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.

Death of a Scotsman

Once again Lucky Jack Quilp has demonstrated a knack for locating wrecks; last month it was The Dutchman, this month The Chancellor. With the aid of  a couple of longboats it should be easy to liberate the stricken vessel of its cargo of contraband whisky.  However, unknown to our hero, the leader of the Scottish militia, Ebeneezer Balfour, has had his spies and informants abroad and has wind of Quilp's intentions. Raising the miltia, he intends to get to the whisky first.

The first game of turn two in my Blood and Plunder solo campaign was to be the 'Plunder' scenario from the 'No Peace Beyond the Line' supplement. It was also to be the first outing for The Chancellor - kindly donated by Uriah the boat-builder.

The Chancellor - stuck on the shoals

The Scottish force consisted of Ebeneezer Balfour with 4 European Soldiers and 4 European Sailors in one longboat. A second boat carried 5 European Soldiers and 8 European Militia. This was a 100 point force, as calculated by the nifty online Force Builder on the Firelock Games website.

The Scots

This time I experimented with the number of figures: for 15mm games, on land, I prefer to substitute bases of two  figures and just count the number of bases. I usually revert to counting actual figures for games involving boats due to space restraints. This time I went for bases; it almost works for my newer figures on square bases but unfortunately the older figures on rounds don't quite work.

The English

The English force consisted of Lucky Jack Quilp with 5 Freebooters and 4 Sea Dogs in one longboat. The second boat contained another 5 Freebooters and 4 Sea Dogs. I had 2 points in hand so I added a musician to Lucky Jack's group; I actually had a buccaneer drummer that I used to represent the musician. The musician would give the command unit the Inspiring trait - although I'd actually forgot that Lucky Jack is inspiring anyway. However, all was not lost as the musician also inflicts Terror on the first turn - i.e. all the enemy units have to roll a resolve test. Mind you they all passed anyway - still serious drumming!
Also pregame, Lucky Jack had two tactics to play and Balfour one. Most of the tactics are more appropriate for land battles but I chose Undisciplined Louts and High Tolerance. I diced for the Scots choice and came up with High Tolerance - which effectively countered my Undisciplined Louts tactic (this would have seen the Scots have to test for drunkeness). Obviously the Scots are hardened drinkers -who said typecasting?

The English deployed with both boats using the sweeps with the Sea Dogs assigned to the task. The Scots had one boat with the sailors on the sweeps but the second boat, wishing to maximize its firepower, deployed with the sails set.

Turn one saw the Scots draw a Joker, thereby initiating a random event. A wind change - bad news for the Scottish boat under sail.
In the initial moves both sides converged upon each other and exchanged some long range musketry. The Scots sailing boat also began to turn away from the wind.

End of Turn One - Scots boats in trouble 

 Turn two also began bad for the Scots as their boats collided.

Make way - no you make way! 

With one boat struggling under sail, Balfour's men made an extra effort at the sweeps and surged ahead.

Balfour makes for the Chancellor

With one boat downwind and out of the fight, Balfour was surrounded by the English boats and his Soldiers gunned down, leaving him with a small group of sailors.

Balfour under fire

 The English then seized the initiative, boarding the Chancellor with the Freebooters and locating the loot. They then passed this overboard to the Sea Dogs in the longboat.

English about to board

 However, the Scots militia had eventually struggled up to a position downwind of the Chancellor from where they could bring their massed firepower to bear. A bit of nifty shooting and the Sea Dogs were wiped out - leaving the loot unprotected in the bottom of the longboat!

Fire as she bears!

 Not only that but Balfour had grappled the Chancellor from the bow and was about to lead his sailors in a last ditch boarding action. That is until Quilp, backing water, brought his longboat into a position where his Freebooters were firing at point blank range with ball and shot. With one final volley, the Sailors were no more and ex-captain Balfour was lying dead in the bottom of his boat.

Death of a Scotsman

Another victory for Lucky Jack who is now clearly ahead in the campaign.

All in all a good game and I think the best one yet,

A Piratical Excursion

After a week of ‘garden painting’ in the blazing sunshine it’s back to work on Monday. Hence, I was determined to get one last game in before I go back – it also p***ed it down all day, so no garden painting this weekend anyway. The last game in turn one of my Blood and Plunder solo campaign was still to be played, so this was an opportunity to test the layout of my prospective Blood and Plunder table. The next game was to be Dutch versus Scots and both required a quantity of European Militia and Musketeers. A quick order to Irregular Miniatures provided me with a small pile of 15mm League of Augsburg figures, which were painted up over a couple of evenings. After painting 28mm Napoleonics these were a doddle – 57 figures in 2 evenings was not to be sniffed at. I really like these figures and they painted up quite nicely. The basing is my system for Sharp Practice / Blood and Plunder but put on sabots they give me 2 more regiments for my Maurice ImagiNations armies.

Irregular Miniatures, 15mm League of Augsburg

Whisky Galore!

 This was to be my first go at an amphibious scenario and saw militia of the Scottish Carolina Company attacking the Dutch. For terrain I scrounged up some thirty year old scratch built Spanish buildings and my 15 year old jungle. Both needed some updating and TLC but hey needs must.

The Dutch Colonies

The scenario was to be the ‘Rescue’ scenario from the ‘No Peace Beyond the Line’ supplement. HM Sloop ‘The Chancellor’, carrying vital supplies of Whisky to South Carolina, has foundered in Dutch territory. The Dutch are in possession of the only survivor; Brother Belcher, a monk of the Holy Order of Glenfiddich. The Scots intend to rescue Brother Belcher and thereby ascertain the location of the wreck.

The Scots as seen through a whisky haze – ahem.

The Scots, under Ebeneezer Balfour, consisted of two groups of 6 Militia, one group of 7 Musketeers and one group of 4 Sea Dogs. (For 15mm scale I use bases and not individual figures). Half the force would begin on land whilst the other half arrived in two longboats.

The Dutch

Opposing them, the Dutch under Rip Van Dam consisted of two groups of 6 Soldaten and a group of 7 Zeelieden.

The Dutch, along with Brother Belcher, would deploy near the centre of the table. The Scots have 6 moves to rescue the prisoner.

Dutch deployment

The Scots plan involved a pincer movement with Ebeneezer Balfour leading the Militia from the western table edge, whilst the Musketeers and Sea Dogs landed in the east.

The landing. Militia infiltrate the jungle in the far distance.

The advance of the Militia was largely unopposed and by mid game they had surprised and destroyed a group of Soldaten.

Unfortunately, the advance from the beach was a disaster. Being caught in the open is very bad news in this game and as I has so little terrain to use ‘the beach’ was rather open. The Sea Dogs were instantly destroyed by musketry from Van Dam’s unit and the Musketeers fared no better. Severely hit by musket fire, they were finished off by pistol fire from the Zeelieden.

Musketeers come under fire after the demise of the Sea Dogs

 

Zeelieden break Musketteers with pistol fire

By turn four the Dutch had one Strike Point due to casualties but the Scots had two. However, by the scenario rules, the attacker gains a Strike Point if the prisoner is still in the hands of the defenders in turn four. That gave the Scots an extra Strike Point and the difference of two was enough to trigger a Strike Test – which they failed.

So a convincing win for the Dutch and Rip Van Dam goes into the lead in campaign terms.

Conclusions

Firstly, the land game really does need decent terrain and scenery. Not only will it look better but having a reasonable amount of cover is vital.

Secondly, the land game can be very quick indeed. This took much longer to set up and take down than it did to play.

Thirdly, while 15mm works well solo it would look much better in 28mm. With that in mind I took a quick snap of the Firelock Games miniatures against my jungle terrain. Scale wise I might just get away with it.

Better get painting then……..

Bring on the big boys

Caribbean Ponderings

Now our long awaited Longships campaign has finally kicked off, I can now stop preparing for the campaign and return to projects that had been set aside in the mammoth six month painting frenzy. Mind you most of these figures have been in the painting queue for about 36 years so I guess their time was due!
Next in the paint queue are figures for a 28mm Napoleonic Sharp Practice set up that should be hitting the table soon - hopefully I'll have more details in the not too distant future. After that it may well be the turn of the Blood and Plunder pirates that I received for my birthday. I have a moderate size collection of these; certainly enough for a few games but I will need some terrain.
In fact I have already started a Blood and Plunder solo campaign  but in 15mm until I get the larger figures painted. The first 2 games were sea battles, so no great terrain requirements there, although afterwards I decided that my 30 year old sea boards no longer cut the mustard. Hence, I have added a nice sea mat from Deep Cut that has yet to see action.
Unfortunately, the next campaign battle will be a bit more challenging as this one will be an amphibious scenario. My usual modus operandi when faced with a terrain project is to see what crap I have lying around the garage - and this was to be no different. After half an hour's rooting around the darkest recesses of said garage I emerged with a stack of old green carpet tiles. I figured I could cut these into the shape of various land forms that could then be placed on top of my sea mat.
A prime consideration for this is that any terrain should be light weight and easily stored - these would seem to be ideal in that respect.
After attacking the aforementioned tiles with a Stanley knife I was left with the following prototype.

Configuration 1 - the headland

I had originally intended the carpet tile to span the full width of the sea mat but unfortunately the tiles are something like 18 inches square and the mat is 4 foot wide. However, by trimming off the corner of the tile I was able to create the suggestion of a headland.
It also occurred to me that, if I added a couple of smaller bits, I could also create a river mouth,as shown below.

Configuration 2 - the river mouth

Now there may be other configurations possible and I still have a spare tile left but these will do for now.
My conundrum now is what to do next? My current options are:

1) Leave them as they are - a bit naff but workable.
2) Paint them
3) Add sand and flock

At the moment I'm favouring option three but my concern is the possibility of warping if I use sand and pva. On the other hand the tiles are quite flexible and could probably just be bent back into shape. Hmmm, one to ponder. I think it will be option 1 as a stop gap until I make my mind up how best to proceed.

Oppressing the natives

Game two in my 'Six Nations' campaign pitted a force of French pirates against a Native American force from the Darien Peninsula.
Once again it was to be a sea based encounter; this time the 'Control the Field' scenario. The sea based version of this essentially consists of the defender starting downwind and fighting to gain the weather gauge.
Hence, the setting for this game was that a French watering party has landed on the Darien Peninsula and is seeking to return to its ship. The Natives have other ideas.

The French consisted of two groups of Boucaniers and group of Miliciens led by 'Happy Dan' Le Pew. [The Le Pew character started out as Pierre Le Pew (sort of  a Pepi Le Pew feel) until I remembered that Happy Dan Pew is a character from George McDonald Fraser's 'The Pyrates'. In the novel he is an Englishman that thinks he is French after being hit on the head. So Happy Dan it is then - I see my version as a cockney with Del Boy's grasp of the French language.]

The Darien natives consisted of two groups of Warriors and a group of bow armed Young Warriors led by Chief Man Friday. This would be something of a challenge for the natives as the Warriors are solely armed with melee weapons. Normally a bow would be a compulsory upgrade but the campaign rules forbid upgrades unless the 'Armaments' resource is purchased.

The French force were equipped with two longboats. Happy Dan joined a group of Boucaniers along with a group of Miliciens in the first boat. The second boat carried the remaining group of Boucaniers. With two groups in his boat, Happy Dan was able to assign the Miliciens to the sweeps; pretty much a necessity as they would be working up wind. The second boat could either move under sail, leaving the Boucaniers free to shoot, or assign the Boucaniers to the sweeps, in which case they couldn't shoot. I chose to use the sails.

The native force were carried in three canoes; a group for each vessel. The canoes do not have a sail option, moving under sweeps (or technically paddles). In this case they had the option of assigning crew to the paddles, which allows a full move each go, or moving with a reduced move if no crew are so assigned. I assigned Chief Friday's group to the paddles and left the others unassigned.

Happy Dan's watering party. The wind is from the top of the picture.

Native canoes upwind

Unfortunately, I discovered that all my Caribs are either bow or musket armed - the latter would have to stand in for melee weapons in this game. Similarly, I'm still short of suitable militia or regular soldier types; in this instance Miliciens would be played by Napoleonic Spanish guerrillas.

There were no 'tactics' played at the start of the game as I forgot! Probably to the detriment of the natives as they held a club - whoops.

The first move saw the natives move into a blocking position in front of Happy Dan, whilst the second longboat crawled along close hauled. Hmmm - maybe sails were a bad choice here. Long range shooting was even; both sides taking a casualty.

Move 1 - the Natives block the way

Move 2 and Chief Friday hung back to keep the weather gauge whilst the Young Warriors circled around to harass the rear of the French with bow fire. Unfortunately, although bows can rain down huge amounts of arrows they are relatively ineffectual. By contrast, Boucaniers are deadly shots and get the benefit of Ball and Shot at close range to boot. Another 5 natives down and their first Strike Point.

Move two - notice the almost empty canoe!

Move three saw Happy Dan attempt to manoeuvre his longboat past Chief Friday's canoe. Meanwhile, the Young Warriors tangle with the rear longboat.

Move Three - Happy Dan surges ahead. Mangtout Rodders!
(In Happy Dan's addled brain ALL his crew are named Rodney!)

Move four saw Chief Friday grapple Le Pew's boat - eventually. After several failed attempts he wasn't left with enough actions to board. In his own turn Happy Dan cut the grapples and was in a position to move ahead and gain the weather gauge. However, the critical move came from the second longboat as some deadly shooting from the Boucaniers saw them kill enough Young Warriors to inflict a second Strike Point. Two nil down on Strike points and its game over for the Natives .

Move four - Young Warriors fall to accurate musket fire.

The winner. Creme de Menthe Rodney, Creme de Menthe!

So a convincing win for Happy Dan who leaps ahead in the campaign with 4 Experience points and four doubloons for his treasure chest.

The Wreck of the Dutchman

As a motivational aid to painting I like to set a wargaming theme for the year. This year was to be Pirates. The preparations for our Longships (or Dark Age pirates) campaign are currently well under way but I also had an urge to play the more traditional pirates of the 17th century. My original plan was to use my 15mm Sharp Practice Caribbean collection with the new Peter Pig 'Pieces of Eight' rules. These were originally due out in February but were delayed until this month - in the meantime I was given a Firelock Games 28mm pirate set for my birthday. These are lovely figures and I was lucky enough to source a second hand set of both the 'Blood and Plunder' rules and the 'No Peace Beyond the Line' expansion. These are quality products and I was hooked from the onset. The expansion contains a campaign system which I reckon would also work as a nice solo project.
So  to get started, my plan is to play in 15mm whilst I paint up the 28mm Blood and Plunder figures. Any games I can't manage in 28mm, due to figure requirements, will also be played using my 15mm collection.
I'm calling this my Six Nations campaign, as the rules allow for up to six nationalities. The idea behind the campaign is to follow the fortunes of the rival commanders. I chose faction types for each nation using a random die roll and came up with the following:

English Buccaneers, 'militia' under 'Lucky' Jack Quilp, based at Port Royal, Jamaica
French Chasseurs, 'pirates' under 'Happy' Dan Le Pew, based at Tortuga
Spanish  Caribbean Militia, 'privateers' under Diego Don Lardo, sailing from Santo Domingo, Hispaniola and commissioned to harry the natives.
Dutch Navy, 'militia' under Captain Rip Van Dam, sailing from Caracoa
Native Americans, Darien tribesmen 'militia' under Chief Man Friday, based on the Darien Peninsula
Unaligned, Scottish Militia of the Scottish Carolina Company under Ebeneezer Balfour, based at Stuart's Town, Port Royal, South Carolina

Game one was to be the 'Plunder' scenario and was sea based (all Blood and Plunder scenarios have a sea, land and amphibious version).
The setting:
The merchant sloop 'The Dutchman' has run aground in shoal waters off Hispaniola. The crew have abandoned ship but the priceless cargo of English Breakfast Tea remains on board. Hearing of this, the Governor of Jamaica, Sir Augustus Fyffes-Farthingdale, has commissioned Lucky Jack Quilp to rescue his favourite tipple. The Spanish under Don Lardo are determined to prevent this.

As a sea game I was going to need some ships. In the campaign the rival captains start with boats and must work their way up to commanding larger vessels. In any case a boat of some sort would be wise for this scenario to avoid running aground in the shoals.
Hence, I cobbled together some longboats out of cardboard. Definitely a learning curve here as the first one was a dog's dinner and resulted in several fingers superglued together. By the fourth boat I was beginning to get the hang of it though. For the Dutchman I converted a nice 28mm long boat (courtesy of Uriah the boat builder) into a Sloop. Never fear this merely consisted of adding a removable deck as I will need this for my 28mm figures.

The flotilla - Minifigs longboat for scale

The first problem I faced was one of scale. The game is designed to use actual figures in the ships / boats and surprisingly this is easier for the larger figures. The problem is that there is a minimum working base size that mitigates against using the smaller figures. In the end I compromised and came up with a boat size that wasn't too far off in length but rather wide in the beam to accommodate the figure basing.
Figure wise I had everything I needed in my current collection except suitable figures for Miliciano (militia); in the end I substituted Napoleonic era sailors for these. I may purchase some League of Augsburg era soldiers to fulfill this role. For land based games I will use penny basing with 2 figures per base (as I do for my Sharp Practice games) counting bases rather than figures. In this case, due to space constraints in the  boats, I would count a doubly based penny as two figures.
As the campaign concentrates on the commanders each game can use a different force composition. For this game I opted for the following 100 point forces:
English
One longboat carrying Lucky Jack Quilp and 5 Freebooters plus 4 Sea Dogs
One swivel armed long boat carrying 5 Freebooters plus 4 Sea Dogs
Spanish
One longboat carrying Don Lardo and 8 Lanceros plus 6 Milicianos
One swivel armed long boat carrying 4 Marineros plus 6 Milicianos

Both sides assigned their sailors (Sea Dogs or Marineros) to the swivel gun; the English also assigned a unit of Sea Dogs to man the sweeps.
Both sides also adopted the same plan; the swivel armed boat would harass the enemy whilst the other boat would head for the sloop.
Before the game, each side may choose from a selection of tactics, the number depending upon the card played this campaign turn. As the English had a spade they could not choose any tactics but the Spanish club allowed them three. As it happens only one was feasible in this scenario, so they chose 'Undisciplined Louts', which meant that the English may begin the game drunk (typecasting!). Each unit had to test at the start of the game and sure enough one unit of Sea Dogs and one of Freebooters had overindulged on the Daiquiris and Pina Coladas. This would enhance their morale but impede their shooting ability.
So on to the first turn and the English draw an event! A change of weather meant the action would take place in the rain (hindering reloading) and there was a drop in the wind for the first turn.
The change in the wind was crucial as one of the English boats was moving under sweeps and hence unaffected. As a consequence Quilp's boat streaked ahead leaving the Spanish struggling under light airs.

Quilp surges ahead in the boat race

The gunboats headed towards each other taking pot shots whilst Don Lardo's Lanceros could only look on. Inevitably Quilp made it to the sloop first; grappling the Dutchman he pulled the boat alongside and led the Freebooters over the side. Taking possession of the first plunder piece, this was passed over the side to the waiting Sea Dogs. In subsequent turn Quilp played a club (3 actions plus his own command point) to move to the second deck section, pick up the second plunder piece, return to the longboat and release grapples. (Note this is technically illegal as a unit has a maximum of three actions per activation - whoops. Not that it would have made a difference in the long run).

Quilp boards the prize

Whilst Quilp made off with the tea chests, Don Lardo was fast approaching with a boat load of angry Lanceros armed to the teeth. However, move four saw the Spanish pull an event. Apparently these were tidal waters and a strong current was moving across the table. Lucky Jack Quilp was certainly living up to his name as he rounded the sloop and made his escape with the current whilst the Spanish were struggling against it.
On to move six (the scenario limit) and the Spanish had 2 Strike Points (one for casualties and one for losing the plunder); if the difference in strike points, at the end of the turn, is ever two or greater then the losing side must take a strike test (morale). Luckily, for the Spanish, a chance shot from the Milicianos saw a unit of Sea Dogs fail their resolve test giving the English their first Strike point. So at turn end the Spanish had two and the English one; a difference of one and not enough to force a Strike Test.

Quilp makes off with the loot

As neither side had struck, the game is decided on the number of Strike Points. So a win for the English, which is only fitting as they had captured the loot. For the losing side there is a chance that the commander is captured, although this seems a bit harsh in this scenario. Naturally, Don Lardo failed the test but as he had three unused Fortune points left I allowed a re-roll (not sure this is intended but it seems reasonable). Just to add a touch of excitement he failed two re-rolls, only passing on his last Fortune Point!
So all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and will definitely try and get some more campaign games in.

Lucky Jack Quilp - to the victor the spoils