SDS Campaign - Vimeiro Completed

1808 Vimeiro "The first French attack was launched against Vimeiro Hill. The brigades advancing in columns and screened by Skirnishers, gradually pushed the thick British skirmishing line back from the foot of the ridge." So it's written in the history books, the French were defeated at Vimeiro but this is where our campaign takes place, between the columns and lines of the advancing French and defending allies. Each squad moving into the skirmish lines fighting their individual battles.  French, British, Germans, Spanish, Portuguese and even the Irish all taking arms to destroy the enemies will to fight. As history would have it the French were not successful at Vimeiro and this battle started the French pull out of Portugal.

The books tell us of the Vimeiro ridge and the British defense so the campaigns were all fought with the Ridge in sight but with the skirmishes taking place in front of the ridge.  These skirmishes were also fought around the rocks, trees, farms and fields.

Each Skirmish Leader and his squad all have their own stories to tell.   We watched the battles unfold and witnessed so many tragic, unlucky and some very  humorous events.  I saw individual figures take the impossible long shots that took their targets down.  We saw Grenadiers wade into Melee and dealt out some "hurt."  We watched squads run off the field after their Officer was taken to ground and then getting the Bayonet.  Some witnessed Dragoon Charges that were stopped dead in their tracks, and lonely drummers taking on Veteran troops and killing them.  There was a melee taking place in windows to no effect and saw others hiding behind walls daring the enemy to charge them.  

We pretty much seen it all and just about every difficult situation that could have came up for a rules interpretation.  But overall I was pleased with the results and how everyone took to the rules, painted up their squads and took their place in the skirmish line. 

Thanks for everyone that played in the first phase of the SDS Campaign.  Tony and I are going to make some changes to the Campaign Points system.  We have noticed that the points are too easy to collect and hence seeing very powerful troops too early in the campaign.  So standby for our changes as we move into the next phase of the campaign in June.

So here is the list of the battle scores and the Skirmish Leaders.  Congratulations to all that participated.  We have a tie for the leaders so far.  Dave M. and Matt G., nice job!  But again its not how many points you have at this stage, is how many you have when the War is over.  If you add up the totals the French have won the Skirmish battle with 341 points versus the allies 311.  So the Skirmish Campaign favors the French for now.  There is plenty of time to catch up and plenty of room for more players.  

We will be looking forward to Talavera!

Vimeiro 1808 (Portugal)

1. Dave M. scored a big 63 points with his French Young Guard in his skirmish actions. Nice Job! (21/32)
2. Matt G. also scored 63 points skilllfully leading his French Legere (30/33)
3. Matt V. scored a solid 58 points battling with his cool headed Veteran French Grenadiers (22 + 23)
4. Rick S. came on the field with his Highlanders and causing 57 points of destruction on the French (21/36)
5. Bob T., of Scottish stock, led his tough Highlanders to a score of 54 points (25/29)
6. Nate F. fielding his new French Ligne "column" took them into the field against the Brits and scored 51 points (23/28)
7. Jeff C.'s Armstrongs Rifles scored a decent 49 points (26/23)
8. Ben S. skillfully and aggresively led his new Kings German Legion, fought hard and scored 47 points! (22/25)
9. Eric E.'s 60th Light Infantry (Royal Americans) joined in the heavily fought Skirmish battles to repel the French in both of their battles for a total of 46 points (19 + 27)
10. Nate F. presented his new Legere against some British Lights and Rifles and came up with 43 points (27/16)
11. Andrew G. brought out the Rifles and scored 33 points (17/33)
12. Dan G. fielding some Legere scored a low 22 points (15/7)
13. Tony F. tried taking out his Dragoons for a skirmish and scored a respectable 22 points in a single action
14. Greg S. went in and took on some cowardly British Rifles with his Irish Brigade and still managed a tough 19 points.
15. John W. marched on the field with Bagpipes blaring and scored 18 points.
16. Tony F. took out his Portuguese and came away with 7 points in their one battle