My first game of Sharp Practice since playing in the Britcon competition using my Peninsular French. For this game my opponent, Gary, wanted to use 60pts of Rebels so I picked a 60pt British force consisting of three groups of eight British Regulars, one group of 6 British Light Infantry skirmishers and a group of eight British Light Dragoons plus associated officers.
We diced for which scenario to play and came up with the 'Escort' tasking the British with escorting the General's daughter to visit him. The battlefield consisted of a road running from my right where I initially deployed to the left, a farm in the centre of the table and the usual assorted fences and trees.
I deployed my three groups of Regulars in Line with the General's daughter, my Light Infantry on my right towards the farm and the Light Dragoons in reserve.
The Light Infantry quickly engaged a couple of Rebel skirmish units that appeared past the farm and started to whittle them down. Some Rebel Militia deployed in the farm enclosure on my far right and began to try to outflank my line.
In an attempt to deal with the Militia before they became a serious problem I ordered the Light Dragoons to charge them. In our last encounter the Dragoons had wiped out two units of Rebel skirmishers which had unwisely deployed in the open opposite them. This time, however, the Dragoons charge fell agonisingly short and they received a volley at point blank range from the Militia which knocked four of them out of their saddles!
Meanwhile in the centre the British Regulars had driven off the Rebel skirmishers but more Rebels in the form of some State Line and Continental Line had arrived to contest the road causing the British Light Infantry to fall back.
Despite losing half of their men in the attempted charge the Light Dragoons could perhaps still close with the Militia if their officer reacted quickly. Unfortunately the Militia commander was alert to the danger and another volley crashed into the Dragoons sending them fleeing back.
The situation was now looking desperate for the British. While the Line formation was holding it's own our right flank was now only held by the shaken Light Infantry who had the victorious Militia bearing down on them rapidly. While I was confident that my Line could deal with the State Line and the Continentals eventually the Militia would soon flank my Line and I had nothing left to oppose them.
It was therefore time for a last throw of the dice to get the General's daughter to safety. The left hand group of Regulars under the command of the Sergeant broke off and made a run for the table edge with the daughter in tow. Initially the attempt went well and the group successfully crossed the fence into open fields with nothing between them and safety!
The gallant remainder of my Line was now taking fire from both the front and flank as the Militia opened fire again. The sergeant made a last dash for safety but came up short as my Line collapsed in the centre forcing the British to concede defeat!
Another great game of SP in which our fortunes fluctuated throughout. There were two decisive actions, firstly the failure of my Light Dragoons to reach the militia and secondly the lack of action by my senior officer (in the last few turns his counter didn't appear at all!). If the Dragoons had hit home they would have cut the Militia down easily allowing my Line to brush aside the State Line and Continentals but such are the fates of war!
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