Heyhey, happy new year. We’re back with a game of Sharp Practice!

First game of SP2 in a year; I haven’t played these rules much in 2024 and 2025. Maybe we can fix that in 2026, because SP2 is such a fun game. Cpt.Shandy dropped by, we played with my 28mm figures again, again the theme was “somewhere in Poland 1809…”. For an introduction to the conflict and so on, please refer to this article here.

 

The Scenario

Since I’m no scenario wizard like Cpt.Shandy, we just opted to play the Defense in Depth scenario from the rulebook. He played it before in various iterations, and I just recreated his table. The scenario is taken pretty much as is in the rulebook, except we limited support points to 3 points per side (more dictated by my collection than anything else), the table layout follows the classic Table Top Teaser ‘Rearguard Action’ by Charles S.Grant from Battlegames Magazine issue 12 (available here!).

15.April 1809 – Austrian forces took a bridge across one of the many side arms of Vistula river intact. A small garrison of infantry of IR 24 (Strauch) and Grenz infantry skirmishers of Militär-Grenz-Regiment Nr.14 (Szekler Nr.1) was left behind to protect the river crossing. Almost immediately after the main body of the Austrian force moved on, a small contingent of Duchy of Warsaw troops commence a counter-attack.

 

Each side gets a primary and a secondary deployment point; the objective for the Duchy of Warsaw force is to take the the Austrians’ primary deployment in the southernmost building.

The Forces

Austria (played by me)

3 x Line infantry, led by Hauptmann Johann Ströck (Status III)
2 x Line infantry, led by Oberleutnant Heinrich Anker (Status II)
1 x Grenzer Skirmishers, led by Unterleutnant Anton Mann (Status I)
1 x Grenzer Skirmishers, led by Feldwebel Joseph Brot (Status I)

Force Morale: 9

 

Duchy of Warsaw (played by Cpt.Shandy)

2x Line infantry, led by Porucznik Andreas Zoszinski (Status III)
2x Line infantry, led by Podporucznika Roznicki (Status II)
1x Voltigeurs skirmishers, led by Sierzant Abramovicz (Status I)
1x Voltigeurs skirmishers, led by Kapral Pankowski (Status I)
1x Chasseurs á Cheval, led by Sierzant Kónski (Status I)

Force Morale: 11

 

The Game

The game commences with Polish voltigeurs entering the scene on either side of the river. I reacted to deploy a group of my own Grenzer skirmishers and try to do as much damage as possible to the Polisk skirmishers whilst still in the open. I do NOT want them to get to that building and take position in there.

To achieve this, I go all in and deploy the second group of Grenzers as well.

Without much of an effect on the enemy skirmishers Two things I did not consider, both of them bit me in the backside:
.) The skirmishers on the other river side advance into the orchards and start blasting my Grenzers’ flank. Unterleutnant Mann is wounded, his Status is reduced to zero.
.) Catching the enemy skrmishers in that wide open plain is excellent, but wide open plain also is cavalry country…

Between sitting in crossfire and  cavalry closing in, the skirmishers decide to leg it! Wounded Unterleutnant Mann is taken across the bridge by his men. Feldwebel Brot orders his group into the nearby building, …

 

…with which there are some problems as all men try to get through the door at once. For three more phases, the Grenzers slooooowly manage to shuffle into the building, as they get peppered by the Polish voltigeurs.

Mann’s Grenzers dash across the bridge and try to take shelter in the building. Polish Chasseurs are hot on their heels.

As skirmishers and scout cavalry battle it out across the river, Cpt.Shandy advances his main force along the road toward the objective.

They hurry forward in open column. In response I have Oberleutnant Anker deploy the men in one big line of infantry. Then the force commander, Hauptmann Johann Karl Franz von Ströck steps out of his field headquarters – and ankle-deep into something horrible. An attempt by local partisans!

Ströck’s Status is reduced to 2 until he finds some water to clean himself up. Extremely unfortunate, as there’s no time. The enemy is closing in fast!

An overview, since at this point both sides got all their troops committed:

At this point, things look a bit hairy for the Austrians – the Grenzers are all shoo’d back into buldings and in less than great shape. Polish skirmishers are pretty much contained across the river, but the group on the western side of the river is still at large and at liberty to operate as and where required.  The big Austrian line is deployed in full, but the Polish column is just outside their Volley Valley (technical term). On the right flank, there’s the enemy cavalry just about to cross the river. Maybe the skirmishers can do enough damage to keep them away though as they pass before they can break through.

 

The Polish commander Zoszinski tells his men not to bother readying the muskets and instead orders to give the invaders steel. In atypical Habsburgian speediness though, the Austrian commander splits the line in two. Three groups stay in line, wheel forward, and manage to fire two orderly volleys against the approaching enemy.

Oberleutnant Anker, in command of the two other infantry groups, orders the first to open fire at the enemy Chasseurs at sight and then leads the other group to shoo away the Polish voltigeurs. They try to evade combat, but the Austrians catch up to them and give them a whipping.

 

As usual, as soon as volleys are fired and columns are closing in, tactial considerations have to give way to damage control. The rear half of the Polish column stay back as the two frontmost groups charge the Austrian line.

A violent melée erupts, especially so since the regimental colours of the 8th infantry regiment of the Duchy of Warsaw are present. Despite quite a bit of accumulated shock points and their force commander falling in battle, Polish infantry breaks through the Austrian line. Hauptmann Ströck is pushed far back along with his badly battered group. There’s a big hole torn into the thin white line between the Duchy of Warsaw troops and the scenario objective.

Random event! Completely undeterred by the loss of their commander, the infantry, led by the colour party, break out into song and storm on!

Scattered Austrian line troops try to put up a defense, but without any leaders and a numbers disadvantage things look grim.

At the other flank, the detached Austrian infantry groups manage to mostly neutralize the enemy Voltigeurs and sent the Chasseurs packing with well-aimed musketry.

The remaining Austrian infantry along the road hold out just long enough for a fresh group to return and take position in the scenario objective building.

At this point, force morale on either side rattled down considerably. 3 and 2 respectively.

Since the commanders of both sides are out of the game (effectively and permanently respectively), both the second-in-commands on either side are about the only leaders present any more. It’s time for them to take the reins. Podporucznika Roznicki and his two groups manage to mop up the last Austrian defenders outside of the building and are about to turn towards the objective. There comes Oberleutnant Anker running across the road! He left his group to keep the enemy Voltigeurs tied down and makes his way towards the objective to lead the last defenders.

Roznicki considers trying to snatch up the lone officer, but instead focuses on the objective.

The Duchy’s so-far unstoppable force hits the immovable object, but the defenders hold. Just. Roznicki’s group is thrown back, leaving his supporting group in front of the building. Three men with three points of shock. At this point our force morale counters look as such:

Either way, this phase would be the decisive one. Oberleutnant Heinrich Ankers card comes up. Running down the road towards his beleaguered comrades in the building, he sees opportunity. With sabre held high, he ambushes the remaining Polish troops!

…and runs into three bayonets.

That settles it. It’s a Victory for the Duchy of Warsaw.

Aftermath and Learnings

What a lovely game. I had some bad luck early on, having one of my Grenzer leaders neutralized right away (okay, I was a little cocky with them) and my commander’s status reduced by one. I partially made up for the latter though by forgetting to take into account that his command range got reduced with his status, and at one point still made use of the 9″ command radius where it just should have been 6″. Oops.

My priest never made an appearance during the game; I wanted to keep him as an ace up my sleeve until needed. Oh well. That colour party on the other hand was a great asset to the Polish ranks. In the end, shandy had a plan and I didn’t really. Of course as defender that’s a luxury you can sometimes make work for you and just react to what’s happening.

What the game illustrated well is that it leads to cinematic moments even with a relatively basic scenario such as this one. It also illustrated that I need more roads and I should get working on some more cavalry. Just so I got troops beyond the bare minimum. And then I need to add a bunch of supports. And I really should put some magnets into those unit bases. And maybe I should get a quick reference sheet. When we played at shandy’s we always used his own QRSs with amended ranges and some other bits, so neither of us knows where to find what in the rulebook. 😀 Oh, and I need to do something about my lighting setup at the gaming table. That is a ghastly, ghastly situation.

Overall though – very happy, I hope that I get to play some more Sharp Practice this year. Many thanks to Cpt.Shandy for playing this long and hard-fought game with me. And thanks to you for reading; hope you enjoyed this first battle report of the year!