Its been too long.....

Unfortunately various events have conspired against my time to post over the last few months - but with gritted determination i am making some time to add to the blog once again! Apologies for the absence.

                               French in Mexico
First up we have a game of the French Intervention in Mexico, played at the Muswell Hill Militia (home of my fellow gamer Simon AKA big red bat (http://bigredbat.blogspot.com/). We used Simon's terrain boards (some of you might recognise from our ZAMA salute game from 2010), a mix of mine and his terrain and my figures (28mm from a whole host of companies) and the Black Powder Rules. We've played four games using these rules now and we are slowly getting to grips with them. There were four of us for this battle. We decided to play out a republican raid on an Imperial Ammo dump. Simon and myself were to play the brave Republicans, while Ian and Matthew were given the cruel oppressive French backed Imperialist troops.

The republicans were divided into two columns - one led by simon (see his blog for more details (http://myveryownspanishulcer.blogspot.com/) which was charged with taking the supply dump (consisting of some irregular lancers, 2 battalions of militia and an artillery piece) and the other led by yours truly (made up of some line cavalry, some skirmishers, 2 battalions of state militia and a band of irregulars) to try and act as a blocking force to stop any relief forces.  Watching over the supply dump was Matthew's Mexican general with some skirmishers, an artillery piece and some loyal local indians - all supported by a battalion of French Turcos. Ian commanded the French flying column sent out to protect the vital supplies - Ian's French commander had a squadron of Mexican lancers, 2 battalions of French Infantry and a unit of Foreign Legion. He also had soem dreaded 'bluecoats' or  Chasseurs d'Afrique.

My Republican column enters the scene - the Imperial Supply Dump can be seen in the background.

My general coaxing his troops into action.

My troops deployed to screen Simon's column as they assaulted the village. My plan was for Simon to seize the supplies before the French had time to punch through my positions. I sent out my skirmishers way ahead of my main force in an attempt to disrupt Ian's french advance. The plan worked better than i thought as a tentative charge by the French Chassuers was driven back by accurate skirmisher fire - hurrah!

    My bold skirmishers - revelling in the fact that the 'bluecoats' turned on their tailcoats.

Behind me things were not going so well - Simon's irregular lancers failed to show the Imperialist allied Indians the error of their ways - in fact it was the lancers who pulled back against heavy melee fighting. Meanwhile the Imperial artillery was keping the heads of the republican militia down and they were making slow progress.

                            The Imperialist Supply Dump

My general gritted his teeth as the French units entered the table - then watched in amazement as they stopped. Whether the French commander was assessing the battlefield or emptying his confiscated cognac collection his troops failed to advance. My skirmishers continued to put on a good show and i advanced a unit of militia to support them.

                                Hold on were coming boys!

More disaster behind me - Simons lancers retreated off the table (whether due to the embaressment of their efforts or the advance of the enemy is still being debated). The imperialist skirmishers were adding insult to injury to their artillery fire and it was taking longer than we had hoped to launch an attack on the enemy positions. When it finally came off - while the skirmishers were defeated - but the enemy artillery and the French Turcos resisted efforts to wrestle the supplies away. Not even a 'follow me boys' from the Republican commander had any effect. To add further insult the allied Indians took up a position to pour fire into Simons flank. It didnt look good.

Simons troops stopped in their tracks......they can smell the supplies.....

Back in my sector, the French came to life (obviously the alcohol had run dry) and Ian ordered his infantry to form line. My heroic skirmishers took some withering fire - but by some miracle stood their ground still! The militia sent up to support them also caught some lead and wouldnt advance any further.

                             The French advance!

Simon's remaining Republican troops were now a mixture of shaken and disorded due to the fire they were taking and just wouldnt advance any further. The French were now moving and looking to swat my holding force aside with European distaste.

      Imperial Mexican line lancers support the French advance!

At this juncture we called it a night - an Imperialist win it was. Boo hiss! Another fun game - we quite like Black Powder - or we are getting more used to it. We are finding it a little frustrating flicking backwards and forwards through the pages to find stuff as the rules could probably be better presented from a reference point of view. But they offer a fairly realistic run of events. We will play another game next tuesday.