Steady Boys, Steady

Tuesday was a horrible night to be abroad, dark and cold but I was offered a spot in an American War of Independence Black Powder game, rebellion in my case obviously, it doesn't get called a rebellion much does it but of course that is what it was. I have tried several times to 'get into' the AWI and learn a bit more about it but it just doesn't appeal and any of the books I have read have not done it any favours either, it's the same with the Napoleonic Wars, I am sure I am wrong but there you go. I was supposed to be involved in drawing maps for an Atlas of the war but that seems to be on the back burner for now, I did manage to get some drafts done for Guilford Courthouse however I do have a map project on the French and Indian Wars in Canada in the wings. I digress.

In keeping with my Imperial leanings I was the British and I commanded two brigades while Rob led a third, opposite we had three American brigades, we both had a small cavalry unit and some artillery. There was not a lot of manoeuvre room so I stormed forward knowing that this would be a typical way for the British to conduct such a battle, my right hand brigade which contained several elite battalions fairly rushed forward while my other one dawdled along as if it had all day. My Jocks leapt forward and took out an artillery piece and found themselves surrounded by rebels but they manfully held their ground, I also managed to take one of the buildings in the town so neither we nor the Americans could be said to have gained the crossroads.

Over on my right the pride of the British army advanced and slowly but surely forced the Americans back giving them all sorts of problems trying to build up a decent defensive line. I couldn't do much in the centre due to the buildings but I did manage to pull the Jocks out just in time before they were cut down to a man. I now put all my hopes on the dawdlers, I formed attack columns and threw them in. The Americans had managed to line the fences due to the slowness of my advance but I was going to show these ragamuffins how a real army fought.

I did manage to sweep away the extreme right flank but got nowhere with my other two columns, one ran and the other was forced back, I had however the perfect opportunity to roll up the Yankee flank, at the same time Rob had almost completed the rout of the American left and had now managed to bring his grenadier battalions up to ensure victory, it was all over for the boys in blue, where is Mel Gibson when you need him.

The troops were lovely as always, some more than others, the grenadiers for instance were very imposing, as they would be of course, thankfully most of the commands did not fail their command rolls although I seem to remember Andy having a bad run with some artillery and cavalry, so the game flowed well. Elsewhere we had the new Medieval Zombicide game, a boardgame and a large X-Wing game, which by the sound of it was going down a treat. I think it might be Bolt Action next week.

I enjoy writing my blog and I take simple pleasure in watching which posts attract the most hits, this has been ruined for me once again, the last time it was a Russian robot, now it is a French one, which is not as sophisticated as the Russian as it is only looking at the same half a dozen posts every day, but enough to make it pointless for me to try and make sense out of the statistics. I was told Google Analytics is wonderful but I would need to go on a course to understand it, I can only hope that when we eventually leave the EU perhaps the French robot will stop bothering me and go somewhere else in a fit of high dudgeon.

I have finished two WWI projects over the last few days so here are a couple of examples.