The Swamp Fox - Scenario 1

Time to get the freshly painted figures on the table.

I picked up The Swamp Fox from the Too Fat Lardies a few years ago but never had the opportunity or figures to use it. It tells the story of Francis Marion and contains 12 scenario's for the AWI war in the south. It should not take to much of a tweak to convert from Sharp Practice to Rebels and Patriots.

The Swamp Fox | TOOFATLardies

Scenario 1.

With the capture of so many Continental troops after the battle of Camden, Lord Cornwallis is having them moved to Charleston under guard. This is being done in manageable groups to try to stop the spread of disease. Marion has learnt that Captain Jonathan Roberts and a contingent of the of the 63rd Line are using the plantation house and have the prisoners encamped in a field. He is resolved to free his comrades. 

This game is won by the force which can break their opponent’s Force Morale. 

The Rebel's advance using the wood to shield their approach the POW comes into sight. The US is made up of two commands.

Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Horry - A Ruthless Commander driven by personal glory.  

Colonel Francis Marion, - Ball room dancer - Marion once per game can push his unit to move an extra 3" per game.

Instead of Big Men within Sharp Practice we rolled for officer traits using Rebels & Patriots and with 4 chits for the officers pulled these randomly at the beginning of each turn to decide the order of commands activating.

The Rebel's advance using the wood to shield their advance. They spot the Light Infantry acting as pickets, Not knowing that the British can not activate until the alarm is raised they fire on the pickets as soon as they spot them.

The Light section activate and sound the alarm and the regulars and Loyalist spill out from their barracks. Two commands. 

Captain Jonathan Roberts of the 63rd Regiment of Foot. - A Brutal Officer who can rally once per game if they lose a figure from the unit.

Captain Rampton Rigsdale & Provincial Regulars of the Prince of Wales American Regiment - An Officer in poor health who won't take his unit in rough terrain as he can't keep up with his men.

Despite the mass of fire being poured into the Light section they stand their ground allowing a British Reinforcements to move up the road and plug the gap on right.

The stubborn light company refused to budge. Lieutenant Colonel Horry advances his unit and screened by skirmishers finally drives the light company back at the point of the bayonet.

The militia and regulars line out as the British Regulars come into range. The training was beginning to pay off, they go into close order and save their first fire until the very last moment. With Red Coats falling they fall back to regroup.

On the Crown left the Provincials had reached the main road and Captain Rampton Rigsdale and the Prince of Wales American Regiment marched his unit in across the field. Colonel Marion was quick and had reached the fence line firing a blistering volley sending the Loyalists reeling.

With the right flank open and Americans amongst the tents, the British fell back abandoning the POW camp.

First game to the rebels and Colonel Marion.

Learns for both sides, militia need to get to close order to give them a better chance of following orders and for the Brits just because you wear a red cost it does not make you regular.

The conversion from Sharp Practice to Rebels & Patriots was relatively simple, each group of men in SP was a unit in R&P - I gave both sides between 4-6 support points to give some variety on the table top.

Big Bashes.....

Sometimes you just want to line them up and knock them down....

A couple of big games, with plenty of toys on the table. First up a stand up fight between the Brits and French, the whistle of cannon ball and the clouds of black smoke as the French columns looked to break the British line.

In true French style the heavy cavalry charged down the meadow looking to break the thin red line.

Will the British line hold?

Should they have formed a square?

Will 3 rounds a minute put paid to the valiant French attack?

Several hundred years earlier and the Ancient Brits aim to hold back the Roman invaders.

A blood soaked field.

But the Romans hold the line, drill and training beating naked (literally) aggression.

Next up back to the desert.

Club night - Zulu Wars - Sharp Practice

A little but behind on posts but a great Sharp Practice variant at the Wyre Forest Club, with a British patrol holed up behind their barricades awaiting a relief column of cavalry to make an appearance. Way out front is our brave chaps hammering out range markers......

The Veldt may be wide but the Brits had hunkered down behind the suppliers and wagon boxes whist they awaited reinforcements.

At the far end of the table the column of cavalry appears but Zulu's were seen massing on their flank.

Lingering longer in the donga the Zulus sprang their trap heading for the Infantry before the cavalry could arrive.

The wagon train rolled on the Natal Mounted Police dismount to improve their firepower leaving the Sikali horse to hold the flank against the Zulu slipping from the donga heading for the camp, with others looking over to the wagon.

The horn of the Buffalo turns towards the column and straight for the wagon. 

Sweeping over the wagon and into the Police....

No further pictures were available at this time as the Colonial Commander was in no fit state to continue to record the tragic events..... 

Nice to get the Zulu's back on the table after quite a while, we used John Savages 19th Century tweaks along with the fervour element from Infamy to give the Zulu's a little more resilience. 

Great fun even if the British column had a terrible day in the field.

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #4 - Turn 3 The attack on Pyongyang - Part 2

A few weeks late, nice to get out of the desert for a while and the road to Pyongyang where a Russian force was attempting to hold back the Japanese attackers.

We tweaked Sharp Practice using John Savage's rule amendments for the later war period for the 1870's and the introduction of mass ranks of breach loaders.

The Russian force, I quite fancy some extra Russians to bolster this force.

The Japanese selected a number of spots on the table for an artillery barrage before the Russians deployed, the shells landed in the and around the village which was lightly held by the Russians which limited the casualties, although the HQ was hit by a shell which knocked the CinC unconscious.

The bulk of the Russian forces were on the far side of the village, the Russian commander having massed all their infantry in a solid block.

The Japanese entered the table at random, most on the far side of the table behind the wooded hill they moved swiftly to line the rise having first to contend with a Russian Cossack attack. The Russians were routed but the Japanese were savaged.

A protracted fire fight with smoke filling the battlefield, the Russian mass despite mounting shock were able to hold the line.

Back to the drawing board for the Japanese.

A fun encounter John's tweaks worked well, the ability to fire twice with the risk of rising smoke and low ammo made you really have to think about the choice between multiple rounds of fire or a more measured pace of aiming and firing.

The improved field craft for the Japanese gave them some advantages, but I need to increase the unit sizes slightly to give them a little more firepower on the table top.

Roll on Wargames Atlantic and their plastics in the coming months.

Sharp Practice in the desert.

The wargaming gods definitely sent a message this week.

Just when the thought I might move this lot on, to make way for other projects, the Perry Twins drop the start of a new line of Mini's for the Ottomans - Category: Ottoman Army 1790-1815 - Perry Miniatures (perry-miniatures.com)

Curses now it looks like they might be reinforced...

On with the game..... A clash between the French looking to hold the town until reinforcements join the fight whilst the Ottoman's look to break the line and reach the main compound.

The French skirmishers fill every window, door and roof top as they await the the first wave of Ottoman attackers.

The Ottomans advance on mass, many armed only with hand to hand weapons, but mass has it's own quality. French Artillery pepper the line as they advance towards the defenders.

The Arab forces rush the defenders, beat them back.

Yet more Ottomans fill the open ground in front of the village. This time better quality European trained troops.

The French slowly give ground as more Ottomans arrive including heavy artillery, which would turn the brick buildings to rubble in short order.

Help is on hand as the French column enter the table to support the hard pressed defenders.

The French fall back into the town, closely followed by the Ottoman Infantry who line out to assault hard pressed defenders.

The main French force prepares to meet the attack, Ottoman cavalry is attempts to flank the French line but is countered by Dragoons.

The Ottoman's mass for yet another attack, with further cavalry on the left flank.

The Ottoman cavalry finally finds a gap in the defences and look to encircle the defenders, they beat back a group of Coptic Infantry but are sent packing by a round of cannister.

A crashing volley shatters the Ottoman column as they advance down the main street, as smoke from the from volley clears the Ottoman force morale drops to zero. The French had held on.

A great encounter touch and go for both sides. The Ottoman cavalry was a constant threat but could not find the space to exploit the wider space. the French skirmishers were surprisingly resilient and dealt a number of blows on the Ottomans as they attempted to assault the buildings. By the time the Ottoman heavy guns were in position to fire the French had fallen back into the rear of the village.

Perhaps the Ottomans do need some extra reinforcements from the the Perry Twins after all.

Rising Sun, Tumbling Bear #1 - The Battle for Usan.

Hot off the heels of the last post... synopsis of the Russo-Japanese War Campaign.

As the Commander of the Japanese Naval and Land Forces, you must gather your land and naval forces to capture a number of Key Russian Controlled Settlements before the Russian Baltic Fleet reaches Port Arthur or President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Portsmouth Peace Accord. 

The Game begins shortly after the Japanese surprise naval attack on the Russian warships docked in Port Arthur. The Russians are now building up their forces and gathering their fleets to kick the Japanese out of Manchuria and Korea. 

My plan is to convert the map encounters to Sharp Practice with each troop point being x10 points in Sharp Practice.

Turn one and rolling low I only ended up with two event cards none of which were more fleet capacity which I think I will need. So with 8 movement points I opted for a quick land hop over the Tsushima Strait landing at Ulsan.

Unfortunately my troop capacity was reduced by 2 units due to Admiral Urya's squadron encountering mines entering the harbour. General Oku  landed with 220 points at Usan, however the landing was not unopposed and a delaying action needed to be fought with the Russian Garrison where I could only field half my number. I cashed in my reinforcement card to give me an extra unit.

This opening battle would be tough 120 Russian Points vs 110 Japanese. But it was a risk worth taking. Win and seize the town of Usan – lose and be pushed back on to the transports and have no foothold in the Korean peninsula.

I rolled for random terrain which had a low rise dominating the Russian half of the table, the Japanese would need to move fast, rushing on in a light column on the left flank. Having decided on making the Japanese similar in class to Light Infantry giving them more movement and field craft, but countered by being in 6 figure units vs the Russian 10 it would be a class of doctrine.

The Russians with a delaying force opted for a number of mobile units, with Cossacks and Frontier Cavalry, supported by Artillery and a Machine Gun.

The cavalry moved fast pushing up the Japanese right flank, forcing the Japanese column to wheel to react to the aggressive move that was unexpected.

Massed ranks of Russian Infantry advance from the road and head for the rise as the Japanese are focused on the cavalry.

Russian shells land amongst the Japanese ranks and in a single turn knock unconscious both leaders.... What were the chances of that....

The Cossacks seize their chance and charge towards the Japanese line, falling desperately short they are beaten back with an excessive amounts of shock.

Meanwhile the Russian line cross the ridge, pouring fire into the Japanese troops below, a number of them in the flank which doubled their shock.

In a vein attempt to break the Russian morale the Japanese launched a bayonet attack up the rise forcing back a section of the attackers, but as a force the Japanese were spent and were forced to retire from the table.

So the opening encounter and the Japanese are sent packing and forced back onto the transports.

That was a learning curve for the Japanese, having opted for smaller more nibble units and not taking advantage of their cover bonus they were unable to bring their quality advantage to bear against the larger Russian units at close range. Coupled with the in ability to bring up their Machine Gun and Artillery they were under pressure from the Russians from round one.

End of Turn one Japanese Forces.

General Oku 200 Points 

General Kuroki 240 Points 

Admrial Uryu 22 Fleet Points

Time for a rethink..... in strategy and tactics.