Peninsular bash - the knock out round!

Chris was back with us this week, readers will be pleased to hear his back is better - poor petal.
He joined Portuguese Tony while I joined up with French Tony to conclude this game.

Seeing his predicament on the hilltop Chris pulled a rarely used rule out of his hat - the refused flank.
This had us all running for rulebooks and sure enough some units can refuse a flank as shown above, a formation test was required but duly passed as the dice show.

I am no expert on Napoleonic battalion or company level drill and tactics so have no frame of reference for this tricksy kind of maneuver - suffice to say it got him out of a scrape, for now...

Next Chris re-deployed his skirmishers to cover his rear while the Westphallins lined out to engage the Lights in a firefight.
The Nassauers and Poles climb the hillside to attack.
Reinforcements arrive in the form of Doombar - a most welcome reserve.  

On the French right things had got a bit messy and many units were intermingled with enemies having been drawn out of line or pushed back in unlikely directions. The French battery here was lost here last week. 

The Portuguese who were so out of place last week now arrive to cause some consternation to the French. 

The Portuguese battery did not fire at all last week - very poorly deployed! But now it has to fire canister at the double as Westphalian Lights and French Hussars threaten to overrun it.   

This shot depicts the whole of the French right hand side of this game.
What a glorious shambles! 

Piedmontese skirmishers take pot shots at passing Portuguese from the walled vineyard.
Pretty scene - no one got hurt.

The Portuguese Skirmishers charged the French skirmish line.
The Poles charged the Scots; the Nassauers were halted by effective closing fire. 

Pop!
That was it, the Scots were pushed back off the hill and the Allies conceded a losing draw.
The Portuguese battery dispersed the Westphalian Lights with canister but were in turn cut down by the charging hussars.
Time for Allies to disengage and the French to sort out their scattered units. This dusty track is theirs, for now.    

That was very quick by our standards but no less fun for it. So much fun in fact that we changed sides, re-rolled for the general's abilities, re-rolled for random deployment and started again immediately.

I'll write that one up when it's all over so we don't get this fragmented nonsense, there's no need for it at this level. We tried out some ideas I have had on more varied generals ability which I might share and seek feedback for from regular and experienced General de brigade players.

Next time we should work out the divisional break points so we don't end up with a last man standing style game - this isn't Warhammer after all. Also we should sort out the ADC rules a bit more clearly. Frankly that's part of why we're doing this and it seems to be a good method of play testing various elements and some existing rules like the refused flank we saw earlier. All good clean fun.

Have a great weekend, best wishes,

Jeremy