Trying it on.

 Trying out a new Battle Mat or whatever the trendy name is, should be a Big Event. It deserved a well crafted scenario with a detailed background, characters and so on. What it got was a casual conversion of a test layout into an impromptu  game played in 5 or 6 short sessions over 2 days. The game itself was unremarkable so I'll just share some pictures and a brief summary but it did give me a few things to think about.

The terrain was set up for the upcoming convention game but I didn't want to do yet another run through of that scenario right now. Time for that next weekend when I have painted what more I can of  the remaining figures and equipment that I want to use. I'm beginning to look forward to having this game done with so I can get back to other distractions like 1/72nd ACW. Anyway, I decided to make it a straight forward attack on a defensive position. Having laid out all of the Oberhilse infantry and guns it occurred to me that the attackers were going to be outnumbered and that there wasn't much room for any Oberhilse cavalry to operate let alone all of them, so I just deployed two squadrons of dragoons. Their mission was to hold the bridge.  I deployed the Oberhilse Field Force Brigade, (3 battalions strong supported by the pack howitzer and a unit of rifles) on the far bank. A brigade of Volunteers, (2 battalions plus light infantry and a Steam Battery) held the near bank. A battery of the OFF was also placed on the near bank but aimed across the river. The Dragoons were deployed in reserve behind them  and last but not least, the Blue Guard was placed in reserve on the far bank.  

The Faraway army was tasked with capturing the bridge. Apart from a ford near their table edge, they were also allowed to deploy troops on either or both banks. The terrain was quite constricting so the Faraway Trading Company troops were deployed across the river, two squadrons of cavalry, the Rocket Troop and 2 units of Irregular light infantry. The Queen's troops made the main assault, 2 brigades of infantry, 5 battalions in all (2 of them  being understrength at 3 stands apiece) , 2 units of rifles, 2 squadrons of cavalry and a battery of Royal Artillery. To help make up for the shortage of line infantry, I classed the veteran Buffs and Tigers as Elite as well as the Royal Fusiliers.

An overview of the game around Turn 5. 

Tomorrow the game itself and some various thoughts for down the road.