ESR Napoleonics at the Club: Talavera!

Last night, at the club, I ran another game of ESR Napoleonics (published by The Wargaming Company) and we all had a blast.  I restaged the full battle of Talavera.  The table size was a little tight at 6x4 ft but it worked.  The first picture shows the French advancing on the combined British / Spanish position.

The allied side had 2 players with Tony taking the role of Wellington and Ed "becoming" Cuesta.  Ed really gets into character for these games.

The French had three generals with Tom taking the overall command as Jerome / Jourdan, Simon commanding Victor's corps and Dave commanding Sebastiani's troops.

The fighting was contained to the French right flank (as it had been historically).  There was a lot of see-saw fighting as division after division was wrecked.  Simons I Corps saw two of its three divisions wrecked in exchange for two Spanish and one British division.  We really got to experience how fluid this game system is .

The final British assault.  Tom's Dragoons on the left pushed back the British Calvary but Simons infantry were pushed back from the guns.  In the end, the game was called as a French victory as Simon managed to get his one remaining division of the table edge but the battle was very closely fought.

As for the rules, I really like them.  To be honest, I still got some things wrong but it was a much better run through than our previous game.  I'm going to tweak the OOB's and run this one again - perhaps on a slightly larger table that will afford a little more room for maneuver.  I'll also put a little more effort in on the terrain as this may become a convention game down the road.