The Glorious 6th of May

Last May at Huzzah!, Rob Dean (of the Sharp End of the Brush blog) and I agreed to cohost an "A Gentleman's Wargame" French Revolution game for our entry at this year's Huzzah. I had pledged to myself that I would paint up at least six units per side if not eight but slacked off when it became clear that Huzzah was not going to happen this year. Still I managed 9 new units, all conversions of homecast figures and by substituting a battalion of SYW Brunswickers and Light Infantry and a unit of Napoleonic infantry I was able to put together a One Hour Wargame with six units aside for a Video-chat game with Rob. A poorman's Huzzah! but an afternoon well spent indeed.

Since I was using my smartphone for the video chat, I broke out an ancient ex-phone to use as a  camera. Alas, something was wrong and I didn't get a single picture. What follows  is an attempt to recreate events as closely as I could, except for the last picture which was taken with my current phone before resetting the table.

Early in the game. The French have stormed the first post in quick time and are about to push on.

The game was Scenario 15 from Thomas's One Hour Wargame, slightly modified to fit AGW. There were two main things that needed adjusting. The first was that the two fortified towns have an integral combat capability as well as a garrison. Initially I was just going to add a notional unit to Rob's army for each village but that would have meant that his force needed to activate more units per turn which seemed like an unfair penalty. (In retrospect I  almost wish I had done that because it would have helped me as the attacker!) 

The second thing is that the game has a 15 turn limit. We've played enough AGW now to get a feel for converting turns to Jokers so we went with the game would end on the 4th Joker and that worked well.  This scenario allows the attacker to remove his first wave of attackers on any turn and reenter the board with a fresh army on the next turn. I thought about having to make that call on a Joker but decided that at the end of any of my cycles was closer to the original intent.

A Damsel in distress emerges and pleas to be taken to "votre commandant", the poor helpless innocent.

ALLIES
Gen. Stewart
Infantry
    42nd Battalion Royal Highland Regiment: Brave, Gallant
    Emigre Battalion de Brouiller
    Battalion of Brunswickers
Detachment Chasseurs St. Lambert: Marksmen, rifle armed (-1MD to fire)
Royal Artillery with field gun
Royal Scots Greys: HC
One unit must garrison each fortified village with a 1 deep line but fires 1d/figure instead of 1d/2
Choose 1 Cameo, either:  Spy, Mistress, or Messenger 

FRENCH
Gen St. Michel
1 Battalion 'Old' French Infantry,  Brave
2 Battalions of French infantry.
1 Battalion "Light" Infantry (may break into 2 x 6 skirmish detachments )
1 Field Gun
Death's Head Hussars LC,  Gallant
Choose 1 cameo: either  Cantiniere, Spy catcher or Messenger

The second wave has advanced in a hurry and threatened the British gun but the Grey's intervene. Their attack on the hasty square was bloodily repulsed but the gun was saved, for now at least.

I was tempted to take the Spy catcher in case Rob employed the Scarlet Pimpernal but also wanted to use my Cantiniere figure as a Cantiniere for once. Since I got to replace my whole army once, recovering a few casualties seemed less important so I went with the Messenger.

The messenger was damned useful until we took the first town, the first Joker turned up and with it, a woman from the town was brought before my General and that was it. He pretty much forgot all about sending messages for the rest of the game!   (The Messenger can dash off on the first card of the cycle to give a unit an extra activation as if they had pulled an ace but the Mistress cancels the first card in each cycle if its a number card, well..........guess who kept pulling number cards....)

A broader view of the same moment.

The game started with great promise. Taking the first town was almost too easy given the combination of good cards, the messenger, and dice that largely favoured me. The only fly in the ointment was my brand new unit of sans culottes skirmishers who couldn't hit the broad side of a forest or make a saving throw and managed to fail every single morale roll. For the second attack I reformed them and sent them in column but it changed nothing and they routed at the first opportunity. After all the time spent finding striped trousers for them and lovingly sewing on little patches.......this may have to be remembered when I'm assigning unit qualities for their second game!!

Once that tart showed up though, not only was my General too distracted to send the messenger out but the cards decided to become neutral and average out the long run of black cards I had enjoyed with a run of red ones.  My attempts to storm forward in column to prepare the final assault on the second post was met by volley after volley as Rob cycled rapidly through his compact force again and again. When I finally managed to complete a cycle I took the chance to declare my reset.

At last the gun is taken at the point of my men's bayonets and only a handful of Highlanders blocks the way. In  the background my latest unit again leads the charge to the rear.

The second half of the game was action packed across the board. This time I all but ignored the riflemen and made a rush for the second post, all except for one unit who re-secured the first post then pressed on to flank the enemy. It was starting to look bad for Rob, I had an infantry column poised to flank his gun and the Black Watch was down under half strength while facing two of my units but passed every morale check with ease.

The next few turns saw some fierce fighting and the low saving throws for columns hurt. My new battalion routed at the first morale check, the supply of face cards dried up  and that d__d b___h kept cancelling the first card in every cycle! Since I was in a wide arc to surround the town, brigade moves suddenly became harder, especially before I remembered that having a mistress didn't stop me from leading a brigade in person!  The action can be followed in the pictures and captions but it was nip and tuck as I watched the deck draw down until only four or five cards were left, one of which was the Joker that would end the game.  I began throwing in my remaining hold cards just to get my troops close enough to make some kind of rush.  At last I had my chance.

The final assault was easily repulsed. Please note the Ensign of the Black Watch holding off a whole battalion by the glint in his mad eye!

Well, Rob was due for a victory and he played his side well. My forlorn charge by a handful of men had almost no chance of winning though if the ensign of the Black Watch would have just laid down when shot or sabred, my 3rd, stronger battalion might have tipped the balance.

Can't think of a better way to have spent an afternoon in lockdown. These armies will continue to grow and see action under A Gentleman's War. Seems like that Whitehouse author guy knows what he's doing after all.