"It's all Lies!" or Sharp Practice to end the year

 

The last battle in the game room for 2024 saw a return to 1860's Japan for a skirmish between Imperial and Shogunate forces using Sharp Practice.

It was a first try out for what my son has called the Low Information Encounter Scenario, or LIES.  Under this, each side can be either a Patrol, or a Raiding Party, or a Vanguard.  Each of these comes with different maximum points for making up a force and different sets of victory conditions.  Neither side knows what the other's force is and has to try to work this out from its behaviour and frustrate its intentions while also achieving its own objectives.

The table was set up with a village in the centre, level ground broken up by many bamboo groves to the south and east, paddy fields and a stream to the north-west and an enclosed temple to the north-east.  The two side's deployment points were set diagonally opposite at the exit points of the road running south-west to north-east.  I drew the Imperial side with entry at the south-west, Jeremy the Shogunate forces entering from the north-east.  Then we drew secretly for our force type, with my lot falling on a raiding party.

Victory conditions for a raiding party are set as achieving any 3 out of 5 objectives - destroying things, capturing things or getting information out of the locals - and extracting your force afterwards without losing more than half of your starting morale.   All 5 objectives were in or around the village.  I decided to go for a high quality force that I hoped could go in quickly, fulfil the objectives and get out again while having the fire-power to deal with anyone trying to interfere.  So, I chose a small force of a group of three infantry sections equipped with breach-loading rifles and commanded by a Grade 3 Officer supported by a Grade 1 subordinate, a section of light infantry and a section of shock cavalry each with a Grade 2 officer.  Spare points were used to buy matches for arson and upgrading an officer to explorer to give an extra deployment point near the village.

In a normal Sharp Practice game, the activation pack has one card for each officer.  In this variation, each side has 10 officer cards and records in advance which numbers correspond to which of their officers.  This means that there are several blanks in the pack, adding to the uncertainty about enemy strength and intentions.

How did things pan out for the Imperial raiding party?

In the first turn, the first officer card drawn was for my main group.  I realised, belatedly, that I had placed my additional deployment point further from the village than I need have done, leaving my men with some way to move before being able to get into the village itself.  The best I could do was place them in open column on the road to give them the best possible movement options when next able to activate them.

The Imperials approach but do not quite reach the village

Lots of blue - Shogunate - leader cards were then drawn without anything happening

The first turn ended with a group of two Shogunate infantry sections marching on from their main deployment point and their secondary deployment point being moved - indicating an irregular unit in their force composition - before the tiffin card was turned over.

Turn two began well for me, with both the light infantry and the cavalry leader's cards coming up.

Their extra movement allowance allowed me to get the light infantry right into the nearest of the village houses.  They could start to search it when next activated and would have a strong point to fire on any enemy trying to interfere with their colleagues as they went about their business of looting and pillaging.

The cavalry came on to the south-west of the village where they could ride in to start burning things.  In the distance opposite them, enemy sharpshooters appeared in the temple compound.

The main column was activated as well but rolled poorly on its movement dice.  The lead section could only get half way into the village.  The officer was able to interrogate a villager nearby but without success, the young lady he spoke to fleeing in terror from him.

Ominously, another group of Shogunate regular infantry appeared from their deployment point.  I began to suspect that I was facing a vanguard and would need to complete my tasks quickly and get out before being overwhelmed.

The third turn did not begin so well for me, with the Shogunate sharpshooters getting first activation.  They moved up to the wall around the temple compound quickly and had a choice of firing on my cavalry or on the column in the village.  They selected the latter target as it was closer.  My heart leaped as they rolled poorly, inflicting only 1 kill on the leading section and 1 shock on the section behind.

My heart sank as the test for whether the officer was the one to be hit failed dismally and he fell dead at the head of his men, costing me 3 morale points out of the 10 I started with and leaving the main column with serious command problems for the rest of the game

A small consolation was that the cavalry had reached an objective they could now start trying to set on fire while the light infantry was well on the way to finding the loot it needed in the house it was in.

The subordinate commander of my main column failed in his attempt to interrogate another villager but was able to move one section off the road into another house to start searching it.

The enemy sharpshooters started picking off my leaderless front section

The battered section fell back as the light infantry, having secured its loot, exited the house on the right.  Finally, the subordinate officer managed to find the right tone to use with the last villager and was rewarded with the information he sought.  So, one objective secure, one in the hands of the light infantry who should be able to get it off the table, two remaining chances to achieve the one objective still needed to meet minimum victory conditions.

The enemy sharpshooters had become obscured by their own smoke and although managing to inflict loss and shock on the cavalry could not stop them from setting fire to the stock of straw bales.  Three objectives achieved!  Now to retreat in good order.

A massive volley from the main line of enemy infantry was underwhelming.  They inflicted some losses and shock, mostly on the rearmost of my two sections in the open, not enough to cause a bad thing to happen.

The retreat goes well.  Cavalry and light infantry are about to leave the field.  The third section of infantry has been extracted from the house it was in and is now covering the battered sections retreating down the road behind it.

As the last of his men marched off the field, the Imperial commander looked forward to a well earned glass of sake.  Unfortunate to have lost a promising officer, but his gallant lads had snatched what they needed from under the noses of those rascally Shogun's men.  The bit of blooding would steel them for future action.  

Only then did the truth dawn.  The enemy force had not been a slowly deploying vanguard but a well armed patrol.  As the Imperials had put all their forces into the field, where their numbers and nature could be observed, the Shogun's men had achieved their objective, cancelling out the efforts of the raiders and bloodying their noses into the bargain.  The shame!  The shame!  No sake for the Imperials tonight.

And with that, I wish all readers a Happy 2025, full of enjoyment on the gaming table.