15mm Napoleonics – Vimeiro 21 Aug 1808
Leave a commentJune 18, 2017 by wargamerchris
Vimeiro was our first Penninsular game. We’ve collected more than 10K Napoleonics over the years – starting with Heritage Napoleonettes and Minifigs in the middle school years, I’ve never really stopped.
The rules we used were March Attack (more of this later). The figures were all mine- from a variety of manufacturers.
I’m afraid most of my pictures are from the setup versus gameplay. The French abandoned their flank march to their right and went straight in. The British formed a reinforced line anchored on Vimeiro Hill in the center.
The short version is that the rules didn’t work well for us. The modifiers and rolls made walking near your enemy and then firing was far more decisive than melee could be, so the French formed an arc of their numerous units and began shooting the British out of Vimeiro! They never charged, having figured out that it was less effective than simply firing. I remember thinking that I could have halved the points for firing and felt more comfortable with the rules.
The players had fun, the Grognards stopped by to say they always liked Vimeiro. The emperor’s boys won.
I painted Junot for the game – in his distinct uniform
The British center on Vimeiro Hill in front of the village
The Light Dragoons – painted just for this game
A look toward the left of the British line
Reinforcements moving into Vimeiro
Overview of the British positions
No heavy French cavalry for this one
Converged grenadiers were important to the French
This brigade in the right on the road was there to block the flank attack by Junot’s right
Small Soldiers - Stout Hearts 