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Saturday, 11 October 2014

The battle of San Diemas

Today, we did another Wild West game set in New Mexico in the 1880s.
The scenario was that a group of six gunmen and a few brave souls from the town are being attacked by an Apache War-party.
(The Apaches were deployed randomly, and run by the solo system in my rules:Law of the Gun)

The small town of San Diemas
 I had my Pistolero, Nathaniel Clinton and my side-kick, Ronan with a rifle, at the church. 
Two locals in the tallest building in town. 
Rod had his character, Bill, with a former Prussian officer, Von Kluger. 
More locals held the stores in the main street. Lawrence had his man Ted, with a side-kick, in the building at the end of the street. 
 A group of six Apache riders appeared from the south west.
Some dismounted Apaches approached from the South.  
 One group probed into town, bypassing the house held by Ted.
 One of the locals held his fire as they approached.
 Chico and Pedro, at the food store, did likewise.
 The Apaches moved on cautiously.
Finally, Enrico opened up. 
A lucky shot hit one of the Apaches in the chest and he went down. 
 Alerted, another group of Indians began going round the other side of Ted's house. 
In the centre of town, Bill sent Von Kluger up some steps for a better view. 
 The Apache horse advanced towards town.
 After climbing a rise, they came in sight of the town.
 Von Kluger spotted them and fired!
An excellent shot! 
Back at the South of town, the Apaches took cover, looking for their enemies.
 Seeing the fire-fight down the street, Nathaniel and Ronan left the church and probed down the East side of town. 
Ted, rather bravely, decided to stay in his building as it was outflanked by the Apaches. 
 The Apache horse galloped into town to escape Von Kluger's fire.
They began to open fire on the locals 'Whoopin' an' Hollerin' 

 On the ground floor of Ted's house, the other Apaches were shooting back at the locals too.
 The cavalry raced into town and attacked the distracted locals from the rear!
Neither Ted, or the Indians below, dared shoot into the confused melee.
Chico was chased through his store by a horseman.
Another pursued Enrico past Bill.
 A third local was caught in the open...
...and quickly killed with a lance thrust. 
 Enrico fled past an unimpressed Von Kluger
 Back in South, Ted emerged from his upper floor room and shot at the Apache horsemen...ineffectively.
 Two of the Indians dismounted, to despoil the dead local!
 The Apache who had attacked Enrico turned on Bill, and killed him with a Tomahawk.
Ted, meantime, shot an Apache coming up the stairs. 
Up near the church, another local, Joseph, fired at the horseman who had killed Bill...
The Apache rushed him as Joseph ducked back into the house. 
Amazingly, Joseph won the ensuing melee! 
 Ted, meanwhile, was fighting against more Apaches.
 My men, Nate and Ronan entered Chico's store from the rear.
 Some more Apaches advanced into the main street in support of their horsemen.
Most of the cavalry had dismounted and were skirmishing. 
 ...with Rod's new character, one of the locals in the tall building.
 Nate and Ronan began shooting at the cavalrymen across the street. 
Rod and his new sidekick also shot at them. 
..but the range was too great for them to help much. 
 Unseen by all, one of the horsemen was moving round the town towards the church. What was he up to?
 Joseph, meanwhile, was moving through the town, reaching Rod's dead character, Bill. Where was Von Kluger?
 Ted, meantime, descended the stairs as the Apaches took cover in the bottom floor room. From here, he turned and 'Fanned' his pistol into the room!
The survivors fled out of the rear entrance.
 Back at the church, the errant horseman was up to no good!
 The cavalrymen across the street from me decided to attack by outflanking Chico's store where Nate and Ronan were hiding.
 Joseph fired at the third cavalryman who had been wounded by my fire.
 The Indian died, gut-shot.
 Nate and Ronan dealt with the other two.
 As the rest of the Apaches retired from the field, seeing the killing zone we had set up as too tough to fight, Von Kluger reappeared! - he said he was trying to rally some of the runaway locals.....
So, a victory! ...
Gonna need another new church though!

Saturday, 4 October 2014

Call the Gendarmes!

Today, we did another WSS game using the 'Beneath the Lily Banners' rules.
Ian had trouble transporting his lead mountain, so brought a rather, er, atypical BTLB army to fight my French!
Lawrence, having worked like a trooper the last couple of weeks, had finished a small brigade of English troops to accompany the Austro-Danes.
As usual,Ian's force had rather more than my 5 brigades, which allows him to place brigades after I have finished deploying (BTLB advocates an alternating brigade deployment system), so I had to do a conventional deployment...

My strong right wing cavalry, 3 squadrons of the Gendarmes de France, 2 squadrons of Regiment D'Orleans, and 2 squadrons of Dragons Colonel-General.
 A large built up area separated them from my first infantry brigade.
In my centre, 2 battalions of Gardes Francaises behind a German and French battalions.
On my left, an Irish and Italian and 2 French battalions. 3 Squadrons of regiment Cosse and 2 more of Dragons du Dauphin were brigaded on their left.
The Austrian right was 3 squadrons of Hussars. 
Beyond a wood to their left were 4 Danish dragoon squadrons supporting 1 guard and 2 trained Danish infantry battalions.
 
 Beyond them was a 'Grand battery' of 3 field guns, forming a separate brigade.
Then came Lawrence's force, 3 English battalions (2 Elite and 1 trained) mixed with 1 Austrian and 2 Danish converged grenadier battalions (elite) 
On the Danish left were 2 squadrons of Danish Guard cavalry and 2 of cuirassiers.
Ian and the armies in their starting positions! 
 Initially, the English and grenadiers advanced within range of my gun.
 At this range, I only caused a single casualty on a Danish unit.
 The Austrian hussars advanced against my left wing cavalry.
 The Danish dragoons moved through the woods in their support.
The Austro-Danish grenadiers, not appreciating being shot at, formed into line! 
 The English stayed back in reserve.
 The Danish cavalry moved forward against my right wing cavalry.
 I had poor command rolls, so only managed to advance towards the enemy cavalry.
This stopped the Danish cavalry's advance. 
 On the Austrian right, the hussars cautiously probed against the French left. 
 A squadron of regiment Cosse steadfastly refused to charge them!
 Back on my right wing, my French horse charged the smaller force of Danes, confident of sweeping them aside!
The Danes also charged... 
 Disaster! - all but 2 French squadrons broke!
 
The dragoons were not sufficient to hold the still largely intact Danish horse.


The French  brigadier signalled the retreat.

The battle could not now be won by the French, who retreated from the field reluctantly.

My appalling dice rolling was to blame...

Such is life!


Having time left at the club. I then joined in a WW2 Wings of Glory game, flying a ASAF Mustang.
I got downed by an FW190 first shot!!!
I rejoined in another Mustang and did much better, helping to down 2 Focke-Wulfs.

You win some, you lose some!