Thursday evening at Soggy Bottom

Thurs 4th June

This evening I toddled along to my club SESWC to see what was on offer gamewise and after thinking that I was going to be umpiring a Bolt Action Normandy game found myself being pressganged into a Seven Year War engagement between Austro Hungarians and French and their allies using Black Powder rules.
                                     I took charge of a Hungarian infantry brigade with heavy cavalry and hussars in support.My partner in crime was Dave Imrie who between us had only actually played a handful of Black Powder games.
                                     My plan was to work my infantry round the enemy's left flank whilst engaging the enemy's cavalry.Why do things always look better on paper!
                                      Our opponents consisted of Angus Konstam and Michael Schau who were in charge of the insidious French and Reichsarmee.

                                        After a glorious charge by both sets of my cavalry which resulted in the pushing back of Angus's cavalry, I then followed up my charge causing their artillery to bolt for the nearest exit(who's this guy Prince Rupert?).The down side of his and complemented by some dodgy dice rolls meant my cavalry force was left to the mercy of enemy musket fire which left my cavalry torn to shreds.Dave brought his infantry up to support but by the time he had arrived he was left facing a few infantry regiments without any support from me as my infantry were to busy washing their feet in the local river as I couldn't roll any dice to move them and then to add insult to injury I rolled a double six which caused my infantry to blunder and head of the table.They eventually returned after a mouthful of abuse from their commanding officer.They arrived back in timefor the game to be brought to a halt at closing time.

                                            The tide of battle turned against us after our initial successes and turned into a slugging match to see who would bottle first.It ended up with the Austrians having to concede to the French(never the favourite option).C'est la guerre!

Pictures and French figures compliments of Angus Konstam and our glorious Austrians courtesy of Dave Imrie.