A Last Stand

Introduction

Today I unexpectedly found time for a game so went with a Portable Wargame based on Scenario 17 of Scenarios for All Ages by Grant & Asquith.

Setting

The Albionian colony of Uqbal has been increasingly suffering attacks by indigenous hill tribes. Suspecting involvement by a foreign power, a spy is put ashore from His Majesty's Gun Boat, Kobayashi Maru, and sent deep into the hill territories to find proof. The Spy has sent a communication by carrier pigeon that he has succeeded in his task but is trapped. Captain Pine is determined to get the evidence back to the War Ministry and leads a force in land. They reach the Spy's last location, a ruined compound, but find that he has been killed and that the relief force is itself now surrounded by a larger enemy force. "It's a trap", says the Captain, mixing his Sci-Fi metaphors. As dawn beaks the enemy are poised to attack...

The gunboat Kobayashi Maru (image from the internet)

Rules

Normal Portable Wargame rules apply, except I have excluded Exhaustion Point as both sides will fight to the end. At least one of the defenders must survive until turn 15 when he or they can escape under cover of darkness. The attackers must destroy all of the relief force to win.  The Albionian force consists of a company of Hibernians who, being tough elite veterans, have an SP of 5 and a company of sailors from the gunboat, who have an SP of 4. The Tribesmen are a mix of musket armed men and sword wielding men. They are led by a Swarzlandian Colonel accompanied by a unit of hussars.

Game

The hill tribes start their attack on the compound

The Defenders

Battle commences at the walls

The exposed tribesmen take hits

The compound holds

The Hibernians are caught in a relentless crossfire

The enemy closes in on the defenders

The Swarzlandian Colonel watches as his men breach the walls

The Hibernians just before their last glorious bayonet charge

The Navy's last stand

Captain Pine's end

Swarzlandia's involvement in Uqbal remains a secret, but for how long?
 

Portable Wargame Encounters

The following game used a simple set of skirmish rules (Heroic Encounters - see In-House Rules in the side-bar) that are based on Bob Cordery's popular Portable Wargame rules.

Treasure Hunt

A team of Treasure Hunters led by Harry "Hertfordshire" Jones is searching for an artefact of possible power, lost in distant Pesbekistan. They are pitted against a group of local tribesmen who have been recruited by a White Russian Agent-Provocateur, Count Sokolov, who are searching for the same thing for use in counter-revolutionary activities, or something...

The Treasure Hunters

The Count and his followers

The Artefact hidden in the undergrowth

Let the skirmish commence

The tribesmen look for cover

Hertfordshire Jones and his men rush across the open area

A tribesman cries out when he locates the artefact

He immediately comes under fire

The home made HIT DICE features the cunning use of an H on 2 sides of a d6 - clever stuff

Casualties on both sides

Tribesmen attempt to out-flank the Treasure Hunters

Fighting on all sides

50% casualties are reached for the Counts' side

Tribesmen begin to lose the will to fight...

they slip away on both flanks

"This belongs in a museum"

"Curse you Hertfordshire Jones! We'll meet again...grrr"

Revenge in a Time of Drought

Introduction

In an earlier post (see Invasion below) we learned that the Wild Men of the East had been pushed West into Nearsea. Here we discover who did the pushing. 
Descending from the mountains, a collaboration between tribes of Orcs, Goblins and Trolls was responsible for clearing Men from a large swathe of the Eastern Lands, destroying their farms and villages and leaving all in ruins. Now it is High Summer, and without a mutual enemy they have begun to fight each other. 
The following battle had two causes. Firstly, the Orc Band involved was looking for a source of water in this time of drought; and secondly, the Goblin Tribe controlling the nearest well had insulted the Orcs by using the head of a fallen Orc Champion on one of their standards (it was known locally as the "stick with orc 'ed 'andle" - apologies to Marriott Edgar).

Game

The setting is a ruined farmstead controlled by the Goblin tribe. The Orcs have two objectives; capture the well to the South and destroy the offending Standard. The rules are the Fantasy version of Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame in the side bar.

A dry (gridded) land - the well is visible next to the dead tree

The Goblin Tribe

Orc "Cavalry" rush by the hill heading for the well to the rear

The Main force of Orcs attack the defended hill

Battle rages at the foot of the hill but all is calm at the rear.. for now

The Wolf Riders charge the Goblin guards

Fighting in all areas

The Orcs begin to take ground amid the ruins

The Standard falls - Revenge!!

The Goblins are breaking (Exhaustion Point was set at 50% and reached by Turn 7)

The Orcs have taken their second objective

The Goblin Chief fights to the end

The last Hobgoblin archers are mopped up

No Picnic at La Roche

Setting

A fast, bloody game based on Scenario 29 (Shambolic Command) of Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames.

Army Black have been ordered to hold the strategically important hill known as La Roche at all costs. Army Red are charged with taking the same hill. Due to the ineptitude of the author the Black commander, his forces can only activate two units per turn (either moving or firing). Army Red has 4 units, Army Black has 6; the units were randomly rolled for on the tables in OHW. Only Infantry and Cavalry were to be involved.

Army Black's opening position

Game

Army Red arrives and moves up to engage the enemy

Black moves his cavalry to defend the rear 

A Cavalry battle ensues...

while the Infantry stand and take casualties

Army Red continue to whittle away at Black's Line Infantry

Black's Hussars are dispatched to tackle Red's flank

Black's Infantry are decimated 

The Naval Infantry face Red's Dragoons

while Black's Hussars charge (and destroy) the remaining Guards

Red's forces establish a cross fire but Black's Hussars are still active

Black's last charge

Army Red have captured the Hill (just)