19th June 1815-Napoleonics

Paul,Brian and I met last night to play a Napoleonic game,but before I start the narrative,I must tell you,that one of our number,and I won't say who(but it's not myself or Brian!) is a qualified Health and Safety (NEBOSH) expert-the kind of person who you wouldn't dream would cause an Ecological,Environmental and Medical catastrophe-or would he?-Well,our NEBOSH "person" decided to put a plastic(yes,plastic) template that we use to determine cannister fire,on top of one of the heaters in the garage!!-Can anyone guess what happened next?? Amid coughing and spluttering (and a bit of laughing!) Brian had to be given the "kiss of life"-Paul and I refused to do it,so we got next door's dog,and to be quite honest,they both seemed to enjoy it!!
Anyway,on with the game.I built up a scenario around Napoleon being injured and getting treatment in a Farm house,surrounded by what was left of his demoralised Army,and the Allies of Prussia and Britain attacking and attempting to either capture him or prevent him from leaving the board within 10 moves-I was French,Brian was a combination of Prussian and British,and Paul was in charge of the rest of the British forces.

The centre of the French line,anchored on the Farm and to the right a village occupied by the French Guard-Brian had the onorous task of attacking the village with his Prussians,and a damned good job he made of it too!!

Napoleon is in the farm house with his Faithful Guard-the Ambulance is to the right,on the road,but Paul is putting in a grand attack against the Farm and my left flank-his Scot's Greys are poised and lurking,ready to take advantage of any weakness in my line.

Poised and Lurking!!-will they get an opportunity to charge??

This is a good shot of the battle for the village-the melees swung both ways for a long time,then Brian eventually captured the village,and I had to rush reinforcements from my centre to try and stabilise that flank.Meanwhile in the centre Paul has driven away a battery of guns plus their supporting Hussars-woe is me,but can I hang on and get Napoleon out-the clock is ticking!!

Paul is piling the pressure on!-He has had the audacity to actually attack the Farm-silly boy,that's the cream of my army in there,and it's almost time for Napoleon to get out -his carriage has arrived-hurrah!!

The low morale ratings are beginning to tell on the French centre,I am losing the fire fight,and the village is taken,but the "Man" is galloping off down the road-I may have just done enough to save him-another hurrah!!

A final shot-Brian looks dejected,but he shouldn't be(maybe he's missing next door's dog!!)-he has won his flank,Paul has destroyed my centre,but,and it's a big but,Napoleon has escaped-double hurrahs!!
Although,theoretically,I had won the game by achieving the objective,we 
were all declared the winner of this very exciting and tense game-well done lads!!

I will be the first to admit that Napoleonics is not my favourite of periods to wargame,but last night's game was very good,and I enjoyed it-roll on Sunday,I don't know what we will be playing,although I have been working on a couple of projects during the week-it's great being retired you know!!