Battle of december

We recently played another game of Black Powder at our club. As my collection grows, so does our games, and this one was the largest battle we fought so far, with about 1700 points per side.

Because I didn't have enough british to face the full strength of my current french army, I added a brigade of austrians to help balance things up.

This is the aspect of the table at deployment, with the british on the right of the pic, commanded by me, facing a french army commanded by my friend Rodrigo, whose gallant silhouette we can see a bit of.

Under the early lights of dawn, the lines of brunswickers and british infantry stand to face the french columns forming accross the field.

Each side had 5 brigades, one of horse, 2 centre brigades of infantry and 2 flank brigades. Above, we see the british left flank, with their horses opposing the french cavalry on their right flank.

The french left flank ready to advance towards the austrian lines, which constitute the allied far right forces.

The vision of the field from the french side.

Austrians ready for battle.

The battle begins with the french advancing quickly on the left side of the field, but failing to show the same effectiveness on the right flank. The allied army deploy their artillery to wear down the advancing french columns, leaving their lines at the ready on the back of their formation.

Much to Lord Wellington's surprise, the rockets get to land a couple perfect shots at the enemy columns, putting them in great distress early in the game. But that was about it. For the rest of the game they couldn't get another straight shot for the life in them (and it did cost them just that, in the end...).

The british heavies are sent to flank the french forces and strike at their cavalry, with their dedicated artillery covering their advance.

The left flank brigade of the french army quickly makes its way accross the field. The austrian artillery is destroyed and the columns march on towards the austrian lines.

At the centre, british artillery continue to pound at the enemy's columns, with the added support of the 95th Rifles, bravely fighting in the midst of the french forces. Those men would prove their fame during this game, holding their position despite all odds, and continuing to put the french in disorder with their effective rifle fire.

Another heroic stand would come from the austrian grenadiers, who repelled a combined charge of 2 french regiments, putting them to flight and effectively breaking their brigade.

But from that point on, the battle took a turn to the french side. Their columns would soon reach the allied lines at the centre, and the Iberian brigade of spanish and portuguese forces would soon be overflown by the wave after wave of french columns.

In the left centre of the field, the french brigades were also getting past the british artillery and marching on towards their lines.

Here, the grenadiers of the Old Guard charge at the enemy lines, seemingly impervious to the massive display of enemy musket fire.

"Sir, I believe it would be prudent to get off the way of our own muskets!"

The french centre columns break through the british lines.

The british resist, and put a number of columns to run.

At the left flank of the allied forces, the british heavy cavalry is repeatedly repelled by their french counterparts, and finally break and flee. I don't know what that crop field is doing laying exactly over that rural road. I blame it on the incompetence of the man in charge of setting up the table (yours truly)!

By that point, we decided to call it a draw. We realised we had been rulling the breaking of brigades wrongly, and that each side already had more than half their number broken, so a draw seemed a good enough result to both.

Pretty fun game, as usual, perhaps the last of the year. I look forward to also having a large game with my ancient armies of Romans and Gauls in Hail Caesar in the near future, now that my barbarian forces are large enough to present a decent spectacle on the table. Keep an eye out for them, they'll be showing here soon enough.