Death in Tequesta

1800. The war of the second coalition. In the April of that year Edwin Adamson (MP for the pocket borough of Sowerbridge) had been appointed Governor  of the recently established British fort in Spanish Florida; Tequesta. Earlier that year the 37th foot, a battalion of French emigres and the sailors and Marines of two 4th rates had captured the coastal town of Tequesta from the Spanish Garrison. However on the 20th of June three Spanish 1st rates had assaulted the harbour, destroying one of the British 4th rates and sending the other into flight. Then the 52nd Spanish foot and 4th lancers had arrived and assaulted from the landward side forcing Adamson to flee to his summer house in the hills over looking the bay. He and Major Howard of the 37th foot fled to his summer house with a group of redcoats, emigres and a small cannon.
Today, 26th of September 1800, Jimmy boy (a powder monkey from one of the 4th rates) spotted, moving through the woods, a large force of Spanish Militiamen, privateers and other irregular troops armed with an assortment of pistols and muskets. He had been running back through the grave yard to alert Major Howard to the presence of a large rowing boat, washed up on the shore.
Soon Major Howard and Govenor Adamson had turned out their force and wer making for the small boat...

Govenor's men
Govenor Edwin Adamson
Major Howard
Govenor's Mrs (Nurse)
Blind man (a Ben Gun kind of character)
Jimmy Boy
9 Redcoats of the 37th foot
10 Emigres (all count as officers)
Carronade with 2 crew

Spaniards
several dozen pirates
around a dozen officers


This is one of our monthly battles fought at my local modelling club. There are normally only three of us, but one of our members couldn't make it till much later (no doubht "Eril Flyn" had another force up his sleeves that would be arriving later...). Luckily there was a new comer so the two of them took the pirates and I took the Govenor's mob!

I started in the compound around the govenor's "mansion" and lined the 37th foot up for the breackout...

I had three routes open to me: A. West, charge the pirates head on and hope my superior combat would tiumph over their numbers, B. East, hug the strategically good hill and wall and make my way slowly to the small boat or C. North, advance as the crow flies across open ground straight for the boat!...

I went for C. Adopting a square with the 37th around the Major, Govenor, Nurse, Blindman and Jimmy boy with the Emigres taking B route and the cannon covering the square's advance.

This set of rules (I can't remember what they were called i'm afraid) uses random selction turns. After each phase we roll a D6 to see what comes next. 1.One side takes a morale check (1-3 sideA, 4-6 sideB), 2. Both sides stand and shoot at the same time, 3. Side A moves, 4. Side B moves, 5. Side A shoots and 6. side B shoots. We rolled several threes to start with so my Square made good progress... but then Disatster!

We rolled several 4s after this and not a single 3.... soon they were in range of our guns and of their gund...

I just managed to roll another 3 before we rolled about four 2s on the dice...

The Pirates moved up a musket line while leaving a group of skirmishers in the graveyard... after 3 turns this was what was left of my square, though i had much damaged his firing line.
In the next round of Shooting I managed to destroy his firng line, but the last of the 37th foot and Major Howard were shot down. I also forced his pistoliers in the graveyard to take two morale checks sending them bolting over the back of the graveyard.

Soon the Emigres were in position to hold off the pirates till they could make a break for the small boat, with the cannon covering their rear. Unluckily the Govenor, Blindman and Nurse were captured by 3 pirates while Jimmy boy watched on, but the Emigres were on hand with three charging in to the rescue!

Soon our forces were looked in a bad way with two pirates heading for the emigres behind the wall and four more pirates charging towards the cannon. In the fighting the Emigres captured back the govenor and prepared to rescue his Mrs.

Last turn before I handed over to Eryl this is what the field looked like. I had graped the pirates. The govenor and his mrs were safe but the blindman was still to be recaptured by the last Emigre, duelling two pirates! The Emigres behind the wall had stood strong and hended off the pirates near them, but the small boat was in the pirates hands. In the end it was a draw. The Govenor was in a stong position and i could pull it together and get to the boat, but the blindman and boat were still in spanish hands, however the Govenor and his mrs were safe.

I really enjoyed this game and my experience of the Black powder battlefield put me in Major Howards shoes pefectly, underestimating the requirements of this particular situation and doing what all redcoat officers do... When in doubht form a square! This plan would have worked well against grenadiers or dragoons but not pirates...

Next time at the club 1200pts medievel WAB

2e Regiment de Tirailleurs

For Christmas this year I received two boxes of perry miniatures ACW (American civil war) Zouaves, one box of perry miniatures ACW cavalry, a french HMG from Gallipoli (made by Gripping beast) and an Airfix allied Biplane (I also got 30 wallachian peasants and they'll be up soon with the rest of Sveneslav's horde). Those of you who have been concentrating will probably have realised that I am really not interested in wargaming ACW (its all those dull blues and grey, even interspersed with the odd fez it gets monotonous) so I thought about what to do with these models and I remembered the studio campaign coming up. If you've seen it yet you will know that our "men fight for what they lack" campaign (taken from a french retort to an englishman) has its own blog (but all the battle reports will also be on Renegade or tale of two gamers) and is based in 1912 China. As the British and Japanese were taken I had volunteered to be French and these models suited themselves pefectly to the army. I created the 2e Regiment de Tirailleurs (see Unifoms below)

 They're regiment was founded during the French conquest of Algeria (1830/40s) and soon I had assembled 72 Tirailleurs (divided into 6 sections of 12), 12 Spahi (French/Algerian cavalry based on Turkish uniforms), a French biplane with machine gun, a hotchkiss machine gun with Tirailleurs crew, 8 casualty markers (for black powder) and 3 commanders. I have included the pictures below...

 I use this model as either Colonel Charles Ney the elder or Major Louis Ney wether i'm playing before or after the Boxer rebellion. Either way this model is always my army general. I converted the model to be holding a cane rather than a sword and i painted a monocle in the eye (click to have a closer look.)

I use this model as Captain Charles Ney the younger (with his Sergeant), he is one of my brigadiers. The pistol arm is a conversion using the same left arm as the Colonel, with a simple hand swap using one of the cavalry pistols.

I use this model as Lieutenant Balliard (with his lackey). In my background history Lieutenant Balliard is the Colonels adopted son (his father was killed by Bulgarians before the crimean war, defending the colonel and his wife). I did a similar hand swap for him as well but using a different arm. His sword and his lackey's pistol are directly taken from the cavalry.

 This is my Hotchkiss MG. It came without any heads for the crew so i simply game them fez heads to tie them in with the rest of the army. I am one of those generals who would fall under captain Square rather than captain Mainwering (that is to say cavalry over HMGs), but the temptation to have one ratteling away was to great.

 This is my Spahi detachment, there are infact twelve of them making this unit my only "Large" unit when playing blackpowder. I simply used the ACW cavaly and did a head swap (the phorography is rather bad i'm afraid). The Spahis never saw much action after the Crimean war upuntil the 1st word war but today they are still in teh french army.

This is a stndard section in my army and it is made up of six of these. When playing blackpowder I give all the units tough fighters (the tirailleurs are reputed to always have fought to the last and to have been the best combat troops in the french army) and, if they have a standard, Stubborn

 Here are my casualty markers in all their gory glory. The Zoauve kit is fairly easy to convert such markers out of and they look very effective.

 Tirailleurs actually means skirmishers, so when playing black powder my first order is always "Form Skirmish and advance". However once within danger range I form attack colum, advance and form square.

 The blood effect is done with citadl paints. First mechrite red around the owund, then blood red on the actual wound, then a heavy wash of baal red which runs off the wound and finally gloss varnish on the blood red.

 This is my most gory marker and depicts a standard bearer who has either had a shell through his head or a volley at eye level. Either way he has lost the top of his head!

 Here the machine gun mows down the unruley algerians/turks

This is my Biplane. The model is actually a RE8 but i'm using it as a Bleriot for the campaign.

 The model was one of the better kits that airfix makes and was quite easy to assemble in a morning

 It will only feature in games after 1912, but as the Tirailleurs uniform was used from 1830-1918 it will appear frequently.

We've created our own rules for Biplanes and based them on the rules for Artillery, with the exception that they can only be shot down and have stamina 4

 With the ability to fly behind enemy lines and pepper their artillery or damaged units with MG fire biplanes are lethal

 The 2e Compagnie de 2e Regiment de Tirailleurs de Indochinois "Turcos"

High elves vs Warriors of chaos

With the knowledge that their homeland had been consumed into the so called "New Ulthuanic kingdom", ruled over by King Vyshnevtsky, the tower guards of Saphiry (now releaved of their position with Teclis imprisoned) had sailed north to Norsca in the hope of finding a long lost and most powerful elven item to destroy the invaders... But Valmir aesling, still smarting over his and Sigvald's recent defeat at the hands of the elves and men set out to crush the invaders. His entire tribe had mounted up and ridden out to destroy them...   

The Aesing Vanguard

•  Valmir aesling on juggernaut
• aelfric cyenwulf on disc of tzeentch
• 5 units of 5 marauder horsemen
• 8 marauder horsemen
• 5 knights
• 5knights
• chaos chariot
• 2 warshrines
• ancient stegadon

The Tower guard of Saphiry

• Lord on Griffon
• Mage on horse
• Mage
• Mage 
• 49 lotheren sea guard
• 18 archers
• 5 shadow warriors
• 5 silver helms
• 5 ellyrian reavers
• 10 sword masters
• 2 tiranoc chariots
• 2 repeater bolt throwers

The two armies arrayed themselves with the high elves bracing themselves and readying their bows for the inevitable cavalry charge

By Turn 1 the speed of the cavalry became aparant with the aeslings covering half the board in one canter, bringing themselves in charge range...

...Then they charged. Aelfric blasted off a spell at the horde of sea guard (all imbued with okkam's mind razor) which made them attack each other, it goes without saying that the results were devastating with half the sea guard torn apart by the enchanted mind power of their battle brothers, leaving less than twenty five standing. Having lost the left flank marauders to the ellyrian reavers and chariots, the orcy knights on the left and the ancient stegadon flank charge the elves, smashing to bits the chariots and sending the reavers running towards the knights.
Being viewed eye to eye by the mage that my opponent said had "a very nasty suprise in store", Valmir and the kraka drak veteran horsemen charge into the wizard who stands and fights revealing his "nasty suprise"! He was wearing a magic cloack that prevented him being harmed by non-magical attacks, unluckily for him he hadn't noticed the sword of Rending at Valmir's side and the elf ended flat on the floor.
Unfortunatly my opponent had also revealed that his prince on the griffon "wasn't ment to figh...." i took that to mean fight and so the next turn my chariot and 5 horsemen went crashing into him. soon the griffon had been skewered on the side of the chariot and hacked up by the warriors on board.

The prince also died soon after...

The Chariot then went charging into the archers and the horsemen into one of the bolt throwers.

One of my 5 marauder horse units had also charged into the archers and owing to being heavily outnumbered they were butchered.

Finally the right flank knights went smashing into his famous shadow warriors and chopping them all up before over running into the silver helms.

so far going well for the aeslings. 

In the next turnValmir, the ancient stegadon and 5 marauders for good measure plunged into the sword masters. Valmir challenged the champion who accepted and got his head smashed in for the arrogance of accepting a challenge against the destroyer of kraka drak! After that his unit was completly destroyed by the stegadon and horsemen.
The chariot smashed up the archers a bit before pursuing them off the field followed shotly by two units of marauder horsemen who had just finished smashing up the repeater bolt throwers.
And the chaos knights proved themslves better than any elf by completly annihilating the silver helms and mounted mage in their path. However, unfortunatly the ellyrian reavers dodged all charges directed against them.

By the end of turn three it was pretty obvious the high elves would have to get their act together and prepare for a fighting retreat if they stood a chance of rescuing Teclis from the Hardenburgers.

The remaining spearmen lead by the last remaining mage formed  a defensive square enabaling every man to fight and braced themselves for whatever the aeslings could throw at them, hoping against hope that perhaps somewhere on the battlefield was a remaing unit to aid their withdrawel to the beech, their ships and on to ulthuan.

Aesling turn 4 and Valmir ordered the charge, by now he was intent on annihilation for these upstart elves! He charged into their square followed by the stegadon, the savage knights and nine marauder horsemen, including all five of the veterans of kraka drak!

...While over in the west 4 horsemen charged the 4 reavers to determine whether man or elf was better once and for all... it was hardly fir however, as the warshrine bestowed the blessings of slaanesh on the marauder horse causing them to sprout all manor of terryfying odities and causing the reavers to flee the field for their ships.

Soon came the time to declare challenges and Valmir challenged the sea guard champion, readying his axe for yet another elven officer's neck!

Then the savage knight champion found himself challenged by the mage and forced to accept this unworthy opponent.

But in the end the elves lay strewn dead upon the field, Valmir had taken no chances and all 25 plus the mage lay slaughtered, however it had cost him a unit of knights, but this was a small price to pay for annihilation.....

In the end the battle was a victory for the slaaneshi horde and the remaining elven archers and reavers sailed back to chrace (the last free state of Ulthuan) empty handed