Kell Island Technical Discussion. 5/5

Kell Island was the opening engagement of the First Rosmark-Maritime Alliance War, a war whose outbreak was triggered by the 10 Year Readers' Commemeration Poll.

The capture of the island allowed the Alliance to land their army on the mainland and consolidate their position before the King's army could complete its passage over the Hye Mountains.

The armies would soon clash again at the River Boinne.

The King's Carabiniers halt on a small rise to observe the enemy before deciding what to do. (5-6 Be Bold: charge and try to drive the first units back into the see while a farmer carries the news, 1-4 Be Cautious: send a rider back, observe and threaten the enemy hoping to draw off forces from the main attack )

Orders of Battle for Kell Island

Maritime Alliance Forces 
General  Milligan
1 Sq Black Horse (nicknamed for their facings not their horses)
1 Sq Fitzjames Horse
1 Unit Marines (Light Infantry)
1 Unit of Grenadiers (Gallant)
3 Units of Infantry
1 Unit of Nordmark Infantry (Bluecoats) (Slow)

Rosmark Forces
General Thadiweh

1 Sq King Michael Carabiniers
2 Units of Infantry
1 Unit Native Scouts (Skirmishers)
1 Unit Fisher Folk  Skirmishers, Gallant, Poor shots)
1 Unit Farmton Militia (Skirmishers, Timid, Good shots)
Garrison. 1 battery with 4 gunners able to fire 1 gun fixed towards town and/or 1 heavy gun fixed towards the sea), plus 6 infantry, may not leave the fort.)

The native scouts rushed across the pass through the high ground. The entire hill is bad going but the 2nd and 3rd contours are impassible to all but light infantry.

This was my 7th game using AGW (no duds yet), my 3rd go at playing solo and my 1st attempt at using them for a CS Grant Scenario.

A straight translation of units worked well as did the victory conditions but I still haven't mastered an accurate translation of the game turn limit with this or any othf ruleset.

I had hoped that counting Jokers might work but in the heat of the game I forgot to count! (I think I was nearing 20 Jokers which was about right but that was flukey) As for the rule about ferrying units ashore, I just moved the boats on the passenger unit's card. Two moves each way plus a turn to embark or to dismount in disorder.

Luckily the number of turns didn't matter this time either since I decided that an army reduced  to 1/2 strength would retreat or concede. Essentially I counted the number of units on each side as sort of 'army morale' and reduced it by 1 for a unit which lost 50% and another one if it was destroyed or routed (ran away etc).

In this case the attackers had 8 units and only had 2 reduced to 1/2 and none destroyed or routed though several were close to 1/2. The defenders started with 7 units (but only 2 infantry) and ended with 4 effectively destroyed and  2 more below 1/2. Only the weak garrison unit which was confined to the fort was still at full strength

The Marine Light Infantry found sharpshooters behind cover to be too tough a nut to crack.

I wanted to use some of the special attributes but to do so in a persistent way for the length of the campaign at least. Years of WRG Ancients has left me with a dislike for counting points so I went for the net zero pts approach: a negative for every positive.

For the attackers I made the Grenadiers Gallant and the blue coated Not Hessians Slow. For the defenders I gave each militia light infantry unit one positive and one negative attribute.

The farmers were marksmen which they used to excellent effect to the dismay of the attackers but they were also brittle and fled the field when charged, regusing to rally.

The fishermen also stuck with classic image and were classed as poor shots but were gallant as they were keen to brawl. In retrospect this was a bad choice since 6 skirmishers were probably never going to charge anyone.

Anyway it added a bit more flavour without complication or supertroops.

A look at the battle as the tide of victory suddenly turned relentlessly as unit after unit of  Rosmark troops suddenly collapsed. 

The card decks were easy to manage, possibly due to 10 years of solo play but I never had any problem deciding how to use the cards to best advantage for either side. The Jokers were getting a bit problematic since 5 times the 2nd Joker appeared in the first third of the deck and twice the Joker reappeared when dealing the new Hold cards! However, eventually they calmed down. The damage had been done though.

The attackers had a hand full of Court cards and used them as well as their General to make use of groups of units and some Aces to speed through the deck hurrying up reinforcements and then got a second Joker starting things over and replenishing their hand in time to do it again. The defenders chose that moment to roll a 1 on a 1/3 morale test on one of their infantry units!

In very short order the game switched from 'Advantage Defenders' to 'Hopeless' as the low morale proved to be no fluke.

Well this has been long enough and more so I'll finish by saying that the more I play, the more the cards become a means to execute a sound plan efficiently and less a source of random opportunity.

Elements of the game reminded me in a good way of MacDuff but more sophisticated, more effective, and basically better designed.  A "Keeper" as it were.