A fantastic game to come home to! Napoleonics in 54mm.

On Saturday I got my first game in for several weeks due to gadding about in India again, when Steve came up with his wonderful 54mm Napoleonic French, Russians and Prussians armies to run a Sharpe Practice game. Conrad, Paul and Shaun were the French while Dave, Nigel and myself were the allied force. I played the Russians and the other two were the more numerous Prussians, but I was CinC.  It was to be a meeting engagement, a clash of vanguards. The Russians were deployed on our long table edge in the centre while the Prussians would be arriving on the road to my left on the short table edge. Most of the enemy would enter more or less opposite the Russians while the remainder arrived on the road on the other short table edge. Neil and Steve  ran the game as the rest of us had either never played before or were very rusty. So in the usual time honoured tradition here are some photos which I hope help convey the spectacle.

General Barclay de Tolly the allied commander (me).

Russian cuirassiers.

The French light cavalry and attached horse artillery.

Conrad’s shirt in stark contrast to the advancing Young Guard in the centre.

Shaun’s light infantry make an entrance.

One group of French legeres made it to the enclosed garden around the Manor House on our extreme left.

Cossacks! Bullet magnets, which was the plan.

Shaun’s infantry shake out into line.

A group of my Russians. These are laser PLA printed scaled up from 28mm files. Awesome!

One of the Russian commanders, at the head of the Russian infantry.

The Young Guard advance. Would they be able to crush my outnumbered Russians before the Prussians arrived. 

More of the Young Guard.

And more….

N. Buonaparte, sometime dictator of the French leading his troops from the front.

The Prussians arrive.

Landwehr cavalry.

French Light Horse lancers under Paul’s command head out to intercept the Prussian cavalry 

French Horse artillery, unloaded with Prussian cavalry getting very close.

The Landwehr cavalry had been hit by the enemy artillery so these uhlans moved ahead to cover them

More Prussians arrive!

I pushed my Cossacks and cuirassiers over the stream together with some jäger to slow down Shaun’s troops hoping to prevent them from interfering with the allied attack on their main body under Conrad. They were going to suffer but it would be worth it.

The French centre keeps on with its advance…..but very slowly.

The is out of sequence but shows the earlier arrival of the Prussians.

These are simply gorgeous.

Even my Gnome Guard got into the action 🤣🤣🤣

A fierce melee took place when the French interrupted a Prussian charge. The French were defeated and their commander wounded which had major consequences for the French cavalry.

Nigel’s jäger were now, close enough to take some pot shots at Conrad’s French.

The Prussians press on.

Napoleon was plagues by an unfortunate run of tokens and some low dice scores meaning they struggled to cover much distance. They were now engaged by the Prussians and Russians and taken damage.

The Landwehr cavalry - awesome.

A view of the table showing the Prussians closing in on the French.

Prussians again.

Russian infantry. They did sterling work shooting up the French under Conrad until their muskets became fouled.

Heroic Russians.

Landwehr advance.

Lovely, what more to be said?

The French in the centre under Conrad were struggling against the Prussians who had charged and driven back their adversaries after a full-on bayonet charge and some fairly effective Russian musketry.

Prussian attack column piling in.

More Prussian infantry; the second wave.

Over on our left the Cossacks had been driven off by Shaun’s light infantry battalion and his skirmishers, although the Russian jager were holding their own in the wood. My cuirassiers’ mere presence was causing the French to hold back lest we find out how effective or not they might be if I ordered them to charge. Having fought to the last Cossack I didn’t wish to loose these fine chaps.

Close up of these very splendid miniatures.

Paul’s other cavalry regiment was broken after being charged by Dave’s uhlans. Conrad’s centre was going nowhere and was under pressure from the Prussian and Russians and Shaun’s flank was stuck due to the presence of my cavalry which made advancing too risky. So a convincing allied victory was declared. The man of the match award went to to Dave and his Prussian cavalry who contributed so much to our victory. 

This was a tremendously fun game, to play and also visually. Steve says he’s not quite got the hang of painting 54mm figures yet but I shall leave you dear readers to be the judge of that. Steve and Neil should given a special mention and a big bunch or flowers and box of chocolates for so successfully herding half a dozen players who were unfamiliar with the rules. I’m not a big fan of skirmish games but Sharpe Practice are actually easy to pick up and play so long as someone can crack the whip to keep us under control…..not an easy task.