It's Just Not Cricket! - Another Peninsular Battle

Who says wargaming is a gentleman's game?

This post brings my batreps up to date.

This was the Friday meeting after the Saturday where we found out the news of Pete's passing, and the funeral still hadn't been held, so a lot of us (myself included) still couldn't actually believe he wasn't going to be around anymore.

Anyway, the best thing to honour his memory was to keep on on keeping on and to try and kill a general or two!

As you can tell by the quality of the photos I forgot to bring my camera and had to rely on my phone for the pictures. I also didn't check the contents of my army box and realised when I was setting up, that I'd left my British cavalry at home! D'oh!

Anyway, my partner for the game, Garry, lent me some of his Dragoon Guards (downgraded to heavy dragoons) for the night, and I boosted my numbers with some more infantry, I just hoped that that wasn't going to be a fatal flaw in our game!

Garry's HEAVY dragoons (28mm metal!), much heavier than my 20/23mm plastic!

Garry and I faced Andrew S., Tim and John R., so we had our hands full! Garry faced Andrew, who seemed to have the bulk of the French forces on that flank. Tim had a force of mainly light infantry in the centre, and John had a small holding force on the French right. However, he had a large cavalry force, which kept me focussed on that flank, while Tim advanced in the centre, taking his time and picking his target.

It eventually turned out that his target was me! I held a building which was key to both flanks of my division. To the left were the battalions keeping John in check and to the right were my best troops, the 92nd Gordon Highlanders and the 71st Glasgow Highland Light Infantry, conforming to the line of Garry's division, which was steadily falling back under pressure from Andrew's troops.

In the end, Tim forced my battalion out of the building they were holding, but my highlanders were able to fall back without much trouble. The charge on my line which inevitably came was stopped in its tracks by disciplined fire. On the left flank, John pressed in with a combined arms attack, forcing me into a defensive position. After eventually throwing away my dragoons in an ill-advised charge on a closed column supported by artillery, his cavalry came on and broke a couple of my British line battalions. I still had an untouched Portuguese battalion to throw into the fight and my Scots battalions were still showing a lot of fight, so I wasn't in any way defeated by the end of the game.

Garry had been pushed back almost to the edge of the board, it looked like, but he was gearing up for a counter punch, already having sent his cavalry at some unfortunate limbered French artillery, scattering them to the four winds!

It ended with Garry and I pushed back, but certainly not beaten (though our opponents might view it differently!)

My troops in high spirits at the off! The 39th  Foot advances

The 92nd advances, along with a foot battery, watched by the general.

The 39th in square against the cavalry threat on the far left flank. They took some beating from French artillery while pinned by the cavalry threat.

Tim's Legere brigade advances, with a battalion of Wurzburgers in the lead, passing through the built up area.

John R. pointing out the flaw in my plan.

The next shot, very unsteady due to laughter!
You can see Tim's French massing for the charge on the church at the top left, while the rest of his force are in line, keeping the attention of the highlanders to their front. At the rear you can see there's plenty of Portuguese to plug any holes.

Tim's hammer about to fall on the church viewed from the left.