Battle Report: Black Powder - Rollica 1808

This week I got to use my Napoleonic miniatures for the second time!

At our club we played a smallish battle from the Albion Triumphant supplement to Black Powder. The game was Rollica August 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley has just landed his troops in Portugal, and is travelling to Lisbon, standing in his way is a French army, looking down on his troops from a hill.

The British mission was to get their troops up onto the hill, and the French was to prevent them.

The British boasted 4 battalions of troops, 3 with infantry and one with some skirmishing troops and some cavalry, the French on the other hand only had 2 battalions of infantry, supported by a single squadron of old guard cavalry.

I took command of the French troops, mostly since most of them was my miniatures, and the game was off.

It started with a whole bunch of nothing, as every single command check we tried failed on both sides, but Wellesley soon got his generals going and it wasn't long until a heavy shooting match started at the foot of the hill. The French hiding among the rocks and the numerical British throwing large amount of firepower at them.

The British was gaining the upper hand, but time was running out, so the cavalry that had made a large flanking manoeuvre started to close in on the French lines from behind.
A squadron of royal dragoons hit one of the French line units in the back, at the same time as a unit of rifles hit them in the side and another line unit hit them in the front. It only took them moments to annihilate the poor frenchies and the dragoons sought another target...
The Old guard cavalry stood more or less motionless in the front ranks of the french force, since a failed attempt at breaking the British line earlier in the game, how they got charged by not only the royal dragoons but also a line regiment.

But the Old guard is old for a reason, and they hacked and slashed their way out of this attack, destroying both attacking units and breaking the back of the British attack. The rest of the British force had to retreat, leaving the French in command of the field.

Wellesley would have to find another way into Spain.

French Deployment

British deployment

The battlefield and deployments

British advance

French dragoons

British army after a turn of confusion

The French smash into the British lines, only to be repulsed without inflicting any real damage

The fire fight breaks out for real

Halfway into the battle

French lines are suffering under the fire

Here stood the French, and here they fell

The battlefield just as the game draws to a close