Wednesday 29 May 2013

Little Wars Centenary part 4 - King Boris and the trombone of doom

For the final round of games the Forbodian Army again took the field.  The enemy (in this case the British Indian style army of Julian Spilsbury (ably assisted by Andy Hussey) had two guns occupying a fortified position while infantry and cavalry forces were poised to reinforce them.  Flags were used to represent units until they were sighted by the enemy.
The slightly bizarre (even for me) title of the post relates to Julian's need to designate one of his figures as a sniper.  Lacking a suitable pose, he selected a trombonist...
As with the previous rounds, four games took place at once, but I was too busy to pay the others much attention.
King Boris's cunning plan was to assault the redoubt with one of the infantry battalions while the other flanked it. 
The cavalry brigade was massed on the right, poised to head off to the distant second objective. 
Annoyingly orders had arrived tasking the Forbodian artillery with (notional) other targets for three turns.
The Forbodian's second brigade-level cavalry charge of the weekend went just as well as the first. 
The enemy infantry battalion was eliminated - but at considerable cost! 
This was bearable until an enemy cavalry regiment showed up and saw off the survivors!
It was at this point that I uttered the now infamous words "If you were a gentleman sir, you would charge that Gatling."  Julian did so, with entirely predictable results. 
This event gave rise to his subsequent accusations of "Forbodian mind games."  I'm sure I don't know what he means.
 
While all this was going on the Forbodian infantry had successfully taken the redoubt and held it against two enemy assaults.  Even the trombone player perished in the second wave. 
This turned out to be the closest run game of the entire weekend which Boris's brave boys won by only 71 points to 70!  A thoroughly enjoyable conclusion to a splendid weekend.

8 comments:

Conrad Kinch said...

Very good. How did you find the card bases serve on grass?

airhead said...

Tim, congratulations on the name check in the Times on Saturday the 25th, page 41 and big up the "elite" Wargames Development crew.


All the best

Airhead

Springinsfeld said...

Spiffing stuff, I also have just noted your quote in the Times (I read my news secondhand being too tightfisted to buy my own paper).

Tim Gow said...

Conrad Kinch
The bases were fine most of the time - only one was written off due to being soaked through. I now have a set of rather butch steel bases...

Tim Gow said...

airhead
Thanks! Elita maybe but hardly 'London based' - given that of the three WD members quoted none live in London!

Tim Gow said...

Springinsfeld
I only saw it myself last night - for the same reason!

Paul said...

Splendid AAR Tim. The Gatling gun comment was true gamesmanship.

Tim Gow said...

Paul
I only said it - no pressure was applied!