't see your earlier question. No I devise my own table. It's really just a way to randomize where the effects from Chance cards are applied. For instance, in a 6 unit game, I set aside a "deck" of 6 cards for each army so two decks of 6. One card represents one unit. Royal cards (K,Q,J) designate cavalry, 10-6 is infantry, 4-3 is Skirmishers and 2-A is artillery. I then shuffle both decks and set them aside under or near the Chance deck. When I draw a card that adversely affects my army I find out how many units are affected then draw that many cards from my army's deck. Vice versa for the opposite army as well. It works fairly well for my games and the only AI functions I control are maneuver and dice rolling. :) I hope that helps.
ReplyDeleteAlso I tend to use two different colored suits for the army decks. Black for the Blue Army and Red for the Red Army.
DeleteWell done! I loved reading the Sharpe novels.
ReplyDeleteThank you for replying again. I hope that I am not being a bother for you and I do appreciate you answering; I am learning a lot.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have read the NT chapter properly, and with your help, I understand that each army has a 15 card deck and, in your variation, each has an additional 'small' deck holding one card per unit. May I ask what instructions appear on these six cards, please?
Also, I assume it is possible to play one army without cards and the other with? It seems to me that if both armies are played with a chance card each turn it is largely a case of the game moving according to the cards unless you pull a 1 to 5?
Hey sorry I missed this post. I wrote a full article actually on how the army card decks work. It's not in the rule book though, it's my own addition. As far as moving the AI units I just choose where they go as if I'm playing them instead of my guys. After a few games it gets to where I don't even think about that I'm playing myself. It ends up being an action/reaction sort of play.
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