A Brief Encounter in the SYW

I felt well enough for us to play a smallish SYW game here in GHQ on Tuesday, with Phil leading the Allied army as Lord Rawnsley, in our first meeting since before Christmas! I put out about a half of my collection on a table top battlefield largely free of terrain features for a simple encounter game ~

Although Phil won the dice roll-off for the initiative his army showed little inclination to advance, his first infantry brigade order producing a Blunder! The Brigade advanced but one move though, his 6 being undermined by a 1 for the number of moves on the enemy. The French, lead by the largely incompetent Comte de Merde, on the contrary advanced with splendid Gallic elan, right onto the enemy's guns!

Volleys crashed out in the second Turn, as Lord Rawnsley steadied his men in the face of the intimidating French advance! Disorder resulted for the two leading French units, with one being flung back Shaken and exposing their supporting unit to further withering fire in the following turn.

Although the Grenadiers De France threw back their opponents, on their right flank another unit fared less well with a second Irish unit being Broken by a combination of Closing Fire and the bayonet in the ensuing Hand to Hand combat. 

Lord Rawnsley's right was held by a battery of 12lb guns supported by a rag tag of Hanoverian cavalry. Although his Lieb Garde were forced to retire his remaining units were able to first hold off and then repulse the Hussards de Bykli, their supporting Dragoons showing no inclination to come to their aid!

Despite more success in the centre the French found it impossible to capitalise significantly as Disorder gripped their leading units preventing rapid exploitation of opening gaps in the British lines.

Suddenly in Turn 5 we realised that both the French infantry Brigade's were Broken! With that realisation the Comte de Merde was obliged to quit the field, conceding the victory to Lord Rawnsley. In fact losses were about equal at this stage, but more concentrated for the French and rendering their army Broken. The French cavalry left much to be desired both in elan and in combat. The British infantry was Steady as you'd expect, absorbing losses across the board without loss of cohesion. French successes were notable for their failure to be exploited due to Disorder.

No complaints though, a thoroughly enjoyable start to the gaming year here in GHQ despite being given a thumping. On to Olaf's HQ next week all things being equal and a WWII game with Battlegroup.