15mm Valour and Fortitude

 So we had a second game of the free Napoleonic rule set 'Valour and Fortitude' today. To prepare for the game I had been busy painting up some new stuff, light dragoons, a rocket team and a few command bases as I was a little short on them. Both Ian and Nigel had painted a few new units as well. 

The new troops muster for parade. 

Closer view of the 13th Light Dragoons. 

The light dragoons now complete Maj. Gen. Grant's cavalry brigade. 

With the plumbers arriving  a day early to rip our kitchen apart to move the boiler before our new kitchen is installed meant we had to do a quick switch of venue to Nigel's house for today's game. 

Nigel set up his lovely model of Le Haye Saint (from 'Hovels') mid table and we placed a small British Garrison in it. The main French force (Nigel and Ian) arrived from the North to try and take the farm and my slightly smaller British force arrived from the south to help maintain the British control of the farm. We set out to play 8 turns. 

Le Haye Saint posing as an anonymous farmstead with a small British garrison.

Here come the French...

...and here comes the British.

The British Light Cavalry aided by the RH Artillery hold the British right flank. 

They were faced by a French Heavy Cavalry Brigade who obviously did not fancy their chances against the Light Cavalry and the RHA. 

Lovely lots of British infantry advance to help hold the farmstead. 

 

British foot artillery deploy to try and deter any French advance. 

First French assault is repulsed. 

British infantry try to ward off the advancing French heavy cavalry. 

The French infantry keep advancing. It was at this point we decided that playing along the length of the table we had perhaps set up too far apart and spent too long trying to get into position. 

The French were getting shot up by the British and the unit assaulting the Farmstead had been routed, resulting in lots of Wavering tokens on the Brigade leader. 

By the end of turn 7 it was clear that the French would not be able to take the Farmstead in 8 turns. A second French assault had also been fought off and the main assaulting unit routed.  (I had  found time to replace the original garrison with a fresh unit).

So we called it a British victory although if we had deployed a move or two closer to each other there would certainly have been more melee. 

Overall the rules give a fun and fast moving game but as is perhaps to be expected within a set of rules only several pages long, there are a few areas not covered. Happily, being sensible gamers we are able to think it through and come up with a common solution. For instance, when the Garrison was called upon to make a Fortitude test, their bonuses for having won the melee and also having the Army leader within 12" resulted in them needing a score of 1+ on a d6. We went with this as it seemed apt even though we did think that maybe a roll of '1' should always be a fail? We play again next week.