Usually the preceding 48 hours of the three of us playing are riven with emails passing back and forth as we attempt to agree on a game to play.
However on this occasion it was easy.
General B asked the question and Stephen replied Sharp Practice.
The two of us immediately called his bluff and agreed. So Sharp Practice it would be.
I took the British, Steve the French and the good General read the rules so we'd know what we were doing.
We ended up playing the Sweep mission from the rulebook and set up the deployment points on a very splendid looking table.
Voltigeurs arrive
Others seize the hill
The farmhouse is searched!
"Ou sont les anglais?"
However when it did it was with devastating effect as the British senior officer and his large unit arrived on the flank of some incautiously advancing Frenchmen and enfiladed them to extinction.
"Have some of that Jonny Frenchie"
Thin red line
And from the other side
In the centre French infantry arrived and began to fire on the British flank but in return recieved fire from the British Light troops.
At last the British deploy
Forward mes braves!
Give fire!
The advance is halted
With an unharmed unit of infantry advancing on one of the remaining objectives and much of his army shocked or dead the French ceded the field to the redcoats.
Redcoats close on the objective
The French prepare to withdraw
There's a "fussiness" about them that sits ill with the members of the Sherwood Hucknall and Ilkeston Team. Fussiness is perhaps unfair (though some of the lists of modifiers would seem to confirm it) possibly fairer to say there's a level of detail that requires more effort than we see rewarded. For some gamers this level of detail may be exactly what they want (and clearly judging by the popularity of the rules that's quite a large number of gamers) but for us they're the wrong side of the equation.
We also had some quibbles about the scale - it's a skirmish and yet the unit movement restrictions seem more akin to much larger conflicts. On the other hand your ability to move said units is affected by your leader standing in some poo. Is it a role-playing game or a mass battle game? For us it felt an uncomfortable mix of the two.
The rules are also just a bit hard to get your head around. At least for us simpletons. I've now tried four Lardy rules sets and it's quite telling that the ones I've most enjoyed and have played best have been the ones where someone really knew the rules and could explain them. The two where I've tried to teach myself from the rulebook (Dux Brit and SP) have been a bit of a slog.
It's a shame - I *want* to like the rules better than I do and it feels like there's a good game in there somewhere but at the moment I'm not feeling it (and certain other S.H.I.T.ers are even less enthused) so I think, sadly, we'll be looking elsewhere for our Napoleonic jollies.
