Battle of Talavera

One from the archives...played at Gaelcon last year where the esteemable Conrad Kinch ran the double-sized game every day for the baying crowds. As soon as I was finished running my game, I scarpered over to my next door neighbour. On the Saturday I played the centre and overall commander of the French.

The Battle of Talavera (27–28 July 1809) was fought just outside the town of Talavera de la Reina, some 120 kilometers southwest of Madrid, during the Peninsular War in Spain. At Talavera an Anglo-Spanish army under Sir Arthur Wellesley combined with a Spanish army under General Cuesta in operations against  the Grande Armée.

The armies arrayed at Talavera; the French cavalry nearest need to be restrained!

The French advance in the centre - beyond you can see the redoubt, occupied by artillery and supported by infantry

The Irish manoeuvre amongst the woods to harass the British line

Dressing lines in preparation for the advance on the redoubt

The French assault goes in - much to the dismay of the British defenders the French seem able to bring their entire force to bear on them in one feel swoop

Breaking through the Allied line - not only have they shattered several defending regiments, they've taken the guns in the redoubt

A stern British counter-attack is mounted

To the left of centre, the French see off the Spanish infantry nearby

A Forlorn Hope - this lone French regiment is beset on all sides

The Highlanders retake the redoubt!

Brave Hussars try to make headway against the French in support of the Spanish right

Across the river cavalry battle in the distance

The French are under pressure from those Hussars - they spoil attempts by the French to reinforce their centre

Nothing can hold back the Scots

The Highlanders laying about them; they have exacted some revenge for their dead comrades at least

The British left advance beyond the redoubt - their attempts to bring the French to grips are for nought

The British advance further on their left flank - but the French throw them back across the river and the French are victorious!

M. Gorman has been command of a British Division, it's the best way M. Kinch knows to deny the French victory, but it has not been a successful gambit - despite his absence the French use of his favourite tactic (a forced march followed by a bayonet charge) has brought them victory!

Report from the second game will be along soon...

Tecala Rescue - Redux

Later at Hobocon, I ran the Tecala Rescue scenario a second time

With a more experienced hand running the rescue operation, things began better...

Thorne makes his way quietly up to Peter's house, without drawing the attention of the nearby rebels

Dino and friend make their way to the farmhouse, surprising the two guards

As the main group of rebels realised things are afoot, their leader urges them to get moving quickly

Thorne takes Peter out the back route, gunning down a lone rebel who was just delivering breakfast

The two main rebel groups come under concerted fire from Downtown, whose accurate overwatch knocks some of their confidence out of them

Another rebel stroller on the upper path surprises Thorne forcing the pair to stick to cover on the other (more dangerous) side of the path

Dino lays down some more suppressive fire but makes for the LZ as soon as he's rescued Calitri

Peter's limp is a lot worse than previously thought, even Thorne's expert handling can't force him to move very fast. As Thorne and Peter cross the open ground towards the Uptown slope and the safety of the LZ, they take fire.

Thorne is hit, and Peter looks around helplessly as the rebels close in

Just in time, the rest of the Downtown team arrive to drive the rebels back and they make contact with Peter and Thorne.

Despite their best efforts, Thorne was found to be dead and they retreated with Peter to nearby cover, but the fire from the rebels overwhelms the two operators, and Peter is recaptured

Alas, another 8-11 loss for the rescue team, though they can probably feel aggrieved at the straight sequence of SNAFUs going against them, as well as the '1' on Thorne's first aid check.

The Hunt - Teaser

A previously unknown warlord has captured two American agents in the port of Zanzibar. A squad of hand-picked Marines is sent ashore and deep into the jungle to rescue them and hunt down the gang of pirates. But in the high African summer, a more dangerous adversary stalks the Devil Dogs…

Play out their daring raid on the pirate fort and a breakneck escape to the waiting boats as the hunters become the hunted.

I'll be running this three-part campaign at Gaelcon at the end of October.

Tecala Rescue

Call in the search parties - I'm still alive! A long summer hiatus, set in motion by a hectic period in work and then kept going by holidays and the like. Anyway, hopefully things are back to normal and you'll be hearing from me at my more usual rate.

You may recall this scenario from before the summer - based on the climatic rescue scene from Proof of Life. I ran it twice at Hobocon, a local Dublin games convention last weekend. 

Terry Thorne, a Kidnapping and Ransom specialist and former member of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment is assigned to negotiate the return of building engineer Peter Bowman. While overseeing the construction of a dam in a Tecala, Bowman was kidnapped by the country's left-wing insurgency, the ELT.

Through connections with the oil company Thorne has arranged for the army to make a push across the river and draw out the main force (about 100 fighters) of the ELT, while he and a small hand-picked team (Dino’s Panama crew) mount a snatch and grab mission to rescue Bowman and another hostage, Calitri.

The ELT camp

Downtown 2 & 3 overlook the barracks and Peter's house. They'll move down to rescue him, while Terry is on overwatch

Most of the rebels are engrossed in a game of football on the parade ground, they're completely unsuspecting of the attack

It takes then some time to organised themselves once fire breaks out. The ELT group by the barracks spotted Downtown moving off the hill and opened fire, putting both of them to ground. Terry will have to proffer medical aid while rescuing Peter himself.

As the camp erupts, Uptown open fire on the groups pouring off the parade ground. They can't stick around for long, and move towards the farmhouse where Calitri is located

Dino goes down under fire from the two guards, but Uptown shoots them down and gets Dino back into the fight quickly

The football players move into towards the farmhouse, hoping to overwhelm Uptown and prevent any escape

Terry's return fire does have a positive effect - the ammo dump behind the rebels blows up, taking out one of them and driving them back to cover - he's out of the fight however - it's all down to Uptown now.

Uptown rescue Calitri, keeping the rebels nearby under fire - they can see no sign of Downtown and have got to make it to the landing zone soon

11-8 to the ELT, Downtown's initial surge was ill-conceived but ultimately just plain unlucky. We set it up and tried with some different players later that day

Sittangbad - Scenario

This is an old school scenario refitted for modern times and for use with Force on Force.

A major Taliban offensive in Helmand has been thwarted by British forces and the resulting counter-offensive has the group running for the hills. The local leader is unwilling to loss his most valuable supplies and has set up a rear-guard operation in advance of the main bridge across the Sittang to give him time to evacuate his headquarters.

Download the full scenario
You can view an earlier report of the action at Sittangbad.

Off tomorrow for a short campaign of epic Commands & Colours: Napoleonics taking on a joint British-Russian expedition to free the Batavian Republic from the French grasp!

Lead Painters' League continues

Apologies for the prolonged hiatus, it's been a busy few weeks at work and at home (including an outbreak of Chicken Pox!).

Season 7 of the Lead Painters' League continues with Round 6. An especially wide variety of subjects this time I feel (though I inadvertently seem to have picked out a seam of Dark Ages entries!). As before I'm not picking out my favourite pieces, but I'm hoping to highlight a few match-ups which are (or ought to be) very close.

Chindit Support Weapons vs. Darkenwald Scouts

Here We Make Our Stand vs. Dystopian Legions Britanian Infantry

Named Men vs. Citizens, We Must Feed the Revolution 

Head on over to vote for your favourites!.
I had been preparing a summary post showing highlights of Salute from other people's blogs (like this one from 2011); if anyone really wants to see it, let me know...

Blue Squadron

So, I've kicked off my main project for the year: Raid on the Diomedes

A single multi-purpose fighter

Along with the main pilot's wingman

Two pairs of the fighters will provide protection for the Diomedes

In case you're wondering they're from Brigade Games' Squadron Commander Range (these are the EuroFed line). So, I'll start doing the attacking craft soon (in red!)