[Fork of Drums and Shakos] Récupérer la Vache

As the alarm had not been raised yet, the French were still comfortably eating frog's legs and drinking red wine.

Both groups of the Black Brunswickers advanced, the one led by the Officer ran towards the back of the hermitage, pressing flat against the wall to not be seen by the patrols. The group led by the NCO advanced into the woods, careful not to be seen from the outside.

The French patrols dutyfully patrolled the perimeter, being on patrol and everything.

The Brits broke cover on the northern flank with a group activation, and opened fire with the two lads that were still in 1L of the officer (the third one had advanced too far). Both missed, as the French player immediately got on his opponents' bad side, by rolling sixes for a start…

The other group broke cover too, opened fire, and all of them missed as well.

Being alarmed by the muskets firing outside, the French rushed from the house.

On the other flank, the patrol moved towards the musket fire to the north.

The northernmost two French patrol members withdrew into the compound, not wanting to face the Brits without support, yelling "Les Anglais, les Anglais!".

The southernmost patrol also hurried towards the gunfire, though they split up, one heading towards the eastern flank, the other towards the north.

On the east flank, the Brits formed a firing line and frantically reloaded their muskets, seeing the horde of French pouring out of the house.

On the north flank, the Officer rolled three activations, moved up to the group in the open, and yelled orders at them — but at that point the wind picked up, or the infantry men's ears still rang from their previous musket shots. Whatever the reason, the order did not get through (as the Officers activation dice came up 3, 1, 1).

Dropping their frog's legs and spilling their red wine, the other French squad also reacted to the gunfire, orienting most of their troops to the north.

The Black Brunswickers were a bit surprised by the early attacks from their British masters, they thought the plan was more of sneaking in; they were so flabbergasted that they did nothing at all (the Officer activated, then issued a group activation, which's dice came up as snake eyes).

The firing line on the eastern flank fired at the opposing French. As there was no Officer, they all needed to be activated one after the other. The first caused a recoil, the second soldier hit a french direclty in the heart, the third rolled a double 1, ending the turn prematurely.

The patrol on the west flank advanced towards the Brits in the north.

On the opposite flank the French re-established their firing line.

In the north, seeing reinforcements coming up, the two patrol members took action. The first charged in…

… and knocked his opponent to the ground.

His compagnon advanced and fired his musket from point blank, but rushed the shot and created a neat pothole.

The Black Brunswicker's Officer was still thinking of how to cope with the new tactical situation, but was indecisive, issuing no orders (activating on 1, 2).

Le groupe advanced towards the north, forming a square block at the front.

The British Officer activated with two actions, moved up and charged into melee.

The lad that was knocked down last turn stood up, and attacked the French who was distracted by the British officer entering the fight.

But he was of quick wits, kept the Officer at bay and at the same time intimidated the Brit so that he recoiled.

The drummer boy charged in as well, swinging his drumsticks, poking at the French's eyes. Another line infantry man charged and attacked…

… but was forced to recoil. The last lad also charged in and engaged the French.

On the eastern flank the Brits continued to pepper the French with musket shots. Two Brits hit and caused a recoil, throwing the French formation into disarray, again. The next Brit reloaded, before the turn ended on a bad activation roll.

The Officer activated on 3d6, with one success and two fails — he advanced, then the turn was over.

Finally, the Officer had made up his mind, and ordered the three Jägers accompanying him into a firing line behind the wall.

The NCO, who had waited for his superior to show any sign of entering the fight, immediately ordered his Jägers to rush towards the east, to attack from the French's rear, while they focussed on the Brits to their front.

This wasn't the French's time, the Officer activated first, on snake eyes…

The Brits kept up their steady firing: Aimed shot, recoil; miss; reload; hit, knock down; aimed shot, recoil; aimed shot, knock down. The French just had no chance to form up into any formation.

In the melee on the northern flank, the lad that had to recoil last turn charged again the French in contact with the Officer, but only fought the French to a draw.

The soldier teamed up with the drummer boy also only caused a draw.

The Officer decided to show his lads how to fight, and beheaded the French soldier with his sword swung in a power attach.

In the east, the firing line knocked the French down with concentrated volley fire.

In the west, two Jägers fired their muskets into the French's back, one missing, the other causing a recoil. The rest advanced towards the French's rear.

The French officer activated the group of four soldiers with three actions, thanks to the drummer who allowed to re-roll the one failed dice. The group advanced and changed from a block formation into a line.

The French NCO fired on his British counterpart, forcing him to recoil.

The next French fired his musket at a British musket armed soldier, but only hit the wall.

The next French also fired at the NCO, but also missed.

The last French in the line directed his fire to the north, and killed one Brit there.

The other members of the squad advanced.

The French divided their attention between the Brits at their front, and the black clad guys at their rear. A musket shot at the Brunswickers missed. Against the Brits, they caused a recoil. The knocked down soldier stood up, the knocked down NCO also stood up and fired his musket, but was off aim.

The French Officer fired his pistol at the Brunswick NCO but also missed.

The patrol advancing from the east towards the north continued doing so, and the first of the garçons managed to force the British Officer to recoil with a close musket shot. His compagnon botched the activation roll, ending the turn.

The Officer passed on one activation dice and advanced. The NCO rolled 1, 1, 6 and ended the turn.

The French NCO charged the Brunswick NCO, with the pips showing up 6 vs. 1, the Brunsicker was very unlucky and very dead.

Most of the other French charged in and engaged all but one of the enemies.

On the other flank, on of the fils stepped on a cowpat, which had his compagnions rolling on the floor laughing, ending the turn.

The firing line dissolved, as everyone was moving at the double to help out the Brunswickers in the grande corps à corps.

In the north, the Officer charged…

…but was beaten and had to recoil. One of his subordinates charged the same French…

…and got knocked down. That French was a beast.

The Brit supported by the drummer boy conducted a power attack, which caused the French to recoil. The drummer boy moved up to keep the French engaged.

The Brunswickers on the western flank did not activate, being totally outnumbered. They hoped for the Brits to activate before the French to be saved by them.

The firing line activated one after the other, the first two on 2d6 each, which all succeeded, allowing the soldiers to jump the wall and engage the knocked down French. The third took the gamble and activated on 3d6, in order to move in and deliver the killing blow — but only rolled two successes, so was only able to move in, but not to attack. The officer advanced.

With the last activation, the one unengaged Brunswicker on the western flank rolled 3d6 and charged in with a power attack — but the lucky French player again rolled a 6, and the unlucky Brunswick player rolled again a 1…

The Officer orders a group move, which thanks to the drummer boy again turns out with 3 activations.

The British drummer got knocked down, the second French who attacked was knocked down by his chosen target, the Guard NCO quickly despatched of the British standard bearer.

The Old Guard in the south east fired his musket at the Brunswick Officer, who recoild behind the stone wall.

The French Officer killed his opposing Brunswicker. The NCO engaged another Brunswicker, before the next French, who wanted to gang up on the same enemy, tripped and fell to the ground — which made the rest of the French so ashamed that they weren't able to press the attack (activation roll of 1, 2).

One of the line infantry men charged the French standard bearer ran him through. The NCO attacked the French Officer but had to recoil. Most of the other Brits managed to join the big melee.

In the north, the lad that engaged a French together with his Officer killed the French. One of his comrades attacked the knocked down French but got stabbed by a supporting French.

The drummer boy got up again. The now free to move Officer charged in and knocked down another French.

Finally, a Brunswicker was able to finish off the knocked down French.

The rest of the gang was so enthusiastic and partied so hard, that they missed their window of action in the fight (another snake eyes — statsistics went out the window in this game…).

The Officer advanced to have each of his subordinates in range to be able to issue group orders again.

The attack on the British officer resulted in the officer recoiling.

The fight there was so confusing and unclear that no more decisive actions were taken by the French (of course… another double 1).

The Black Brunswickers wanted to tackle the Old Guard by ganging up on him. The first activated, passed his fear test and engaged the French over the fence. The 2nd activated but failed his fear test, remaining stationry. Luckily the 3rd one still could charge in, but was so "inspired" by the previous soldier, that he remainend stationary peeing himself, too.

The British line infantry started to intervene in earnest in the melee, with the first two attacks both resulting in a dead French. This triggered a morale test for the French squad due to half of their number being lost. Three of them fled, including the French Officer.

The next lad charged the French in contact with the Brunswicker, but had to recoil from the fight. The NCO charged in.

In the north, one French is pushed back. The Officer rolled three activations, charged in and power attacked, slicing his target nearly in hald.

Statistics stroke again… the first activation roll results in 2 fails on 2d6.

The expert Old Guard opened the turn — with an expert roll of 2, 1, 1. He took the single action the squad had for this turn and attacked the Brunswicker over the fence, only fighting him to a draw.

The first Jäger rolled for three activations, but failed his fear test, resulting in another pair of trousers that needed a change. The next Jäger rolled for two activations and passed his fear test — which allowed him to engage the Old Guard but to attack him, as to beat him he thought it would even the odds only if he could attack with a powerful attack (requiring two actions).

The Officer moved up to the wooden fence.

One of the line lads engaged a fleeing French, then his buddy moved in for the kill, but got knocked down himself instead.

The Brit NCO attacked the French NCO, forcing him to recoil.

In the northern melee, one French got killed. The Officer charged in again but only scored a draw.

The NCO charged a Brit already engaged by one of his subordinates and killed him. His partner in crime then engaged the next British soldier, before a third French charged in to attack, but got knocked down for his efforts.

The French Officer valiantly charged the knocked down Brit and punctured his heart from behind with his épée.

One of the Brits charged, causing a recoil. The next Brit attacked the knocked down French, but in a fair manner from his front; and for being fair he only scored a draw. The British NCO got caught on a blade of grass with his halberd (rolling a 1, 2 for his activation).

The knocked down French stood up. The NCO charged in and killed the British line man with a power attack.

This tipped the scales and the British had to take a morale test. Three Brits fled, suffering free hacks, one on the Officer, but he survived.

The lonely Brunswick survivor on the western flank fired his musket from close range into the back of the French NCO, but a bee buzzing in his ears made him miss.

The rightmost Brunswicker tried to charge the Old Guard over the fence, but failed his fear test again. The Officer moved to the closest vache and wooed her to follow him.

The Old Guard again attacked the Brunswicker over the fence and again only got a draw.

A French soldier engaged the fleeing British Officer to distract him, while the Old Guard NCO charged in with his sword, but the Officer was not fooled and knocked the attacking NCO down.