First game of Sharp Practice during the AWI

So after a lot of painting and some terrain construction I was finally ready to actually play some Sharp Practice. Technically this wouldn't be my first game as I had played SP a few years ago, but it had been a while. Fortunately, as Sharp Practice is part of the Too Fat Lardies stable of rule sets, there was much that was intuitive for someone like myself who has played a fair bit of Chain of Command.

I now have enough miniatures to field two forces from the SP rule book - one of mixed British regulars and one from the Continental Army.

Three groups of Continental regulars 

Continentals, State Line and Light Infantry

British light infantry in line

British regulars

To help keep the game flowing I thought some quick reference sheets (QRS) would speed up play. My main aim was to consolidate all the rules relevant to the types of units we would be fielding on a single sheet. If nothing else, compiling one of these is always an excellent way to learn a new set of rules. The unit roster tables formed the basis for these and all I did was simply add more information or footnotes to reference or flesh out any other relevant rules.

These were printed back to back and laminated. The example below shows both sides of the A4 sheet  for the American force, providing information for each type of unit. These will always come in handy when introducing any new players to the rules, so they were well worth the effort. As I've made these solely for my own use I've taken a small liberty to add pictures by the great Don Troiani that I've downloaded from the web. These are of course the intellectual property of Don Troiani, so I've overprinted them here as I don't want to infringe any of his rights (in fact I hope I haven't already).

For this first game I was going to play my regular Chain of Command opponent Dave and to keep things simple we chose the Encounter scenario from the rule book. The table was a rural setting, divided by a road and a stream, with fields enclosed by my newly constructed split rail fences.

I would play the Americans and with a five point difference in force values I added a water cart, a musician and a Status I leader. We both rolled for deployment points in the centre portions of the table, so it wouldn't be long before we would be in contact.

My first mistake was deploying my State Line directly in front of my deployment point. This would create problems later, as I was to discover to my cost.

The British wasted no time deploying and two groups of regulars were happy to start engaging the State Line at long range.

The British opened with a controlled volley and it wasn't long before the State Line were in trouble. Their leader took a light wound, three men were killed and they began accumulating shock.

When I did deploy the Continental Regulars I realised my deployment error with the State Line. I couldn't deploy my Regulars into line and engage the British, as the State Line would block the way. Newbie error #1: make sure you don't crowd the deployment zone.

So to move them quickly to a better location they deployed into Open Column, but safely out of the range of the British muskets. Where were they headed? I really didn't know. Newbie error #2: have a plan and deploy accordingly.

Not a great start. Unfortunately this awful opening deployment was only the prelude to further woes.

The British made no such errors and before long the centre company regulars were joined by the light infantry in line and together they could pour out successive volleys into the Americans, who were still trying to get them into some sort of effective battle line.

The American light infantry made a flanking move on the left and proved the most active and able of the Rebel forces. The one bright spot in an otherwise botched deployment.

They eventually managed to engage the British lights bobs from their flank and inflict some casualties, but this small advantage went no way to compensate for the hail of musket balls that were cutting down the Continentals and State Line.

The British skirmishers could play at this game too and their light infantry (Queens Rangers in this instance) worked their way up to the fence line on the other flank and added their fire, cutting down even more of the Continentals. Matters only got worse with the Continentals' Status III leader first taking a light wound, to be followed shortly after with a wound that stunned him and put him out of action. While the Status I leader from the support lists was on hand to take over command of the Continentals he didn't last long before taking a wound that also stunned him.

The State Line tried to wheel to bring the Queens Rangers into their line of fire, but as Conscripts & Volunteers with limited training this was a slow process. Newbie error #3: understand the limitations of your units and use them accordingly.

With both their leaders out of action the Continentals began to reel before the British controlled volleys and as men died and shock rose groups began to make involuntary withdrawals and in one instance break and run. As the rebel formations fell apart so did the American force morale.

We found we were under utilising our best leaders. There was a tendency to have them activate the unit to which they were attached and not make full use of their command range to coordinate multiple activations if the moment called for it.

We had one of those light bulb moments at a time that could not have been more perfect for the British. We were in the midst of one of those unusual turns where it seems only command chips are coming out of the bag. This generated a random event that had little impact on the game, but led to the British having four command chips before a single leader had been activated.

The next chip out of the bag activated the British Status III leader who was attached to the regulars in the centre of the British line. We were discussing Dave's options when it suddenly became apparent that this leader was within 9" of the Queens Rangers on his left and the light infantry in line on his right. With three activation points he could activate all of those units to fire and reload, as none of them had yet been activated this turn. Not only could he do that, but he could then use all four of the command chips to activate the Status III leader to do exactly the same thing again. Naturally Dave chose to do this.

It doesn't take much to imagine the sort of carnage this created in the already ragged ranks of the Americans. In effect the British had two consecutive rounds of fire where every single unit could fire. My hapless State Line and Continentals could do nothing but absorb the punishment.

I will spare you the pain of any more gruesome details, save to say the British drove American force morale to zero and so from the field.

Well, that was a brutal baptism of fire, but a very good tactical lesson for both of us. I clearly need to get to grips with deployment and handling formations, otherwise I'll be on the receiving end of more humiliating defeats. That said, we thoroughly enjoyed the game. More importantly we found the rules easy to grasp and this kept the game flowing. We also discovered much along the way and saw how so many things on both sides could have been handled better. Dave did many things right and I did many things wrong, but in the process we both learned an awful lot.

Very enjoyable and the rules have a good period feel that felt right. I look forward to playing Sharp Practice again soon and hopefully generating a game worthy of a more interesting AAR than this rather one sided affair. With that I'm off to lick my wounds!