The Raid on Rumtown

Dear cousin Samuel,
I write to you from the Isle de Le Gros Garcon and the port of Rumtown, where it is with great regret that I find myself destitute and without monies. Regrettably, Rumtown is a den of iniquity and a haven for the buccaneers. In search of gainful employment, I have offered my services to Tipples Morgan, Captain of the Rumtown militia but the inebriate clowne hath declined my offer. My dear Pepys, I beseech you speak on my behalf to your Masters at the Navy Board, my present circumstances hath placed me in possession of divers intelligences of some import to his Majesty's Navy and but a small stipend would secure them such intelligences.
Only this very day did the King's enemies inflict an affray upon these shores. It is rumoured that Tipples Morgan hath flooded Rumtown with contraband whisky, obtained from the notorious buccaneer Lucky Jack Quilp. This Quilp did obtain such liquors from the wreck of the Chancellor and by the murder of Ebeneezer Balfour. A deed which Balfour's bosun, Red Legs McGork, has sworn to revenge. This sudden affluence in Rumtown hath caused the Spanish to take mighty notice of, and look upon Rumtown as a possession most desirous. I need not remind you, good cousin, that the Spaniard doth claim possession of all the islands of these partes.
A party of Spanish militia, under Don Lardo, did land near the church on the outskirts of the Morgan Plantation. There they did suffer ambuscade by pirates led by Happy Dan Le Pew who did come against them at night. Said affray did mighty hurt to both parties who hath retired from the island.
Yours.
Nathaniel P (Rumtown, year of our Lord 16___)

This was to be game five in my Six Nations Blood and Plunder campaign and something of an experiment. This time the Spanish would take on the French in the first land action of the campaign. As such, I wanted to try out a new table; this time the game would be played in 15 mm but using centimeters instead of inches. Hence, my old 2 ft square DBA board was pressed into service. I also wanted to try out my new unit cards purchased a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I still have not made any terrain and that, and the small size of the game, meant the result was never going to be photogenic.

Table overview - Spanish enter top left, French bottom right

The table worked OK and I will probably develop the idea for when I have space constraints. The only issue is that the table may be too big! The standard Blood and Plunder table is 3 ft square; converting inches into centimetres would give a 36 centimetre square playing area. This one is 60cm square.  As games are only 6 turns in duration, the relationship between game time and table size is quite finely balanced.
This was apparent in this game when the French attacked at night; this meant that the Spanish could not move until the French were spotted by the sentries. This turned out to be turn 4 - I was beginning to think that I'd have to scrap the game as the Spanish would reach the objectives unopposed.

French skirmish with Milicianos Indios in the long grass.

As it happens, the last 2 turns were quite tense and could have gone either way. The French advance on the right was stopped by bow shots that almost destroyed a unit of 5 boucaniers; they used up all 3 Fortune Points re-rolling saves!
In the centre Don Lardo led a charge of Lanceros against Happy Dan's unit of Boucaniers, only to be stopped in their tracks by defensive fire. This obliged them to either retreat or go prone; they chose the latter. In the final turn, Don Lardo rallied his men but remained prone. This enabled a unit of Milicianos to shoot over the prone Lanceros and gun down the boucaniers with 'drilled' fire (not sure if overhead fire is permissible in this case, I need to check the rules, but hey it's my game). So at the end of the final turn the French, with three strike points, were obliged to take a strike test - which they passed! That will be a draw then.

Don Lardo leads the Lanceros in a spirited charge

The other aspect to this 'test' was the use of my new unit cards. Admittedly, these are an extravagance and completely unnecessary for game play, they worked really well. Not only do the cards contain all the necessary game stats but they also allowed me to keep track of which units had been activated. In addition, I managed to keep most of the markers (reloading, fatigue etc.) off table by placing them on top of the relevant unit card. Aesthetically more pleasing I think.

Next up, in the campaign, Darien natives versus the Dutch.