Return of the False Prophet of the San Juans Part the Second

This 29th April we continued the Colonial Campaign.

After the disaster of the previous battle for Olga and the island aflame with revolt the pleyers needed a good win. This evening Dave Manley and myself were the Mahdists whilst Rodger, Andy and his Excellency Shaun Abdad Yabadabado KFC ran the Egyptians.

The full campagin map

In campagin terms the defated army moved offshore on their transports then returned to find the Mahdists rebels had left the town so the army dropped off the ships and moved by land to Rosario. There they picked up additional forces and headed for the fortified town of Eastsound which was in revolt.

Fortified town in revolt always have Mahdist rebels in them as opposed to a dice roll chance for towns and villages.



Eastsound

Coastal area around Eastsound

Sleepy fortified town of Eastsound. Check out the holiday brochures! Surfing, swimming and fishing!

Egyptian forces have been sighted to the south so Mahdists rush to defend the walls.

The Egyptian cavalry flank right supported by artillery and an infantry centre.

Forces are sent forwards to test the walls.

Yeap, those walls look fairly well defended Sir!

That unit will charge gloriously!!

That German arms dealer supplied the dastardly Mahdist with Repeating Rifles. Ouch!

Cavalry clash outside the vilage as the Egyptinas try to force their way to surround the town.

The force assaulting the town pull back.

Mayhem on the flanks as the cavalry clash.

Mahdists go low on ammo after withering fire devestates the Egyptians

The Egyptian decide ignore the walls and the infantry instead push around the town.

Watchful Mahdist keeps an eye open to ensure the sneaky Egyptians don't land near the rocks. 

Egyptian forces clear the rebels from the hills.

The Egyptians renew their attack flanking the town as the Mahdists try to extend their coverage of the wall.

With the Egyptians by-passing the well defended wall the Mahdist had to spread out thinly, shortly after overwhelming fire power told and the rebels gave up the town.

His Egyptian Excellancy Shaun Abdab Yabadabadoo Mutton KFC was greeted with wild celebrations by a small dog, 2 children and a beggar as he trimphantly marched into town at the back of his army.

In other campaign new, Gordon of Cartoon has arrived at Friday Harbour with 6 units of Sudanese troops and is expected to start pacifying the islands soon.

Return of the False Prophet of the San Juans - Part 1

So we have started a Colonial campagin in an effort to make our Colonial battles more interesting than line up and mow down the locals, our campaign if choice is downloadable here http://www.wfhgs.com/downloads.html

The campaign rules are well written and fit nicely with our chosen wargame rules http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com

We are currently on turn 2 and the San Juan are aflame with revolt. It is quite a scream watching the players try to sort out the mess. The pics below are from Monday's battle as the Egyptian forces landed with a strong contingent to retake Olga on Orcas Island.

The Mahdists had rolled up 19 infantry units, 8 cavalry and 4 rifle units, 1 being with repeaters. The Egyptians had 7 Sudanese inf, 2 Egyptian inf, 3 cavalry and 3 mgs that were removed from the boats. Rather than risk the boats close to the town they had to disembark up the coats and assault by land.

In this battle Shaun (who is also the Egytian Governor) and Mike played the Egyptians whilst Rodger and I played the Madhists.

His Egyptian Excellency Shaun Ramatongadownathota Mutton KFC.

The Egyptian gunboats and transports disgorge their occupants.

Mike gets excited as he explains his brilliant plan to an interested Shaun.

Roger admires the Mahdist cunning plan.

You can never have too many boats in a colonial campaign, espacially in the San Juan Islands.

Egyptian forces fan out.

No signal flags yet, hold still my brave warriors!

Contact. The Mahdists in the forward pit sacrifice themselve to slow the advance.

Mike's left flank attack seem reluctant to keep pace. Shaun just out of range along the beach.

Open Fire!! The Egypians try to cut down defenders but the walled town makes it hard.

Rodger's Mahdists move up behind cover in the centre whilst Shaun assault the walled town.

Shaun is thrown back and in the centre Rodger launches our counter attack.

View along the battle lines.

The central fight grows as more troops are poured in to support various assaults.

The Mahdists are repelled but the town holds firm.

Mike's flank units are sucked into the central melee.

More lives sacrificed to thegatling gun to allow charges to hit home.

View from the Egyptian perspective.

Thousands of 'em!

Calamity strikes. Exploitation moves see the Mahdists tear through the ammo mule and hack down His Egyptian Excellency Shaun Ramatongadownathrota Mutton KFC causing despair amongts the Egyptian forces.

Rodger's final assualt adds to Egyptian woes and they give up and leave the field.

In campaign terms the Egyptians managed to leave the field in good order, only suffering a further 10% casualties. But they lost 2 complete units and loads of other were down 25%. For the campaign Mahdist losses are inconsequential as the generate  units for each battle that occurs. On the plus side for the Egyptians it does mean the British arrival will be triggered much sooner than thought.

We mark the passing of His Egyptian Excellency Shaun Ramatongadownathrota Mutton KFC but welcome the appointment of His Egyptian Excellancy Shaun Abdab Yabadabadoo Mutton KFC. The third member of the mutton dynasty to be givent eh job after the previous two were tragically cut down on the field of battle.

His Egyptian Excellancy Shaun Abdab Yabadabadoo Mutton KFC.



BFE AAR - Maiwand

For Monday 1st July weekly game we decided to try out our new BFE  v2.0 rules. Truth be told we'd effectively been using them for a while since we'd had the latest updates via the yahoo group but it's nice to feel you are playing them 'proper'.

 

We elected to play Maiwand from the 2nd Afghan war, the only trouble being I had no figures for Afghans. I did however have a recent purchase of Indian Mutiny stuff so I rebased that and with some suspension of disbelief I added in some of my Sudan figures and we gave it a go.

 

The scenario was from the yahoo BFE scenarios files section by Nick Stern.

 

We had 4 player and I acted as umpire, Dave and Shaun took the role of the Britsh Imperial force whilst Alan and Rodger were the Afghans. Below is the British column all pristine...

 

We assumed that as the scenario did not specify then the rules for native artillery applied and they were to start on table. Needless to say the Afghan players then deployed them in a Grande Batterie. The British realise this wouldbe lethat so quickly manouevred out of column

The Grande Afghan Batterie gets some infatrny support from reserves as the artillery wipe out a British cavalry unit on turn 2.

The 'Ghazi' swordsmen race up the smaller ravine tooutflank the British.

Afghan forces start to arrive en masse. The artillery continue to pour fire into the British.

Finaly the British sort out their line but have managed to block their own artillery.

Regular Afghan cavalry charge fowrad toward the British guns.

Their hope is to exploit what could be a massive gap at the join of the British lines.... Oh no, the other Afghan general takes pity on the British player who is a BFE novice and the gap is closed. Meanwhile The British now manage to return fire and start causing casualties to the Afghan regular infantry.

The Afghans pile in and it all gets messy as the stout British lines rebuff the Afghan assaults. Sadly it's all too little too late and the British hit their break when the Afghan artillery account for the last required unit.

A fun scenario but the British are on to a loser. They can merely hope to hold for longer than their historical counterparts. Today they failed.

V2.0 of the rules worked well and with 8 kills per units and all hits a kill it gets very bloddy very quickly, no time to retire units out of the way if they are looking peaky, just hope the enemy breaks first and get on with it.