Pirates and Cowboys but definitely no Zombies

 It's been a funny old month; attendance at the club has been down and I don't think we have had a full turn out of the usual suspects all month. Despite that we've still had some cracking games.

First off, Elliot put on a game of Bloody Barons with his very nice collection of Peter Pig 15mm figures. Apparently, we were playing Game of Thrones but thankfully it was devoid of any fantasy elements. Not that I'm against fantasy, I just don't understand it; I'll happily read or watch it but gaming it is another matter. In the end I just put my WOTR head on and everything was fine. We were playing the first version of the rules, so it was nice to revisit an old friend. I was left with the impression that this version has slightly more narrative, as you're dealing with individual units, but version 2 is far superior for the army level feel. Version 1 also has more friction and is more subject to the vagaries of the dice. As a whole, I think I prefer version 2 for WOTR but GOT .....hmm dunno really.

Unfortunately, as I wasn't putting the game on I didn't take any photos. I can't even say who won, unless it was Sean Bean - but probably not. Great fun nevertheless.

The following week, I was finally able to bring my pirate collection to the club. Apart from some lockdown Zoom games this was to be their first proper outing. I managed to put together 4 forces, even if it did stretch my figure collection to the limit.

We played the land Raid scenario with Spanish and French Caribbean Militia defending against English Buccaneers and Brethren of the Coast. This was partly a test to see how the game would play with multiple players and to experiment with the number of units and unit size. Each force had about 6 units with the typical unit size being 4 figures.

Thankfully, there wasn't any problem with playing with multiple players and the rules worked fine, although 6 units per force, whilst ensuring that there were plenty of decisions to make , did lengthen the game timewise. That said, it still played at a decent pace and I was so engrossed that I forgot to take any photos and almost even forgot to crack open the beer!

Spanish and French militia deploy to defend the objective

The next game was another pirate game but this time I had the luxury of adding in some of Alan's Dutch to the mix. This allowed me to play around with unit sizes a bit more and this time each force consisted of 4 units of 6 figures each. I actually think this was something of a sweet spot and 4 units each worked really well.

This time we played the Take and Hold scenario with both sides fighting over a central objective. Spanish militia teamed up with Dutch privateers to take on French militia and English Buccaneers, in another great game.

English Buccaneers with French in the background.

Spanish supported by Dutch

The English Forlorn Hope advance through the palms

Forlorn Hope lob grenadoes at prone Milicianos Indios

Dutch begin firefight whilst Spanish advance in lines

Firing along the line

English Sea Dogs press the Spanish back

Freebooters and militia join the fray

As it turned out, this was to be a game of two halves. On one side of the field, the English under yours truly were successfully putting pressure on the Spanish but were let down by their French allies, who were horribly shot up by the Dutch. In part this was due to Elliot's infamous dice rolling, which on this occasion was frankly pants! The net result was enough casualties to give a Strike Point. All the Dutch / Spanish needed, at this point, was to seize the objective to give the English / French a second Strike Point and potentially end the game. Sensing their opportunity, the Spanish Lanceros made a charge to end within the required 4 inches of the objective. Luckily, I had planned for just such an eventuality and, with what was to be the last move of the game charged out with the Forlorn Hope and unleashed a volley on the Lanceros who were now in the open. Two hits needing 9+ to save, what could go wrong? A saving roll of two tens that's what - so no casualties for the Lanceros but at least we were contesting the objective.

Lanceros charge forward

Unfortunately, we had to end there, having played 5 out of 6 turns. Everything was still to play for and it could have gone either way. A cracking game nevertheless.

This week it was out with the cowboys, as I wanted to demo the rules (Gunfighter's Ball) for our upcoming Christmas game.

Yet again we were down to 3 players but we had a blast anyway. We played 2 games, nothing fancy as the idea was to learn the rules mechanisms. The Knuckles McGurk gang won both games but more importantly it was great fun with much hilarity. My favourite moment was the Mexican pincer movement on one of the Pinkertons. Two shots were loosed at the hapless Pinkerton, with one shot wounding him but the second missed .............only to hit and kill the second Mexican. Perhaps, best not shoot towards your friends! A later shot at the same Pinkerton missed and hit Prospector Roberts; drawing a card from the much feared Black Deck we discovered the shot had in fact hit a personal belonging - hit in the prospecting pan no less!

Mexicans show off, riding hither and thither

The Pinkertons close in

A lucky escape for Prospector Roberts whilst the dastardly Mexicans employ a human shield.

I'm really looking forward to the Christmas game now - fingers crossed that we get a full turn out.

A Fistful of Pyrates; being the tale of how Lucky Jack wasn't and Don Lardo oppressed the Natives

 Unfortunately, this week's Algy game had to be postponed, so I stepped in with another pirate game. This time I opted to use Fistful of Lead, figuring it was both simpler, for the Zoom format, and more appropriate for a multi-player game.

I had intended this for our annual Christmas game but brought it forward a week; which gave me a mere few hours preparation. A shame, as I had planned a few more items of terrain and had some random events in mind, but needs must and we played the rough and ready version.

The scenarion background was that the Spanish treasure galleon, the Hispaniola, had foundered with its fabled treasure on board. The Brethren of the Coast have somehow obtained the ship's logs and charts, contained in two small chests, and hope to use these to locate the wreck. Unfortunately, one chest has been lost; it's guardian, Jim Lad Catchmole, mislaying it amongst the taverns and fleshpots of Rumtown.

Rumtown

I had designed the scenario for 5 players but, due to circumstances beyond our control, only had 3 players on the day. By dropping one force and the umpire running a force, we managed to play it as a 4 sided game.

Each force had a similar composition, in FFoL terms, and consisted of a Leader, a Specialist and 3 Grunts.

Brethren of the Coast (English faction)

Lucky Jack Quilp (pistol and sword), Mr Bangs (musket and grenadoe), 3 Freebooters swords and mixed musket / pistols

Brethren of the Coast (French faction)

Happy Dan Le Pew (pistol and sword), Pierre (musket and dagger), 3 Boucaniers (muskets)

Spanish

Don Lardo (pistol and sword), Jose (flintlock musket and sword), 3 Miliciano (matchlock muskets)

Kuna

Man Friday (bow and club), Poo Man (bow, poisoned arrows), 3 warriors (bows)

The rules were pretty much the FFOL core rules with a few tweaks for period flavour.

Grunts used a D10 and not a D8 (this kept it simple and I don't own any D8s in any case).

Poisoned arrows used the poison trait but delivered via shooting rather than close combat.

Grenades had to prepared the turn before use, taking two actions to light the fuse, and would explode at the end of the figure's next turn.

Bows had a -1 penalty on the Wound table.

Anything involving a match (grenades and matchlocks) couldn't be used in the rain.

The objective for the Brethren was to retrieve both chests and retire back to their boats. The English started with one chest but the second had to be located amongst the civilian populace of Rumtown. (Unfortunately, due to the batteries running out on my camera, I didn't get a shot of this but their were almost 20 civilians on the table). It was up to the players to decide whether they wanted to work together or contest the ownership of both chests.

The Spanish objective was to stop the Brethren, whilst the natives had the straightforward objective of killing the despised Spaniards.  

 The French began in the boats, whilst the English deployed on the opposite table edge, behind the church walls.

The Natives deployed in the fringes of the jungle on the left table edge, whilst the Spanish took the opposite edge.

What followed was an absolute hoot (or at least I thought so), despite the Zoom format, and would have been brilliant as a club game. Maybe one day.

The game got off to a flying start, on the very first card, with the Spanish playing a Joker. Unbeknownst to the players, this triggered the appearance of Baron Samedi and the potential of Shock on the activated figure.

Voodoo Chile

Inevitably, the Spanish player had activated his 3 Matchlockmen, who promptly took fright and buggered off around the back of the tavern. 

A Shocked group of Spaniards hide behind the tavern

On subsequent cards, the English approached the town square, intent on interrogating the populace, whilst the French disembarked  and began questioning the denizens of the docks - to no avail.

The English enter the Square

French scour the docks

Meanwhile, the Kuna natives were creeping from the Jungle and approaching the town.

Man Friday and Poo Man lead the warriors forwards

On turn two, after haranguing several unsuspecting citizens, in the town square, the Spanish intercepted Pedro the Pedlar and his donkey. A roll of the die revealed that said donkey was, in fact, carrying the missing chest. However, just as the Spanish were feeling smug, Man Friday and his warriors appeared at the edge of the town square and loosed a volley of arrows. Needless to say, they hit the donkey, which took fright and ran off towards the board edge, carrying the chest.

Pedro's Donkey takes fright

To add insult to injury, a second volley of arrows, aimed at the Spanish, killed Pedro.

Pedro bites the dust

With the chest located, and the civilians running for cover, it now became a race to catch the donkey. The French played a Joker, in an attempt to seize the initiative, but instead brought forth Baron Samedi. However, they weren't impressed and, shrugging off theapparition, the Boucaniers raced down the table edge to intercept the fleeing donkey.

It's that 'man' again

The English had also begun to cross the square in pursuit of the donkey but were on a collision course with the Natives who were sprinting across the square in pursuit of the Spanish. To make matters worse, a second Joker that turn heralded the onset of a tropical storm. Ranges were henceforth halved and any matches unuseable - so much for my much vaunted grenadoe!

Market square heroes

Not trusting the Natives, the English fired first and missed. This triggered the inevitable response and a volley of 6 arrows hissed towards Lucky Jack who was soon down and wounded with 2 Shock. Despite his nickname, on his subsequent attempt to recover, he rolled a 1 and promptly expired! The remaining English took the opportunity to retreat, with the second chest, and made their way back to the boats.

Leaderless English head for home

Meanwhile the French were also leading the donkey, which they had named bluebell, back to the boats.

Bluebell at the boats

With the Brethren fleeing with the chests, there then followed the funniest sequence of turns, which I apprently neglected to record!

I had given Don Lardo the Large trait, reasoning tat he was the fattest Spaniard on the Main. This meant he could take 4 wounds(instead of the usual 3) but was easier to hit. Arrow after arrow found their mark but Don Lardo kept finding the Queen of Hearts to remove wounds. That said he was wounded and down for several turns and failed to recover - he instead resorted to crawling underneath the market stall for cover. The model did actually fit, otherwise I would have disallowed it.

After another Queen of Hearts, Don Lardo recovered enough to mount his counterattack.

Don Lardo (behind the market stall) considers his options

With his matchlockmen useless in the rain, Don Lardo decided upon fistcuffs and propelled his large, and probably sweaty, body towrds the nearest native. A sword of good Toledo steel versus a bow string, what could go wrong? You guessed it Don Lardo  was wounded and down!

Another attempt to turn a Joker into the Queen of Hearts saw the appearence of Baron Samedi, once again. Fortunately, Don Lardo had had enough of this fellow, with a bone through his nose, and was unfazed.

Guess Who?

Subsequent cards, saw both sides throw more men into the scrimmage but eventually the Spanish swords took their toll and the natives ran for home.

Carnage in the Square as the Natives run for the jungle

French embark for a win

The Navio de Adviso - game three

 Although the buccaneers were successful at Portobello, the plunder was small - about 100 pieces-of-eight per man. Nevertheless, casualties were light, amounting to five or six wounded. (This accords well with my 5 casualties in the last game!).

After the sack, the buccaneers retired to a small cay, 3 leagues distant, and awaited their ships to take them off. Before their vessels arrived, a force of Spanish from Panama and Portobello arrived and fired on them from the shore; necessitating a shift to a different cay until rescued by their ships.

It strikes me that their is a potential amphibious game in there but unfortunately my ships are not yet painted, so I moved onto the next game in the 'Organised Play'. I  can always revisit this when I have some ships.

Coxon next instigated a short blockade of Portobello, during which they encountered the Santa Rosa, a small packet or advice ship (navio de adviso) bearing dispatches. Captain Alleston, in a sloop, arrived first and engaged the Rosa with small arms fire until Coxon arrived and boarded her without the loss of any men.

The published scenario calls for a fluyt (Santa Rosa), frigate (Coxon) and sloop (Alleston). Unfortunately, there is no way I can muster the necessary ships at the Blood and Plunder level (although I may be able to do something at a later date once I've painted my ships). Hence, I decided to try the action using Oak and Iron. Although, I've played a couple of games on Tabletop Simulator, this would be my first go with the physical game. The ships are, as yet, unpainted but, as I was keen to press on with the campaign, I thought 'what the hell' and used them straight from the box.

The game notes suggest that Alleston's sloop did not carry any guns, which is not a problem as musketry plays such a large part. With Oak and Iron, I'm not so sure; I restricted the sloop to partial fire but gave them an Inspiring Commander (Lucky Jack Quilp!), a carpenter and the buccaneer trait to compensate.

For the table set up, I just used the standard game set up. The only other scenario rule I used was that Coxon's frigate would not arrive until the end of Turn Two (O&I games typically being 10 turns).

Set Up Choices

After the set up phase, the buccaneers had chosen Coastline, Weather Gauge and Event, whilst the Spanish had Open Sea, Corners and Superior Position.

The hardest choice was the signals deck but in the end I just loaded both sides up with as many national cards as possible.

Buccaneer Cards

Spanish Cards

Starting Positions

This was going to be difficult for Quilp, in his Sloop, as he was restricted to a fire factor of one. Unfortunately, it would take two hits to do any damage on the Fluyt (Fortitude 2 and High Freeboard). Hmmm, I didn't think this through - the best he could hope for was a lucky hit using the buccaneer trait. Hence I planned to keep the sloop outside of the Fluyt's broadside arc and just exchange musketry until Coxon could come up. How hard could that be? Almost impossible as it turns out - especially when you draw an event on turn two! The confused captain event saw Quilp turn his sloop directly into the broadside arc of the Fluyt.

Confused

As expected this was going to hurt. Especially as the Spanish shooting was hot and they hardly missed a single die roll all game!

Not Quilp's Finest Moment

Luckily Quilp had brought a Carpenter along which  took away a point of damage but unfortunately this is a single use card!

Chippy McGraw to the Rescue

This was to set the pattern for the rest of the game, with Quilp using all his available crew actions to repair damage, whilst attempting to manoeuvre out of the Fluyt's broadside arc. But, as I say, the Spanish shooting was hot and the sloop was soon crippled. Luckily Quilp could use the Inspiring Commander trait to keep fatigue down, so technically was still in the game!

Crippled

All this time, Coxon had been sailing towards the action under Full Sail. Even though he used every possible seamanship action to trim the sails to get a bit more speed, he only came up with the Santa Rosa on Turn Nine.

Coxon Pursues Under Full Sail

On Turn Ten Coxon was at last in range to put in a Partial Shot against the Fluyt, causing the Spaniard's only damage.

So a convincing win for the Spanish.

Endgame

I might have to revisit this one with painted ships and a more balanced scenario! A great game nevertheless.

In the real action, Coxon was accused of trying to keep captured gold, hidden in a wine jar. As there was no plunder in this game, instead I decided to accuse Quilp of being drunk. Confused Captain indeed!

Portobello Part Two

 As my first Pirate Campaign game was such a success, I was keen to crack on with part two. I also had a new game mat to play with; a more arid look to this one.

This time it would be a scenario straight from the book; 'take and Hold' to be exact. The cross in the centre of the plaza would be the objective, hence I moved the whole town so that it was more central on the table. This created more area to the east of the plaza but thankfully, as there was a river here, I didn't need anymore buildings.

The forces would be the same as last time except I swapped out 4 Marineros and replaced them with a light gun crewed by 4 Milicianos Artilleros. 

The terrain stayed the same but I moved some of the 'scatter' terrain into the square to represent te previous day's looting. This was mainly aesthetic but it did provide more cover in the centre of the table.

Once again, I would run the buccaneers but the Spanish would be controlled by the Blood and Plunder solo rules (available from the Firelock website).

The Ransacked Town

Starting Positions

My plan for the buccaneers was to use the Forlorn and the Flibustiers as assault troops. I would hold them back, as close to the objective as possible, ready to make a bid for the objective near the end of the game. The Freebooters would take up fire positions to cover the square.

The Spanish plan was to cover the dockside approach with their cannon (which shockingly, in my eagerness, I had forgotten to paint) and get the Milicianos into fire positions. The Lanceros would use their 'Lay in Wait' ability to get into the custom house, ready to assault the objective when necessary.

Before Turn One, the Forlorn used their Vanguard rule to make a move action towards the custom house. However, the card draw resulted in the Lanceros getting the jump on them seizing the custom house in a preemptive move. Not to be deterred, the Forlorn charged into the square and lobbed a couple of hastily prepared grenadoes into the open arches of the custom house. A risky manoeuvre as their is a chance of a premature explosion. Luckily, the Forlorn knew their job and the grenadoes exploded amongst the unfortunate Lanceros.

Bombs away!

On the next card I activated Lucky Jacky who used a command point to order the Forlorn to charge. This they did, slaughtering the reeling Lanceros. Turn one and the Spanish were a unit down already.

With their best unit out of action there was little the Spanish could do but to try and get into the houses around the square.

Milicianos move up

Whilst the Milicianos were taking position, the AI engine determined that the Marineros would make a move for the objective. Lucky Jack responded by moving into the square covered by Freebooters shooting from the tavern.

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

It was inevitable that a fight would break out and sure enough after some desultory musketry the Marineros charged forward.

Boarding axes at the ready

Lucky Jack lived up to his name and the Freebooters held them off, although a single obstinate Spanish sailor held on until the very end denying the buccaneers the objective.

Meanwhile, the AI had begun a flanking move around the church by a unit of Milicianos. However, a volley from the Flibustiers followed by a charge saw the Spanish another unit down.

French je ne sais quoi

In desperation the Spanish wheeled forward their unpainted cannon to cover the objective,

Unpainted Ordinance

Unfortunately, there new position was just a bit too close to the Forlorn who were still lurking in the customs house. A quick charge around the corner and the artillery crew were promptly eliminated.

The Spanish were now down to 2 units of Miliciano but had remarkably passed three strike tests, albeit using up their remaining Fortune Points. There was little Don Lardo could do now but threaten the objective with fire from the corner of the square. However, another charge of the Forlorn and Don Lardo bit the dust.

Go the Forlorn

So a resounding win for the buccaneers who only took 5 casualties all game. That's against the Spanish  total of a massive 41 casualties!

An excellent game and a challenge for both sides. Although the Spanish have a great numerical superiority, they are much lower quality troops and its difficult to bring their numbers to bear in this terrain. 

Portobello Lockdown

For some time now I have been planning various solo campaigns; the sort of stuff that I can't easily explore at the club. Well, social distancing has changed the way everyone games and its an opportune time to finally put some of my plans into operation.

First off is pirates. A bit of a surprise this one as it was unplanned for and came out of the blue with a surprise birthday present of a box of Firelock Games' Pirates and Privateers. I really, really like these models and I expanded the collection pretty much straight away. So over the last 6 months I have painted up about 100 pirate figures with the intention of playing a solo campaign.

For the campaign I am going to follow (loosely) the format of Firelock's recent 'Organised Play' event. This is something they set up last year as a series of linked scenarios based on an historical campaign. I don't know how it went, as I'm not on Facebook, but the background material and scenarios are free to download on the Firelock website.

The setting is apparently one of the best documented pirate voyages, with several first hand accounts available. It begins in January 1680 when a pirate called John Coxon led a small buccaneer flotilla to Portobello, on the Isthmus of Darien.  This was an illegal enterprise, as England and Spain were not at war, but Coxon had purchased a 3 month commission , which he then, by forgery, turned into a 3 year commission to make reprisals.

At the time, Portobello was an important Spanish town that had been previously sacked, in 1668, by Henry Morgan and was the third largest and strongest town on the Spanish Main.

Portobello circa 1740

The Historical Action

As Morgan had done a decade earlier, the buccaneers decided to attack from the land and put ashore 60 miles up the coast. After a three-day trek, they reached the town unopposed and a party led by Captain Robert Allison entered the town. The local population had fled to the Gloria fort and watched helplessly as the buccaneers sacked the town.

On the following day Spanish regulars and militia sortied from the fort but were repulsed by the buccaneers.

The Scenario

The first scenario in the 'Organised Play' event is actually no more than the 'Plunder' scenario from the 'No Peace Beyond the Line' supplement. Whilst this gives a good game, in itself, I personally felt it didn't really have the right feel. It essentially consists of two buildings on the table centre line, one of which contains plunder. Now a mere two buildings, to me,  don't conjure up images of an important town such as Portobello.

Hence, I decided to create my own scenario or in actual fact two scenarios. Scenario one would be the flight to the Gloria fort and scenario two the Spanish sortie. The action would be centred around the western sector of the town and the approach to the Gloria fort.

This did mean, of course, I would need some appropriate terrain and after a couple of weeks of furious scratchbuilding, I had enough buildings, including a church and customs house, to represent the western plaza.

Portobello

For the opposing forces I used the Firelock lists but modified to suit my figure collection.

Attacker

English Buccaneers

201 points

27 models (Strike point at 6/12/18)

Lucky Jack Quilp                                         25pts

6 Veteran Freebooters                                48pts

8 Forlorn Hope                                             56pts

6 Freebooters                                               36pts

6 Flibustiers                                                  36pts

Lucky Jack Quilp is a Seasoned Buccaneer Commander

Defender

Spanish Militia

199 points

53 models (Strike point at 13/26/39)

Don Lardo                                         15pts

8 Milicianos                                       24pts

8 Milicianos                                       24pts

8 Milicianos                                       24pts

8 Milicianos                                       24pts

8 Lanceros                                        40pts

12 Marineros                                     48pts

Don Lardo is an Experienced Militia Commander

The scenario would call for a  dozen civilians and the Spanish objective would be to escort them off table to the safety of the Gloria. I had hoped to purchase a pack of the Firelock civilians but, when I came to order, my preferred supplier was out of stock. Fortunately, I was able to find enough civilians in my Sharp Practice collection that didn't look too out of place.

The Spanish plan was for the Marineros and Lanceros to escort the civilians whilst Don Lardo would command the Milicianos in a rearguard action.

Turn one saw the Lanceros make a dash through the plaza whilst the Marineros fled along the dockside and the Milicianos followed on through the market area.

Turn one - the Spanish flight

For their part the buccaneers planned to move quickly around the back of the church and cut off the Spanish retreat. This flanking move would be made by the Forlorn Hope supported by the Veteran Freebooters led by LuckyJack Quilp himself. The remaining Freebooters and Flibustiers would contest the plaza as a diversion.

The buccaneers attack

I had given the Spanish a headstart and for the first few moves it looked like I had overdone this but just as they cleared the town and entered the trees the Forlorn raced around the church and opened fire with their buccaneer guns. This was enough to force the Lanceros back into cover behind the houses.

The Forlorn open fire

I had ruled that there was a limit to how many civilians could attach to a group and with the Lanceros suffering casualties the fair Consuela panicked and made a dash for the church. 

Consuela runs for safety

Luckily she  ran into the arms of Don Lardo himself

Don Lardo to the rescue

Although he had rescued the maiden, Don Lardo was in trouble as the Milicino were being fired upon by Flibustiers and Freebooters.

Sitting Ducks

Whilst the Lanceros and Miliciano were struggling, the Marineros made a dash for the trees. However, they then came under heavy fire from both the Forlorn and Lucky Jack's Veteran Freebooters and were forced prone.

Escorts under fire

Whereupon, the Forlorn charged into combat against the unfortunate Marineros.

Charge!

The result was inevitable really with the Marineros massacred and the civilians taken prisoner.

To the victor the spoils

It was now turn six and I gave the victory to the buccaneers. Not only had they cut off Don Lardos retreat to the fort but were now in possession of more civilians.

All in all a great game that I had a most enjoyable time playing, even as a solo game.