Bach-Sachenkrach's First One - Sharp Practice Game #1

Today I played my first game of Sharp Practice at our final NWA meeting for 2019 at Croydon RSL.
I played a brave Prussian contingent against a gang of pernicious Frenchmen commanded by Andrew (one of my previous General d'Armee opponents!). Another Andrew, who I've seen at the club but only got to know today, umpired the game with his experience of Sharp Practice in hand.

I set up a pretty basic table because I wanted to keep things simple and easy to negotiate for this test game. I used a basic downloaded list for 1814 Prussians with 2 commands of a pair of infantry groups and a third command with a unit of skirmishing fusiliers and a unit of schutzen (Prussian riflemen). Andrew's French had an equivalent force with 2 commands of a pair infantry groups and two units of skirmishing voltigeurs. We both had a Level 3 commander, two level 2 and two level 1 commanders.

This was a simple Encounter Scenario - We rolled and both had a starting Force Morale of 10. The French entered the table in a small orchard behind the central building and the Prussians on a road by the castle.

To The Sound of The Guns!

The fight started with lots of French chits being pulled which enabled them to deploy voltigeurs into the orchard and line infantry behind. The first Prussian schutzen appeared on the road followed by a column of musketeers lead by the newly appointed: Leutnant Bach-Sachenkrach.

Keen to impress The Major, the young leutnant halted, dressed his troops, and promptly tripped over a rabbit hole (three flags and a random event).

The skirmishers of each side took up positions and began a lively fire with the French coming off the better. Picking himself up our brave young hero, dusted himself off and eyed his men with a withering glare. He turned smartly to his front and promptly tripped in another rabbit hole (another random event) and ended up back on his arse.

Not the prestigious start to his career that Bach-Sachenkrach had envisioned.

Meanwhile The Major had arrived and lead his men into the central meadow. The skirmishing continued with the schutzen now gaining the upper hand but advancing slowly. The sergeant leading the voltigeurs had taken a light would which reduced his command capabilities.

Opposite the Prussian commander the French had advanced with great haste to a hedge and took up position behind the cover. The Major formed his men into line and advanced! A chance taken, and The Major (now with 4 flags) opened fire on the French causing considerable injury to his foes. A firefight ensued with both sides giving and taking minor casualties & shock.

Needing no further direction our young hero moved up to join his superior officer and... trod in a massive cow turd (a 3rd random event!). With dung up to his knee he waded forward into the battle line.

As young Bach-Sachenkrach finally moved into place The Major brought his own troops back to form a powerful firing line. They pummeled the French and smoke filled the meadow. Maybe it was confusion caused by the smoke but a cry rang out and Frenchmen left their cover with intent and swarmed forward (another random event) only to be met with a withering volley than sent them tumbling back over their hedge.

The skirmish fight continued with one unit of voltigeurs taking considerable casualties and shock broke and routed. A random shot rang out (yet another event!) and the French colonel who had moved to support his skirmishers was lightly wounded.

As the unequal firefight in the meadow continued the French commander decided to vacate the field and left it to the victorious Prussians whilst still in good order.

And so, Leutnant Bach-Sachenkrach, in his first action, looked sidelong at his commanding officer and thought to himself: I survived!

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Conclusion:
Being my first game of Sharp Practice this was really a leaning process. It was fun and some entertaining events happened. I feel that the generic army lists are a bit wanting and could use some tweaking. The random nature of activation makes every move uncertain which I quite like. I took a gamble with moving my troops up in the center hoping to get 4 flags and the ability to activate them again. It paid off. But there were a few times that I found my troops floundering.

As far as command and control are concerned I can see that you really need your commanders in the right place. My skirmishers were difficult to control because I couldn't form them into a single formation due to them being different types (fusiliers and schutzen). The French didn't have this problem. I ended up moving the fusiliers back and out of the fight. Andrew, on the other hand, moved his level 3 commander up to support his skirmishers which left half of his line infantry floundering and unable to maneuver into a firing position. That was a pretty major mistake.

During the long firefight, I was also able to manage the shock with my level 1 & 2 subordinate commanders. Remembering to use the Flags is important and I feel I got the hang of this fairly quickly and tried to use them any time I could, often just to use Sharp Practice and get my rifles re-loaded.

I'm hoping to play another game sometime soon to get the rules firmly embedded into my thick skull and also to see what may happen next to the brave Leutnant Bach-Sachenkrach.

Thank you to Andrew & Andrew for the game. I really enjoyed it. I also won which does make it easy to enjoy the game just that little bit more.

EDIT:
Some extra photo's stolen from NWA member Russell.

See that fine, handsome fellow in dark Prussian blue.

 And a somewhat larger Napoleonic affair on the opposite side of the room.