Tactica Review (1) - The Battle of Aboukir

Once again this blog fell silent for a couple of weeks. Again my apologies for but my reason was just since I had to concentrate all my hobby time on finishing my share of our game for Tactica wargaming show namely one unit of redcoats, a rowing boat with 38 figures and a British gunboat. From time to time I didn't believe that I'd make it but delayed holiday, sleep deficiency and negligence of household duties do miracles sometimes. In this context I cannot praise Mrs Monty's patience enough!

Anyway somehow everything was done and finished by Thursday evening and so I set sail to Hamburg on Friday morning with a bag full of miniatures. As I mentioned a couple of times we prepared a game to recreate the Battle of Aboukir which took place on 8th March 1801. From the morning fog there were British landing crafts emerging that told of the advancing landing force under command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie. He brought 17,000 troops to breeze out the French but those are ready to fight their last stand as hard as possible. Once again after Nelson's famous naval victory and after a failed Ottoman landing operation in 1799 the fate of the Orient is decided at Aboukir.

The initial setup with the French on the beach and the British advancing by sea.

So the background for our scenario was set and our club fellow Bernhard created a scenario based on Black Powder to recreate the events of this fateful day. Basically the French took position on a large dune near the beach while the British advanced by sea in rowing boats and other small vessels. During this phase they had to withstand artillery fire from the coast and the fortress of Aboukir which would have been north of the section we showed.

A British gunboat and one of the rowing boats advancing.

Another shot of the incoming British.

Thus the British regiments hit the beach in very different condition. Some approached literally untouched while some reached the beach rather battered. Anyway by the British supremacy they were meant for pushing the French brigades from the hill but nevertheless the French were able to win the game by slowing down the British long enough.

The 54th Rgt of Foot storming the beach.

During the show we played the game three times. During the first games our annual guests Karl and Jörg from Berlin joined us, the second game was fought between Aly Morisson, Alan and Michael Perry and yours truly while the third game took place on Sunday between our club fellow Heinz and a nice, young lady who fell for his gentlemanly charm.

General Moore's brigade on the beach.

All three games were a bunch of fun and pretty close fights. After the first game we forgot to calculate the victory points but the battlefield looked like a draw. The second game was won by the French 16 - 14 and the third game went to the French by a score I don't remember. So although the French brigades were broken in all three games they withstood long enough and caused enough damage to collect more victory points then the brave British.

The whole British force of the first wave.

So we had a great time with a couple of fine wargaming fellows and it was once again a great experience to present a participation game at Tactica. Here are some more impressions from the game:

The 54th under heavy pressure from French cavalry.

A poor French unit mangled between the 58th Regiment and the Black Watch.

The 28th assaulting a smalish French unit.

Alan adjusting the 28th while French commanders Aly and Michael observe him eagle-eyedly.

Alan and yours truly cosing the froggs along.

After all we had a great time with our game and I'm really happy to have finished my share in time. Although by far most of the figures came from Bernhard's splendid collection I had the pleasure to see my 28th Regiment of Foot, my Black Watch, a gunboat and a rowing boat see action during the games. Luckily all our stuff survived the weekend without greater damage.

Recording...

Although I started my review with our own game this year the other clubs brought outstanding tables as well. I'll feature a couple of them during my next post but it'll take a day or two to get the pictures sorted.