Swamp Fox - Game 10

Situation

After Christmas, Marion dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Horry to determine the troop strength of the Crown forces in Georgetown and, if possible, to capture a Crown officer to gain information. Seeking breakfast at the White plantation, Horry found his repose interrupted when a sentry warned of an approaching British force.

The British forces are accompanying two young ladies to the White plantation. Once the Rebels show themselves the player should be informed that he must put the ladies’ safety before all other considerations. The British win if they drive off the Rebels and are able to deliver the ladies to the plantation.

The Rebels win if they break the British Force Morale. They gain an additional bonus if they capture either of the two ladies.

On hearing the approach of the British the Rebels deployed out of the White plantation house, with the skirmishers heading for the trees

and the militia forming up to the front and rear.

Meanwhile, the Loyalist militia marched up the road with the ladies in tow

And the cavalry cantering through the wheat fields.

With a lot of cavalry heading towards them, the Rebel skirmishers decided that retreating behind a fence was a good idea.

The cavalry managed to successfully jump the fence but were immediately fired upon by the Rebel militia and were soon fleeing the battlefield.

The Loyalist militia continued down the road even though then could hear the slaughter of horses in the distance.

The Rebels formed line and poured fire into the Loyalists, who soon turned tail and ran.

Games Marathon, 7th/8th Nov

 During the latest of Dave’s excursions South, we mounted 3 games;

1. 1.      General d’Armee 2, Battle of Gilly, 1815
2. 2.      Never Mind the Billhooks, Battle of Stoke 1487
3. 3.      What an Operator/Zombie

Very briefly, these games went as follows;

General d’Armee 2, Battle of Gilly, 1815: Napoleon’s attempt to brush Prussian rearguard aside, prior to Wavre & Waterloo. The French mounted a rapid & bold two pronged assault, first against the village around the road river crossing, closely followed by a push to secure the ford on their left flank and so open the path for the cavalry division reserves.

The French mounted two frontal assaults on the village, but both were brushed aside by the Prussian defenders. OK, we got the rules wrong on the assaults on a garrison, but likely balancing out the garrison skirmish fire Unforming the attack column, against the support provided by the flanking French columns.

Over on the river ford flank, the French boldly pushed an infantry regiment across the stream, but a timely use of Prussian Artillery Assault & devastating infantry volley fire, completely wiped out the French Grenadiers.

This left two French divisions Faltering and Napoleon’s hopes in tatters.

Never Mind the Billhooks, Battle of Stoke 1487: The Yorkists shuffled up to the crest of the low hill commanding their side of the field. The Lancastrian forces mounted a cavalry sally on their left, only to be met by a few Irish Kerns chucking sticks! Surprise, surprise one knight unhorsed by a javelin through his open visor! The knights closed their visors and trotted forward to a stand-off with the German Mercenary pike block on the hill, while the kerns withdrew, laughing!

Over on the Lancastrian right, Chris pushed his combined Longbow/Men at Arms company forward, against the extreme Yorkist left. A vicious exchange of arrows left the Yorkist archers flowing to the rear, but most of the Lancastrian archers lying in the field. However, the Lancastrian morale held and the Lancastrian Men at Arms marched over the bodies of their archers and up the hill and into a vicious melee with the Yorkist billmen, seemingly getting the upper hand.

Sensing victory, the Lancastrian centre surged forward. A brief exchange of fire and the Lancastrian Men at Arms pushed up the hill, smashing through a unit of Yorkist Billmen, but suffering significant casualties in return. The Yorkists rapidly moved their Men at Arms across, to cover the gaping hole in their lines. The Lancastrian Commander, realising that he would be unable to shift this fresh unit, challenged the enemy leader to a dual. But, the underhanded Yorkists had not put their Commander in the centre of the line, but some lumbering brute of a man, who despatched the Lancastrian Commander in two sword blows! Game over!

What an Operator/Zombie: A first try-out of Phil’s version of John Savage’s “What an Operator”, but with Zombies! Four Russian Spetsnaz and four British SAS were racing to recover a vital new vaccine package. The vaccine package was located in one of two vehicles, that had been involved in a unfortunate road traffic accident, in a zombie infested suburb!

The Russians rushed forward, seizing forward positions, but also drawing the zombie herds onto them. However, Sergei rapidly chopped the first Zombie herd down with his AK74 and all the racket somehow not drawing any further herds!

The SAS went more slowly, with two men moving down the road, toward the target vehicles, while one flanked right and the fourth sought to take up an overwatch position in some flats.

The Russians had other ideas, with two men proving covering fire, a third rushed the vehicle wrecks (the forth playing around with the 2^nd Zombie herd!). The Russian quickly searched the vehicles, while simultaneously exchanging fire with the SAS (Bonanza tokens all round!). Vaccine case located, the Russians excited ‘stage left’ (4 movement dice does help!). All the SAS could do, was to chase after the Spetsnaz, but failed to get any clear shots.

Lion Rampant 2 Game: Vikings vs Normans

 A scenario based on the rulebook scenario 8, “Sausages with Mustard”, modified as ‘Burn the Village’.

4 huts were placed, around a central deployment zone. The Vikings are here to burn the village down, as revenge for the killing of their previous Viking Warlord. The Vikings must burn-down as many of the village huts as possible (as per rules for setting fire to objective in Scenario 7). The attacker would gain 2 VP for each hut destroyed, while the defender would gain 2VP for each hut saved.

The Norman defenders elected to place their unit of Heavy Infantry in the village, with the  remainder of the force deploying in the North Eastern corner zone. The Viking attacker set up in the South Western corner zone.

The Viking attackers were lead by Ragnor (Steve & Rob). Leader Skills of ‘Commanding’, ‘Aggressive’ & ‘ Strongsword’, with a force comprising of;

• Ragnor + 1x Elite Infantry
• 2x Veteran Heavy Infantry
• 1x Light Infantry
• 1x Unit of Archers

The Norman defenders, were lead by William (Dave), with leader skills, ‘Commanding’ & ‘Patient’, with a force comprising of;

• William + 1x Elite Cavalry
• 2x Elite Cavalry
• 1x Heavy Infantry
• 1x Unit of Archers

The Vikings chose to march the bulk of their force straight down the road, to the village, while the archers flanked to their left. The Viking light infantry, being faster, reached the village first, only to encounter the Norman infantry holding the bridge. 

The Viking lights advanced toward the Southernmost hut, intending to set it alight, but the Normans charged them. However the Normans were dismayed to find their Attack Value was only 5, vs the Vikings light infantry Defence of 4! The Normans were thrown back, but the Viking light infantry failed their Courage test and also fell back, straight into the line of fire of the Norman archers! The Normans loosed their arrows and the Viking light infantry was routed.

Back at the bridge, the Norman cavalry, now unmasked by their Heavy Infantry, could see the Viking heavy infantry. Failing their Wild Charge test, the first unit of Norman knights surged forward. Disaster, another draw. The knights were thrown back in disorder.

This left William exposed on the bridge and Ragnor and his elite warriors charged forward. We all forgot the Norman Counter-Charge, but the combat turned out to be another draw (2 all) and Ragnor’s men were thrown back.

Seeing Ragnor winded, William charged his knights at the unit of Viking Heavy Infantry, pushing them back. William then turned his attention on Ragnor, slaying all of Ragnor’s elites, sparing only Ragnor himself.

But William’s knights were now very depleted and exhausted and he was forced to retire across the bridge, sounding his horn, to recall the 3^rd unit of knights, that had galloped (well more waddled!) to the Western ford, to drive off the Viking archers.

This 3^rd unit of knights arrived back at the village just in time. One unit of Viking heavy infantry had fallen upon the Norman foot, slaughtering them. The second unit of Viking heavies had surged across the bridge, looking to burn a 3^rd hut, but the Norman reinforcements arrived in the nick of time!

After a brief struggle, the Norman knights routed the Viking heavies. Realising that victory was slipping from his grasp, Ragnor dashed to meet the surviving Norman knights, mid bridge (after remembering & passing their counter-charge!). Ragnor was ridden down. A hard fought victory to the Normans!  Lion Rampant 2 is no in-depth combat simulation, it is a fun game!!

Swamp Fox - Game 9

After almost a year’s break from the swamp we returned to the American south to play scenario 9 of Swamp Fox campaign book by the Too Fat Lardies.

Situation

With Marion successfully avoiding capture, the British reinforced their garrison in Georgetown with a troop of Queen’s Rangers. On Christmas Day they sallied forth to patrol the surrounding countryside, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel George Campbell, the garrison commander. Very soon they encountered a Rebel force and battle was joined.

We actually played this game twice as the first game quickly went very badly wrong for the rebels when the provincial cavalry charged up the road and into the militia, which were in an open column on the road. Carnage ensued and the rebels scattered, quickly dropping their morale. Now onto the tale of the second gaming attempt.

Again, the cavalry advanced up the road but only at a canter as the rebels were a bit more canny with their deployment. The regulars were hot on the heels of the cavalry, hoping to take advantage of a cavalry charge.

 

The provincials charged towards the rebels in the woods and took some fire but managed to charge in, scattering the rebels. However, they were in turn attacked in the flank and forced to retire.

Meanwhile, the regulars advanced towards the militia who had now formed line.

However, the regulars decided not to trade fire with the militia line and tried to get around their flank, scattering the single group of militia into the bargain. It was now just down to a fire-fight between the regulars and the militia. The rebel run of bad luck continued when they fouled their barrels, reducing the firepower by half. 

At this point the game was called as the rebels decided this was an unfair contest.

Sharp Practice 2: War of 1812 – The Re-Supply of Fort Neots

The British have established a new small fort outpost on the shores of Lake Erie. However, US forces have spotted the build and sent a flying column to disrupt the final re-supply of the fort. The US commander, Major Donny T Rump (Mal), knows that he lacked the forces to assault the fort directly, but instead aimed to cut off the re-supply, having spotted a RN ship making landfall near the fort.

In the meantime, the Royal Navy had actually landed the ammunition supplies on the shore, a short distance from the fort and loaded them onto a cart, but spotting the US flying column marching to intercept, Captain Wolfe (Rob) also landed a force of Marines and seamen, to escort the supplies across to the fort.

British forces deployed from a Deployment Point in the North-West corner (A2), with one Canadian militia unit already deployed in the fort. The US forces deployed from the Deployment Point on the South table edge (G8).

The British opened with a strong deployment, landing all 3 groups of Marines, a group of 6 Seamen skirmishers and a group of 12 seamen with melee weapons. The US main column (3 units of Regular infantry) was a bit slower deploying, but Major Rump did manage to push his 2 groups of skirmishers into the field to the left of the road and the militia group to the right of the road, to face-off with the Canadian militia in the fort.

As the Marine column advanced Eastward, toward the fort, screening the re-supply wagon, the US Light Infantry advanced across the field, opening up long range fire onto the right flank of the Marine column. The British responded by advancing the seamen skirmishers, to distract the US light infantry, but the midshipman leading this group was quickly wounded.

In the meantime, the US Regular infantry column mounted a lightening march up to the ‘T’ junction, followed by a fairly nifty deployment into line, facing the Royal Marines. Sadly for the marines, the rather galling fire from the US light infantry delayed their forming into an opposing line.

To try to drive off the US light infantry, Captain Wolfe dashed his Seamen melee group into the field, causing the US lights to recoil back behind the house. However, these US lights quickly about-turned and poured a devastating volley into the advancing seamen. A couple of disciplined discharges from the US lights saw the seamen streaming back to the shore!

The main US line opened fire on the marine line, as it tried to form-up, inflicting large amounts of shock, but the discipline of the marines meant that the line held and slowly started to return fire. The marine’s Sharp Practice now really started to pay off, with both side’s trading Presented volleys, but the faster volleys of the marines soon started to open more gaps in the US ranks, than were occurring in the marine ranks.

On the East side of the table, the Canadian militia had sallied out of the fort, to engage the US militia. Honours were fairly even here, until the Americans suffered from the effects of dirty powder and were forced to retire.

Back at the dual between the main lines, the US were really beginning to suffer from the marine’s higher rate of fire (& Rob’s luck!) and the US line looked to be crumbling, until the marines found that some of their powder had also got damp during the landing. During the delay, while they resupplied from the ammo cart, the US line reformed and more importantly, the US Light Infantry pushed forward up to the field edge and started to pour close range fire into the right flank of the marine line.

At this point, both lines had been severely mauled and Captain Wolf realised that he would not be able to reach the fort. So, with a flourish of his sword, he saluted Major Rump and called his marines back to the boats. Major Rump surveyed his battered line and momentarily thought about pursuing the marines, but instead simply returned the salute and started the work of treating his casualties. A bloody but glorious draw!