Our first go at Grand Armee for quite some time took place last night. Mark put on a historic scenario (I don't know which one as I was too busy eating my Big Tasty from Macdonalds) - but it involved the British during the Peninsula War hiding in the hills - with the Light Division defending a nearby town as the French army approached.
Russ had apparently played this scenario as the British before - so I was the British this time and he was the dastardly French.
We were very rusty with the rules and Mark was free with helpful advice.
As play started I tried to extract the Light Division and bring it back to the hills (without exposing its rear). Russ' pips were a problem and he found it hard to get moving initially.
As the ponderous French advance came forward I did a bit of shuffling behind the hilltop but it became clear that Russ was putting most of his strength on my right (where the Light Division was retreating) so I decided to turn my leftmost brigade around and move it to the right.
As I did so, Russ then started moving his right columns onto my left - so I had to turn the leftmost Brigade around again - and saw a big French fist swinging round on my right.
Old Big Nose was running around - trying to save the Light Division from the French fist and also to be on hand should the French make the mistake of attacking the heights.
Then the big event. Russ had his right flank move in column to attack my left (on Mark's shady advice about stretching the defence). As it was, his troops were flank on to the Guards and some other hefty divisions on the hill. To paraphrase the Duke of Wellington, I qouthed 'By Jove, that't it!', snapped the telescope shut and rampaged the full line (about 8 units including cannon) to swamp the unfortunate French.
An unholy tussle ensued (in which the Guards died bravely to a man) but the attack took out 4 French units. The rest ran off in disarray and were caught and killed in turn (including forcing one to surrender). The one Division that didn't come down the hill were the ones who'd done a 180 degree manouvre previously. Old Big Nose grabbed them and led them to support the flank of the Divisions holding the right side of the hill (being threatened by the Fist). This left no gap to exploit and meant Russ faced a really hard fight at a disadvantage.
On my fragile right flank, Russ' hefty cavalry arm threatened the Light Division - but Russ' dice again let him down and his attack bogged down. Rather than take on the Light Division, he aimed to get them throuh a narrow gap and into the space behind the hill. Unfortunately the rest of his infantry failed to move fast enough and the cavalry became isolated. As a consequence the Light Division pounced and managed to trap the cavalry. Damage was inflicted and it looked terrible for France.
The break point was 8 units. Russ had already lost 6 1/2 and it looked like a couple more may be lost from his cavalry. The British left could now swing unopposed around the hill to hit the Fist in the flank in any event - and the French were bound to lose more trying to take the hill.
Russ sportingly conceded defeat.
It was a really good evening. The size of battle was just right (completed in 2 1/2 hours) and got us back into the Grand Armee swing. We both learned a lot and - hopefully - a month of Grand Armee campaigns will see us much more proficient.
It was a rule set I wasn't sure about but I feel a lot happier about them now.