Jocks Wi Hae

Club last night and no Simon, which is just as well as the A6 near his house was closed off so I would have had the devil getting to him and then into Lancaster, I am not good with detours at dark-o'clock, it's the old eyes.

Anyway, it was a Muskets and Tomahawks game run by Rob, always a good game. The gist was that some American Militia along with a cannon had set up a small redoubt overlooking a river crossing which it was supposed British troops would soon be using. The British had got wind of this and had sent a force to remove the gun, the Americans were sending a force to reinforce the gun. I took the light companies of two Scots regiments, the 78th and 84th (I think) along with a small Iroquois warband, my second in command had the same type of force but no regulars, the American forces were of a similar make up.

As well as using the normal card activation arrival times were at the mercy of a normal deck of cards, I did OK with this but 2i/c Ian did not, neither did Paul who was hurrying to boost Rob at the redoubt. To confuse matters even further each unit had three markers only one of which represented the real unit, visibility was quite dire as the area was heavily wooded.

I advanced at a fairly quick pace compared to the rest of the players, I quickly ran up against some markers, I decided to throw caution to the wind and advance, if I took my time the Americans might get a decent defence line up. I put my faith in my fellow countrymen and the fact they were elite, to the skirl of the pipes they marched to their doom, the marker turned out to be American woodsmen who opened up with a devastating volley and my men dropped like autumn leaves, the survivors fled. I was crestfallen, however it was clear now that this was the only American unit to our front, Ian's Indians and mine now closed in on the riflemen as they frantically tried to reload. As tomahawks flew and the savages screeched the woodsmen retired.

My second company gets revenge for the loss of their mates.

The militia are defending the redoubt, not firing at it despite what it looks like.

 My main objective in the game was to assault the artillery redoubt, I ignored what was happening on my left and left Ian to press forward on that flank, I pushed my Jocks towards the redoubt, having lost one unit I was given a new one, this too I flung forward. Ian had now got up and we both concentrated fire on the large Militia unit defending the cannon, these part timers took heavy losses and recoiled, their friends were now turning up but concentrated on Ian's command and left me alone. Fortune favours the brave and I got a good run of cards, my boys leapt forward and cleared the redoubt of gunners and Militia in bloody hand to hand combat, a cheer went up as my men stood atop the ramparts.

The Militia begin to suffer.

The Jocks get ready for their assault.

Yesssssss.

 The American reinforcements now broke like a wave on the battlefield, we were not going to stop them we had lost too many men achieving what we had, I ordered the gun spiked and then began a withdrawal, it was now a race for the depths of the forest. We managed to carry out an orderly retreat and eventually outran our pursuers, a British win was declared, a close run thing.

As usual with Rob that was not the end, we all got a personal score for carrying out our objective, a plus for killing the enemy and a minus for our losses, I had started out badly but with the spiking of the gun racked up 69 points, sadly my heavy losses brought this right down to 15, I came in second in this race as Paul had lost hardly any troops on his way to the fight due to his late arrival. Did I mention that the gun had been firing on nearby British ships (off table) and got a point every time it hit, another cunning mechanic. So, another excellent game of M&T.

I have now primed my three new vehicles and will probably spend some time this afternoon giving them their base coat, the two German ones that is as they will more than likely be the first to see a game. I had hoped to get one next week but it is the club's Christmas Game so the pressure is off for now, I think I will also get an hour or so on the French SYW cavalry as well.