Returning to the Cantwara sector after a long absence

 

Returning to the Cantwara sector after a long absence.

Time has a habit of going by far quicker than one expects, I can hardly imagine that I have let this blog lay fallow for so long.  But absence they say makes the heart grow fonder and I have the urge to try and resurrect the blog.  Since my last post I have been wargaming, but like many practitioners of the hobby I have been flitting from one project to another.  I have recently turned to my pile of 15mm Sci-Fi lead, mostly from Ground Zero games, which brought me back to the Cantwara sector.  I plan to morph the blog to not only include my Rogue Trader era miniatures but also all of my Sci-Fi projects.  The narratives will be grounded in the Cantwara sector, but it will take on a less grim dark look.  I hope by opening things up to various other scales, theatres, backgrounds I can post semi-regularly.

So, what have I been working on?  After a bit of thought, and needing a change from painting 20mm Napoleonic infantry, I decided to work on some of the terrain pieces that I have.  The more terrain that I have, the more varied I can make the battlefield and with that the different types of scenarios that I can fight.  Here are the pieces that I have finished so far, the colonial settlement of Keithstown is slowly starting to come to life.

Vehicles from Ground Zero Games - 

These sculpts were a real pleasure to paint and being made of metal they have some real heft to them.

Scatter terrin - Ground Zero Games

Most of the scatter terrain came as Christmas freebies with an order.  They will either serve as terrain or objective markers. 

Mines -  Ground Zero Games (I think)

The mines will do service as terrain, objective markers, and spawn points.  I have one more to paint.  I think that I got these from GZG, but I cannot find them on the website, so I could be wrong or they may no longer be available.

Colonial settlement buildings -  Ground Zero Games

These wonderful buildings make up the colonial settlement pack from GZG, they went together really easily and the painting was a joy.  

 

Return to Blasthof bridge.

For the last couple of games that I have played, I used Neil Thomas` excellent rules, One-hour Wargames.  I love how quickly they play, and the 30 scenarios are always an inspiration.  There are times when I want a bit more from my games, though.  Trying to choose which of the many rules sets I have, to use can be a little daunting, but for the game today I thought I would break out a classic set, Donald Featherstone`s War Games.  Like a lot of rules of its era they are not as complicated as people imagine.  There are some areas, mostly around failed morale, that could have been clearer, but as a solo war gamer I just made a ruling and went with it. 

Of course, I could not help tinkering with them a little and introduced card activation, where each unit had its own card, and the obligatory end of turn card.  This led to some situations where units did not move for quite a few turns, but it certainly helped to make for a fun game.  I think that I may return to Keith Flint`s system from Honours of War, or Henry Hyde`s activation from Shot, Steel, and Stone for a future game . 

I thought that it would be fun to refight the action at Blasthof Bridge from Charge! by Peter Young.  I tried using the original troop numbers from Charge! but Donald Featherstone`s rules are a little too deadly for so few troops.  I increased the number of units and troops but tried to keep the ratio from the original scenario.  The game you could say was a blast, and I will definitely use the scenario and rules again.

The Battle

Following his defeat at the Vallée des Ormes the Lord Warden Philippe Le Duff, Duke of Monfort realised that his position as Head of State was not as secure as it once was. So, he decided that the only way to stop the machinations of the other nobles was a fall scale invasion of Volgar.

The Lord Warden of the Five Duchies could not lead the invasion himself as he was too busy dealing with issues at court, so he sent a force under Robert du Ouestbourg to secure the bridge over the river Blast.

The army under Robert du Ouestbourg

General - Robert du Ouestbourg

The Ouestbourg Regiment- Col. Wadoux

The Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers – Col. De la Côte D'or

The Burgoyne Hussars – Col. Leblanc

The Montfort dragoons - Colonel Douker

The Capel – le- Ferne battery – Capt. Le Bigot

Ouestbourg`s orders were to secure the bridge over the river Blast and bloody the nose of any Volgan troops he faced.

The army under Theodoric Von Martinez.

General – Theodoric Von Martinez

The Dijl Regiment – Col Joannu

The Fouksten Highland regiment – Col. Huss

The Feweszem regiment – Col. Chomski

The Sytynbon lancers – Col. Dragos

The Tanbrydz-Lelz battery – Capt. Lehmann

Von Martinez was commanded to destroy the bridge, and deal as much damage as he could to the forces of the five Duchies.

Battle Plans

The army of the Five Duchies

Robert du Ouestbourg, always an aggressive commander, decided to utilise his cavalry advantage and sweep up the eastern bank of the river Blast while holding the western side with his infantry.

The army of Volgar

Theodoric Von Martinez, the wily old campaigner, knew that his lack of cavalry could be a deciding factor and realised that he had to dislodge the enemy infantry as quickly as possible.  He planned to send his lancers across the river to delay the enemy cavalry while pushing south down the western bank with the rest of his army.

Turn one

In the first turn, the two commanders started to move most of their units towards one another.  Both the Montfort dragoons under Colonel Douker and the brave Sytynbon lancers commanded by Colonel Dragos failed to advance with the rest of their armies.

Turn two

In the second turn, Colonel Dragos spurred his men on, crossing the river to face the Burgoyne Hussars. 

An ineffective exchange of musketry broke out between the two armies, the Ouestbourg Regiment, and the Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers both firing on the Dijl Regiment, while the Dijl Regiment and the Feweszem regiment shot at the Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers.

The Tanbrydz-Lelz battery raked the Burgoyne Hussars with cannon fire as they stood waiting for Colonel Douker and his regiment to come up in support.

Turn Three

Having stood waiting under cannon fire for long enough Colonel LeBlanc ordered his hussars to charge across the bridge into the flank of the overexposed Feweszem regiment.  The infantry couldn`t stand up to the charge of the ferocious light cavalry men, broke and were cut down to the man.  The Dijl Regiment, a regiment of mostly untested soldiers, broke and fled from the battlefield. 

The Burgoyne Hussars did not have it all their own way, though.  They had come into cannister range of the Tanbrydz-Lelz battery and the punishing fire from the cannon forced them to retreat across the bridge.

Turn Four

With the loss of two of his infantry regiments the battle was lost for Theodoric Von Martinez, but the old commander could not order the retreat (I probably should have stopped playing here as the battle was over, but I was having too much fun).

The Montfort dragoons moved forward to block the Sytynbon lancers, who had just cut down the remnants of the Burgoyne hussars.  The blood of the lancers was up, though, and they routed the dragoons with ease.

Across the river, the Fouksten Highland regiment was taking a pounding from the Cherry Blossoms, and the Capel – le- Ferne battery.

Turns Five, Six, Seven

For the next few turns both sides stood and exchanged fire with one another.  The Sytynbon lancers, their horses exhausted from destroying two regiments of cavalry, came off badly as the Ouestbourg Regiment had them squarely in their sights.  Colonel Dragos decided that his regiment had done their duty that day and calmy led them off the field of battle.

Turn Eight

The Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers came under scathing fire from the infantry and artillery that was left under Von Martinez`s command.  The Capel – le- Ferne battery`s supporting fire could not find its mark in all the smoke covering the battlefield.

Turn Nine

The Ouestbourg Regiment pushed up the eastern bank of the river Blast and engaged in close-range musketry with the Tanbrydz-Lelz battery.  The canister from the artillery ripped through the infantry, but the cannon was running low on powder and shot.

On the western bank, the Capel – le- Ferne battery continued to pound the Fouksten Highland regiment, while Robert du Ouestbourg tried to rally the Cherry Blossoms.

Turns Ten & Eleven

With both artillery batteries out of ammunition, and their soldiers spent, the two commanders broke off the engagement.  The battle being a marginal victory for Robert du Ouestbourg.

Forces of the Confederation of the Five Duchies - The Burgoyne Hussars

 The Burgoyne Hussars

Commanding officer: Count Gui Leblanc

Motto: "We get knocked down, but we get up again"

Garrison/HQ: Lynn de la Duchesse.

Nick name: The Ragged Brigade

Origin

The regiment was raised in Lynn de la Duchesse by James R Montague as James Montague`s Regiment of Dragoons in 1715 as part of the response to a Volgan invasion. During the invasion it took part in the Battle of Capel-le-Ferne in October 1715, after which it escorted the captured Volgan soldiers to the waiting prison ships.

The Peasants` Revolt of 1745

During the 1745 Peasants revolt, a major uprising across large parts of the Confederation of the five Duchies, the regiment was largely made up of recruits and commanded by an inexperienced officer, Francois Baskerville. On 13th September, the regiment was faced by a small party of disgruntled Oast workers and was routed in the so-called 'Kiln Canter`. Francois Baskerville was almost stripped of his command for the poor handling of the situation, but he put it down to the soldiers sympathising with the workers and their lack of battlefield experience.

The regiment, though, was demoralised by both their conduct and the way their commanding officer had been treated. In the Battle of Maison Dieu, on 21st September, which lasted only15 minutes, a large group of peasants once again routed the regiment and killed Francois Baskerville as he tried to rally his men. The command of the regiment was given over to Jacques Hiver but the equally disastrous Battle of Colline Militaire in January 1746 saw the regiment once more routed from the field. Shortly after this, Baskerville's replacement Jacques Hiver died of Malaria and was replaced by David Marais. Under David Marais` guiding hand the regiment underwent many changes. The regiment was renamed from Montague`s Regiment of Dragoons to the Burgoyne Hussars, the recruiting process was reorganised, the regiment no longer settled with former prisoners of war, murderers, debtors, and rejects from other regiments, instead they would look to entice the yeomanry. The old drill sergeant also, exercised the troops relentlessly, and installed rigid discipline with some of the harshest punishments in the army.

Forces of the Confederation of the Five Duchies - The Mont du Château Chasseurs

The Mont du Château Chasseurs

Commanding officer: Colonel Adas Van Beorg

"Motto: "Bold and Swift

Garrison/HQ: Mont du Château 

Nickname: The Wheat

Origin

Mont du Château Chasseurs were originally raised in 1650 by the Honourable Volgan Trading Company as a marine force to protect the company’s overseas interests.

The war of independence

The regiment returned in secret from its colonial duties in the dead of night in 1668. This redeployment was carried out by the chairman of the Honourable Volgan trading company, Wilhelm Lützow, in 1668. Lützow, a proud Mont du Châteauian, and staunch believer in the wisdom of the independence movement, had been syphoning off funds from the company to transport, train, and arm as many troops as he could for the fight. This move allowed him to not only bring back the regiment, but also to raise two additional battalions of men. The sudden appearance of three battalions of well-trained sharpshooters in the rebel forces, and the mass embezzlement of funds by the most senior member of the Honourable Volgan Trading Company caught the loyalist members of the board completely by surprise. The misappropriation of the capital, and the loss of confidence in the company led to its bankruptcy, and eventual dissolution by the Volgan Monarch.
 
The value of Lützow`s investment was soon realised as the Mont du Château Chasseurs were quickly deployed in the Volgan campaign. The three battalions were involved in skirmishers around Feweszem in December 1669, the Battle of Hen-Bei in July 1670, the Siege of Sytynbon in October 1670, where elements of the 2nd battalion captured the colour of 2nd Sytnbon regiment, and the Battle of Iytstelbel in 1671.

At the conclusion of the war of Independence, Wilhelm Lützow made the shrewd decision to amalgamate the three battalions into one compact elite force. This choice allowed Lützow to not only choose the best men from the three battalions, but with the financial savings he was able to equip them with the best arms available. A tradition the regiment would continue to the present.

Rearguard at Vallée des Ormes

 

Rearguard at Vallée des Ormes

In the previous battle, the forces of the Kingdom of Volgar were soundly defeated and forced to retreat. So, I imagined this battle revolving around the forces of the Confederation of the Five Duchies trying to pursue the retreating army and push their way into the Kingdom of Volgar.

I am always amazed at how fast time flies, I didn`t realise that it had been over two years since I last did anything on my Lace Wars project.  I have, like many wargamers, been distracted by too many other projects to mention, but I found myself wanting to return once more to the never-ending conflicts between the forces of the Kingdom of Volgar and the Confederation of the Five Duchies. 

I thought that it was best to ease myself back into things, so I decided that Neil Thomas` One-Hour Wargames were in order.  I am still surprised by how good a game these simple rules always give.  The last time I used them I opted for my smaller 2` by 1.5` table, today I thought I would use my 3` by 2` board to try and expand the manoeuvre options for both sides.  This idea was rather scuppered when I rolled scenario 24-Bottleneck, but that was the way the die rolled.  The result was not a complete loss, as it allowed me to link this battle with the last one. 

I have had to resort to using my river sections to represent the road down the centre of the table as I don`t have enough road pieces to serve the purpose.  Making more road sections will have to go on my to do list.

The Battle

Theodoric Von Martinez wiped his brow at the thought of Queen Dragomira Zedwitzové`s reaction to his latest failure, even as the Queen`s uncle he was not immune to her wrath.  What he needed to do was to bloody the nose of the perfidious Philippe Le Duff and stop him from penetrating into the Kingdom of Volgar.  Luckily for Von Martinez, Le Duff had rashly followed him into the Vallée des Ormes unable to control his desire to ravage the outlying Volgan provinces.  The Lord Warden of the Confederation of the Five Duchies had given the old soldier a chance to redeem his reputation.

Smiling to himself, Von Martinez turned to Colonel Lara Akyne and instructed her to take her Grenzers and occupy Elm wood.  The general was sure that the lioness of Volgar would not let him down, her Grenzers would make Le Duff pay.  The rest of his forces would wait at the end of the bottleneck, between Elm wood and the impassable Elm hill, to see what forces Le Duff had managed to muster and how he would dispose of them.

The Confederation of the Five Duchies` army under Philippe Le Duff

General - Lord Warden Philippe Le Duff, Duke of Monfort

The Ouestbourg Regiment- Col. Wadoux

The Maison Dieu Regiment - Col. Bricourt

The Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers – Col. De la Côte D'or

The Montfort Dragoons – Col. Douker

Capel – le- Ferne Battery - 1^st section Capt. Le Bigot

Capel – le- Ferne Battery- 2^nd section Lt. Le Gross

The Kingdom of Volgar`s  army under Theodoric Von Martinez

General -Theodoric Von Martinez

Fouksten Highland Regiment - Col. Huss

Feweszem Regiment - Col. Chomski

Sytynbon Lancers - Col. Dragos

Sendgyt Grenzers - Col. Akyne

 

The Lord Warden Philippe Le Duff, Duke of Monfort sighed to himself as he saw the waiting Volgan forces.  A look of boredom crossed his face as he realised how easy this battle was going to be.  The old dog, Von Martinez, would be taught a lesson on this day.  With a slight movement of his hand, Le Duff sent his aide de camps off with the orders for his forces.  The guns would pound the Volgans from this position, the Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers, and the Montfort Dragoons would form the lead forces while the Ouestbourg Regiment, and the Maison Dieu Regiment would deal with the skirmishers in the wood.  The battle should be over before teatime.

The Capel – le- Ferne Battery hoped to please the Lord Warden with a concentrated barrage and opened fire on the line infantry ahead of them.  Captain Le Bigot cursed under his breath as the first shots were mostly ineffective, the mist coming down from Elm hill obscuring the gunners aim.  The fire from the forest was much more effective, as the sharp eyed Sendgyt Grenzers let loose their first volley, cutting down many members of the Maison Dieu Regiment.

Colonel Dragos, and his lancers swept down the road looking to smash into the Cherry Blossoms, but they were intercepted by the Montfort Dragoons.  The brief melee was indecisive, the heavy cavalry leaving many of the saddles of the light horse empty with their sword play, but the courage of the lancers never faltered.  As the two cavalry regiments separated, Colonel Dragos saw an opportunity to attack his original target and spurred his men forward.   The Sytynbon Lancers crashed into the Cherry Blossoms their lances causing untold carnage to the unit.

The staccato crack of musket fire from into and out of the woods drowned out the sounds of the wounded and the dying. Both the Ouestbourg Regiment and the Maison Dieu Regiment were being cut down by the accurate fire of Col. Akyne`s Grenzers. Reluctantly, Le Duff decided that his line infantry was better employed with dealing with the Volgan line infantry and marched them past the Grenzers.

Colonel Wadoux shook his head in frustration as his regiment ground to a halt behind the Maison Dieu regiment.  Too many of Le Duff`s men were trying to fit into too small a space.  Withering fire spat out from the woods dropping many of the brave men of the Ouestbourg regiment.  The Montfort Dragoons moved forward to try and relieve some of the pressure on the infantry, but the Sytynbon lancers blocked their path to the Feweszem Regiment.   Once more the brave rovers were able to fend off the heavy horse.

The Maison Dieu regiment moved past the forest straight into a deadly fusillade from the Fouksten Highland Regiment, and the Feweszem Regiment. Col. Bricourt couldn`t hold his men together and the proud regiment fled from the field. The disbelief on Col. Wadoux`s face as his sister regiment fled was quickly turned to horror as he saw the ferocious Sytynbon lancers bearing down on his regiment.

The loss of the Maison Dieu regiment and the reckless charge of the Sytynbon lancers broke the spirit of the Confederation of the Five Duchies army. Le Duff failed to keep control of his remaining forces and the retreat turned into a rout. A rout that the Sytynbon lancers were able to take advantage of, and cut down the last of the Duchess du Burgoyne`s Own Fusiliers.

Theodoric Von Martinez smiled to himself; the battle had gone better than he could probably have hoped for.  His plan to delay the enemy with his light forces had worked well, both the grenzers and the lancers had been crucial in stopping Le Duff from pushing his superior forces forward.  But Le Duff`s own incompetence had helped in the defeat.  Countless times the artillery couldn’t be brought to bear, as other regiments had come between them and the Volgan forces.  Von Martinez had handed Le Duff a sound beating, taking care of half of the army the Lord Warden commanded at the loss of only around a third of his force, most of which came from the Sytynbon lancers.  The brave rovers would take some time to rebuild their strength, but their sacrifice had been worth it.  Colonel Hans Dragos star was in the ascension, one that he, Theodoric Von Martinez could make use of.

 

 Ambuscade in Repair Bay Astor

Clearing the Docking Bay access port, the crew of the Belgrave dived deeper into the guts of the space hulk.  An eery silence pervaded the corridors, the only sound coming from the movements of the crew.  After what seemed like hours Shino S spotted a flickering sign indicating that they had arrived at Repair Bay Astor.

A dim light emanating from a fusion reactor lit the repair bay as the crew entered, their eyes struggling to adjust to the gloom.  Wells raised his hand signalling to the rest of the crew to be on their guard, his keen ears picking up the sound of soft padding footsteps.

The bark of Wells` autogun sounded as he located the shape of a deformed mutant trying to sneak up on Shino S.  The high-powered bullets sent the pulped mutant`s body flying, but a few stray rounds fractured the fusion reactor.  Alarms in the bay sounded as the ancient reactor suddenly went into melt down.  The sparking and spluttering from the reactor revealed the presence of three more mutants.

The filth encrusted mutants hissed as they charged towards the crew of the Belgrave.  Okunishi Blue stepped forward opening fire with his las-pistol drawing the mutants away from Shino S and DCL-74 as they tried to stabilise the reactor.

Sweat dripped from DCL-74 as he worked on overriding the safety switches of the reactor, one false move could blow himself and his crewmates to pieces.  The surgeon was so focused on the task at hand that he failed to notice the mutant as it raised its weapon to cut him down until the purple light of YT-75`s laser sword flashed out and the mutant`s head rolled onto the floor.

Okunishi Blue feinted away from the first mutant, twisting on the spot and catching the second mutant with a reverse slice.  Too late, he realised that he was wide open to the first mutant and his luck had finally run out.  A wave of heat spread towards the first mate as he waited for the killing blow that never fell.  Looking up he saw that the Bosun, Hanley had set the mutant alight with his underbarrel flamer.  Okunishi Blue nodded his head to Hanley in appreciation.

With the threat of the mutants finally dealt with the crew were able to turn their attention to the fusion reactor.  The rapidly pulsing reactor was on the brink of detonating when it was finally brought under control by Mandrake.  He was able to locate the emergency cooling valve controls and flooded the reactor with coolant.  Audible sighs of relief could be heard from the crew members as the emergency sirens cut out.  Another danger averted; they could continue with their exploration of the hulk.

Plunder at Peverell

 Plunder at Peverell

Standing outside the Docking Bay access port, YT-75 smiled to herself as she remembered the image of the space hulk appearing on the scanners.  Fresh salvage, probably enough archeotech to clear their debts and see them sitting pretty for the foreseeable future.  Best of all, the Belgrave was the first ship to come across the hulk, and they were not going to waste this opportunity.  YT-75 broke out of her moment of introspection as Shino S opened the internal bulkhead doors, releasing a cloud of hydraulic fluids.

The atmosphere of the Docking Bay access port was thick with ion and the floor crackled with sparks of electricity.  Shino S turned to the rest of the crew and said “watch where you stand, the floor is live.  I should be able to isolate the issue from one of these maintenance ports.”  The engineer set about trying to cut the power from the live conduits but in her efforts, she set off the security system.  The lights in the Docking Bay access port changed to red, and six ancient security droids appeared from lifts in the floor.

The security droids moved slowly forward on their creaking millennia old servos.  YT-75, and Wells, the Master-of-arms, opened fire with their autoguns.  The sounds of the shots  rebounded off of the walls of the chamber but the bullets could not penetrate the armour of those ancient weapons of war. 

Frustrated at their inability to move, the first mate, Okunishi Blue, and the Helmsman, Mandrake tore open other maintenance ports looking for a way to cut the power that was coursing through the floor, only for both of them to be electrocuted for their efforts.  Okunishi Blue slumped to the floor almost losing consciousness.

Whirling and clicking sounds came from the security droids as they tried to fire their malfunctioning guns.  Stepping out from their pointless cover, Wells and YT-75 unleashed a fusillade of bullets at the droids, taking two out of commission. 

On the opposite flank the second group of security bots bounded towards the waiting crew members of the Belgrave.  DCL-74, the ship`s surgeon, ignored the pain of the electricity as he moved to help Okunishi Blue. 

Shino S shouted to her crew mates “I think I`ve got it!”, and the electricity coursing through the floor ceased.  Hanley, the Bosun, let out a roar and charged towards the axe wielding droid, firing his las-gun on full auto.  The beams of light burnt holes through the chassis of the ancient robot and it collapsed, the light in its photosensors dying out.

Being free to move without fear of being electrocuted, the crew members of the Belgrave quickly dealt with the remaining security droids.  The final one`s body collapsed to the floor as a shot from Okunishi Blue`s las-pistol tore through its CPU.

Looking at the display terminal that Shino S had managed to bring back to life, YT-75 sighed, the ship was much bigger than she had first thought.  The only way to deal with a problem this big was through a strategic plundering of the ship.  They would have to choose the highest value areas to loot first.  Turning to her crew YT-75 barked out an order, “we are heading to the repair bay.  We should find some items of value there.  Check your weapons and stay frosty people.”