Training Day - learning the ropes in Sharp Practice part 1 - Moving in column vs line

It's not a secret. I've been painting Napoleonics for Sharp Practice. Yesterday I had hoped to get a game from one of the five or six local players but for some reason all of them found an excuse, plumbing, broken down car, working etc. One of them had the gall to say he had plans to go and visit the Tuileries in Paris rather than spend an afternoon at "The Steelies" club in Middlesbrough playing Sharp Practice. I forgive him. This time  :-)

So I was a bit disappointed, but in some ways a bit relieved. Truth is my Sharp Practice experience is mostly American War of Independence, where the units are small and you spend most of your time in line or fighting light infantry style. Napoleonics are different. In particular there is a lot more reliance on Formations and larger units, and to be honest my understanding of the nuts and bolts of all that are not all there.

So I've decided to teach myself a bit more about how Formations move and manoeuvre. Basically do some Drill :-)

I need to be clear this is a training exercise. I'm sat with my copy of Sharp Practice in hand and will be referring to it as I go along. I'm going to make mistakes but hopefully I will learn. Please point them out so I wont screw up next time.

First up I need to learn the nuances of moving in lines and columns. To do this as a bit of whimsy I set up an obstacle course on the dining room table. The object being to traverse the table, cross the obstacles and form up in good order within 6" of the table edge. The obstacles are a fence classed as a minor obstacle, and a hedge row, a major obstacle. I've left gaps one base wide in both with the object of manoeuvring the column through the gaps.

The runners in this obstacle course are two identical units of 24 French Line infantry from the 1809-12 list. Each has a Status 2 Leader. One is set up in line, the other in closed column. I'm not planning on running anywhere, just get the basics down.

Turn 1 - And they're off. Both rolled a total of 6 on their movement die. This brought the line up to the fence. The Column wheeled to fact the gap. Here was my first learning moments. Units wheel on a fixed point and can't split their movement so even though I only needed 4" to wheel, by declaring I was using both movement die to wheel I was stuck with it and "wasted" 2". Reading the rules this is just a matter of my decisions. I could have declared the wheel with one action and then either continued with a second if I had got to the right point or continued ahead with the second if I had got them lined up. Lesson 1. I could have tried moving at an oblique up to 45 degrees if the set up had been better - lesson 2.

Turn 2 - First obstacle. The line crossed this using 2 actions and losing the lowest dice rolled. The Column moved up but were now somewhat behind.

Turn 3 - moving up. The Line rolled well with both die and moved up to the hedge. The Column continued to lag but was lined up on the gap in the hedge.

Turn 4 - The Hedge. The line crossed the hedge. As they are classed as Conscripts and Volunteers they lose the larger of the two dice rolled for movement, the formation breaks up, and each group takes one shock. The column ploughs though towards the gap in the hedge.

edit I moved a hedge piece to make a gap

Turn 5 - At the hedge the line now redresses itself and reforms into a single formation using two "Form Up" orders. It is now carrying one shock on each of the three groups. The column pushes on.

Turn 6 - The line now faces a couple of decisions and I think I got it wrong. I decided to go ahead and advance without rallying shock. The Formation would lose 1 point of movement distance, again here is a little quirk. If I announced I was taking both the unit actions as movement I would lose 1" from the total , so in this case taking two separate move actions. The line is now in place but needs to rally off the three shock it is carrying before declaring a victory. The column is still behind and also needs to get into line.

Turn 7&8  - The line starts to rally off shock. The problem is the Leader is only allowed to rally off shock from the group he is attached to. It follows that a Status II Leader can only rally one Shock per turn then move to the next group. The column uses a formation change and moves from closed column to line while the line is still not quite ready. It's a close thing but a very marginal victory to the column

So in the end, the column won only just. However I was not using Command Cards, which would have allowed the line to boost their Leader status allowing him to rally more quickly. The lessons so far are to be careful as to how you move when choosing one or two move actions. In some cases (wheeling for instance) it may be wiser to do it sequentially, but in others, such as moving when carrying shock, take them together. 

So I think I have a bit of a better grasp of dealing with obstacles and manoeuvring troops. More practice needed.........