The 'Sharp Practice' Forum ~ View topic

Our second run of the scenario was last weekend at the NHMGS ENFILADE convention in Olympia Wa. I had changed the scenario a bit to make it a liitle harder for Sharpe to get into the church by putting a Group of 10 French inside the church instead of just two Sentries. .Perhaps it was too hard. Sharpe never made it into the church and Harper was seriously wounded.

The Brits didn't seem to want to get into Fisticuffs and although they could have outnumbered the French in the Church by 4 to 1, they chose instead trade volleys with the Frenchmen inside. Although Sharpe never recovered the Sacred Undergarments, the French didn't capture Sharpe either and I'm not sure if they could have prevented him from getting off the table. I called it a draw, with the Brits taking the worst of it.

Here are the British Line, very close to the Church, Sharpe's Group and them Harper's Group. Spanish have entered on road on Blinds.

Below are the Frech players. Lieutenant Fontenoy has gotten his Group out of the Tavern. Lt Bronski and the Poles are not really on the table yet, but you can see them there waiting to get deployed. Also waiting his Major Pierre Dufos with his Group off table.

This is much later in the game. The Polish Lancers are attacking Harper's Group for the second time after inflecting a few casualties and Shock from first fisticuffs with them. Spanish are in square. Rocket Battery is Deployed, but not loaded. The Poles are advancing in Column. Sharpe is still hanging around not doing much.

Here you see the British line firing at the church. Again, I don't know why the Brit's didn't just charge, even though I gave them a lot of encouragement and hints to do so. Who knows what goes on in Gamer's minds. The Rocket Battery was the highlight of the game. The first round went sailing over the river to far edge of table and exploded harmlessly in an empty part of the table. Not so the second round. It went out about twenty inches, took a right turn and landed right at edge of table exactly midway between the British Line and Major Dufos' French shown here. It killed a few Brits and French, but the French took a hell of a lot of Shock points from it. The third Rocket went out 4 inches and exploded taking out some of the hapless Spaniards next to it. Bottom line, Rockets are a lot of fun, but pretty much useless and dangerous to friend and foe alike.

Lancers take it to Harper's Group for the last time. harper was seriously wounded and his Group "lost their bottle".

Lt Fontenoy's Group never really made it into action although his artillery did do some damage. Neither side seemed very aggressive, but I think that was due to the slow rate of movement caused by not having your Big Man's card come up. remember if you activate on the Tiffin card you can't move, just reform, reload or shoot. I'm thinking of a house rule to allow one die of movement on Tiffin card and let Big Men use Initiative points to give troops extra movement dice. It just takes too long to get into action, unless you start close.

End of Game. Harper's Group is gone, Poles are advancing, but Sharpe and British Line troops are still intact. Everyone seemed to have fun. They had a lot of trouble understanding the difference between Big Man's Initiative and a Group's Activation. Towards end, I think they had it down pretty good. If you put a game with newbies, you should explain that concept thoroughly with examples before playing the game.

Mitch Berdinka

One of the reasons for 'Sharpe's' hesitancy to assault the church might be that a great many wargamers develop a mindset of numbers and best uses of forces. The strength of the riflemen is in their rifles. To sling them and go into fisticuffs seems abhorrent. Part and parcel of this training that we undergo is to teach us to take the practical approach, the conservative approach, over the swashbuckling approach.

I've spent several turns pulling my hair out as GM while watching my rifles' players do the exact same behaviour when all they had to do to get a win was to send a single Big Man running forward to scamper over a wall and light a fuse. Instead they use him to order the rifles to shoot at distant troops that are so shocked that they can be of no further consequence.

That delay in getting people into fights is what I tried to address with my road movement rule, allowing troops that follow a road to be able to move on Tiffin. It isn't to give them an advantage but to allow them to play.

Another thing that keeps people out of combat is that they don't pay close attention to weapon ranges. Those rifles are shotting 36" but in my experience, they (and even lines of fusiliers) don't start firing until they get within a foot.

Looks like a great time was had by all. I will be trying again soon. I put a bid of Â£60 on 32 28mm Prussians and won so I will have to do those after finishing my British and French figures.

Looking at your game make me want to get right back into it.

Brilliant stuff

Craig

Big Man! Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 15

Lovely looking game. I haven't trtied this scenario yet, but it it is definitely on my to do list.
I agree on the activation/initiative thing. I find it the most difficult part of the rules to get new players to understand.
Pat

I find that one thing that helps is to not let the players say things like 'I order them to move' but instead force them to say 'He activates them' and then 'They will use two actions to move.' Do this right from turn one.