18th Century mini-campaign - Raid on Vestisle: Part 2 - Mainly about sailors

Two blog posts ago I gave the Introduction and first blood about our mini-campaign which culminated in a weekend of wargaming in mid August 2019. Please take a look at that post if you need a reminder, or have just arrived - welcome!

18th Century Special Forces or just an excuse for some fun?

You might recall that I said the British and Hanoverian Allies had a sort of wild card in an independent battalion sized unit of sailors which could be landed anywhere on the West, South or East coast of Vestisle Island and operate as light infantry. Ken chose to land them near the Chateau du Roi on the north-west tip of Vestisle and had given me the following instructions:

"..........initially tasked with locating and securing any prizes present around the Chateau du Roi. If circumstances permit, it may be possible to infiltrate them into Abrantes in the guise of Jacobite supporters. If successful, they should disable the battery pieces protecting the harbour (intelligence suggests that a magazine explosion would not come as a surprise to the residents). Volunteers to assist in this endeavour should be sought from the highland battalions with the expedition. – NOTE TO UMPIRE, just think Hornblower, Aubrey, Ramage or any of the other naval fiction from this era – you know you want to ☺."

Yes, indeed I did want to! Without me prompting him Ken had got the idea exactly that I saw these as a kind of 18th Century Special Boat Service and he had worked a background idea into the campaign for me to develop.

Guy had chosen not to have any of his characters nor troops at the Chateau yet both sides knew that this was the guest residence being used by Prince Charles Edward Stuart as his permanent HQ. Guy chose to have Charlie doing unseemly acts elsewhere on the island so I saw no reason not to allow the sailors a free hand. They landed at 5am in sea mist and took an hour (as per my rules) to sort themselves out on shore so by 6 a.m. I needed to roll a die to decide how long it would take them to work out there was nothing of strategic value at the Chateau or its neighbouring farm, and to loot what Royal valuables and farm livestock were worth taking. The answer was 3 hours and so they were stuck till 9 a.m when the next part of the plan could be enacted. Since there were only passive servants and a few farm hands present there was no need for any shots to be fired to alert anyone to trouble, so initially I gave Guy no clue there was a landing there.

What I did give to both sides, as I have said, is a series of situation report (sitrep) photo maps, and here is the one at the West side of Vestisle around 0900. The ones I gave to the players had key elements blurred when units were beyond their proper knowledge. Ken's sailors (B4) were blurred to both sides and under my GM control, but Guy was able to order the Abrantes Militia battalion (F3) to break camp on the Cime de Cassatte and march towards the Chateau to investigate that "mysterious red blurry blob" which I had tactfully made him aware of!

Ambush in Chateau Woods
Unwittingly this was falling into Ken's hands as this coincided with the time the sailors were free  to occupy the wood; they could see the Militia marching along the road and laid a trap. Time for a small solo game.... I had made them Superior quality though Standard Light Infantry for firing. The poor Militia were only Inferior quality. It was pretty predictable but nevertheless I wanted the dice to take their course and see what happened. Please follow the photo captions

I determined that the sailors were sufficiently disciplined not to spring the
 ambush early, so positioned the marching militia
where they were surrounded on both sides of the road

The Sailors were all still "under command" as the road was only 5cm wide

The Sailors are some of the superb new set from Crann Tara Miniatures sugar-islands-campaigns range
 (see more pics below)
The Militia are an eclectic mix from my days of French and Indian Wargaming - painted as Pennsylvania Provincials, now with an Imagi-nations flag

The first volley caused 3 hits. Not enough to stop the Militia but sufficient to
blunt their already poor performance ability

The Militia scored 6 for their Initiative, a Double Move!
Yes I could have retreated them but it served my campaign purpose better to fight on.
 So they formed line and attacked......

Not surprisingly, when the sailors had a chance for pre-melee fire they scored another 3 Hits and the Militia broke 

In the sailors' turn they were able to follow up with sufficient speed to catch every
fleeing base, which suited me. The resultant hacking resulted in 2 more Hits and
 nothing in return on the Sailors

Now with 8 hits, even under my Post Battle Attrition rules the Abrantes Militia could not survive, so it was an easy decision to say that by around 1030 they were about 50% killed and 50% captured with no one allowed to escape to tell the tale .....or so they thought.......

None of this was going to be known to Guy and Ken for some time so as GM, how best to convey the news, and when, so as not to unrealistically influence events?

This and the remainder of the photos are my Crann Tara 18th Century Sailors just photographed in my cabinet

Aftermath of the ambush(French)

As previously reported The Duc de Vestisle was busy in Abrantes Town Square organising the local Homeguard Citizens Militia and as its members had to come from far and wide I reckoned it would take till midday to fully assemble. But around 1000 am it was going to be obvious there was a lot of firing coming from Chateau Woods, so I told Guy and he asked for a volunteer to come forward from the citizens to ride to investigate and report back ASAP.

One Caporal Jeannes, an Abrantes Charcutier, stepped forward with a flourish. "I will go Sir! Just give me a fast horse and I will go sort out those rosbifs Your Honour! And if they give me any trouble I will use by bayonet and my sabre as they don't like it up 'em!   I was in the Navy in the War of the Spanish Succession y'know, Sir?"   So Caporal Jeannes was given a horse (all the fast ones had been commandeered already by officers) and set off through the North gate. 

Guy's response: His portly captain who is given to pomposity said something along the lines of ‘well done Jeannes, I was waiting to see who would spot that. Quiet Pyke or I’ll send you home to your mother’.

Fast forward a bit and Caporal Jeannes, using his hard earned scouting skills from the Boer War, took till about 11 a.m. to reach the battle site......
No more was heard from him till, back in Abrantes, a messenger found the Duc de Vestisle about 7 pm that evening, and said:

"Caporal Jeannes of the Abrantes Citizen Militia has appeared at the North gate badly wounded and much distressed. This is a verbatim account of what he told us.

“Your Honour, as I set off from Abrantes by horseback the firing in the Chateau woods died down. From the amount of smoke it was evident that the Abrantes Militia had met their match  in numbers.  Distressed figures emerged running from the smoke, Sir, then they were followed by men with  muskets, bayonets and cutlasses.  I knew that these were British sailors, your Honour, as I had fought them in the recent war for the Austrian Succession.

They slaughtered all the fleeing Abrantes men and I took shelter by a tree, or so I thought, Sir…but the devilish British had sneaked up on me Sir and shots rang out and killed my horse and wounded me. I crawled into a ditch and played dead.

They did not find me Sir and I peered up later only to see our brave fellows being marched off under guard towards the Chateau.

Don’t panic, Don’t panic! I said to myself! I did not panic, Sir, but had to wait till it got dusk and then crawled back in considerable pain to give you my report, Sir.”

Guy, (as the Duc) seemed rather unmoved by this dramatic account and carried on with his supper! I blame the rather good wine brought by a certain Mr Cummings :-)

Aftermath of the Ambush (British)
Meanwhile Captain Cochrane RN, in charge of the Naval contingent, had been very busy and wrote to his superiors with the result and intentions:

Message for the Duke of Marlborough’s Headquarters

From Captain Cochrane RN

(Delivered by Lieutenant Bradshaw RN)

Sir

Chateau du Roi 1100 10 Aug 1756

I am delighted to be able to tell you my battalion of the Royal Navy contingent has carried out its orders so far without a single loss.

We found the Chateau and farm undefended. The chateau was searched from top to bottom but no persons of Scottish royalty were found; there were merely servants and evidence of the Prince’s private quarters but no papers of any significance nor monies.

We lay in wait as instructed in the nearby woods and about 0930 a battalion of local militia approached by road. I had my men arranged either side of the road in ambush and their discipline was such that we did not open fire until the French were totally within our trap. Many were killed in the first volley but they attempted to charge us and so lost many more and the rest broke. But they were not able to get away as my sailors ran them all to ground and we captured probably 200 or so. As far as we know none got away to tell the tale.

I have had to allocate a company to guard them all in the chateau and farm.

My intention is to wait until dark and then approach Abrantes town with the remaining four companies and enough gunpowder to cause mischief if we can infiltrate during the night. Our French speaking Scots volunteers may be useful. My priority will be to silence the bastion battery and secure the harbour, beach and harbour gateway until relieved.

I base this partly on instructions and partly on intelligence gained from an “interview” held by Bosun “Bruiser” O’Halligan with a captain recently taken prisoner (see attached)

Any further instructions will be gratefully received and acted upon

Your Servant 

Charles Cochrane

Captain RN

(The Attachment to the letter) Following gleaned from “interview”:

• Abrantes is garrisoned by a battalion of the German Bentheim Regiment
• The church bells ringing at 0900 on a Saturday indicates that the citizens militia is gathering in the town square. This usually takes 2 to 3 hours as there are about 500 men from all around.
• Duke de Vestisle is likely to be there
• Prince Charles was last noted at Bellune the previous day and presumably night
• A senior official from the French treasury arrived on Wednesday said to be carrying a significant amount of gold for the Jacobite army. He did not know where it is stored but suggested some safe places are The Duke’s Residence, The Hotel de Ville,  the cellar of the Town Inn, or  the stone bastion casemates.
• A very prestigious force of French regulars, led by the Duc de Richelieu is due to arrive mainly in Abrantes in late afternoon with the aim of a joint exercise with the Jacobite Army on the morrow. However, plans might be changed due to the invasion!"

Lieutenant Bradshaw RN had a difficult journey - a fast boat from the Chateau landing stage to Cassatte harbour, which was by now well under guard from the German Jagers, then commandeering a horse to ride across country where the sounds of battle (see next part) indicated much action on the East of the Cime d'Abrantes where he eventually found the Commander in Chief about 3 pm. I asked Ken to write some instructions in reply and he was to make good use of this information for the next day's action.........but I'm getting ahead of myself.....

Our weekend of gaming had arrived and there was a big battle to fight!

NB These CT Miniatures are very slightly smaller than other 28mm figures in the range so be careful how you mix them. As you may see later on they got juxtaposed with big "28mm" Redoubt Miniatures" and it was not a happy union visually. But super figures in their own right and I will be using them for my next "pirate adventure" at Christmas.

Wild Geese Wargamers weekend 2019: Horse and Musket Happiness!

Once again I was privileged to be one of the 24 participants at the annual get together of the "Wild Geese Wargames Group" in  Kenilworth, Warwickshire. This is a very loose amalgam of gentlemen wargamers that has morphed out of John Ray's "A Military Gentleman of the 18th Century" Forum but still keeps its emphasis on broadly 18th century wargaming themes with a high quality of presentation.  It's a visual delight every year and with 5 games each played three times I was spoiled for choice.  As one of the game organisers was fated to go home with one of my paintings as his prize for "Best Looking Game" I felt duty bound to try the most eye catching and realistic looking ones on offer, more of that later.

Thanks to Ken Marshall I get a lift up from Gloucestershire each time, and it's not far so we arrived about 0845 on the Saturday morning, though everyone else had made a Friday night of it and were eager for the "off".

Here's a quick tour of the room near the start:

Will Harley's 1750's Imagi-Nations game

Michael Perry's AWI game before the appearance of troops

Steve Metheringham explains his unique mid 18th century "shiny soldiers" game with wonderful 40mm miniatures

Tony Dillon's humorous take on a Peninsular War hunt/forage/clash of arms

Paul Robinson's large Danish and Swedish armies had yet to appear on the table at this early hour 

After the handshakes and quick hellos to old friends and "catchyoulaters" to newcomers my priority was to set up my military and hussarette paintings display in the adjoining breakout room. 

Pleased to say seven of these did not come home with me - thank you chaps

I'd barely done that when Will Harley was thrusting his annual gift into my hand - a lovely standard bearer from his classic collection, and saying "If you fancy my game the Prussians await you". How could one refuse?!!

Willz Harley - 1750 Imagi-Nations seize the wagons extravaganza

I found myself commanding the allied army of Savoy and Prussia along with Martin Binks against the Tiberian forces of Paul Spence and Gary Phillips - two formidable opponents.  I'll let the briefs do the talking:

The Tiberians had troops and sundry wagons spread all over the crowded terrain between us and the river and Willz had deployed our army roughly along our baseline. He gave us limited scope to rearrange the starting positions so, without much hope in the face of all those hedges and buildings, I gave Martin two powerful looking cuirassier regiments with the suggestion they led a thrust on the left centre while I held and refused the right flank mostly with infantry. Our task was to capture wagons and get our troops over the river, although, as you can see, the latter was guarded by two powerful batteries in redoubts, so I felt it was going to be a case of enjoy pushing the classic Spencer Smith toys but don't expect much chance of winning! However, the game to was to prove to have hidden depths not evident to my Prussians at the start!

Savoy and Prussia on left baseline, Tiberians over most of the battlefield. Battle opened on the left with Martin advancing his Hussars but they were facing Gary's Cuirassiers

Gary and Paul had wagons and troops constantly on the move in both directions - what were they up to? On the near left Martin is advancing his whole wing as fast as possible. My guns and cuirassiers top a hill in the foreground.......

.........where it was evident they would be met by lance-armed enemies

Paul made orderly progress towards me on his left flank

A closer view of Martin's Savoy Army on our left flank.....

.....and the formidable cuirassiers opposite them

A nice overall view at this stage - note the bright red wagon in the centre with all those shiny chests in, wonder what they are?

Martin now had his hands full on the extreme left......

....while the extreme right saw my flank now refused back in echelon.
My plan, if it deserves the name, was to thrust through the centre with my cuirassiers
and guns while edging infantry battalions leftwards to join them - Paul was not about to let that happen!

In addition it was very difficult to make any progress past the walls and
 hedges with those guns opposite

A single Tiberian battalion was to hold that brown-roof house and courtyard against all
 comers throughout the game

Paul was amassing a sinister amount of troops against my refused flank -
 but he was about to overreach himself

Our cavalry finally clashed in the centre. My downhill charge seemed to be
negated by those lances

Both sides had to rally back but because I had taken the precaution of making
 Count Otto Riesling lead my charge I recovered first.
Meanwhile I cruelly used my artillery battery to shoot dead the draught horses
pulling those really fancy chests, so the wagon just sat there awaiting events. 

Not for long - both sides entered the fray, Riesling had sniffed the gold and was not
 to be thwarted easily! Paul's Grenadiers came forward to contest it but happily
 the cuirassiers had strong morale and Riesling to reroll failed morale dice so a fierce
contest was on. 

On our left Gary had managed to amass strong forces to match Martin's cuirassiers
and the latter were not getting the best of it 

Here they are discussing a complex 3-way attack on the brown roof house.......

Never mind the ignominy of the push back Martin, this photo just allows us to drink in the wonderful classic Spencer Smith figures so beautifully painted by Willz

Subtly our opponents were beginning to get their wagons across the river
"Every wargame battlefield needs a pontoon bridge" (Will Harley 2019)

In this overview it appears that Paul has ownership of the pretty red wagon and is bringing up cavalry to cut me off from it while more cavalry are threatening my right flank. But in the centre, somewhat to Gary's dismay, I am, blitzkrieg-like, ignoring the brown roof house and using Grenadiers to storm ahead

"View of the Weser Valley with coffee mug" by Sir Joshua Gregg RA. 
 Er, not quite, but in the foreground those Tiberian cavalry are about to regret coming within
musket range of more Grenadiers

Martin has been repelled from both the brown-roof house and across the whole flank, oh dear!

The initiative dice gods have been helpful, and together with Riesling on hand
 to organise things I am protecting my right while forging ahead with a
Grenadier brigade to get that treasure wagon

Above and below: The indomitable Gary now was determined to thwart me with flanking fire
 but the Morale of those Grenadiers held (Riesling's reroll again!) and they were able to deliver
the death blow to Paul's now very weak wagon guards

Above and below: Paul thought he could thwart my attempt by sending his cavalry
between two buildings and down from the hill but my infantry hopped over the wall
and created a crossfire of musketry which first stopped them and then discouraged
 them from staying around

Above and below: Encouraged as I was by my success the sight of our opponents
 inexorably edging their wagons towards the river made me assume all was lost.

.....especially as poor Martin seems to have been repulsed on all fronts (those are his dead lining the baseline!)

End of game and my right flank is pushing back the enemy with a wall of grenadier musketry
backed up by Hussar support

In the centre I'm undisputed master of the red wagon of treasure at last.......but it was the only one we captured!

It was time for lunch and both sides agreed we had played long enough. For our part on the Savoy/Prussian side doing any better now seemed a forlorn hope but little did we know that our opponents also felt they might have lost!  As Willz totted up the points he gave us 10 for the pretty wagon and 10 for completely destroying one of the enemy units, and he did a quick count of the enemy wagons which would get away - that came to 40 points, so why the long faces? Well....it appeared that a significant objective for the Tiberians was to get units to safety across the Weser River and all our zealous efforts had:

a. pinned them sufficiently that they'd sacrificed troops for wagons

b. cut off nearly half their army from successful retreat even though we hadn't realised!

Whatever the actual calculation Willz declared it a draw! What a brilliant game it had turned out to be.

We were using once again the one page SYW rules made available free by Jim Purky and this year I got a really good run with them. Gary, as ever, proved a real asset as he masters rule sets very quickly and was always on hand to make sure of a sensible interpretation when we were in doubt - thanks Gary. Although there were a few points we did not necessarily agree with I would recommend these for anyone who wants a reasonably fast game that is rich in nuanced period tactical elements but free of any command and control restrictions.  Both Gary and I suggested that it would have been a better game still for both sides' objectives if there had been more clear areas on the table.  So for subsequent sessions Willz took out quite a few surplus terrain features and reported later that the game was indeed better for it. Thanks Willz for a very entertaining time.

Perry Twins - AWI: Destroy the rebel arsenal

I secured my place in this one before we had lunch as the terrain was just "to die for", and the armies were the Perry's own from their, mostly plastic, AWI range. Rules were Black Powder, which they knew backwards of course, so there was no rule-book scanning or consultation delays. Alan said it was Michael's game but both of them kept things moving well for the next 2.5 hours or so.

Michael and Alan Perry explain the forces to us

I volunteered to be "proper British" as Michael put it, rather than rebel British, but as the commands got handed out I was nominated to command the Hessian Brigade, Tim Whitworth got the British Line Brigade and Dave Andrews the Elite Brigade (Grenadiers, Light infantry, Scots etc). Our aim was to march across a river onto the table then get most of the way up it to take control of a rebel arsenal where we could capture the arms and ammo stores and destroy the buildings - well that was the theory!

Our opponents were Douglas Thomson, Steve Pearse and Stuart Insch

Start of the game: Michael and I are standing near where my Hessians are beginning their march on. Doug is about to roll successful initiative for the first rebel brigade. (Photo - kind permission of Stuart Insch)

Hessians march on the field......

.....but American riflemen are lurking

At the bridge on my right Dave got a poor initiative roll to start

Hessian Jagers suffer casualties and a shaken marker (puff of smoke) from the marksmen ahead

The Jagers fall back but their accompanying amusette gun was allowed to lurk under a beautiful Pear (Perry!) tree

The road became a no-go area and so our left column had to march across the fields while my Grenadiers formed line to try to fend the Americans off. Would you believe I rolled 4 "ones" for my first fire with them! Michael P expressed suitably polite amazement.

Meanwhile a rebel brigade marched up to man the arsenal.......

........and those pesky riflemen took up a new position to my front and inflicted more "shaken" which halted the column

Over on our right flank Dave seemed to have formed a nice looking line with the Elites, driven off the riflemen in the churchyard and was pressing on to the treeline. However, the Americans were giving back as good as they got. See the following two photos for close ups of that action

Opposite my Hessians those skirmishers were now being backed up by a line of, I think, militia along the fence

Tim was trying to find a way past my stalled Hessians with his British brigade
and my Jagers returned to the fray along the road

Here's Tim moving his men up watched by Steve and Alan

Dave had unfortunately been forced back to take refuge around the church.........

...but Tim had found that to be an avenue of approach free of enemy fire on him

Dave's retreat had enabled the rebels to try to form another defensive line,
but in doing so one battalion offered a tempting flank

Above and below: for the moment it looked like the Americans had the
 arsenal secured

At this point the battle seemed to turn in our favour (though for me it proved illusory). I managed to roll the magic "3 moves in a row" for initiative. So this photo shows my Jagers and amusette successfully playing on the American line and my Grenadiers moved in to flank that careless battalion, inflicting sufficient losses to prove fatal to their morale. But those are my "hits" you see in the shade of the tree.........

To my right Tim had formed a beautiful two battalion deep attacking column

 My Hessian line battalions had been able to charge and see off the
marksmen but suffered fire from the fenceline as a result - more shaken

Dave seemed to having some luck reforming his Elite brigade......

.....but at the same time incoming fire finished off my Jagers and forced the Grenadiers to retreat.
It was at that point that Michael, somewhat apologetically, broke the news to me that two thirds of the units in my brigade were at maximum sustainable hits and so the whole brigade had to make an orderly retreat from the field!

Just as well that Tim's troops were doing so well.

Above and below: Dave was managing to bring some of his units back into action,
although those hit markers suggest they are fragile.

This overall photo gives a good indication of the temporary lull that had occurred as the Allies tried to recover from losses and the Americans were forced back in defence of the arsenal

Tim's brigade goes on the attack and receives incoming fire

A successful attack - the fence line breached and the American brigade crumbling

This was the last photo I took and with my brigade out of it I wasn't paying close attention, but given this Move was followed by handshakes all round I conclude the American defence had collapsed and the Arsenal was to fall into British hands

So, not my finest hour, and I'm no more an enthusiast for Blackpowder rules than I was before. My Hessians had been used as good mercenaries - take the flak, absorb the opposition effort and let the big boys move in to take the victory. But hey! I got to game with the Perry's with their toys on their terrain, how much better can your wargaming get? (rhetorical question!)

Michael very kindly answered all my questions about the lovely terrain. The setup normally lives in his home and doesn't travel, so we were doubly privileged. I gather it was originally made by Dave Andrews then has gone through several conversions since, finally ending up being coated over most of the surface by a specially made sheet that includes all the grass tufts ready in place, then cut up as necessary and blended in.  No, they are not Warlord commercial tufts all stuck down by hand! Another advantage of this is that cut pieces can be placed at the base of hills to blend them in, as well as to conceal the joins between baseboards. Here are some close-up photos for fans of terrain and Perry Miniatures.........

Thanks Michael and Alan for a very enjoyable afternoon watching how it's done by the originators!

This was followed by the habitual pint in the sunshine in the hotel garden chatting away merrily with whoever.....in my case catching up with Martin Gane, now sporting a lovely beard since his Antipodean and Southeast Asian tour, and his friend Paul Spence. Coincidentally Paul had purchased all my ex-Quatre Bras Hanoverian Landwehr on eBay only a month before, so this was a great opportunity to get to know one another and see a video of his lovely villa in France complete with two storey wargames barn.

In the evening we had a brilliant curry dinner and more games for those who weren't suffering (yet) from excess of food and drink. I had a pleasant hour rolling some dice in a game of "Blood and Plunder" put on by Gavin and Leigh. This is a commercial Pirate game they sell in the shop in Redcar as well as online. Looks good to me if you are into small area, but intense and challenging, skirmish games. Here are some photos of the beautiful figures and ships:

Tony Dillon - being sharp in Spain!
Sunday morning came around and I needed to get my own back on Tony as he's attended a few games at my house and now here was my chance to play one of his. Besides that he had intrigued me a couple of months earlier by sending me a copy of his "Napoker" rules which he had used at a participation game at a show. Very simple to pick up but harder to master. Unfortunately my opponents here were Tony's friend, Phil Walters, who was very familiar with Napoker, and Aly Morrison, who can be guaranteed to thwart an opponent with a combination of devil-may-care attitude, an "I'm always unlucky"modesty, and broad Scottish humour.  I had to handle 11 British and Spanish units on my own, taking on the guises of both Richard Sharpe and Prince "Sweet" William of Orange, so I had very little time to relax and even less to take photos. Happily all the ones I took turned out well.

Phil and Aly in a rare moment of seriousness

The photos can't tell a proper story as I didn't really know what was going on! My units had to find Richard Sharpe's wife Teresa - here's a photo "anyone seen this woman?"

And here is the beautiful Spanish village tabletop on which she may be found. Also it was part of the victory points to gain food, drink or gold in the form of game tokens. The French characters spent a lot of the game (and movement points) in conveying couriers, wagons, supplies, a pontoon bridge, ladies of ill repute, a French Lieutenant's woman and goodness knows what else. Boy, did they appear busy and diverted! But they still found time and energy to send many squads against my men.

The terrain is based on guidance in the "Touching History" Peninsular terrain making book and Tony told me some of the buildings were bought from author Paul Darnell himself. The rest are skilfully made by Tony or adapted commercial resin buildings and scenery. Walls are made from cat-litter!

Above and below: Sharpe's and Billy's Rifles kick in doors and explore
 the houses for loot and Teresa

Above and below: All a mystery to me - skinny dipping French
engineers with a pontoon bridge to build, and various ADCs delivering letters

The next pictures show that some kinetic action was taking place between the protagonists and I was getting the worst of it.

Wagons come into town carrying who knows what?

Tony takes a well earned drink (of fizzy water!). He was working hard to keep it all on track

No, Aly's not bowing to my camera - he's taking a picture with his own while
Phil directs Aly's attack on a house where they think Riflemen are lurking

The pontoon bridge takes shape while the workers display their torsos as if starring in "Poldark"

I had found Teresa fairly early but had a hairy time getting her back to my baseline. Here I'm using Spanish groups to fend off Aly's voltigeurs while she escaped

The French had engineers to help them bash in the doors

Tortured bodies of Frenchmen are discovered

After I got Teresa away and just kept on trying to find the provisions and gold the game seemed to be getting tedious. This was because of the way the playing cards were allocated, and we were both generally firing from cover, no casualties were being lost......until the French discovered one of their objectives. These were the bodies of comrades tortured by the Spanish and it so incensed Phil's forces that a dice roll indicated three of his units had to rush into the open and charge the nearest enemies to get revenge. Unfortunately for him I had a really nice hand that turn with an Ace and a King for Firing and Melee - practically unassailable and Phil and Aly lost about 8 figures in one turn.
that greatly evened up the body count with me still at a deficit of 2. We both achieved maximum points for objectives but I had a 2 point advantage on goods found. So honours were exactly even and it was a draw. A brilliantly devised scenario that kept us guessing all the way to the glass of "looted" wine served to me by Tony just in time for another big lunch and the prize giving!

Tony won the popular votes for both "Best Looking Game" and "Best in Show", so his head was soon too big for his chapeau - well deserved though and he had worked hard to entertain all weekend from the Friday night Quiz onwards.

The other games
There is just not enough time to try everything and it's inevitable that I neglect the games I did not participate in. Here are a few pics of Steve M's and Paul R's games and you can find more on other blogs - especially Aly's (link below).

My personal haul
The WG weekend is always a nice chance to exchange presents or get new stuff without postage.  Willz always gives everyone a hand painted classic figure - he is very generous, thank you. Colin had organised souvenir mugs and at his suggestion I used my painting of the Wild Geese Clare Regiment 1743 to digitise a new design for WGWG19 for us to use on it. Although Graham Cummings couldn't make it we all received our orders of Crann Tara figures via Gavin. In my case it was a load of the new 18th Century sailors and some armed civilians. And to give them something to sail in I got two of the Blood and Plunder longboats from Gavin's store Gaming Figures

So another great experience under my belt and some new acquaintances made. Thank you very, very much to Colin and Katherine Ashton for all they both did to organise everything and make sure it ran so well.

I mentioned the other blogs so here are links to the ones I can find that record this wonderful weekend
http://www.carryingsonupthedale.com/2019/06/the-wild-geese-weekend-kenilworth-2109.html
https://stuartinschwargames.blogspot.com/2019/06/wild-geese-2019.html
http://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-wild-geese-wargamers-weekend-2019.html
http://grimsbywargaming.blogspot.com/2019/06/wild-geese-2019_23.html