Portugal 1810 & more pink Chasseurs

I couldn't find the %$*! camera in time before leaving for the club last Friday night, so I've got no pictures of the scenario I organised for fellow members using all my terrain and figures! It was great to see a large percentage of my French and British forces going head to head used by people who know how to play the game properly, but unfortunately there's no pictures to illustrate the game. You'll just have to put up with my poor attempt at describing the events, instead!

As my sea-landing scenario is taking a long time to come to fruition, I'd come up with a another in the interim involving some cliff pieces I'd made for the sea landing. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to see if a naturally strong defensive position could be taken by an attacking force of roughly equal strength to the defensive force. In my scenario, the British rearguard, retreating to Busaco, had been tasked by Wellington to delay the French vanguard by fighting a rearguard action at a pass between two low cliffs, or escarpments. The French Light Cavalry Brigade that had been shadowing the retreating British called up the accompanying infantry division to clear the pass to allow the cavalry through to continue their scouting of the British army. As the British had deployed out of sight behind the ridge, the French were not sure exactly where the enemy infantry were located. They had to attack blind, while the British knew exactly where the French were.

Robin and Garry took the British and Portuguese, while Tim and John R. took the part of the French. It was an enthralling game which I thought I'd weighed too heavily against the French, but Tim managed to get a brigade onto the cliff after the Legere brigade had skirmished their way forward and racked up the disorders on Robin's British. John had less luck on the other flank, with Garry operating a stubborn defense, (although he had the 92nd Highlanders and the 71st GHLI, both rated elite in our rules). Tim and Robin both put in do or die charges that were defeated on the roll of the dice, but the fact that the British remained in possession of the pass, preventing the French cavalry to continue their scouting gave the game to the British.

To try and make up for the lack of pictures from the last game, here are the latest figures from my Chasseur project.

NCO

Another view of NCO

Trumpeter

Elite company