Jan. 8 Pirate game

On Saturday, Jan. 8, my son Lucas and I headed over to Dave's for a session of pirate gaming. DAVE had cooked up another interesting and flavorful scenario.

This time, the marauding band of pirates wake from their alcohol-induced slumber in a tavern deep in the British town, far from their boats, and have the unenviable task of hauling their ill-gotten gains back to their ships before being stopped by arriving British reinforcements or bribed local militia deciding to go loyal again!

The game was played on Dave's huge gaming table, filled as usual with tons of awesome terrain. The one difference is that he was in the middle of playing a Napoleonic battle on the same table! So he covered the blocks of Napoleonic troops with cotton batting, and we played that those were banks of smoke rising from buildings that the pirates had torched during their pillagin' and lootin'.

The pirates began the game in a tavern, groggy from too much rum and ale. They could choose to use wagons to carry loot overland, or canoes to go down the river.

At the other end of the river, their ships await - ready to sail off as soon as the loot is loaded.

Oh oh! The first hurdle - one of the militia officers stops the pirates, and demand that they go back to the cemetery behind the tavern to collect that treasure. They'd need all of it to bribe the militiamen, so they decide to go back.

Meanwhile, closer to shore, the arriving British troops assault some of the turncoat militia in a small fort.

After that they advance on the main fortifications, defended by the bulk of the militia.

The pirates, meanwhile, begin their journey, deciding to hedge their bets by taking both the wagons and the canoes.

The militiamen took up positions in a cornfield and tried to hold off the advancing Brits.

After taking the small fort, the main British column continues their advance on the castle. The first unit to try the advance was shattered by the defenders fire, but succeeding waves of disciplined troops were able to take the walls.

The game was quite interesting, and took place on two completely separate fronts. On the one hand, the main pirate party was making good time down the river. The wagons went in a different direction as those pirates joined some militia trying to break through the British lines.

The canoes of the pirates arrive at the last obstacle, and will have to transfer the treasure from the boats to the mules for the last leg of the journey. They are accompanied by the militia officer, who decided to throw his lot in with the pirates rather than face British justice for accepting bribes.

At that moment, a British frigate decided to go a'piratin'.

At that point we ran out of time, with the pirates on one side of the table close to reaching their objective, while the other group found themselves in a stalemate against stronger and more disciplined British troops.

All in all, it was a great game, and lots of fun as always.

I have a couple of observations - the biggest one being that the board was a bit too large for a small-scale game. It took too many turns for the pirates to come to grips with the militia on the one side, and make their way down the river on the other. Also, we're caught in a sort of middle ground between a full-blown large scale game, and a skirmish game. I think we're using too many figures for a quick and dirty pirate game. But not enough to justify using large-scale horse-and-musket rules. Some things to think about before the next gaming session...

Alte Fritz action link and OB for latre refight Raid on the Bakery

http://altefritz.blogspot.com/2010/12/raid-on-field-bakery.html

Austrians vs Prussians
Prussian Strike Force:


Von Zieten's Command:

5 sqds of hussars (60 figures)

1 horse artillery battery (2 x 6pdrs with 10 crew)

1 battalion of grenadiers

1 battalion of musketeers



Von Kleist's Command

3 sqds of horse dragoons (36 figures)

1 sqds of hussars (12 figures)

1 battery of frei korps artillery (2 x 6pdrs with 10 crew)

1 btn of elite Jagers (48 figures)

1 coy of frei korps jagers (12 figures)

1 btn of von Kleist Kroats



All of the Prussian units were rated as Veteran except for the Elite rated Jagers



Austrian Garrison at Borne

Croat & Light Troops Command (left flank):

1 btn of Croats (72 figures)

1 coy of Austrian jagers (20 figures)

1 battery of Austrian 3-pdrs (with 8 crew)

2 sqds of Hussars



Town Garrison Command (center and right flank)

2 btns of Austrian musketeers

1 coy of light piquets

1 Austrian battery ( 2 x 6pdrs and 1 x 12 pdr and 16 crew)

1 sqd of horse grenadiers serving as an escort for the garrison commander

5 sqds of Saxon dragoons (arriving on turn 3 or 4 , depending on a die roll)

The Prussian players were given a handful of yellow cards and instructed to write the name of each unit under their command on a card. They were given several spare cards to be used as "dummy cards" with no unit on it to provide some disinformation or fog of war for the Austrians. The Prussians began the game by setting their cards on the table in lieu of their actual figures. The Austrian players could only guess as to what units might be listed on the cards. So they had no idea of the forces that were descending upon the town of Born.




The Prussians were given two free moves to start the game so that they could maneuver and sneak up on the town's garrison. On Turn 3, the Austrian players had a 50% chance of activating their units with a D6 die roll (odd number - they don't activate; even number - they do activate). In the event that a Prussian unit moved within 16" of an Austrian unit, then the Austrian unit could automatically activate.

Snow in Georgia Again

Well its snowed again got some pics from Sunday and Mondays Snow

Jan 21-23 Siege of Augusta XX Link

http://siegeofaugusta.com/

Prussians vs French - Lubeck 1806

French under Marshal Bernadotte pursue Bulucher into the Hanseatic Port city of Lubeck. A Republic to Empire scenario out of Wargames Illustrated May 2010 issue using ITGM

Pictured are the advancing French forces initially and devastated the column catching and putting to rout or retreat parts of the Prussian supply column. We had some problems with the morale failures causing several supply wagons in effect getting "extra" movement towards the town. I was able to put one unit in emergency square. And surprised Andy with the hidden units. The prussians in the walled church put a hurt on half of his French cavalry. He then has begun an assault on the Church with the Legere regiment.

I split the Prusian Hussars in half sending one squadron at the 95th French Line (poles) and the other squadron in the direction of musketry where the jaegers had engaged French skirmishers. As fate would have it The French had the misfortune of rolling for reinforcements and his heavy battery came on in the face of my
cavalry. But remembering an old CLS rule no unit should be charged coming onto the table - Not sure how Republic to Empire works this out of ITGM for that matter.

We did discover one thing after we played the first turn (I made the game table too long) its supposed to be an 8 x 6 game and I made the field more of a 10 by 6. We have doubled movement distance to make up for it. for a few turns.

Spent most of the evening discussing an upcoming trip (more on that later) We only got three turns in tonight.