Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Charge!-ing into the New Year

The title of this post is not mine. I stole it directly from Ross Mac and his post on a game, in which both he and I were participants. I was home, in Halifax over the Christmas holidays and met up with Lentulus  and Ross Mac on the 2nd day of the new year. 


Lentulus 


Tea was enjoyed in the company of the fair sex but as these things then to do do, the ladies retired to binge watch Castle and we tabletop warriors headed upstairs to the sanctum sanctorum. In addition to good company and conversation, the urge to throw some dice on the table soon overtook us.



Ross Mac

Lentulus suggested that we use his 10mm Pendraken 7YW miniatures for a quick game of Ross' Heart of Tin rules. Ross countered with a suggestion that we play a game of Charge!.Not having a copy of the rules available, we relied on Ross for the basics and soon were engaged in a fast and furious encounter on the the Hoft Bridge. 



We diced for sides. I was in command of the Bravants. The units of this force are christened with Quebec place names, and since I was visiting from Montreal, it was à propos that they fell under my command.  


Bravant Field Force Photo 1

Bravant Field Force Photo 2

Ross Mac and Lentulus shared joint command of the Stutz Baerkatz. Both sides had 2 guns under their command alone with a choice of  a mix of six units. These consisted of 24-figure infantry or 9-figure cavalry units. As fools seldom differ, both generals took four foot and two horse units to lead into battle.

The scenario was simple enough. I was to take the bridge and hold it long enough for the engineers to blow it.


Mid-way through the game. My forces are mainly on the left side of the river.
As can be seen from the above photo, I already loss one of my guns. It was destroyed in the first exchange of shot. It was a to prove to be a hard handicap to overcome. To quote Ross Mac directly, 

" An hour or so later as the firing died down and the smoke cleared, it appeared that the turning point had come early when I had chosen to unlimber sooner, moved my gun 6cm with a 50% chance to fire and succeeded, rolled a 4 to hit his artillery at 40cm range (4 ft range band) and then rolled a 6 to destroy Rob's gun before it even had a chance to unlimber. With such small forces and with our side only needing to hold the bridge, that 1 gun superiority tipped the balance with round after round of cannister. Well, after all, what did Napoleon ask?"

A fun time was had by all. 

I have a cousin who lives in Lachine and while under my command I took the opportunity to rename the Lachine Regiment of Foot, Queen Mary's Own in her honour. 

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