Tuesday 25 March 2014

The Skirmish at Bald Wood - A FIW batrep




Back at the end of February, after some of the Rejects had been to Cavalier in Tonbridge, we played a smallish FIW skirmish game using Posties homemade rules. BigLee did post about it here, but here's the British side of the battle, what I can remember of it anyway????

The game was set in 1759 somewhere in the Wilderness around the Great Lakes. A small party of British have been sent to cut through a road in the forest. Ian and myself were the Brits, Lee, Richard and Richard's son James were the French.


We were making short work on the trees..


while old Dobbs made the tea in the camp...


I was doing a good job, making sure the lazy sods kept at it, (that's me in the red jacket)
When we heard a shot....


I ran to the edge of the woods, to see what was going on??


Oh crap....Injuns hundreds of 'em!!
OK, 20 odd then..


I'd posted some men out in the open, with the order to give fire as soon as they saw the enemy.


and I'd sent out some scouts to the north and gave orders to leg i
 back to the camp if you see any Indians.


At the road, we used logs and brush to make a rough defensive barricade.


Then all of a sudden a group of French/Canadian trappers fired out 
of the other end of the woods...


the few men we had stood their ground and gave fire.


The local Militia were on patrol and heard the commotion they came to lend a hand, they were led by 
the Mayor Thaddeus Pettman.
The Civilian work party were getting a little worried so I sent them back to the camp.


With no thought of the danger to myself, I joined the boys out on the front line.
Poor Eagleye, our halfbreed scout and best shot in the camp, caught one right between the eyes dropping down dead before he could even fire.


We kept up a good rate of fire...


Damn them Rangers are good shots....


The local Indians and French Militia led by the dastardly Jacques de Elders
were pushing our men back, there was even a little hand to hand combat.


The Canadian trappers came screaming out of the woods firing..


but we seemed to be holding our own...


The work party were a little calmer now, after a nice cup of tea!


The Canadian Trapper leader, Lee Inutile dés Lanceur looked rather miffed as we shot several of his men, 
who then proceeded to run back to the woods they'd come from, they never troubled us again.
Their leader was later seen with his pinny on making tea and sandwiches for the lads as 
he now had nothing to do???


This helped us out no end, we could now move our troops up and concentrate on the Indians and Militia.


While I was out of the flank Mayor Pettman, took charge of our defences and promptly 
charged out of them, towards the enemy.


It looked like the enemy were losing heart, there didn't seem to be as many
of them as there was a while ago??


Utter confusion ensued, nobody knew if they actually hit anything because of all the smoke.


Elder the Younger and Elder the Elder, the Devil incarnate and Mayor Pettman


We then fought a messy melee in the woods, men were dropping on both sides.


My 2nd in Command Ranger Rodger led the attack


Welcome to wargaming James, he needed a 16 and above on a D20 and missed 4 times!
Doh!


Ranger Rodger and Pistol Pete double teamed  Screaming Elder the Indian Chief
And slaughtered him..


With his Indian allies either dead or fleeing Jacques de Elders continued to fire at us
but it was all too late. They soon joined their Indian allies and skulked back off into the woods
leaving us to continue building the road.

65 comments:

  1. Elder the elder ... you are funny, Rayolla.

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  2. Hehe I always love reading your bat reps! And as always, lots of pictures!

    Thanks mate.

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  3. Good to see the young 'uns getting used to the face palm nice and early.

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    Replies
    1. Its always best to learn that lesson young!

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  4. Nice setup for a simple skirmish.
    Is that cotton balls for the gunfire? Priceless.

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  5. Nice AAR Ray. I'm a little surprised that you haven't Photoshopped some horns onto Postie :)

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    1. He's like Hell Boy, grows his own then files them down!!!

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  6. Great little fight, you survived and got a victory .

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    1. Surprisingly yes! We both thought we were in for it at the start of the game, but we forgot about the BigLee factor!!

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  7. Entertaining BatRep, Ray! You guys always seem to have so much fun.

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  8. Good, game, nice report and great photos. What's not to like for an early morning read.

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  9. Great report and photos Ray!

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  10. Nice batrep an a cool scenario!

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  11. Good one Ray, although it has taken you a lamentable amount of time to post your pictures. Anyone would think you have been busy....

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  12. Commendable stuff sir. Fighting in the woods is not how proper warfare should be done seems like a shabby French trick to me.

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    Replies
    1. Very shabby indeed, just not sporting ol' boy!

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  13. Cool Batrep, thanks for sharing 'the other side' of the story

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  14. Good report Ray. Interesting how you've edited out the bit where the Indians and French militia raced across the open ground quicker than you anticipated and prompted from you the equivilent of an "oh crap, I'm getting out of there." A fun game, and the little 'un thoroughly enjoyed himself... if only I could beat him at Bolt Action, he's just too damn good for me.
    Richard

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    1. It was a strategic withdrawal Rich, ;0) You did move a lot faster than expected!! James looked as though he was in his element! and not at all out of place!! Quite worrying really!!

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  15. Hi, Ray. Nice period skirmish. The idea of being attacked building a road through some woods, is an excellent scenario. Love the painted figures; thye look good on the field of battle.

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    1. Cheers Jay, that's what's good about skirmish games. You can get all the scenarios in that just don't work in a larger scale game.

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  16. Nice looking game Ray and very entertaining to read!

    Christopher

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  17. That was great Ray.
    Really enjoyed the batrep

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  18. Very nice AAR. A fantastic game!

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  19. Excellent report -- looks like great fun!

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  20. Time to start your own comic-book series Ray, this sure reads like one ;-)

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  21. Replies
    1. You almost feel sorry for him don't you...............................Nah me neither!

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