The Pearl of the Antilles. - The Haiti Campaign - Day Nine - 9th August 1791

The orders are in and after a lull to reinforce. The fight for control of the Pearl of the Antilles is underway once more.

Across the island the various protagonists make their moves.

The British under Thomas Maitland continue their onward march along the peninsula knowing that the day will soon come that they will have to engage the defenders of the island. 

Meanwhile the Republicans and Free Mulattos under Andre Rigaud continue to view each other with suspicion waiting for each other to make a mistake or show their hand.

To the North the French Planters ready themselves for future engagements. After the attack by rebellious slaves at Bahon, they scout the surrounding area for the enemy to establish their number and directions of potential attack. Dutty Boukman and his forces bloodied but unbowed spread around the surrounding high ground and cut the routes back to the regional capital. If the Planters are to receive future reinforcements they are going to have to force their way through the slave lines. 

The Royalists sailors arrive back at Le Borgne with their prize.

Elsewhere the Spanish Colonial forces are unleashed on the slave forces of Princess Amethyste the Spanish having probed the river bank to to find a suitable crossing, The slaves ready themselves against the aggressors looking to put them back into Slavery. 

Toussaint Louverture continues his offensive against his rival Georges Biassou having pushed him back at the Battle of Bassin-Bleu he needs to keep the pressure on his rival and his slave forces, Battle is joined with Louveture looking to inflict far more damage than the opening skirmish.

So two battles to fight this turn, good job the first of the Spanish are on the paint table.

Two new games in a week...

Try as I might I am a sucker for something new and shiny, despite my best efforts I find my head being turned by two new games. 

I have always had a hankering for the cold war and modern games ever since reading Larry Bond's Red Phoenix back in the early 80's in which North Korea launches a lightning invasion of the South backed by heavy soviet support. 

I have tucked away in a box a reasonable North Korean and South Korean force that has not seen the light of day for over a decade waiting for rules that would give me the right feel for encounters in Korea.

I might just have found them with Great Escape Games latest offering. - Seven Days to the River Rhine. 

Designed to be a fast play set of rules which caters for company plus sized encounters, where one model represents one vehicle, Infantry are based on stands which contains small arms and a supporting AT weapons. Good because I can hardly see the things these days in 6mm.
However ATGW such as Milan's are separate.

The rules are well laid out with a nice touch providing you with QR codes to watch a video explaining the rules in more detail. You will need your own counters to mark your units, these also serve as your number of available orders who you issue to units over a turn and serve to flag who have activated.

The rule book covers a number of NATO and WARPAC army lists. But once again I have chosen less popular forces for the Korean peninsula, but the vehicle specs are pretty much covered across all the lists if you dig into the specifics - my older Korean stuff is largely T55's vs M48's.

In our run through we pitched a West German Mechanised Infantry formation vs the massed ranks of Soviet Armour. A fun affair giving a tense encounter as players whip out their laser pens looking for that dead ground, from the top down the playing area looks flat, but ask the German commander who deployed in a wood only to realise that the rise in front of him gave him no field of fire. 

A small hamlet in a valley awaits the rumble of soviet armour. The table can look quite bland in this scale but add some pylons and telegraph poles and suddenly the table comes alive. 

Recon units creep forwards through the pine trees, you need to make sure you get your kill shot in as the reaction fire can be deadly as my BRDM's and BMP's found out sitting on a hill top only to be thumped by West German Milan teams.

Rushing down into the village was no better especially as the wire guided AT weapons needed to be stationary to fire, definitely a one time only weapon. 

Meanwhile the Russian Armour rumbles on to the board, the platoon order gives me the ability to move 3 vehicles at once but you burn through your order chits pretty quick. 

The open valley proved to be step to far for both of us, whilst the German Infantry was slowly whittled down. The Russian Armour was picking up wounds and a steady steam of knock outs and we called it a draw.

But a good nights gaming and the encounter had the sort of feel that I was looking for with my Korean forces, looks like they my well see daylight in the weeks ahead.

If one new game was not enough mid week saw a run through of Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles by Ares Games the guys who brought you Wings of Glory. Being child of the 70's how could I resist. 

The detail on the ships is brilliant, if you look closely enough you can even see Starbucks name on the side of the cockpit, the first release is based on the reboot but their are plans for the original Cylon Raiders. 

Plotting of movement similar in style to the WW1 & 2 rules but with the ability to increase speed and height a lot quicker, good because you don't last long in a dog fight, two rounds of fire and the toasters are pretty much toast. 

The Vipers are nimble but the Raiders can take slightly more damage. If you are used to wide sweeping turns in WW1, be warned there the colonies can turn very tightly very often getting on the tail of the Cylon who had to take a wider arc.

The starter set includes 4 ships, Control Panels and movement decks for each together with pilot cards and bonuses as you become more experience, poor pilots being nuggets and more experienced pilots being experts aces. 

A really fun evening or was it just because I secured 4 kills :-)
Sorry gents I promised I would not brag....... 

V the Miniseries - Money, Lasers & Contracts #1

After the ambush at the pipeline Lydia Head of Security for the Visitors in Africa is visiting one of the local warlords and opponent of  "legs" to negotiate a contract to patrol and defend the pipeline. She has a substantial bribe and contracts guaranteeing a stake in the pipeline venture once peace returns to the region.

Unfortunately Louis "Legs" Akimbo and his Militia has become aware of these negotiations and has spent some time preparing an ambush to stop them. They are particularly eager to get their hands on Lydia and her briefcase – they can use the money to hire more gunmen and the contracts will prove the Visitors are not to be trusted which will fuel even more resentment and jealousy between Zikinga's ever-feuding clans. 

The ambush involves pre-placed IEDs that destroy the Visitors vehicles and leaves them stranded in the middle of bush. Once the IEDs are detonated, the Warlord Charity Nsithlan and his men will head for home and offer no assistance to the Visitors – if there’s no bribe money, there’s no point in aiding the infidels, after all. 

Nsithlan is a man who knows no charity......

Despite their hugh advances in technology the alien coms are knocked out in the fight so no reinforcements are likely. The team’s only hope is to defeat the ambushers and find some way to get out of the region and formulate a plan.

Visitor Mission Objective.
Defend their leader at all costs and find a building to use as a strongpoint from which to organize an escape from the region.

Insurgent Mission Objective.
Capture Lydia and kill or capture any other Visitors.

Before Lydia could organise a defence the RPG rounds started to land amongst the Visitor ranks.

The Visitors scramble for cover as the High Explosive fall amongst their ranks knocking Diana off her feet before she has a chance to take cover.

The militia break cover and pour fire into the aliens small arms fire rips through the tall grass.

The Visitors are caught on two flanks but they are starting to thin the ranks of the Militia as they rush forwards to engage with the out of world invaders.

The rag tag bunch of militia rush forward inflicting several wounds on the defenders but before they can close with the Visitors and press their advantage they are cut down by the Visitors laser rifles.

A second group of Militia break cover and catch the Alien engineers in the flank before they can defend themselves. So much for the curse of freshly painted figures :-)

However there victory was short lived and the militia in their fancy dress as killed opening the way for the Visitors to slip away but they had taken losses and were not out of danger yet.

Stay tuned for round two to see if Lydia can make it through the night.
The Visitors have lost 4 of their number and Legs has additional reinforcements flooding the area.

Spectre Miniatures - African Militia

Way back in December 2014 my kickstarter arrived from Spectre Miniatures.
https://dusttears.blogspot.com/2014/12/spectre-miniatures-christmas-comes-early.html

It was one of those kickstarter projects that was delayed and by the time the package arrived the butterfly effect had taken hold and I was off on another project and these guys sat for the next 4 years in the cupboard of shame.

However the recent "V" project and the War of Insurgency rules got me thinking it was time they made it on on to the paint table.

They are slightly skinnier than others in my Congo collection but really capture the chaotic fighters in central Africa including the adoption of fancy dress which gives them a very Liberian feel.

With 30 or so African militia, PMC's and Delta force to get through they are a small distraction from yet more Haiti line troops.

Until next time....

The Pearl of the Antilles. - The Haiti Campaign - The Battle of Bassin-Bleu - 8th August 1791

Bolstered by reinforcements General Toussaint Louverture launched his offensive on the riotous slaves of Georges Biassou. Tensions had been building since the the war broke out, Baissou had moved to forces to defend the border at the Los Trois river, however Louverture had found a crossing point undefended and had caught the slave forces in the flank.

Louverture significantly outnumbered the defenders and had spent wisely with both a secondary and moveable deployment point, the table was a scattering of slave huts and the occasional plantation field.

Biassou's force was limited with 3 sections of militia a handful of skirmishers. They had been bolstered by a mass of unarmed slaves keen to defend their newly found freedom.

The insurgent forces positioned their deployment point behind the orchard and were quick to throw their skirmish troops into the wooded area just as the first unit of Haitian loyalists appeared on the road to their left letting off an opening volley. The insurgents ducked for cover but their inexperience  showed and they started to take to pick up shock and casualties.

In the centre of the table the Louverture triggered his moveable deployment point and brought forward his rank and file, a skirmish section slipped around the flank of the defenders while the Haitian Regulars moved into a firing line and brought their muskets to bear.

Despite holding many of the cards and a force ratio of 2:1 it sometimes feels that it was not to be your day and for General Toussaint Louverture he was starting to get that feeling. An opening volley smashed into the lining out insurgent militia with 9 hits landing on the formation.....

However luck was on the side of Biassou as he peered through the smoke to see not a single casualty or shock point on the militia formation.

For a number of rounds both sides were content to engage each other at long range. The loyalist were frustrated by Biassou's defenders, Louverture still had a further Battalion off table. However there was not enough room to deploy on the flank and the only option was to deploy behind the weakened Loyalists under  Louverture's command.

Meanwhile armed with stakes and knives the revolting slaves gathered behind the orchard, their shaman chanting and drums beating they worked themselves up into a frenzy. 

They swept forward and drove the loyalist skirmishers back from the secondary deployment point. The skirmishers unwilling to tangle with the slaves and their big choppers.

The fired up slaves rushed towards the individual sections who scrabbled to form a defensive line. The main loyalist Battalion was unable to move into a position to halt the slave advance and  Louverture had to rely upon his scattered skirmishers to slow them down.

Forced to counter this aggressive move the second Battalion was finally brought into play. The column marched forward to halt the slave charge.

The advancing slaves were now under fire by multiple loyalist groups and the shock was starting to mount. The Slaves halted and slowly were forced back as the shock started to mount.

The sun was starting to set and both sides were content to allow each other to disengage.  Louverture held the higher force morale and held the table but this was not to be the victory he had hoped for. The enemy was still largely intact.

Casualties were minimal on both sides from their main force with the Louverture losing 2 dead and 1 wounded after their doctors had done their work, whilst Biassou lost 4 dead from their core force.

Holding the table the loyalists acquired 2 sacks of supplies hardly a just reward for such a flank attack.

Next time Louverture would get revenge on Biassou.

The Pearl of the Antilles. - The Haiti Campaign - End of Day Eight - 8th August 1791

After a week of campaigning the various factions spend their Sunday reorganising and regrouping, from an umpires perspective it's interesting to see the various recruitment strategies taking place, mass troops, retraining or saving for bigger and better in future weeks.

A number of players are realising that the typical losses are not bloody as first thought and losses can quickly return to the fray, it also means you need to keep the pressure on opponents especially given the chance to over run their camps and catch valuable supplies and perhaps kill or capture the wounded.

Welcome to Week 2 in Haiti.

The British under Thomas Maitland continue their relentless advance they have bolstered their number and pass through the occasional gathering of huts without stopping to garrison such insignificant locations in their single focus on joining the fight. 

On the evening of the 8th they arrive at Pestel.

The stand off continues further east with the Republicans and Mulattos continuing their standoff. Léger-Félicité Sonthonax continues to monitor Andre Rigauds forces at the summit and in a show of strength orders his troops practice their maneuvers in full view of the upstarts.
Meanwhile Rigaud's troops look down from their vantage point as a thunderstorm soaks them to the core, before clear sky's return.

Meanwhile in the North of the island things show no sign of calming down as the battles begin to break up into particular mini-wars between factions.

The French Royalist/Planters under Viscount de Blanchelande have spent wisely with reinforcements joining Blanchelande at Bahon and in the capital. Having pushed back Dutty Boukman at the fort, french troops are seen reinforcing their barricades and defences.
Dutty Boukman having seen his forces beaten back regroups at the village of Ranquitte as he tends to his own wounds he is bolstered by additional reinforcements from the local area having had a taste of freedom.

To the East the Spanish having tended to their wounded from the battle a few days before are on the march again they push forward into Princess Amethyste's territory finding her beleaguered command tending to their wounded on the banks of the local river. The Spanish cavalry look for a suitable crossing point, whilst the slaves on the opposite bank can be seen taking up defensive positions.

Finally to the West General Toussaint Louverture finally loses patients with his political rival Georges Biassou having been bolstered by reinforcements he advances on the rebelling slaves and in a sweeping move outflanks the defenders and attacks Biassou in the flank looking to convince them by the sword to join his ranks.

It's looking to be a busy week in Haiti.

Yet more French - Regiment Pondichery.1790 - 93

Well they survived the curse of newly painted units.
I wanted to give some distinction between the Royalist and Republican units so opted for the White uniforms which was prescribed for colonial infantry.

The first group were rushed through to provide support for the French at Mahon, the second group took a little longer.

These are again from Trent Miniatures Caribbean range.
They are from the Royal-Etranger Regt pack which were French in the service of the British in the Caribbean Wars but give me some additional variation to the French forces.