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Return to the Ice: A 1812 "Big Battle" Sharp Practice Report
There is nothing quite like the atmosphere when the Posties Rejects gather in the shed-o-war. Yesterday, the dice were rolling, the banter was flowing, and the freezing Russian winter of 1812 was laid out across the tabletop for our latest grand wargame. This outing marked the fourth "Big Battle" variant of Sharp Practice we have run for the group. The last time we set up this specific collection was for our Demo Game at Broadside, where the hard work paid off massively and we bagged Best in Show. Having thoroughly covered the crossing of the Berezina in our previous games, Ray and I decided to shift gears this time around. We moved away from strict historical reproduction and built a custom, fictional scenario set a few days earlier along the bloody retreat from Moscow.
The Ambush at the Village
The tactical situation for the French was grim from the outset. A shallow, fordable stream cut across the field, and a small, dilapidated village bisected the only major road leading to safety. Looking through the frozen fog toward the village, the French commander could see enemy forces deployed, though they were a far cry from the Tsar’s elite regulars. The Russian defense was mostly a cobbled-together mix of Opolchenie militia, dismounted and mounted Cossacks, and local armed civilians. The only regular infantry unit on the field was a single detachment of Line Jäger stationed in the center to bolster the fragile militia line.
Most of these weak defensive units were taking cover behind little more than wooden livestock fences. Only the Russian artillery in the centre held a position behind a more substantial barracade. The Russian Cossacks were split across the flanks: on one side, foot Cossacks supported an aging 3lb gun mounted on a sled; on the other flank, three units of mounted Cossacks waited in the snow to harass the French advance.
On paper, the French held every advantage. Their force was a predictable mix of desperate retreaters, but at their core sat several elite infantry units. These veterans were guarding a seemingly innocuous wagon, which on closer inspection revealed itself to be Napoleon Bonaparte himself, wrapped in furs inside a horse-drawn sled. Behind the Emperor stretched a long line of supply wagons containing his personal baggage. The French objective was simple but high-stakes: break through the village, clear the road, and escort Bonaparte off the opposite board edge. Sitting right in the middle of that road, however, nestled tightly between two ruined buildings and sheltered behind a massive, hastily constructed barricade, was a small Russian gun manned by Opolchenie militia.
The Slaughter at the Barricade
That single, unassuming barricade would prove to be the absolute undoing of the entire French effort. Knowing time was against them, the French launched immediate, aggressive assaults to clear the central bottleneck. They made multiple attempts to melee the militia gun crew, but the terrain rules proved brutal. Fighting across such a substantial obstacle cost the attacking French a quarter of their melee dice. Furthermore, because the defensive barricade was so wide, the Russian defenders received extra dice to represent their fortified advantage.
What followed was a series of surprisingly even, bloody melees. The lowly Opolchenie gun crew held their ground with unbelievable tenacity. They fought off two separate, full-blooded charges from French scouting cavalry. Time after time, the French horsemen failed to dislodge the stubborn militia, losing momentum and taking casualties in the process. It was only on the third desperate attempt that the French finally managed to overrun the position, but the damage to their battle plan had already been done.
While the French were banging their heads against the central barricade, the rest of their army was slowly being whittled away across the field. Units were systematically broken, worn down by Russian fire, or destroyed in attrition battles. Under the Sharp Practice engine, every single unit loss triggers another roll on the unforgiving "Bad Things Happen" morale table. As unit after unit faltered, French force morale began to plummet into dangerous territory. Sensing the collapse, the French commanders redoubled their efforts, racing fresh troops forward to apply maximum pressure on the fragile Russian lines. But it was far too late. The cumulative shock and casualties overwhelmed the French command structure, their morale collapsed entirely, and the game ended in a dramatic Russian victory.
The result was a total shock to everyone around the table. At the start of the battle, the Russian defenders totaled just 42 points of troops facing down a massive French force of over 90 points. On paper, it should have been a steamroller; on the table, it became a heroic Russian stand.
Personal Miniatures and System Reflections
Beyond the dramatic narrative on the table, this game was a brilliant opportunity for Ray and me to get some specific models onto the field that we simply couldn't fit into our Broadside Demo Game. I was eager to finally field my Opolchenie militia (though I fully expected their time on the board to be brief and tragic) and Ray was keen to deploy Napoleon Bonaparte alongside some of his newly painted ad-hoc French units.
The game also gave us a chance to test our house rules for running large-scale games with this rule set. A few weeks ago, following the Broadside show, I posted a video talking about the challenges of upscaling Sharp Practice for big, multi-player battles. Ray and I have managed to make the rules work for these large scenarios, but if I'm being completely honest, the system isn't ideal for battles of this size. Sharp Practice is a fantastic rule set, but its mechanics are designed around tight, detailed skirmishes featuring four or five units per side. When you attempt to push the engine to accommodate nearly 20 units per side, the sheer level of detail creates friction. Certain rules simply don't translate smoothly to a grand tactical scale, and the turn flow can slow to a crawl.
Because of this, I’m fairly confident this will be the last time we use Sharp Practice for our Retreat from Moscow games. Ray and I are already in discussions about where to go from here. We are looking at either writing a streamlined, bespoke set of rules specifically tailored for our big shed battles, or searching for an established set of grand-skirmish rules that can handle high unit counts without losing the narrative friction we love.
One thing is absolute: this will not be the last time you see this 1812 collection on the table—no sir! We have far too many painted troops and incredible terrain pieces to leave them packed away in boxes. But as far as Sharp Practice goes, this epic Russian upset feels like a fitting, dramatic swan song for the system in our shed-o-war.
