A Desperate Affair

"Excerpt from Lt. Tootler's correspondence" 

"What a damnable place these islands are! It seemed like a simple enough thing. There was this ramshackle little fishing port on Belmont Island, insignificant really, but a base for smugglers and privateers, ringed with rocky shoals and guarded by a cliff top battery of 32 pdrs. Our job was to drop off a party of Lobsters to clean the place out and pick them up again afterwards."

"Well, it appears that our spies had underestimated the French garrison and overrated the usefulness of the local free Blacks who, we were told, would link up with our lads and garrison the place when we left."

"We dropped off our lot at first light and the Froggie guards had barely time to form up and fire a volley before de Brouiller's rabble were ashore. At least I was able to help clear the wharf with a few rounds of grape from our bow chaser as the boats closed.  After that it was up to the infantry. The Hessian Jaegers landed West of a little creek while the Marines and Emigre's landed in the little town."

"It was the most damnable thing though, those Froggies didn't scatter like we expected, they took cover in the town and poured a damned hot fire on our lads. Up in the hills we could see our supposed allies, enjoying the spectacle and waiting to see how we did before coming down to help out. By the time the Lobsters cleared the town, more French troops had appeared advancing boldly on the Hessian riflemen. We were looking forward to seeing them run back but the Germans' powder must have gotten wet during the choppy ride in and they were cut to pieces by the French. I had to send a boat in to pick up the remnants and then gave the Frogies a taste of grape in turn. That soon encouraged them to fall back."

"The sight of Redcoats crossing the bridge seems to have encouraged our "allies" and a few of them came forward to take a potshot or two. It was a rude surprise though when a deep "BOOM" alerted us that the French gunners had managed to manhandled one of their 32 pounders to an embrasure overlooking the town. I sent word ashore to start bringing the wounded down to the boats, just in case."

"Our Redcoats made a valiant charge and there was prolonged fighting at pointblank range before the Frogs pulled back. Our early losses were beginning to tell though, and it didn't look to me like we had enough men left to storm that battery, even if we reached it. So, I sent a note ashore suggesting that it might be prudent for the survivors to retire to the boats before the tide turned." 

Footnote: The "Whiff of Dice" rules that I'm using for these French Revolution era games are still in development but they are getting closer with each game.  I had originally intended for the battery to not play a role in the scenario, the battery being designed to fire at ships at sea but I had put those sides on the redoubt, with embrasures, and after having just rewatched the tv Hornblower movie where they take the Spanish fort and drag a heavy gun up the cliff side to fire into the harbour, well.....

The forces were as follows:

French: 1 heavy gun in the battery. 4 companies of infantry, 1 in the battery, 1 in the port, 2 billeted in the inland houses. (Needing to roll to activate: 1 on  the 1st turn after firing was heard and so on. They were all formed up by turn 3!!)  

British: 1 company of riflemen (apparently with wet ammo based on their dice), 3 companies of infantry, 1 gun in one of the boats.

Free Blacks: 2 companies of skirmishers. (Allies but whose dice indicated a distinct lack of enthusiasm for advancing for the first 1/2 the game.)
  

The game went for 14 out of a possible 15 turns before I called it in favour of the French.