Sharp Practice Peninsular British v French

This week's game saw Sharp Practice action in the Peninsular with my painted-ages-ago-but-never-used British taking on my French under the command of Dave.

We went for a modification of the 'Resupply Hougoumont' scenario published in the 2020 Lard Mag. The action was transferred to Spain where the valiant Sgt Fraser was tasked with resupplying the garrison of the village of San Miguel which was under attack from the dastardly French! I had enough figures for the French but only two groups of the 95th Rifles for the British instead of the three groups of Hanoverian Jaeger Corps the scenario suggested. Assuming that the 95th would of course be better quality etc I felt two groups was enough anyway!

The village of San Miguel. In the distance the cart of ammunition with Sgt Fraser can be seen. The French will arrive from the woods on the top left, the 95th Rifles from the wood on the bottom left after a couple of turns:

The hard-pressed defenders of San Miguel from the 3rd Foot (The Buffs). Being low on ammunition they can only shoot at short range and half effect until the ammunition cart reaches them. They are not allowed to leave the village either:

Sgt Fraser, bravely commanding the relief attempt despite already being wounded in his right arm! A group of skirmishers from the Buffs accompanies him:

The Sgt makes good progress along the track but the French can't be far away!:

Here they are! Four groups of Fusiliers and two of Voltiguers rushing forward to try to intercept the cart:

The 95th also arrive and open fire on the Voltiguers at extreme range (advantage of the rifles!). The Voltiguers are already shooting at Sgt Fraser and his men:

The 95th advance to try to support Sgt Fraser. He is a long way away though:

Sgt Fraser decides that continuing to try to move while being shot at close range isn't wise and engages in a rather outnumbered fire-fight with the French Voltiguers, perhaps long range fire from the Rifles will tip the balance?

The French Fusiliers deploy into line and advance on the 95th. Sgt Fraser and his men are forced back by accumulated shock though the French Voltiguers are also suffering:

The Voltiguers perhaps unwisely follow up the retreating Sgt Fraser exposing them to more fire from the 95th which is starting to hit home now:

By concentrating on the Voltiguers the 95th have ignored the French Fusiliers. They advance and fire a devastating volley which takes out four Riflemen!:

Captain Smith of the 95th rallies off some shock and urges his men to fall back out of the line of fire of the French Fusiliers:

In the confusion of battle and with large amounts of smoke billowing across the field the French don't notice the Riflemen have moved and continue to blast away! Their officers try to get them under control but keep failing:

Unfortunately without the support of the Rifles Sgt Fraser and his men, despite putting up a valiant fight, are forced to retire off table. The ammunition has failed to get through and the defenders of San Miguel are in trouble now!:

So a victory for the French after an interesting game which was certainly different from our usual AWI/F&I wars games with much more open terrain. On reflection I should probably not have moved the wagon along the road (as far as we could tell there was no advantage to moving on the road) and instead gone across country which might have meant it could have got a bit further before the French could start shooting at it. Much to my surprise (most rules rate the 95th as supermen!) the 95th were hardly better than the Hanoverian Jaegers so perhaps I should have added a third unit!

Having said that Dave played very well, using the quicker moving Voltiguers to intercept the wagon and the slower moving Fusiliers to block off the Rifles from interfering in the fight between the Voltiguers and the Sgt for very long. Sgt Fraser was also very lucky taking numerous hits to his group most of which had little effect!