Death in the Sands

 Your correspondent now finds himself with Legate Adrian’s army amongst the burning sands of North Africa.  Arrayed before us is the barbaric splendour of the Numidian army and the traitorous cohorts of Malchus Bonitus  (MalBo for short).   

Mal joined the left flank of David’s Numidian horde and Rick was appointed Tribune in command of Adrian’s (Roman) right.

The battlefield was generally open with a scattering of scrubby palm groves around the perimeter.  High dunes broke up the Eastern side of the field with some undulating ground in the North West corner. 

As expected the Numidian’s outscouted the Romans and Adrian started by deploying his left (Eastern) wing.  The Numidians responded by committing their elephants against the Roman centre.  A clash of legions was set up on the Western side of the battlefield as both armies deployed their cohorts on the open side of the battlefield.  The Romans went on to deploy a strong legionary centre opposite the Numidia elephants and the Numidians completed the deployment with a cavalry heavy right wing.

The Numidian plan was to push hard on both flanks, aiming to envelope the Romans and deliver killing blows to the Roman rear and camps.  The Romans planned to collapse their right flank and create a stronghold on the left and centre of the battlefield taking advantage of the disordering terrain.

At this point David played his stratagem forcing the whole Roman centre to fall back one square.

During the initial moves of the battle the Numidian left made steady progress pushing their heavy infantry forward and throwing their allied cavalry out to the western edge of the battlefield in what turned into a wide outflanking move as Rick’s troops drifted towards the centre of the battlefield. 

The bulk of the Roman army moved slowly forward sending their light troops to occupy the broken ground on their left.  The centre and right of the Numidian army made good progress, closing with the Roman line.

At this point then battle proper commenced with the renegade cohorts attacking and destroying Rick’s right wing cohort.  The mercenary Gallic cavalry also got in on the action charging the flank of the Rick’s cavalry, disordering them and forcing them to evade towards the Roman centre.

The Numidian left wing pressed its advantage disordering and then destroying a second loyal Roman cohort. 

On the Numidian right wing the Roman flank guard (javelin armed light infantry) was destroyed and the mass of the Numidian light cavalry began to flow round the exposed Roman flank. 

Roman missile fire was ineffective and in the centre of the battlefield the Roman cavalry had been forced to withdraw in the face of the advancing Pachyderms.  The Gallic mercenaries continued to harass the rear of Rick’s cavalry,

The Romans despaired!

As the Roman left manoeuvred to defend their camp the cohorts in the centre assaulted the Numidians, disordering their elephants and destroying the supporting spearmen.  In a move of breath taking confidence the victorious cohort about faced and charged the rear of the Numidian elephants breaking them and causing them to rampage through and disorder the Roman line.

Rick’s cavalry rallied and charged the flank of the remaining elephants smashing them and causing them to rampage off towards the Numidian Rear.

 The Numidians had no answer but did succeed in disordering the Roman Auxiliaries on Adrians left.  The Roman resurgence continued, Rick’s remaining cohort moved smartly to the right and destroyed the overextended Gallic cavalry.  Numidian morale was wavering!

On the Roman Right Adrian had succeeded in building a defensive cordon around his camps and pinned the threatening Numidian cavalry to the edge of the battlefield.  Alarum! Adrian’s subordinate general had been struck.  A mere light wound he bravely continued to direct his command.

 At last the Roman archery came into its own, destroying the remaining Numidian cavalry and driving the outflanking lights from the battlefield.  Despite the Numidian left wing finally succeeding in returning to the battle, but with only light troops in contact with the Romans in the centre and right the Numidian army was broken.

Hailed Imperator by his cohorts Legate Adrian has now earned the right to march on Rome and challenge Emperor Paul for the purple.  Our next game will be Rome vs Rome! 

Swamp Fox - Game 5

In the fifth game of the Swamp Fox campaign from the Too Fat Lardies, the Rebels have heard that the Crown forces are guarding supplies which the Rebels would like to lay their hands on.

In this scenario the Rebels deployed their troops along the southern edge of the field with the Crown forces being deployed in the various camps.

The Rebel veteran militia did a controlled volley into the troops congregating around camp 3, with a shocking result.

 

 

The Swamp Fox himself deployed with his militia and fired into the Crown militia, causing one group to fall back.

Meanwhile, the Rebel skirmishers decided to go for a walk in the swamp, hoping to outflank the Crown forces.

Lieutenant Colonel Tynes had a last gotten what was left of his militia into some semblance of order

when William Dukes turned up with his newly raised militia and started to disorder it.

What was left of the Loyalist rangers retired back into the swamp and using the long range of their rifle to snipe at the Rebels.

Sensing that they might not get any supplies, the Rebels advanced. Although this did take many turns with lots of ones on the movement dice and calls for a change of the dice.

With one group managing to seize some supplies.

The area around the supplies soon became a Rebel graveyard, with the remnants of the Crown forces pouring fire into the supply dump. However, William Dukes and his militia got a lucky shot on Lieutenant Colonel Tynes, knocking him out.

Taking advantage of the lack of opposition leadership, the Rebels seized the supplies and thus took victory.

Sir Charles takes the fight to the Rebels

Sir Charles Fortisque had been informed that some Rebel militia had been gathering and were being reinforced by State troops.

 

So, he marched his small force of regulars to break up this gathering before they started making a nuisance of themselves. Deploying his line Infantry in the middle and lights to either flank.

The rebels deployed their militia and State troops in the middle hoping to halt the British at the fence line.

With skirmishers holding the flanks.

On the British marched, with the light infantry to the fore.

Sergeant Stranger advanced his Loyalist rangers through the woods in an attempt to disrupt the State troops that were holding the fence line.

However, his lads were over enthusiastic and left the cover of the woods only to find that the Rebels were ready and waiting for them.

After a brief fire-fight the Loyalist rangers fell back into the cover of the woods, licking their wounds.

In order to help out the retiring rangers, Sir Charles formed his men into line and poured fire into the Rebels.

The light Infantry on the right advanced in an attempt to clear the skirmishers in the woods. However, Sergeant Barking took one for the lads and fell dead at their feet.

His lads exacted revenge by charging across the road into the Rebel skirmishers, Tomahawks in hand.

Sir Charles, deciding that he wasn’t going to win the fire-fight with the Rebels, charged his men into the Rebel skirmishers hiding in the woods to their left. The Rebels seeing the British bayonets advancing towards them decided that retiring away was a better option.

However, The Rebels snuck around the flank of the British and started sniping from cover. At this point Sir Charles decided that he would retire from the field and get some badly needed reinforcements.

What a Cowboy – Rescue Drusilla (Scenario 3. The Rescue)

The Cast:

The Daltry Gang:

• Buck Stopshere (Shootist) – Greg
• Grip Tightly (Greenhorn) – Greg
• Will Cody (Shootist), Rifle – Rob
• Dick Limp (Greenhorn), Shotgun – Rob

The Bunyan Gang:

• Slim Pickings (Shootist) – Simon
• Frank Lee (Greenhorn) – Simon
• Gary Cant (Shootist) – Phil
• Rich Seam (Greenhorn) - Phil

Drusilla was the local railroad boss’ favourite hooker and the Bunyan gang had abducted Drusilla and had taken her to their canyon mining camp, for ransom purposes. The Bunyan mining camp was located in a small South facing box canyon, comprising of a log cabin and a small wooden shack, located centrally, with the mine located in the North-East corner of the canyon.

Drusilla was being held in the log cabin, with Slim watching over her, while Rich patrolled around the back of the cabin. Frank & Gary were in the mine.

The Daltry gang arrived at the head of the canyon and eyed up the apparently sleepy camp scene. Buck edged his way forward, covered by Will and his rifle, perched on some rocks. Behind the cabin, Rich thought he saw something headed into the canyon. He walked forward to get a better look, but a rifle round from Will saw him scuttling back behind the cabin. The firing caused Slim to peer out of the front window of the cabin, catching sight of Buck sneaking from the back of a wagon, up to the snake rail fence overlooking the cabin. Slim poked his six-shooter out of the window and squeezed a round off at Buck, causing Buck to throw himself back behind the wagon.

Dick watched Buck duck back and decided to try to flank around the right side of the cabin, but rather slowly!!

Attracted by the firing, Frank & Gary dashed out of the mine, Frank headed for the back of the cabin and Gary headed for the gully that ran up the West side of the canyon. He reached the gully and crept down along it, looking to flank around the left flank of the Bunyan gang. 

Will, crouched down behind the rocks, was still covering the cabin with his trusty rifle, but even he was surprised when 3 Daltry henchmen seemingly appeared from the privy, located just a few yards South-West of the cabin. But, he wasn’t surprised enough to stop him callously gun down these newly appeared henchmen! He then turned his rifle on the cabin, winging Slim and causing Slim to duck back from the window.

Once these threats were neutralised Buck made another dash for the left side of the cabin, relying on Will to cover him with his rifle, but by this time Gary had snuck up the gully into a position overlooking Will in the rocks. Gary’s pistol ran out, causing Will to dive to his right. But just when Will thought things could not get any worse, another group of Daltry henchmen appeared behind him (another 10 random event)!! 

Back at the cabin, Buck shouted for Dick to move-in on the cabin, with his shotgun, but Dick just seemed to freeze in uncertainty. Buck was yelling for him to go to the cabin, but Dick could see another Daltry gang member, Rich, coming along the snake rail fence to the right of the cabin. Dick hesitated just long enough for Rich to fire at him, fortunately for Dick, missing. While this was going on, Grip had seen Rich and moved to intercept him. Grip reached over snake rail fence, fired, sending Rich spawling in the dirt!

Having realised Dick was distracted with this new threat, Buck dashed for the cabin window, skidding to a halt, barely a few feet in front of the cabin window, just as Slim reappeared at the window! Another frantic exchange of shots saw Buck throwing himself back away from the window and headlong into the dirt. Dick glanced down at Buck and then up at Slim and his smoking revolver at the window, stunned! In his head, Dick was also aware of shouting behind the wagon, only few feet behind him. More Daltry henchmen, what was going on, was this a trap! Slim was actually smirking at Dick, which seemed to unfreeze Dick. He swung up the shotgun, blasting Will’s head clean off his shoulders!

This was all too much for the rest of the Bunyan gang and they decided to ride for the hills, leaving behind a whole pack of newly recruited henchmen, who were now wondering why they had come all this way to join-up with this Bunyan gang!?