Battle of the Pyramids

   My good friend George invited me up the other day for a game.  He had been cleaning out his shed and setting up his gaming area in it and wanted to break it in.  I had the day off so I joined George, Ralph, Earl and Mike .  This was great fun for me as I had not been able to game with them for too many years due to work and life.

   George had been working on his French Revolution 15mm army for some time.  He, like many in the club are great fans of the Volley and Bayonet rules set which he is running for this time period.  Mike brought his Turkish/Arab army which stood in for the Egyptian army. After painting and playing with 25mm figures it was an interesting experience playing with 15mm.

  For those not familiar with the rules these are big battle and big scale battle game.  A stand or base is a brigade.  Or in the French army case a demi brigade.  The rules have a lot of board game aspects to them and reward a good plan.

The game started with the French advancing into the table.  They had planned to camp in the oasis area.  Once they were set up the Egyptian army could set up.  While the French had a good mixed force of troops the Egyptian army was heavy on cavalry with very poor quality infantry and two gigantic cannon which once placed could not move.  Mike and I had the Egyptians, Ralph and earl the french.

  We set up our Egyptian force with all the cavalry in our right, artillery in the center and our infantry on the left.  We hoped to try and attack and roll up the French while our infantry kept them busy.

  Our cavalry attacked in two waves and did pretty well.  We forced back two demi brigades and pushed back his small cavalry force.  Earl quickly put the remaining French infantry together and went stationary.  This gave him extra dice to throw and made his infantry extra hard for the cavalry to fight.  Massed as they were with their artillery  there was very little chance of the cavalry breaking them.  This ended our attempt to roll them up.

On our left flank both infantry lines eyed each other cautiously but aside from some long range minister shooting little fighting broke out.  In the center the French managed to stay out of range of our artillery the entire game.  Clever fellows those French!  The highlight of the game was when Ralph threw double six's when rolling for musket fire.  A moment that will live in immortality in our club lore.  Ok, you had to be there.

  All in all a very colorful and enjoyable game.  These are not a time period i usually game nor are the rules my usually cup of tea.  But they moved along quickly, provided a fun game and a very enjoyable day.  Many thanks to all for a wonderful time.