Tuesday, 3 April 2012

The Battle of Boars Back - A Napoleonic batrep


The Battle of Boars Back 1813 A Fictional batrep

Wellington has been pushing the French back towards the Pyrenees, the French Commander Marshal Rousell has been given the task to hold the advancing British led by Col Lee at a large hill named Boars Back, just 1 mile from the French border.
The French second in command was Col Biglee, while the British second in command was the newly instated Lt Col Diggery. Although halfway through the battle Lt Col Diggery trod on a pebble and had to be replaced by the newly commissioned Ensign Jack.

Postie literally brought the curtain down, which he hasn't done for a long time. I'll explain, high above the middle of the table we have a curtain, which when lowered cuts the table in half, this is great for Fog of War, as you haven't a clue what troops you face, where they are deployed or even what the terrain looks like!!!!

I took stacks of pics for this game, so I thought I'd try a pictorial batrep for a change?? Hope you like it!!






67 comments:

  1. Nice batrep. though sometimes the text was too long and I couldn't read everything before the new pic arrived.

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  2. I couldn't work out how to slow the pictures down, but you can always press the pause button, then forward when you've read the text.

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    1. This is very very very cool. The pictures didn't move to fast on my end.

      Very cool.

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  3. Great report Ray. Very nice way of doing it too. Excelent photos.

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  4. Marechal Rousell does sort of flow off the tongue. I may borrow it...

    Excellent bat rep though and the presentation works well too, nice one!

    Your header text needs changing btw, it doesn't stand out too well against the background.

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  5. Ray, I think we were on a hiding-to-nothing from the beginning! And loosing a whole Cavalry Battalion in the first couple of turns pretty much ****ed up any chance I had of giving the Brits a hard time on our left flank. I'm still in shock how bad those dice rolls were!

    Next game we need to sacrifice a goat to the dice gods before the game!!

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    1. Cavalry brigade!!!! Not battalion, which is a hell of a lot worse!!

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  6. Nice job, Ray. Still having fun...huh?!

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  7. Great pictures and report.

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  8. lol your banner caught my eye, havent you been 42 for over a year... and great pics. i like this play by play pic action.

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    1. 42 for nearly 2 years now, but I'll always be 42 in my waistline!!

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  9. Novel batrep for a great game!

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  10. A very interesting battle report, Ray. Thank you a lot.

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  11. Fortunately there was the pause button! This is a very interesting report, with lots of suspense...and fog!
    What will happen to MarƩchal Roussel after that?
    Thanks for that report!

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  12. Great report, I really enjoyed it. Don't expect any clever curtain makery when you pop down to the Rainham club.

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  13. Great battle report! Thanks for sharing!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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  14. well done, nice work on the battle action.

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  15. The fog looked to be particularly difficult to deal with. I like the slide show battle report although I did get a little lost on who was who.

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  16. Great way to do a batrep. Love that French command stand.

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  17. Great report, Ray. The pictures were outstanding and the text was very good. Let's hope Nappy doesn't order Marshall Roussell's execution "pour l'encouragement des autres". :)

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    1. MarƩchal Rousell was hailed a hero of France, for his part in the defence of Boars Back, and lived to the ripe old age of 99, fighting many more battles for the Emperor.

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  18. What rules were you using? You probably mentioned it but I could not find it.

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    1. Chris, we use Posties own version of General de Brigade.

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  19. I double clicked on this and it took me up to the album site which was great. The lettering was big enough to see there and it didn't scroll automatically. Ray, this took a lot of effort for you to put together for us and I enjoyed it. Thank you!!

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    1. No probs, I enjoyed doing it this way, it made a change.

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  20. Now that is a clever way of doing things; hats off to you Ray. Great looking game too, lots of fun!
    .

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  21. Great report Ray. Good flow and narrative with excellent miniatures.
    A thought.....your "orders" markers pipe cleaners? A bit too "visible" and detracts from the miniatures. Maybe try this... we use a marker under the commander base color coded for the "commands" orders. A "command" in our game is flexible...could be a Division, a Brigade, groups of battalions etc. Green marker = march, Yellow = engage at distance from enemy (skirmish only), Red = attack the enemy...close combat to push enemy or destroy, Orange = defend a zone with possible close combat. The Senior commanders have two orders...Black= advance position to push enemy back, White= defend only present position. The order markers also have limits or constraits to what formations the units can use without penalty. Every unit has the ability to "violate their general order" with a penalty applied to the player side....but that is another subject.

    Great game!!
    Cheers Michael aka WR

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    1. Some good ideas WR, I'll pass these ideas on to Postie.

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  22. Great report Ray! Slideshow worked a treat and glad to see the British Army once again teaching the Frogs a lesson or two!

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  23. Very nice report. That is an impressive table.

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  24. Nice report. I like the new format too. Well done.

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    1. Its different to my usual reports, although I couldn't put all the info onto the pictures that I'd like to have done, but I think it worked!!

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  25. Good looking game sir! What rules were you using?

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    1. We use Posties own version of General de Brigade, he's simplified some of the basics and added his own bits and bibs to them.

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  26. Very inventive report and nice looking game!

    Christopher

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  27. Very nicely done, Ray. I really enjoyed your battle report. The arrival/revelation of the British Guards must have been a bit of a wet blanket for the poor French.

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  28. Great slideshow and great batrep.

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  29. Good show, Ray. Not sure I understand that plastic template you showed early on. Were movement directions randomized in this game, and if so, why?
    Otherwise looks great and I love the curtain. Clever.
    Cheers,
    Mike

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    1. During the first 4 turns of the game, when the curtain was down, there was thick fog, we knew the enemy was somewhere to the front and had to advance. Each turn, the leading unit in each brigade had to throw a D6, then move 6 inches in the direction thrown ie a 3 or 4 meant straight ahead, while a 6 meant they veered of to the right. This gave the effect of getting lost in the fog and worked very well. Postie then threw a die each turn for the fog to lift, which it did on turn 4, otherwise as soon as a unit hit the curtain it would then lift.

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  30. Great way of showing the batrep...might have to try this myself

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  31. Love the slideshow. How do you set it up?

    Looks like a really fun game.

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    1. Its very easy really at the moment that is!! I uploaded my pics to my Picasa web page, then viewed them as a slideshow, then click the link on the right to " link this album", then clicked "embed slideshow". You are then given a few option as to how big you want the link and are given some text to copy and paste on your blogpost....easy!!! But??? Picasa is closing soon and I can't find the similar links on my Google+ page, so I'm not sure if I can do it again.
      Hope this helps!!

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    2. How soon is Picassa closing guess I need to dead head a bunch a pics off my page arent these the guys that run flickr?

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    3. I think it was yesterday that Picassa closed, all your pics should be on your Google +, account, so there's no need to panic.....I hope???

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  32. Good looking game Ray, like the pictorial format too. The lowering curtain idea is good and one I may borrow for my gamesroom.

    Curiosity has got the better of me - you blog states you are in Gravesend Kent. The 'Lurkers' states he's in Ireland, yet you guys seem to get together for games so often, I just wonder who the 'frequent flyer' is?

    Keep up the good blogging!

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    1. The Lurkers a dirty liar!!! he does come from Ireland, but he's lived in Gravesend for around 11 years now, not sure I can put up with him for another 11 years though???

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  33. good effort. but the french lost. of and that was not the most flattering picture of fran was it :-P

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  34. Very good story with the pictures, i like it !

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  35. Sounds like some of your terrible rolls have given you a taste of what my NORMAL rolls are like.

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  36. Nice Batrep, Ray, and a great idea for that Fog of War - think i'll adapt this for further games!

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  37. Yes, I did like this! But.. executive decision? Lol

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  38. Looked to be a great game. Neat way to have the pics doing

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  39. Great battle report as always Ray.

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  40. Entertaining report as always. Got to love that BIG hill :-)

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  41. Looking good! I really like the curtain idea!

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  42. Superbly done Ray, I like the fog of war!

    John

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  43. thats a big old hill, An enjoysblr read Ray thanks

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  44. Great looking table, interesting "Fog" of war with the curtain (an oldie but goodie technique), and an excellent report, Ray. Thanks for posting it!

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  45. I have never seen so many posts interesting fog of war diagram and the curtain would make for an interesting game how many turns until the fog lifted (if they were on a road how did that effect your die roll?

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    1. We had 4 or 5 turns until the fog lifted, Postie threw a die each turn, on a 1 it would lift the next turn. The troops who started on a road didn't have to roll a die, they just followed the road blindly.

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