How Went The Day?

My style of seesaw battle with a cliffhanger finish.

(PS click once on the pictures to see a larger version, twice for the close up view)
PPS  Somehow one of the pictures disappeared. My belated attempt to remove the blank photo while keeping the text,  completely f***ed up this post and I've had to go into the clumsy html to fix it but the intense fight between me and the computer, which tried to fix my fixes,  have made more of a hash. Oh well! 18 Mar 25  )

The Marines, unable to hit the side of a battalion at long range, advanced with bayonets fixed.

Once More! The Hussars are on the edge but the French skirmishers have been driven back, taking some of the pressure from the Highlanders.

(Lost photo)

The sun is sinking! This needs to be settled, for who knows what the darkness will bring?
The Marines managed to force the French infantry back, but had to halt, hold fire and wheel one flank to counter the approach of the French cavalry. The Hussars were on the edge of breaking if the French skirmishers could get one more hit, but with the Highlanders starting to tear down the barricade and the French Dragoons moving (slowly!) to threaten the already tattered Marines, it was all or nothing now.
"Bugler! Sound Charge!!"

Long Live The King!!

The Black Watch rallied well, the artillery and riflemen worked on the small garrison and reinforcements on both side moved forward.

At last I have managed to take the 2 sets of rules that I started writing 30 years ago, merge and adjust them in light of my experiences and current preferences, skipping over the explanations, and have a shared Quick Reference sheet with minimal serious changes AND have finished a solo game which went very well with a close ending. The QRS is available here: With MacDuff To The Frontier QRS 2024. 
(A full set with explanations, etc, might follow if I live long enough.)

"Once more unto the Bridge!"
A 2nd charge by the Highlanders swept the French off the bridge but faced with a barricade to remove and fresh French troops deploying, the Highlanders hunkered down on their side of the bridge while the rest of the army started crossing over the Ford while the Marines guarded the other side. The opposing cavalry clashed sabres with indecisive result and then rallied back out of the vulgar musket crossfire that broke out.  

Now, back in the day when I first wrote these rules, we used them with 25mm Colonials, Brits in Afghanistan, Zululand and the Sudan, but I was soon experimenting with a F&IW/AWi/War of 1812 small actions version, initially for 54mm, then for 40mm once Rob Dean got me hooked on homecast 40mm's. The games were played on 6'x8-10' tables, usually lasting 4-6 hours, with anywhere from 2-6 players. Later, convention games with up to 8 players and a strict time limit added their own complications, but with two active GM's, they worked. It wasn't really my intent to have 2 different versions of the rules, or to submit them for publication. It was back in the day of dial up modems, monochrome screens, and e-bulletin boards, and as part of a discussion on writing your own rules I posted a copy of the F&IW version I was working on as an example. I was surprised to get a message from Dick Bryant asking if he could publish them in the Courier but didn't object and sent him the more developed Colonial version.  Well, he published both and here we are! 

If At First

The first assault on the bridge was blown back by canister. The 2nd assault, made by A Company of the Black Watch, was shot apart while trying to cross the barricades.

But the day isn't over yet!

To be continued........   

He's Back! MacDuff's Back!

It's been a while since I've played Horse and Musket games with single figures and I have been struggling to put together a new set of rules to satisfy me. So, eventually, I dug out the appropriate issues of "The Courier"from my shelves, went over my original With MacDuff rules, and started thinking. Then, I reread the post on my last "as printed" MacDuff F&IW game" (See this 2021 battle report post and comments. )  

Note: To my surprise a quick Google came up with Noble Knight Games which is a source of back issues of the Courier at cheap prices (less than $5Ca) including Issue #72 for my With MacDuff To the Frontier F&IW rules and Issue #73, the original Colonial version) (and NO, I don't get any of the money)

(See this 2021 battle report post and comments. ) 

So, I'm now going over them to see what, if anything, needs some meddling with, in order to use them for the Caribbean in the 1790's. 

 You know, sometimes I think I can be almost as inefficient as a real Department of Defense....

Meanwhile.......

 .....

Did anyone but the French not see this coming?

To be continued....

Enemy In Sight!

It's been one of those days, but everything's ready.

One of the guerrilla bands of freed slaves has agreed to act as scouts for the French outpost.

"Look!  Enemy in sight!"

There's the French Sir!

To be continued.....

Coming Soon To A Virtual Island Near You!

The troops appear happy to be back on their own feet (ok washer/base). I'm going to need more jungle-ish terrain, even over and above the excess plastic plants which are stored away ...somewhere....   And trees, I bought more palm trees of a similar height, but their fronds are about 1/4 of the size, I guess they are farther away.......or...??,  Well, I have enough vegetation to get started with a small encounter with a half dozen units a side, or maybe more. 

Hold the bridge!

To be continued........

Having organized and rebased (a total of  over 100 figures to go the close to 100 old period figures still mounted on washers. 

I also had to adjust the rules, including some old ideas which had been rolled in virtual cobwebs and put away in case I ever wanted to go back to this level and approach, as I do. 

Hopefully the guns will open fire tomorrow.

More vegetation, villages, mountains, etc to follow.

We're Back!

Belmont Island is about to become a warzone again and the heat and humidity in my room is adding a touch of reality to the setting......

I've just about re-based enough figures to get a semi-skirmish game on the table before the weekend is done.

Now What?

Once upon a time......or 2 years ago to be precise, I set out to prepare a 1790's Caribbean wargame to take to Huzzah 2023. 

See "A Desperate Affair"

but somehow, by the time I got to Huzzah, it looked more like this:

Yup, here we are in Egypt.....some navigator......
No I'm not sure how these things happen but they do. 

Anyway, it was fun to put together but that campaign is officially over, the French and British troops have been shipped across the Atlantic to the Caribbean as originally intended and the Egyptian and Turkish troops are sitting around smoking their pipes and wondering what their future is. Me too (except for the smoking part). 

The only thing that comes in mind is to pit them across my 16thC Imperial forces, Landsknechts, etc but at that time, Turkish cavalry spurned firearms and, well, most of my Mamlukes have them and none have the bow that was a major weapon for Turkish cavalry. The infantry is fine, its just a bit ironic because my original homecast Turkish infantryman was sculpted 20 years ago for just such a setting. A project which never got off the ground then, and which I don't feel like tackling now. 

 

Took along time for these guys to get dressed and on the table but at least I didn't have to worry about the fragility of the too thin bows they were sculpted with.

Trying to sell them is a very tempting option, if I can find a buyer, as it would put an end to that temptation when I'm trying to reduce and finish what I have I've been working on for the last 20 years........... I think I'll put up a page with pictures and see if anyone is interested in this motley crew of some 40 odd Mamluke/Turkish conversions, mostly home cast with the cavalry being semi-flats.

I also hemmed and hawed about my French camel company but I decided that I like the troopers enough to take away their camels for some other use, and ship them to the West Indies as local volunteer light infantry.(at the moment, Prince Valiant's Persian enemy Satrap has claimed the camels to keep his elephant from getting lonely).  

My hastily improvised Chouan Royalists will also be disbanded, part to go back to their original role as Canadian 1837 Patriotes and rebels, part to go back to being ex-slave guerillas. (see below)

Royal Navy attacks an inconvenient French shore battery in the West Indies.

Yeah, this means I'll be going (virtually) to the West Indies in the heat of summer rather than going in winter. Oddly, the only times I got close to the Caribbean were also  in summer, (as a young Naval officer) a stop in Bermuda while on exercises and a stop at Cuba when I was an exchange officer on a US Destroyer in '76 and as a foreigner was not allowed on shore at Guantánamo Bay! Ah well, it was also summer when I watched icebergs go by off the coast of Baffin Island.  

Mayhem (now with captions)

This game could have been the basis of a good Prince ValierrrrMicheal story, but I was continually interrupted by 'other duties' and I was trying to design a new set of rules while I played. With all the confusion those situations usually cause, especially when combined, and the late hour, I've given up on a narrative. 

Note to self: I need to make a Bard figure to help with composing tales of high adventure.

The scenario was based on CS Grant's Wagon Train.

An alliance of 'Picts' (ie British tribes from North of the wall) and "Saxons"( ie Germanic raiders from over the sea" have joined up to seize a supply train headed for a "Romano-British" fort.

The garrison has a ballista or onager (I forget which one I used), some cavalry which can sortie, some archers, if anyone gets close enough, and some infantry whose role is to cheer loudly and hurl insults at the Barbarians. The "Barbarian Conspiracy" has a few archers, a few light cavalry, and a bunch of fierce but rarely armoured warriors. 

The column manages to hold off an ambush as they round the corner and start in on the home stretch, (Arrival time and place for the raiders is decided by dice, I think this lot shouldn't have lounged around the cook fires so long, dreaming about having a magical hot black potion that would perk them up.   

Blades and blood, well guys knocked over anyway, and the sheep are getting nervous.

End of the game, both armies are at their breaking point and both sides have some of the wagons, animals, etc and some are still in dispute. 

The Prince will return another day. 

Now The Hurley Burley's Done...

 .. I'm not quiet sure if either side lost or won!  Hmmm....

Carnage!

Everything was fine, if not yet decided, but by the end of the last turn both armies were on, or just over, their breakpoint and most of the wagons/herds had been pillaged, at least a little and in a hurry before fleeing. 

So, I'm going to call it a loss for both sides with a slight win for the garrison because a good portion of the goods can be salvaged.

NOTE: If anyone is looking for the last two posts, I've just learned how to accidentally delete posts irretrievably. Well, as Joni sang: "something's lost, but something's gained in living every day".

In the works, an illustrated battle report post and a post about plans and rules and what's going on, 

Allllllllright You Featherweights, Get Dressed!

Time to get back to painting etc this 1/2 painted mob of plastic 'Picts' of Viking descent, so I can play another, smaller, Prince Micheal adventure.......NORTH of "The Wall".

Elastolin Viking kits, one piece, just add weapons, and convert to taste.

Year 14! The Plan.

WELL, here we are again! Another new year begins!

 (For casual or newer readers, July the 3rd is the anniversary of my 2010 heart attack. (The only one if I can help it!) Celebrating it not only reminds me of a personal revolution in lifestyle, it also reminds me to look at how my New Year plan is going, and to adjust my plans accordingly. (Healthier than I've been in decades thank you, despite coming up on my last 60-something birthday in a few weeks time.)

One ongoing goal is to reduce the number of miniatures and books etc that are cluttering up my room. Some are there as remnants of long ago collections, some because of "haven't got around to" syndrome, others as "excess to requirement" stragglers, and so on. When I do reduce, I do not usually immediately re-home figures and books but wait for a few months/years to see if I miss them or if I've found a way to make them less redundant. However, as life goes on, I am losing patience with the overflow of excess boxes, bins, stacks etc and constant nagging thoughts such as "I really should get around to painting this lot some year" or "I ought to get these guys on the table as long as they're here..." and finally "If I haven't gotten around to these in the last 30 years, what are the odds I'll get them done in the next 10 or 15 years?". 

The truth is that while I'm a bit of a hoarder, and once wanted to do everything of interest to me, as 70-something looms next year, I find that in the 55 years that I've wargamed, I have at least dabbled in pretty much everything that I have had some interest in. However, too many of them were not pursued with the depth I would have liked and too many were taken up to match what friends were doing.  My main desires now are to spend more time on fewer collections, play more mini-campaigns even if they are just a series of scenarios with a narrative link, and reduce duplicating, including that of the "same weapons and tactics, different hats" syndrome.  (See the active collections here: http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/p/overview-my-armies-rules-and-plans.html)

Almost all rules and plans have exceptions, so I am keeping three 40mm 'Horse&Musket' collections.  Two of these are inspired by, but not recreating, certain wars in my country's history. One is inspired by the British conquest of Acadia and New France, the other was inspired by a mix of the War of 1812 AND the Rebellions of 1837-38. The 3rd one is my Britain vs Revolutionary France collection which has absolutely no reason to still be here except that I put a lot of work into putting it together, mostly converted home cast figures, they reproduce my first 15mm armies in the early 80's, and it allows me to steal scenario ideas from CS Forester's Hornblower" stories, and, well......I like 'em!.

So, there we are. The plan, rather unusually, is only a tweak of last year's plan, but its working for me.

AMBUSHED! .....AGAIN!

This game could have made a fun (for me anyway) battle report with a separate behind the scenes post, but for non-hobby reasons I decided that one sooner blog post was better than two later. So here we are with a melange of relevant topics!

My annual review and plan will follow in a few days so let me just say that my 54's are once again going back to individual toy soldiers fighting small actions. (I would call them skirmishes but in this hobby that usually means 1:1 semi-roleplay games.)  This is just the sort of game that With MacDuff To The Frontier was written for, so I dugout my copy of the Courier where the original, Colonial, version was published. It took about a minute for my brain to short circuit and I wondered what the heck I was thinking some 30 years ago when I typed up the first version, on a non-colour DOS (no windows) home computer and shared a copy after a discussion on the rec.games.miniatures.historical news group. (anyone else remember those days?)  Anyway, I started work on a one page set of rules for my 54's and after 5 or 6 turns of changing things (hence the cards showing on the first few pics) and finished with a one page set of fast play rules, borrowing many of the mechanisms in the battle rules. Here is a link to the rules as used for the last half of the game: "On The Frontier".  Now, on with the game!

When the Sapper's attempt to clear the wood failed with heavy losses, Col. Ross, in command of the Column, ordered the Sappers to fall back while supports moved up.   

(**Note: click on pictures to see them enlarged or double click for an even closer look.)

The GG Bodyguards and the mountain gun had formed a rearguard but now pressed forward.

The Convoy escort deployed for an assault on the ford, while securing their flanks.
(This was the last turn of card activation, one unit at a time. The rest of the game was my usual one side acts then the other.)

Ambushed!  Plug the gaps! Forward the Reserves! The Mounted Rifles had been forced to retreat by heavy fire and the Victoria Rifles were sent in to take up their place. The sudden appearance by some of the Hunters, allies of the Kree, startled the Dominion forces and they shifted troops to screen the convoy from this enemy on their right flank. For a few minutes, no one noticed the gap in the infantry which left the convoy vulnerable to enemy fire, not until a heavy fire of bullets was sent at the lead wagon.

"SAVE THE OXEN!"

The  Kree were known as good shots and one of the oxen collapsed, halting the convoy until the harness could be cleared away and some bodies rounded up to help move the wagon. While this work was being done, the infantry closed the gap and returned fire. 

The sun was starting to sink and Col. Ross began weighing the risks (to his career) of  retreating to the Depot and calling for reinforcements vs risking his battered force in an attempt to sweep away this human barricade. The old saw "Faint heart never won fair maid" echoed in his head and he ordered a heavy fire poured into the enemy while the Mounted Rifles were ordered to clear the Southern wood.

 

It had been a long hard day under fire, but the cheer at the order to attack, followed by a heavy and accurate fire, seemed to turn the tables and the enemy broke. (or to be precise, the Dominion troops sudden rolled unusual numbers of high dice and the ambushers broke on the 2nd to last turn). 

Up next:  ....ummh, I don't know! Any requests?