Skirmish at Dos Casas

It's a little delayed but here is my report of the second game we played over the Christmas break.   Andy and Richard Sangar and Rob Connolly joined Jamie and me for another game of Sharp Practice.

The set up was another go, with some adjustments at the scenario that was upset by random events earlier in the year.  I'd changed the forces slightly, giving the British an extra big man and two 8-man units of rifles rather than one 12-man unit.  The gave me a first chance to use Major Hector McLeod. Of course, like all new units he came to a sticky end, as we shall see.

The table featured the small riverside hamlet of Dos Casas ("Two Houses" - there being two houses and an inn).  The bridge at Dos Casas was important because it would be need for escape or pursuit in the event of a decisive result in tomorrow's main action.

At this stage we can see that the French have no troops on this side of the river.
The British riflemen have been spotted and deployed on-table.

The action reached an early climax when the Major McLeod tried to lead a bunch of his lads through the front door of the inn just after the French had entered from the rear.

The result was a melee that went on for two rounds with casualties shared evenly before, at the third attempt, the French managed to repel the rosbifs.

The French have taken the inn!

Oh, dear!  The blinds approaching Dos Casas prove
to include a unit of dragoons!  The British infantry
are in trouble!

The Dragoons charge towards the Rifles!  

Eventually the British line infantry were forced to recoil from in front of the inn as the French were able to get just too many musket barrels in a position to fire upon them.  The Dragoons surged across the bridge and charged into the Rifles.  Cavalry - even the few who got there on the first round - against unformed infantry is always going to bloody and the Rifles took heavy casualties before bolting to the terraced hill behind them.  

The Rifles were still intact as a unit but they were too few to have any hope of taking the bridge so we called time on a clear French victory!

For those interested the figures were a mixture of 20mm plastics from Airfix, HaT, Esci/Italeri, Revell, and Zvezda.