Seige of Fort Willam Henry - week 5

This week the French tightened their noose on the fort and so the British decided to lauch a sally. Their aim was to destroy two guns emplaced in front of the fort. The British attackers had the larger force including some elite Grenadiers.

The French hunkered down in their defences with Regulars in the centre and light troops on the flanks. The British sallied forth with their right loaded with all their light troops.

The early part of the game went well for the British as they pushed forward onto the woods covering both the French flanks. The French artillery did very little damage to the British as they moved out pf the fort and into firing line.

Grenadiers

A strong attack by the British lights almost turned the French left as a run of really helpful cards allowed them to attack without any French repsonse. The cards even-out though in the end and the attack was halted in the nick of time.

With the flanks secure the main attack on the defences dwindled and the sally was pushed back ino the fort without the loss of either gun.

We played a new mechanic this week where the turn can end before all the cards are played - adding an element of chance. Its not an unusual idea in card activation games but the impact here felt large as units have multiple activation cards.  In this game the French lights suffered badly at first being somewhat swamped without really doing much.

Seige of Fort Willam Henry week 4, and some bonus pirates

Week 4's game was somewhat a mirror of game 2, but with the French defending some  powder wagons from British attack. The French were mostly regulars and British mostly light infantry.

The terrain heavily favoured the ambushers with them wholly in dense cover and the defenders caught entirely in the open and unable to use the wagons as cover.  

One move in things were looking tough for the defenders, aided and abetted by some dismal dicing.  By the end of turn 2 the French were in full retreat having caused only minor casualties to the British.  

Ouch

Bonus Pirates!

This weekend I made my way to Fishponds for another game of Blood and Plunder. In this scenario the attacking British  (me) had to try and get units into the Spanish deployment zone to force a morale test that might see them withdrawing.

Spanish defenders

British attackers

I stacked one side and looked to establish a solid base of fire, whilst sneaking my combat units forward to assault the enemy.

This was somewhat successful - I managed to push my elite Forlorn Hope into the enemies zone but was gradually losing the shooting war.

The gambit was good one though with the Spanish breaking after 4 turns to earn the British a victory. This was largely down to the resilience of the Forlorn Hope as they ensured 2 turns of intense fire with little damage.  

Attack of the Faceless one - part 2

Having been beaten back last week The Faceless One renewed his assault on northern Basilea over the weekend (handy as I was about to fight him). The scenario was Raze - capture the central objective and up to 3 in the enemy's half of the table. You can contest objectives in your own half but not capture them.

The Basileans deployed tight with most of the units facing the central hill and a couple of faster units on the flanks. The Undead hordes spread our more with the right having the Vampire on Dragon, which posed a big threat.
 

The Undead moved first and shambled forward slowly towards the hill and other objectives. The humans were able to move more swiftly and threaten charges across the line. I did however miss-measure and left a flank for some beastly Lycans to take-out a Paladin guard unit. The Werewolves were themselves deleted the next turn by my Knights though.  

With about half the game the Basileans looked to be in control - the high ground was occupied and the attacks going well. On the right the flying Elohi (with some Ogres in support) were able to defeat the Vampire cavalry holding the flank a claim a token.  

A second Ogre unit was able to also claim a token putting Basilea 2-1 ahead and looking to claim the central token in turn 4.

Finally the Dragon and some zombie trolls completed their long encircling march and attacked the centre, wiping out the Knights holding  the edge of the hill.

Both sisde then piled troops in the centre as by now its was 2-2 and middle token was the only viable target. With the last Basilean move they could have claimed the token but the flying Elohi were 1" short, so it was a 2-2 draw.

 
An interesting game as the Undead artillery ( 2 * Catapults) really came to the party and along with Drain Life severely weakened the Basilean central units. We also saw some strong surge rolls that got the Undead into combat for a couple of unlikely double charges.

Seige of Fort William Henry - week 3

For week three's game two mixed forces were seeking to secure the road through a heavily wooded area. Points were awarded for holding a sixth of the table at the end of the game. We also used hidden movement for troops in the woods, using blinds and a few fake ones.

British regulars

French regulars

The British initially advanced rapidly to grab half the table and put pressure on the advancing French regulars.

The second part of turn 2 was critical though with most of the British light infantry and Indians destroyed by some devastating French shooting.

Rogers Rangers bite the dust

The British fought on an were able to retain some territory they had initially held. It was though a solid win for the French. This makes it 2-1 to the French after 3 weeks.

 

The Revenge of Mghoroth

As part of my ongoing efforts to educate the younger generation in the merits of mass-battle games we've begun a new weekend Kings of War campaign. Its fantasy but it focuses on tactics and gets some painting habits built.  This campaign follows-on from the last and gives the Undead a points advantage to help balance things a little.

In the opening game the Undead attacked the Balin river crossing in the Dominate scenario - the winner being the one with the highest Unit Strength within 12" of the bridge. The river was difficult going.  We both had a similar plan - hold the centre and look to attack on the right. Being larger though the Undead could afford a small attack on their left too.    

Soul Reavers

We both tried some new units with the Undead fielding two troops of soul Reaver vampire cavalry, two catapults and a Vampire Lord on a dragon. I tried out the Basilean bolt thrower.

We both moved up our flank attacks in the early turns and were fairly coy in the centre. For the Undead there was little need to attack the centre as they outnumbered the enemy. The Basileans were in no hurry as they wanted to allow time for their flank attack to develop.    

The Basileans were more aggressive and managed to get troops into the centre by turn 3, allowing them to begin rolling-up the Undead lines.  After some initial success it settled into an attractional grind but with the Basileans having greater Unit Strength in the centre they were happy with this.

The Undead flank attack finally arrived in turn 6, but too late to prevent the Basileans winning 15-10 on Unit Strength, this holding-off the first raid.  

The main Basilean reflection was that the bolt Shooter was a waste of points - it managed to cause about 2 wounds on the Vampire Lord all game. For the Undead fielding the Soul Reaver cavalry in troops was not very useful - a single regiment would have been more useful and cheaper.