The British column had advance and its forward brigade had taken position in the village of St. Michel as the rest of the army moved out from the Bourbon Forest.
However, arrayed in front of them was the might of the French Army of Gastony beginning to deploy around the monastrey but with the small but deep Chamois stream to their front.
The objectives for both sides was to take and hold the village. For the French this looked like a difficult proposition, given the stream and the inability of the troops to form from the head of their march columns. As the battle began the British cavalry came sweeping down as the French tried to negoiate the stream. With the French cavalry refusing to cross (we ruled that crossing the stream in line caused disorder) the French foriegn corps was launched accross the stream. The Scots and Irish managed to cross and form line just as the British cavalry charged them! Although charged by an entire cavalry the Scots managed to survive but were forced to fall back shaken across the stream, leaving the Dillons Irish alone against the might of the British horse.
Uncowed by the enemy facing them, Dillons irish levelled their muskets and delivered a tremendous volley into the first regiment of British horse, emptying saddles and causing no small amount of panic and disorder in the enemies ranks. In response, with the French still trying to get units over the stream, the commander of the British horse led the brigade in a charge on the lone Irish regiment. The Irish received the charge with another devastating volley and then promptly tore into the enemy cavalry, with riders and horses being cut down on the Irish bayonets. Having suffered too much the British horse broke and fled, taking both their supporting units with it and fled from the field!
This led the Irish to start the French advance, now backed by the Royal Grenadiers, and they stormed the British centre, despatching one unit after another in front of them with ease. Soon the British line began to waver in the centre. On the other side the British faired slightly better, halting the French on the bridge and holding them up after crossing the stream, but the irrestible force of the red coated Irish of Dillons Regiment was too much and they soon broke two more British Brigades, including the Guards, and caused the entire British Army to collapse and run for the safety of the forest. The French Army had achevied an amazing victory, all thanks to a group of stubborn Irishmen!
Actually the game was a massacre. The French didnt lose a single unit, and Dillons Irish didnt take a single casualty! The British lost three brigades to the regiment of mad Irishmen who slaughtered all before them in an orgy of violence helped greatly by some of the worse dice rolls ever by the British (one of their units of horse, with 8 attacks when charging scored just 1 hit which was promptly saved by the Irish). An utter debacle for the British and a glorious French victory! I think the British lost due to being commanded by all Irish players, and Dillon's performed so well as they had something to prove... With the only English player taking their command!
