Sidmouth wargame 2011

The Scenario,

It's 1801, Eygpt and the French are in dire straights, Napoleon has gone, the French re-inforcements cannot get past the Royal Navy and and allied army consisting of British (Honourable East India Company), Turks, Albanians and Marmeluke cavalry have joined forces and are marching on Cairo and with the news that 12,000 more British regulars have just landed, the French decide to act. They march out of Cairo and Alexandria and confront the allies head on. They reach the allied posistion and decide to dig in and wait for the allied attack.

The allies plan was simple, they would attack the center and left side of French lines and hope to smash their way through whilst the hordes of marmeluke cavalry would keep the french fort cut off from the battle. The Turks and Albanians attack the town in the center and the British would take the left.

The opening of the battle goes very well for the Allies and already the French start to worry, they send their own cavalry over to the right to try and take on the Marmelukes and commit reserves to defend the town. The allies are in a confident mood and send in the British forces to attack the left.

With the allies now in control of half the town and the British advancing well on the French left, French firepower finally starts to take effect. A well aimed cannon shot smacks the Marmeluke cavalry and starts a rout with most of the Marmelukes leaving the field and the Albanians finding it tough going against the French in the last few buildings of the town, it begins to become obvious to the allied commanders that they may run out of time.

A unit of Turkish spearmen enter the courtyard of the town and manage to capture a French General (much to everyones surprise - including Keith who forgot he left him there) but even so the allies ran out of time and failed to reach their objectives but considering the troop types they had, they still did very well against a dug in French army and caused the French heavy losses but the French still held out and won the game.

The 8 of us that played this game had a great weekend and enjoyed a great game. cannot wait till the next one.