Battle of the Tensaw Gap, Alabama Territories Sep 1811

Last Monday we fought the first tabletop engagement of the NOLA campaign.  It's turn 8 of a 12 turn campaign and things are getting very interesting.  We're using the ESR ruleset to resolve tabletopl engagements.

The battle commenced with two allied Corps: a British one under the command of Packenham and an American corp under the command of Winfield Scott) marching onto the board.  Their objective was to seize the Tensaw Gap (middle left side of the table).  Initially opposing them was Davout's III Corps (or so they thought...)

Ed and Keith were the allied commanders and adopted a mass column of three divsions with a fourth in reserve.  That formation was dubbed the "sledgehammer" - here you can see them making initial contact with Friant's division of Davout's Corp.  They steam rolled Davout and sent him scurrying back to the rear.

The white cards on the table are order changes.  In ESR orders are issues in one turn and then rolled for to see if they take effect the next.  While the cards don't look all that good, they did make it easy to keep track of pending orders.

The allies were surprised to see the Emperor himself commanding a grand battery on the hill covering the gap.

As the Allied Sledghammer continued on it ran into Morand's division deploying along a stream in an attempt to stem the tide.  Morand's division was also swept aside but fatigue was mounting in the British Guard division

Perhaps more worrying for the allies was the surprise of seeing dust clouds to the north, heralding the arrival of Soult's II Corp.  Had the French sprung a trap?

Indeed they had for a few turns after Soult showed up to the North, Lannes arrived from the west with a single division.  It was now 5 on 4, in the favor of the French.

Soults and Davout's calvary catch a lone British hussar brigade in a calvary sandwich.  It did not end well for the Brits.

Napoleon repositioned his grand Battery and effectively evaporated the US 2nd Infantry division which quit the field.  Seeing themselves now out numbered 5:3 Ed and Keith chose discretion over valor and executed a skillful withdrawal to the south.  The last thing heard form both commanders as they left the field was shouted orders to their aides to erase any mention of the battle in their dispatches as an "assault" and replace it with the word "raid"

The battle was a very bloody affair with the Allies taking slightly more casualties than the French - Grand Batteries are devastating in the ESR ruleset.  Both sides had enough replacement points to replace their losses but their stockpiles are growing very thin, indeed.