SDS Spanish Campaign - 26 February

Yesterday, Sunday I hosted a session for those players that have not fought their two battles yet.  We had the following players show up.  Matt with his "Old Grognard" Line Veteran Grenadier unit, John W. with his Wild Highlanders, Eric played the British Light Infantry and Nate played once with a French Legere and then again with a French Line unit.  I filled in playing British Lights and then French Legere.  We still have a few players that need to get their battles in so we will be making them up next weekend.

I should be able to start to after action reports very soon and by next week hopefully wrap up the actions at Vimeiro so we can move on to Talvera's Portina Stream.  Here are some shots from yesterday.

Everyone had a great time.  We had food and drinks available and everyone got in their battles.  The scores for the Vimeiro Campaign will be tallied up and posted next week.  Our next location will be the Portina Stream at Talavera.

French Lights going up against Erics Brit Lights  

Eric's Lights in skirmish across the field.  

Matt's Grenadier "firing squad" taking down my Lights.

Eric's lights in action against Matt's Grenadiers.

Grenadiers busting town the door at the Tower

Nates' Lights taking the fence where we had some tough fighting.  

Matt's Grens fighting for the tower.  Those lights wouldn't let go.

My Rifles Captain jumped the fence and skewered a Voltigeur!

"Verbal fencing" by Matt and Eric with John watching on.

And them my Rifles Captain is shot by Nate's Legere.

Here we go, Eric crossing the open ground and taking down my Voltigeur.

I send some help, these became 1 and 2 of 5 that were shot in the battle by Eric's Lights.

My center was pinned by Lights in the Rocks across the field.  I couldn't get them released to help my left flank.

Another shot of the Rock line.

Ah, Bagpipes, here they come against Nate's large line unit.

Nate's force was so big it looked like a column.  Highlanders were not amused.

Legere and Lights Fire fight.  

Man I had this guy in my sights! And sure enough the group of Lights coming up shot this Voltigeur down too.

Highlander and French Line in a fire fight.

The Highlanders wounded two French Line with no losses to his unit.

Another view of Line and the Kilted ones going at it. 

French take the wall.

This fight ended up in a draw with time running out and nether side quit the field.  

The SDS Spanish Ulcer has begun

12 February

SDS Spanish Ulcer Campaign has begun.  Today at our Colorado Military Historian (CMH) monthly club meeting we began the skirmish actions around the Battle of Vimeiro in Portugal (1808).  There were four (4) battle areas (3’x3’) setup and the players Allied and British were all randomly matched up.  The After Action Report will be completed once we get all of the players playing their two actions.

The Allies skirmishing in front of Vimeiro ridge so far have defended with the Kings German Legion Light Infantry, Two Highlanders units and one British Rifles unit.  The French attacked with two (2) Dragoon units, Legere (Lights), and an Irish and a Grenadier Unit each saw action.  We had nine (9) players with six (6) more players yet to complete their two (2) battles.  Some of those players were out of town or committed to playing other games at the club meeting.  Some prefer to play their battles outside of the Club Friday Night Fight (FNF) or regular Club meetings because of their schedules and that allows them to play in other games.  So by the 26 of February (Sunday) we should wrap up the Battle at Vimeiro and will move on to Talavera (1809).  

After Action Report will be completed 26 February and posted at that time.  I posted some pictures below to see the participation.

We may start Talavera on March 2 at FNF if we can get everything in place.  If not, then at the March 11 Club meeting.  

Capitan DanJou (Dan)

The Fields, not exactly Dragoon Terrain

The Church.  Many men died around this building.

Four Tables, the Ridge, Fields, Church and the Rocks.
 There was a sliver of the Vimeiro Ridge on the allied side.

The Rocks

SDS Spanish Campaign - Let the Hostilities begin 12 Feb

The CMH SDS Campaign is getting closer to the start.  The first draft of the Campaign rules have been posted to the CMH File section.  I will start getting force compositions, checking the points, etc., from our SDS players.  The After Action Reports will be posted here and submitted to our CMH newsletter.

The first battles will commence at Vimiero (1808).  Each player will fight two actions against various opponents collecting experience points that will be used to replace "killed" soldiers and/or improve on their squad abilities.  After Vimiero (1808), we will move to Talavera (1809), Busaco (1810) and Salamanca (1812).

After each of these rounds, a winner will be recognized with an overall winner at the end of the four (4) year campaign.

Its going to be fun!

SDS Battles (Jan 8)

I wasn't sure how many players we were going to have but as usual more than I was ready for which is always a good thing.  At the next club meeting we are going to setup a few more tables.

We had a full house of SDS

I setup two 3 x 3 felt tables and Jeff and I threw down some terrain.  The table on the right was meant to be the last scenario in the SDS rule book.  Since we had so many players we made both games "Doubles" which turned out to be a blast.

We played Doubles.  Each player was designated a card, their turn when their card was turned.

On the table with the River, the SDS scenario, it was two British Rifle Squads commanded by Andrew and John defending the House against two French squads on the attack.  The French Light Infantry force consisting of Chasseurs, a Voltigeur, Sapper and three Carabinier were commanded by Rick.  This was a 520 points and I gave them a fording area across the river on their side of the board.  On the left we gave John W. four Dragoons that were to cross the bridge.  This battle was very bloody for the French.  Rick was not able to get across that ford quick enough. John and his Rifles were already starting to pick them off as they crossed the small stream.  The attack on the right was repulsed with not one Frenchman  getting into the Farm Area.

Andrew and John (Rifles) fend off Rick and John W. assault.  Dragoons can be seen on the Bridge.

On the left John W. and his Dragoons were on the move.  Andrew got his Rifles into the Fenced area getting ready for their attack.  As the Dragoons advanced into action they started taking hits from well aimed Rifle shots.  They pushed them back and even put one of them on the ground.  After taking two casualties including the Leader the Dragoons were still able to charge into the Rifles.  The Rifles didn't take a Fear check because they were defending an obstacle.  If the second attack came after the Dragoons getting around the fence then we would have rolled for Fear.  But the first attack was repulsed and the Dragoons had to take a Morale check which had them retreating toward the bridge.  That was then end of the French attack on the left.  And pretty much that ended the battle.

Jeff's Rifles hunkered down behind the walls. 

On the Village Board it was a different story for the French.  We had Ben with the British Lights and Jeff with his Rifles moving into the Village on one side.  Dave with the Old Grognards Grenadiers and Nate with the French Light Infantry moving in quickly from the other.  Dave (Grens) and Ben (Lights) were hammering it out on the left side of the battle.  Ben was able to secure the building on the left and held on to it the entire battle.  On Ben's flank the Rifles were getting ganged up on while defending the Walled Building with the Tower.  Nate and Dave both got French forces into the walls and eventually forced themselves into the first floor.  With Jeff's last few Rifles firing from the Tower it was time to end the battle.  It was a very well fought battle.

Their is John W. moving his Dragoons.

So I think we are moving close to the SDS Campaign.  Tony and I will be releasing the rules based on what we have found on the Ganesha Web Group. I will create a separate blog to explain the Campaign rules.  And when they release the Tournament rules in English we will use them for the Tournament at the end of the Campaign.

Early stage of the battle.  French moving in.

So thanks to everyone that played and the patience while I created extra squads from my collection.  As I mentioned we will be placing at least two more tables at the next meeting.  I think its important for everyone to play in a singles game before the Campaign so you get the feel of the tempo or lack of it during  these fast paced battles.  Those battles should last about an hour tops.  We will set time limits and count up points for the victors record experience points on your squad sheets so you can start improving your squads or having to recruit any killed troops.

Ben's British Lights taking the building on the left!

Take care, see you next battle.

Dan

SDS Battles (Dec11)

Today Tony and I attempted to put on three introduction games at once.  I think it went pretty well.  We had a few players who had played before which helped us out.  We had 16 players show up to play and we had just enough troops.  Well, I say that, but it seems like new squads are coming out of the woodwork which is great.   I saw new squads of Royal Marines and Sailors with long boats!, Highlanders, Rifles, etc.

So we will be scheduling more battles through the winter and will start a semi formal like campaign which should be a lot of fun.

So here are some pictures I took and Tony on his blog will have more to check out.

Thanks to all that played!  I had a good time seeing everyone else having a good time.

Dan

As the Dragoon Patrols close the Rifles take the walls..

Nate, Colin, Greg, Dave, Stan and Matt in battle.

Greg's Mission.  A Beautiful place for a spanish fight.

Royal Marine Raiding Party

A Hussar Messenger making a run for it.  Nope, didn't make it.

Room to Room fighting was fierce!

Matt's Old Grognards in the woods

Grenadiers.

Napoleonic Skirmish - French Grenadier and British Light Infantry

Today I wanted to show off the latest units off the line for the big Song of Drums and Shako (SDS) battles coming up.

I finished those darn British Light Infantry.  Man those were so hard to paint.  All that white and red, well it gets to a point where you get tired of having to "fix" your messes and hope that the wash at the end miraculously covers up mistakes you didn't see.  Well, here they are.  As long as they look British then I did my job...haha.

British Lights ready for action!

SDS Officer showing his Elan and a Trumpeter who provides a re-roll for Group Orders.  

Can't wait to use the Sapper!

And today at our practice game Matt finished up some Perry French Grenadiers for the skirmish battles.  I had given Matt some these Grenadiers to paint up and he did a fantastic job!  I think those were the first 28mm he has painted in years if not ever.  He mixed the colors very nicely and you can see one Grenadier wearing the "spanish" brown cloth in the pictures below.

Matt excellently painted these Grenadiers

Grenadiers are pretty tough Hombre's in SDS.

Napoleonic Skirmish - French Line Voltigeurs

More troops coming off the line.  Just finished some Line Voltigeurs.  We will probably use a couple of these to supplement the Grenadier Squad that will be fielded.