A Scottish Adventure 1810

Last night saw 7 of us start a very unusual Napoleonic game,a look at the scenario will explain!

We drew lots,and Graham was Hill,Paul was Ackland leaving Richard as Wellington,whilst Dave was Munro(clan leader),Michael was Soult,and Brian was Grouchy-I was the "umpire" and believe me trying to control 6 experienced blokes around a wargames table is not easy!!

This is a shot of the table,before any movement-each player was given a note telling them what they commanded and little bits of info. on the troops they had-for example,Munro(Dave) couldn't move his troops until move 3-because Munro was having his breakfast in the castle!!

After a five minute discussion,both side drew up a battle plan,and the game started-this shows move number 1,with Hill deploying to protect the stream crossing against the majority of the Clans.

The British battle plan called for Hill to guard the crossing places,but he got carried away and actually crossed the stream just as the Clans arrived,and a mass brawl erupted!!-The Scots Greys were told in their note,that the Clans could not stand up to a charge-so we all expected the Clan in front of them to get Slaughtered-however the Greys decided to charge the approaching Hussars instead!Meanwhile things were moving along nicely across the whole of the board,with lots of movement,especially from Michael,who had decided to move the 3 Clans under his control,across the board to the centre-excellent stuff!

A "pensive-looking" French team-Paul has moved a number of his troops around the far flank-can Michael react in time?? Richard has got his troops into a good position,and is awaiting the French onslaught.

The out-flanking move is shown here,Michael did manage to get his infantry into square and his Hussars to move against the threat-however Paul's "demonic" dice throwing tipped the scales in his favour,and eventually the flank was won-but not without a good show from the French!!

Munro has devastated Hill's incursion over the stream-the Rifles have been seen off,the 92nd have been beaten in melee,and the Scots Greys have been forced to retire out of the game.
The central position is being fiercely contested,and it it needed was a forceful push from Brian's command-would he do something dynamic??

We'll have to wait to find out..........
The battle raged on in the centre and right flank-this was intense stuff-come on Brian!!

Oh!! he's formed square on top of the hill!!-well I suppose from that position he can get a nice view of the rest of the battlefield!!!!
Paul's nice little out-flanking manoeuvre is now complete,and the Clans under Munro are exhausted,it looks like the end for the French "adventure".

This is a shot of Michael's troops in all kinds of "bother" and the rear of Brian's troops about to be "compromised"-well done to all who took part-it's difficult when an unusual game like this is played,it requires a bit of give and take,and acceptance that unusual things and situations will arise.
Roll on Thursday,Brian and I will be playing in the morning,but,as Paul is flying off to Crete tomorrow,we probably won't be playing at night(?)