Happy Thanksgiving

Attention spans are short in the week before a holiday, and given that we wrapped up our unit on Napoleon yesterday, I thought it a good time to bring out the minis for a show-and-tell.  I'm lucky to have a large Harkness table in my room (16 feet long, 6 feet wide). It's almost custom made for gaming!

I know they didn't play much role on the battlefield, but I had to get me some Perry guerrilleros!

Rifles, artillery, and Nosey looking the wrong way. This shot has it all!

Hiring a drone for the aerial shot nearly busted my budget...

The 28mm Classroom, Part the Third

Our third day of gaming an anonymous battle in Napoleonic Spain saw the tide turn in favor of the French.

The British Hussars get caught in the rear by French light cavalry without a chance to react.  Despite the huge tactical disadvantage, the Hussars seem to lead a charmed existence and win the melee.

Zack and Carter talk tactics.

French dragoons race past a British square and put Spanish infantry to flight.  Accumulated casualties leave the unit shaken, however, and the wind up behind Anglo-Allied lines without the elan to race back home.

A brigade of British infantry routs under withering French infantry and artillery fire.  

Those crazy British Hussars go after French artillery.  By now, however, the French are able to respond with both infantry and cavalry.

French cavalry and guards smash into what remains of the British line.

Don't move. Don't look away. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead... 

The 28mm Classroom, Part II

The battle continues.  Note that my daughter has chosen to deploy not just the TARSDIS, but 28mm Cybermen, Daleks,a nd Weeping Angels I got for my birthday.  Zack couldn't make this session, SO Carter was left playing the French by himself.

That is not our usual school uniform. In the week leading up to homecoming, we have special theme days to build spirit. This was taken on "Throwback Thursday."  Anyhow, Carter has seen the hole in the British line and has charged the hapless Spanish. One battalion was thrown back in disarray, but the reserve unit behind it was able to stand, despite heavy casualties. 

The results of the charge.  The reserve dragoons ignored the square of British light infantry. They're about to discover what an enfilade is.

Emily has successfully engaged the French Chasseurs a cheval, and now she contemplates that, with the forces being roughly equal, the survival of the British flank rests on a 50-50 chance.

Annnnnnd...one squadron of French light cavalry disintegrates! In BP terms, each side inflicted four (!) casualties on each other.  Emily then successfully rolled   four morale saves, while Carter failed all four, then blew his break test.  Good thing that two of my gamers are taking a course in Probability and Statistics, so we can calculate exactly how unlikely that outcome was...

The 28mm Classroom

My Simulation Games "minimester" is about halfway over. To those new to my blog, I have been granted permission to offer a course in historical gaming to high school students. We meet once or twice a week. Thus far we have done a 28mm Pirate game and a 10mm WWII game. It was time to break out the big guns: Napoleonics.  We're using Black Powder to play this one. Quick, easy to learn, and despite the artificiality of "I go, you go" rules, the natural breaks in play are great when you have to stop after playing for an hour and  wait a few days for the next session.

The Spanish brigade gets ready for the battle.  Note the artsy photo effects I used in this batch of photos. I am not likely to use them again...

A brigade of British foot.  This was pretty much a meeting engagement over a field with minimal terrain. Because I need my table for teaching, I was not able to deploy the full 6' width of my boards.

More British.  I tried a different color effect with this photo.  I should just stop trying to be clever.

The guy on the right just dropped in to the class because he had a free period. He'll be back, he said.  Meanwhile, CJ shakes his infantry out into a firing line. Impressive, but he did not leave himself much of a reserve.

The British cavalry was outnumbered 2:1 in this game. On the British right, Emily tries to use her light dragoons to draw  the French light horse away from the British line of infantry.

Looks like a successful tactic, if the can close in time...

meanwhile, there is no cavalry on the British right to distract the dragoons. CJ quickly learned the value of a square, but the French player then realized that he could redeploy artillery to take advantage of the stalemate.

The Spanish plod forward. With the Light Brigade pinned down by cavalry, that hole on the right is awfully tempting for the other squadron of French dragoons. Tune in next time...