Roll Call Sharp Practice Game 1 French v Spanish

After playing and quite enjoying the SP competition at Britcon last year I entered Roll Call this year. Unfortunately all the Allied entries had gone so I had to enter as French despite feeling that they are seriously underpowered in the competition lists!

I used a similar force to Britcon with four groups of Fusiliers, three of Voltigeurs, one of Dragoons and a light Horse Artillery gun all lead by Brigadier Gerard.

The first mission pitted the French against Phil's Spanish and involved trying to capture a female British spy from a building in the centre of the table. Initial deployments favoured the Spanish somewhat as firstly the building was a bit closer to them and secondly the door was on their side:

The Voltigeurs advance but take casualties on the left. The Dragoons begin to move forwards to outflank the Spanish:

The Spanish move towards the building with the spy in it:

One Voltigeur group attempts to rush towards the objective while the Dragoons prepare to cut down the Spanish skirmishers, though they may be attacked by Spanish Cuirassiers(!) before they can get to the skirmishers:

Disastrously for the French the Spanish react first and charge the Dragoons:

The odds are very much against the Dragoons and they flee from the Spanish Cuirassiers though they do take down a couple of Spaniards:

The Voltigeurs that made a dash for the objective have taken heavy losses and the French Horse Artillery crew have fled from the field:

Spanish Guerillas  drive off the Voltigeurs:

With no hope of achieving their mission Gerard decides to retire from the field:

Not much went right for the French in this game, activations were heavily in favour of the Spanish and the placement of the building the spy was in and the door facing the Spanish definitely favoured the Spanish.

If the Dragoons had managed to move before the Spanish Cuirassiers the result may well have been different!