Another Night Another Ambrose.

Wednesday 14 March 2018

From this

                                       

To this

And ending up with this!

  A repeat battle tonight where Ambrose Adamson had morphed into Ambrose O'Brien and that's were the similarity ended.Four weeks ago we recreated the Battle of New Berne in North Carolina during the early part of the American Civil War using the Bonnie Blue Flag rules.This evening we went back to using Black Powder rules which I find a lot easier to play.Also the Union commander had lost all of his white hair and regenerated into Ambrose O'Brien.

"Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue flag that wears the single star"

Locked and loaded.

Our generals confab

                                             

Our naval support.

   Our favourite rock star Mr Ray O'Neil and myself took charge of the Sons of the South again hoping to be a bit more adventurous than our last adventure where we just stood our ground and took all the hits.Colin Jack and our host Bill Gilchrist were Ambrose O'Brien's subordinates.

My militia hoping for bigger things.

My cavalry horsing about.

                                   After seeing the Union disposition where our right flank looked as though it was going to get a kicking,we decided just like a quarterback at line of scrimmage to call a change of play and Ray's forces were going to go over the wall and attack the enemy in the flank.

The forces of oppression.

A big traffic jam evolving.

Battlefield R&R

                                              The initial skirmishes saw Colin's command move quickly up the Union flank scattering my unit of militia and carrying on towards my emplaced regulars supported by artillery.Bill's forces headed for the gap in the wall created for the railway but due to the Union plans Dave's command got held up by Bill's forces.

Union firepower.

"Here they come boys"

"Onward to Richmond"

                                                     Our initial firing was confined to long range artillery fire hoping to disorder the enemy but my dice rolling at the start set the tone for the evening -pitiful!Mr Ray's dice rolling wasn't any better.It was going to be a long evening -at least that's how it seemed at the start.

My cavalry advance to the rear..

My boys fighting tooth and nail.

Not for long.

                                    After the initial mad rush towards our positions the Union attack begin to stagnate especially when Dave couldn't maneuver with Bill's men in front  of him.Colin's men were sticking to their plan and attacked my defenders with relish and my men were definitely getting in a pickle with my artillery running away and my regulars lasting for a wee bit longer as they were getting attacked on two sides.Bill had peppered one of my cavalry units who had intended to ride around the Union flank but due to terrible dice rolls didn't move a muscle.My other cavalry unit retired to a place of safety in order to plug gaps. Bill's units where heading up the railway in order to plough through the gap in the wall,zouaves to the front.

Bill's forces hoping that there is not a train due.

Dave's artillery vapourises  from Mr Ray's rebel yell.

                                                            With Dave's forces following up it gave the chance for Mr Ray's infantry to let out a rebel yell and head over the wall towards Dave.s artillery hoping to inflict some mortal damage on the Union and relieve the pressure on my defenders.

Hanging on for dear life.

Ambrose has a chit chat with his commanders.

                                                             This gave me a chance to reinforce my defenderless wall and also a chance for my cavalry to redeem themselves.This they did making Colin's infantry stutter in front of my positions and my defenders held their ground albeit precariously till the final whistle.

Plugging the gap.

My lads making life changes

Final picture of plugged gap.

Game changer.

                                                Bill's lads were moving now with vigour through the railway gap and forced my defenders back from the wall hoping to reorganise at the bottom of the hill.He didn't have any support from Dave as he was too busy fighting of the attentions of Mr Ray's rebs.
                                                     Once again the final whistle arrived and what looked like an evening of disappointment for the rebel cause turned into a slight Union victory unlike the real thing.
                                      A great game as always played in a friendly manner unlike real battles.
                          All the scenery,scenario and most of the figures were supplied by our host Bill with added troops from Mr Ray and Dave O'B's collections.Bill also provided an excellent repast watered down by a nice glass of Chardonnay to bolster the Confederate cause.
                                        Speak to you again next week with a report from the League of Gentlman Wargamers VBCW game in Kirriemuir organised by our Colin.

What a difference an H makes!

Saturday 10th March.

         
                                  First invited game under our new banner of Gothenburg Gamers took place in the sleepy town of Dumfries situated in the Scottish borders with five of us decked out in our new yellow T-shirts ready to show the world the games we have on offer.

Five Yelly Bellys let out for the day.

                           The game to be played was the Suez Crisis game that we played the other week and is a game that Colin Jack has been putting together for a long time.Since our first playing of the game Colin had adjusted some of the scenery and between himself and Bill Gilchrist had added flags and signage from the period.It's amazing what you can find on Google these days.

Peaceful Saturday in Port Said.

An "H" too many.

Bill M pondering whilst Colin gets rid of a bit of bacon stuck between his teth.

                                           Colin and Bill Gilchrist had arrived bright and early and had everything ready for us arriving after nine.I had brought Mr Ray and Bill Miller.I stopped of at Ray's local Post Office so he could nip in and pick up our shiny new yellow T-shirts ready for our initial outing .

This translates as Colin's Harbour.

Nifty wee signs courtesy of Google.

                                            We drove south and I was hoping to show Ray one of the local landmarks outside the town of Moffat called the Devil's Beef Tub which is a local deep valley where the Border Reivers used to hide their stolen cattle.Every year we have passed this place but every year the weather has been consistent-mist and rain.

Devil's Beef Tub-Definitely not today.

                                                We arrived at Dumfries and set about getting ready to play the game.It was meant to be a public participation game but we had intended to play the first game ourselves so that Mr Ray and Bill M could see the gameplay.Just like when we played the game about two weeks ago the objective was to see which of the two allies would reach the flag first and replace it with one of their own.The only difference was that Oor Donald wasn't their for me to have a difference of opinion with.

Peace and quiet before the coming storm.

Another Googleised sign.

My gallant defenders.

x 2!

Locals going about their innocent ways-Aye Right!

                                  Our game kicked off with Bill M taking the part of Les Francais and Mr Ray commanding the British(He doesn't like playing the French at any game-Ce'st La Vie).Myself and Bill G took the part of the not so plucky defenders.

Beautiful beast-pain in the ass to maintain but still beautiful.

A marauding Vampire.

                                                The game was meant to be a race but the two protagonists didn't exactly come out of their starting blocks like Usain Bolt more like typical Brits and French -as though they were drinking tea or smoking Gauloises.

Looking for targets of oppurtunity mainly French tanks.

Hiding behind the locals.

                                                    On hearing of Dave O'Brien's misuse of Centurion tanks Mr Ray decided that haste was not called for and proceeded cautiously up the canal wall making sure that he was not going to be easy cannon fodder for any marauding Egyptian tank.He made light work of a squad of militia who were too near his starting off point and proceeded to get into a position where he could dispatch the Egyptian tank on his side of the canal making sure he didn't get into the line of sight of my tank on the other side.I was too busy waiting for Bill's AMX to get into the line of sight of mine which it eventually did but I was in hitting a barn door kind of day.I even tried to pepper the tank with my mortar but that just brought instant reprisals from Bill's tank.Boom!No more mortar squad.

Sneaking about.

The gallant Brits.

Bang go the locals.

                        Mr Ray's forces headed slowly but surely towards their objective moving from one building to another and then eventually one of his squads sprinted towards the winning line with Bill M wondering where he went wrong.

Another tank hiding behind some locals.

Not that mine was any better.

                             First half over I decided to take a peruse of the proceedings to see what other games were on offer and also to see what I could buy not that I needed any more toys.I eventually ended up with two books and a roll with sausage.Last of the big spenders-for the moment.

French armour.

"Booyah!"

Still sneaking.

                            I looked at the other games on display and frankly I was disappointed.The Best game in my opinion was the Border Reivers Club's game next to us .This was an American Civil War game with a difference.The difference being that due to The Trent Affair, Britain had declared war on the Union and so we were set for a battle with Confederates supported by British against the Union.Interesting idea that appeals to my what if? scenarios.Apart from that there was nothing interesting.I don't know if it was due to the present weather but the show seemed to be rather dull.It didn't stop me spending a couple of bob.

That's what you get.

Aerial recon.

                                                   

Confederate general confers with British general.

British cavalry supporting Confederate guns.

"There's a moose loose aboot this hoose"

Very British Civil War display but no game.

Enough of the preaching,as it didn't look like there was going to be any takers for our game we decided to swap sides with Colin taking charge of the Brits and I would take charge of the French.Bill M and Mr Ray were given charge of the gallant defenders and we commenced the second part of our game.This time the defenders were hidden and so we had to go building to building hoping that there were no bad guys behind the door.This proved costly to both myself and Colin as Bill M opened fire on my poor French mortar team.Shooting them in the back and annihilating them to a man.Revenge was swift as one of my gallant French para squads charge in on the bad guys and exacted revenge.Colin's squad also fell victim to the cowardly shooting of local militia.I eventually exacted revenge for my gallant British brothers by pouring mortar fire on them backed up by some precise gunfire from my tank.

Les Francais reappear.

Complete with tank.

Centurion moves up.

British paras ambushed.

Yet another Egyptian tank simmers.

The French charge in.

                                                                        Both Arab tanks decided this time to hide behind some innocent civilians and take ineffectual shots at our tanks which dually replied dispatching both of them rather quickly.Colin's paras were making good headway towards their goal so I decided to go for broke and moved my tank right up to the objective only to be met by Bil M's militia charging out of their hidey hole and dispatching my tank albeit on the second attempt.Although mon gallant Francais were ready to nip in and grab the Egyptian flag the British had already secured their objective.Ah-Ces't La Vie.

The gallant French have victory stolen from the jaws of defeat.

You Bummer(in French)

Smoke gets in your eyes.

God Save The Queen.

                                           A great game played under under not so serious conditions.
                                        The added bonus came at the end of the game when we found out our game had been decreed Best In Show and not a Labrador in sight.Our first game resulted in a victory.It's only downhill from now on.

What more can one say?

                                              All figures,scenery and scenario were provided by Colin Jack supported by the gallant crew.
                                        American Civil War is next up this week so I'll see you when I see you.