Rebels and Patriots: The Battle of Grassy Fields

Apologies for the lack of posts for the first couple of months of the year, so let's start by catching up with the first game of the year at BIG, an AWI battle using Rebels and Patriots with Matt bringing his Militia and Native Americans to aid my brave Patriot forces against George's nefarious British aided by Steve and his cabbage loving Hessians.

Being a peculiar bunch we decided to play one of the scenarios out of The Men Who Would Be Kings - Take the High Road, with 48 points versus 36 a side and the British attacking.



George had been busy over Christmas slapping red paint on his light infantry which look very nice now...



He'd also painted some cavalry - the despicable (from the American viewpoint) British Legion!



The Legion cavalry decided to charge an advanced unit of American militia...



Inflicting three casualties...



But being wiped out by musket fire from the main American army! Take that Tarleton!!



An exchange of musketry then ensued...



With Steve's Hessian Musketeers moving up to fill the gap in the British line left by the cavalry.



The Americans advanced some Light Infantry to provoke the enemy, who were trading shots with units of American Militia and Continental Line.



Eventually the toll of the fire had the inevitable effect on the Militia with one unit Routing and another Broken.



With the Light Infantry taking casualties and being Broken, the Americans moved up another unit of Line to hold back the British.



On the American left flank the Hessians moved up the table, towards a clump of woodland where Matt had hidden a unit of Natives!

Who charge out and start hitting the Hessian Grenadiers with their tomahawks!

Despite killing half the Grenadiers, the end result was the routing of the Natives - and a unit of Matt's militia who hadn't done anything but ran away at the sound of the fighting!

Unfortunately at that point we'd run out of time for the evening. Unlike the scenario in TMWWBK we hadn't put a time limit on the game for the attackers to achieve their aim which probably tilted the scenario in the favour of the British as they could stand and trade fire with the weaker Americans, rather than march into a volley of Patriot fire and try and take the field with zeal and bayonets! Still a good game and it was interesting to see the Natives in action at long last!

Chain of Command: Chania Gate (Big Winter Wonder Lard II)

My second game at Big Winter Wonder Lard was Chania Gate, a Chain of Command scenario run by Sam Lancashire. As I was a complete noob never having played CoC before I was taken under Alan's more experienced wing, our mission as the Fallschirmjäger to take the Chania Gate in Heraklion against a mixed force of Greek regulars and Cretan types commanded by Mike and Ben.

The Germans deployed one section in the building with their Senior Leader, another section in light cover and a 2" mortar behind hard cover which began stonking the Greeks manning the city walls.

The Greek view of the battlefield.

The Greeks had three sections manning the Venetian city walls, these Cretan Gendarmes moving up to engage the advancing Fallschirmjäger...

The Gendarmes found themselves being hammered by the Fallschirmjäger in the building, but did inflict multiple casualties and Shock on the section moving aggressively up the table and now hiding behind the cover of a stone wall.

On the other flank another unit of Fallschirmjäger started to move up, engaging the Greeks on the wall and using sheep for cover...

The first unit of Fallschirmjäger continued to engage the Gendarmes from behind the cover of the stone wall...

But found themselves exposed from flanking fire from Greek regulars and an Australian Bren gun...

...taking a number of casualties, Shock and becoming Pinned. Gott im Himmel!

The Germans used a Chain of Command dice to move a Jump Off Point forward and then deployed an Assault Section behind the wall. Wunderbar!

Unfortunately the original Fallschirmjäger broke and ran back towards safety.

This saw a reduction in the Force Morale for the Fallschirmjäger.

However reinforcements in the form of a Pak36 arrived and it started peppering the Australian Bren team with HE...

Inflicting Shock on them and forcing them to retreat!

The Fallschirmjäger concentrated their fire on the Greeks and Cretans atop the wall to the left of the gate, destroying the Gendarmes and Pinning a unit of Greek regulars. Feuer Frei!

This, along with the retreat of the Bren gun team, had a major impact on the Greek Force Morale and the number of command dice they could generate.

The Fallschirmjäger felt victory was within their grasp and the Assault Section charged forward towards the Chania Gate! Vorwärts!

The gate lay ahead. Surely victory was assured for the Fallschirmjäger?!

Mein Gott! Greek infantry suddenly sprang up in the gate, spraying the advancing Germans with rifle fire inflicting Shock...

The Germans returned fire and a fierce firefight ensued, with Cretan forces from the building on the wall, dropping down and rushing to the gate. Had the Fallschirmjäger misjudged the situation? Would the Assault Section be unable to take the gate?

It didn't matter. The Fallschirmjäger oustide the walls lashed the remaining Pinned Greeks on the wall with machine gun and rifle fire breaking them and forcing the Greek defenders Force Morale to drop to zero - the Greeks surrendered! Phew!

Another fun game and many thanks to Sam for running it and Alan for putting up with a complete noob! :-) I was impressed with how the rules worked and have signed up to a Chain of Command weekend campaign at BIG at the end of May.

Elsewhere amongst a load of great looking games I managed to take a quick picture of the new Lardies Ancients game Infamy! Infamy! which looked a lot of fun.

Sharp Practice: Hermitage del Único Ermitaño (Big Winter Wonder Lard I)

I do have a small pile of ARR's to write up from our games at BIG the last couple of months but yesterday I went along to Big Winter Wonder Lard, a day of Too Fat Lardy games played at BIG organised by David Hunter. There were ten different Lardy games put on, with a wide variety of their rules in use, each attendee getting the chance to play one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The morning session saw me and two others (Tom and Chris I think, I'm hopeless at remembering names) play Hermitage del Único Ermitaño, a Sharp Practice game run by Leigh Jackson, set in the Eastern Peninsular with a force of Spanish regulars and guerrillas attempting to overrun a French outpost.

The guerrilla skirmishers attempted to snipe a few French from the cover of the Hermitage's vineyards...

The French though proved to be the better shots...

...killing two guerrillas, inflicting Shock on them and wounding their leader!

But don't worry Los Guerrilleros, the Regulars are here to defeat the hated French!

Then even more Line infantry turned up to advance on the hermitage...

And some Cazadores who deploy into the vineyards near the shaken guerrillas!

But hark! What is that noise from the main road? With a cry of Vive Le Vodka! a Polish relief force, intent on rescuing their French comrades in arms from the clutches of the Spanish guerrillas arrives!

With the sudden appearance of the Poles on their flank, one unit of Spanish line swing around to face them, whilst the other maintains its advance on the Hermitage.

The Spanish nervously Present to the oncoming Poles in the hope a devastating volley will halt the enemy in their tracks!

The volley blasts out! A handful of Poles fall to the hail of musketry and some Shock is inflicted...

But not enough to stop the Aggressive Poles charging the Spanish Line...

With predictable results as the unit breaks and runs away with lots of Shock markers!

But what is this? The cunning Spanish had deployed a cannon loaded with canister behind their line infantry and this opens fire on the advancing Poles!

Then the Cazadore skirmishers hiding on the vineyard open fire on the Polish flank and then charge in!

The Polish are defeated! Most of them are them are killed and half the remaining, with the Polish Leader, flee from the brave Spanish Cazadores!

The remaining Line unit now continues its advance on the Hermitage...

And guerrilla units charge down the hill!

 

The end is nigh for the French as the guerrillas storm the walls...

...and a unit of Spanish Guerrilla cavalry charge down a handful of remaining Polish skirmishers.

With the Spanish in the hermitage, the French on one side collapse and flee, reducing the French force morale to zero.

Y viva España!!! 

Thanks to Leigh for putting on such a great game, I really enjoyed it. Even on a six by four table with around 100 points of troops a side it did not feel crowded and the game felt balanced until the Polish relief force was shattered having been distracted by the Spanish line and attacking them, and into the  mouth the Spanish cannon, rather than advancing straight down the road to the Hermitage (though that would have opened their flank to the Spanish regulars).

As stated there were a lot of Lardy games being put on, including Kiss Me Hardy!, which looked a lot of nautical fun...

In my next post I'll report back on my first game of Chain of Command as the Fallschirmjäger invade Crete!