Sunday, March 19, 2017

AAR: Battle at Roncevaux Pass – July 25th, 1813

Headed over to Roy Scaife's house today for a play test of the Battle at Roncevaux Pass.  You can see the scenario details posted here.  Roy did a great job putting this scenario and game together.

I took on the British left flank with a second line consisting of Spanish troops.  Given this is a later war battle Spanish had a good showing.  The British right flank was taken by Dan Kerrick and had a backing second line of Portuguese troops.  John Lantz ran the French left while Matt Hilzendrager took the French right.

I played a slow advance to maintain a solid defensive line while Dan elected to advanced faster to try to pin the advancing French forces into the gap.  As it was the French advanced quickly and managed to expand across the table faster than the British could.

My first line British units did well, but I ended up having to withdraw and bring the Spanish units forward sooner than I had expected.  This actually worked out well in the long run as I was able to rally the British units back to a decent level of fighting ability.

Both sides suffered a lot of casualties.  The British right flank (French left) fought into what was essentially a draw.  I managed to break several French units on the left flank.  All my units had taken about the limit of their casualties so things where very tough and go until the very last turn.  Despite my generally crappy dice rolling, the one thing I could do well was pass morale tests ... I can think of three that I should have outright failed but managed to pull off a miracle.

I took pictures - the first chunk below is from my phone while the second half are from my "real" (SLR) camera.  I pulled out the zoom lens to get some better exposure pictures.
















Pictures from my "real" camera ...



















And some more pictures from John Lantz's phone ...












Was great to get a game in ... next up will be a play test for McPherson's Ridge ... really looking forward to that one.

20 comments:

  1. This looks like fun was had by all.
    You have very neatly painted figures in nice big units - right up my street. My faves are the Spanish Grenadiers, are those transfers on the hats? I would love to have watched the French gun crews & limber teams get their cannons up onto that mountain!
    More please, Jeremy

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    1. Spanish Grenadiers are all painted ... no decals. Guns and limbers up the mountain ... Aliens. It was a great time, thanks :-)

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  2. Just stunning! How cool it must be to set up in the garage like I see you guys often do and then to be able to open that door to a sunny day, ah California :)

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    1. It was a beautiful day for a game in the garage :-) I keep telling ya ... pack it up and head southwest from your current position :-)

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    2. In a heartbeat I'd be there... just not sure how the wife and horses would feel about it - but I could be the guy to provide a horse for you guys to run your black powder games from :) I can see you now sitting atop the horse explain rules and using a sword to point at objectives on the table lol! "Jay White bringing the Wargaming Madness to another level" - now we just need to get someone to draw you on a horse, throw that slogan on the back and there is your t-shirt selling opportunity for the summer cons :)

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    3. Lol!!! I do have Photoshop :-)

      Well, sounds like you don't need a moving van ... just throw the wife and belongings on the horses and we'll see you in a couple of months ;-)

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  3. Wow!!! Such a impressive game!!!

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  4. Delightful show, as well as all your games. Thank you that you share them 8)

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  5. This is EPIC! Can you place it up on the Company Of Dice FB page. The guys would love to see it.

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  6. What a beautiful sight! Great report. /Mattias

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  7. What a beautiful battle, impressive mass effect and wonderful figures and terrain...

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