Using Osprey's 'En Garde!' to Skirmish the French Counter Revolution

[Warren Abox]

Decided to put my medieval terrain to good use by picking up a pack of Eureka Miniatures' early Napoleonic boys.  Irregular Miniatures makes a line of Irish civilian rebels for its League of Augsburg line that serve as French peasants in a pinch.  And now we can game out some early War in the Vendee action.



The Bluejackets start just outside the front doors of the church, while the Vendee farmers start each at the door of his own house.



The Guard captain orders the town leader (in yellow to the north) arrested, and sends two men off, not realizing his peril.



The green and red gems are the method I use to solo play a game ill-suited to solo play.  In En Garde! melee figures get one "ploy" per Rank, and the players have to choose whether to use those ploys to attack or defend.  They signal this with beads held in the hand, but since I can't outwit myself with bluffs, I just put beads in a bag and draw blind for each combatant.  Here the guard at the corner of the house has opted for a balanced approach with one attack and one defend, where the Vendeean farmer to his left only has the one ploy set to attack.



The blue ships mark figures that need to reload, and the green mark figures with a light wound.



It didn't go well for the Bluejackets.  Badly led and poorly motivated and outnumbered, even by peasants with improvised weapons, they just weren't ready for the village to show a spine and resist their predations.  They were wiped out to a man, but they did kill the town's senior leader in the exchange.  A result that matches the early skirmishes in the historical record.

The Vendee is a little outside the date range given in the rulebook.  It doesn't make any difference for a small scale game like this.  You've got one shot black powder weapons and then close to melee.  On any table with sufficient terrain, and the bocage definitely counts, it works just fine with no changes.

[Edit to add:  Apologies if this is in the wrong forum.  The rules are made for swashbuckling and the game has that feel, even if the modelled era is a little more into the "Big Battalion" board's territory.]

[has.been]

Nice bit of skirmishing.
Trent Miniatures do figures that you might find useful.