Wednesday 19 February 2014

The Battle of Grudge Bridge - A Napoleonic Batrep


 The initial setup

As I mentioned in my last Batrep, The Battle of Fort Joseph, we managed to squeeze in a short but memorable game in after Fort Joesph, we still had a couple of hours to kill before I had to pick up the brats from school, so most of the terrain was cleared and a quick game made up.
Fran wanted to stay as the Brits, and wanted revenge for his mauling at the walls of Fort Joseph, his thinking was the Brits can't lose twice or can they, so I was stuck with the French!
All it boiled down to was, I had to get onto the bridge with my two stands of Pioneers and Fran had to stop me.
Now Fran will agree here, I did whinge a little that I needed another unit on my side, as I was doing the attacking and he'd be standing still firing at me. (typical Fran gameplay!) Postie gave in after much of the said whining and gave me an extra unit, unfortunately, all that was available was a Portuguese unit, (which must have deserted and came over to the French en masse!!)


I knew I'd be in for a hammering, so I decided to sacrifice my right flank and 
steamroller Fran's right flank to try and get to the bridge.


I moved full move forward and kept my artillery limbered, hopefully
Fran would chose the gun to fire at rather than my Infantry, after all it was 
only a piddly little light gun.


Fran  threw well and blew my gun to pieces and moved out around my right flank


It was a weird game rather like a game of chess, I moved forward blocking Fran's left
and bunched in column ready for the charge.


We both made a hash of it now, I moved forward and fired, completely missing 
the line regts and Fran only scored 2 hits! Phew!


So with luck on my side I charged in.........


The tit for tat continued on my right flank, while my sacrificial line unit 
was pushed back in disorder.



I won the melee quite easily and Fran's troops routed,through their own tents.
While my unit carried on its charge into Fran's other unit.


But even though I won the melee, I went down to 50% causing a morale 
check which I promptly failed then I threw bad for the result and ended up routing as well!


Meanwhile, we continued to shoot the sh!t out of each other on my right!!


So onto the charges, the follow up charge worked out in my favour, as I tonked
 Fran's troops who then routed! But we had the reverse result in the next melee.
for the first real time in the day my dice let me down, I should have won on averages, but them 
dice gods reared their ugly heads and kicked me in the crackers!!
Routing my unit!


Now we both didn't expect this, two routing units on each side!


So it was time to test morale for the routing units, now we're not quite sure what 
Postie was upto here, because he tried to give Fran a +1 for the commander next to the routed unit!
What bloody commander??


"That commander" pointed Postie
Postie "its a bloody pot of soup you blind git!!!!"
He then denied even saying it???


Disaster!!!!
For us both as all 4 of the routing units fled off table!!
But?
Miraculously we both passed our divisional checks!
I placed 2 d6 on the table showing 6's for mine, You should have heard the roar from Fran
You cheatin' bastard!!!! Throw them properly Gods wills you a double 1 for cheating!!
I then threw a double 6, Fran's face was a picture!

But after all that, at least it left it open for me to get to the bridge


Which I did!


But then Postie changed my winning goal, wtf??? 
Now I had to throw a dice to see if i blew the bridge up
All I needed was a 4+ on a d6 to blow the bridge and end the game as a win
I threw a ......




3

Sod it!!

64 comments:

  1. You and Fran always have such entertaining encounters on the battlefield! What I wouldn't trade to witness these events personally.

    Great BatRep!

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  2. I enjoyed that write-up. And laughed at the ending. Sorry for the three though.

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  3. Nice AAR, beautiful minis and terrain, I really like the river and bridges.
    I always thought it'd be fun to game with the Rejects at Posties, but it seems a lot of crackers get kicked there! ;)

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    1. Cracker kicking is an essential part of the game Dave!

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  4. Great looking game - nice work getting to the bridge!

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  5. So close!!
    And yes, most entertaining write up yet.

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  6. I'm in love with this bridge, really beautiful...so I understand these hard fights around it...Btw, happy to see that someone can change the winning goal in your country too! Great looking game!

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    1. The bridge is from The Last Valley, he makes great terrain!! Are we talking footie here Phil??

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  7. My face was a picture of reserved manliness and as you see cheaters never prosper, how are your crackers by the way?

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  8. Very nice AAR and game table. Fantastic!

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  9. Nice game report lol. I chuckled out loud at the luck you both had! New dice are in order I reckon.

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    1. The dice throwing was pretty awesome on both sides for a change!

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  10. Nice AAR Ray. Bad luck with the final die throw

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  11. Sometimes they just don't go as expected. Bloody dice!

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    1. Absolutely! doesn't help when the umpire changes the winning conditions either!

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  12. Great report, as usual Ray! Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Priceless! A 4+ to win is as close to an auto-lose proposition as there is! Great battle! Thanks man!

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  14. Great stuff, a most entertaining report! Blast those Frenchies!

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  15. Looks like cracking fun Ray. Thanks for sharing. And since Scott is being so objectionable Vive L'Empereur! :-)

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  16. Nice looking game, Ray; Postie's shed never ceases to amaze me!

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  17. Whaaat? After that blood, sweat and tears it all came down to a 50/50 die roll? Great game though!!

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  18. Still trying to find that battle in the history books! As always nice looking game and entertaining AAR Ray!

    Christopher

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  19. New title for your blog. Never throw a 3?

    Nice batrep Ray!

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  20. Excellent report and photos Ray! What an ending......sounds like one of our games!

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  21. A lack of hedges! It all came down to a lack of hedges. Next time Postie offers you a Portuguese unit ask to put a hedge down a little way (18 inches or so) away from the objective, it Will tie up one of Frans units all day long!

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  22. Entertaining report as always, was it Commander Campbell or Heinz 57? and does Postie take backhanders from Fran?

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  23. Very entertaining read but it did seem like Postie continues to be losing the plot and sucking up to Fran a bit, despite your extra unit (Portugese ffs?). Your dice rolling was up and down like a bride's nightie btw.

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    1. I think he felt sorry for sulky Fran, I did rather bash him up in the first game, so I think he let him win!

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  24. Isn't that the way it always goes? The dice never come through for you when you need them the most. Blasted things!

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  25. "its a bloody pot of soup you blind git!!!!" ha ha ha ha. Sometimes a fantastic set up like yours can cause the scenery to come alive like a general.
    Usually I end up ignoring a unit and they have gone to becoming a part of the scenery and I only notice them when cleaning up.

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    1. Postie denies all knowledge of the incident!!

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  26. So my takeaway from this is that Fran is at least as good a general as a pot of soup ...

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  27. A hint of vulgar language! Such passion!

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  28. Always refreshing to see a nice Nappies battle! I love that river and bridge.

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  29. Wow lovely looking battle great terrain.

    John

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  30. Great AAR and great looking game!

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  31. I think you held the moral high ground there Ray!

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