It’s another busy week for DMC. On the one hand, I’m making all of the last-minute preparations to get ready for Historicon. On the other hand, Spain decided to beat up on my beloved France last week, and now we need to mount a comeback! I had to get at least one game in, despite the busy schedule.
This week’s objective was an easy one: Raise the Black only requires a scenario from the new ‘Raise the Black’ book. There was a lot of choice here, because ‘Raise the Black’ adds a lot of scenarios. Unlike previous publications where the scenarios are presented with Sea/Amphibious/Land variants, RtB presents 5 scenarios for each game type. My Thursday group has been playing sea games almost exclusively, so for this game I mixed it up and played the ‘Capture the Settlement’ scenario.
Scenario & Lists
For our game, we used my plantation terrain. The objective buildings were “Big Daddy’s House” and the entire enclosure around the windmill.
I put together a small French list so that the game could be played quickly. I got my best friend into this game last year, and he also ended up siding French. For this fight, he elected to take my English, provided I built him a list.
I actually like running the French/English “mirror lists” like this, because it makes for a game that feels a bit more like chess, where both sides are pretty evenly matched.
The Battle
We kind-of bodged deployment. I did, anyway. I could have occupied both objectives, but we forgot that the Defender deploys at table-center. Instead, we deployed cross table and I kept my force out of sight.
I started the game by moving up quickly. I peeled off one of my Flibustier units to occupy the big house. My Milices and other Flibustiers headed toward the windmill. Early in a game, I’ll risk making sweeping moves, because any shooting over 12″ of range is usually just a “warning shot.”
I was expecting that I could just about win any gunfights that might break out, and that he would use Edward’s Motivated rule to move rapidly around the table. Instead, he fatigued Edward’s own unit to activate them on a spade, and open fire with a 3-action Drilled shot right into my Milices. Even with the 12<16 range band, the -2 bonus from Drilled was brutal. He dropped several of my Milices in that volley.
He had also moved up a unit of Freebooters into the err… “guest house” and Fatigued them to shoot as well. They grabbed a Rally from Eddy’s Grizzled Veteran.
As the game progressed, it became clear that we had differing ideas about “the big house”. I saw it as an easy position to defend, and tasked a single unit of 5 Flibustiers to hold it. Surely, he wouldn’t actually try to rush that position. But that’s exactly what happened. With a final Motivated command for a unit of Freebooters to rush the Big House, Eddy set off with his Militia to go and claim the “Drilled-friendly” yard of the windmill.
With Edward’s unit Fatigued, my Captain quickly directed fire from the Flibustiers into their position – benefitting from Cold Blooded. It was long range, but the shots land and managed to bring down 1 militia and put up an additional point of Fatigue, bringing Edward to a precarious 2. Not only because his unit is nearly Shaken, but also because Edward has the rule Heat Stroke – if he reaches 3 Fatigue, he must test for the possibility that he becomes a casualty of heat exhaustion (historically, Edward Morgan had a stroke while fighting to claim Jamaica during the Cromwell expedition)
My next activation was a Spade, beating out the English. The Flibustiers used their Fast Reload, reloaded with their action, and Pushed themselves to Fire into Edward’s unit again.
Fortune couldn’t avoid the Fatigue, but a second coin did save Uncle Eddy, and the English were pushed back out of the cane. They still occupied the space, however. With the Captain and Grizzled Veteran, it wouldn’t take long for them to recover, either. I would need to cross the space quickly, and get to grips with that unit if I wanted to deny them their objective. The problem was, I still had a firebase of Freebooters watching the middle of the table, and other unit of Freebooters about to break into the Big House.
The turn ended with the Freebooters charging into the Big House in an attempt to dislodge their French counterparts. Brace of Pistols was a godsend here, and despite some fierce Fight Actions, my Frenchmen held onto at least one of the objectives.
With one unit of Freebooters bleeding onto the floor of the Big House or captured by the French (likely both), and Uncle Eddy trying to marshal the Militia into a semblance of order – the other unit of Freebooters decided to sally out and directly into the French command zone.
It was a weird twist that at no point in this battle did I ever really get those guys into cover. The Freebooters had hung back, and my rule of “don’t fear 12inch shooting” was holding up. With the Freebooters moving in closer though, my commander’s unit got smacked around. But he managed to rally the troops and return fire – putting 2 Fatigue onto the Freebooters and blunting their counter charge.
Things got very messy from here, and unfortunately I don’t have any photos of the last few fights.
The Freebooters midfield charged in and slaughtered my Captain’s Milices. My captain escaped the fighting with a Command Point to join the nearby Flibustiers. He got his revenge when next turn he charged them into melee and removed the last of the Freebooters (with some help from preparatory shooting from the Flibustiers on the balcony of the Big House).
Conclusion
When the dust settled, we each had 3 Strikes for models slain. He inflicted a 4th strike on my forces by still claiming the Cane Field, despite my holding the Big House. It was a narrow English Victory.
In retrospect, this scenario is really best with at least 3 buildings to defend. Which means, at least 150pts on the table. I would argue that you should just always use 3 buildings. Why? Because if the Attacker holds at least 1 of the objective buildings, they inflict a Strike on the Defender, but if the Defender holds more objectives at the end of the game, they inflict 2 Strikes on the attacker. With things tied up, why would defender leave the village in enemy hands? (Probably because they have 12′ of beach terrain to scratch build before Wednesday)
Next week I’ll be at Historicon. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some photos and some games in – but don’t expect a Summer of Plunder Report for Week 7. For those following along, Week 7’s objective is to use Fire or Smoke in your B&P games, or a Fireship in your games of Oak & Iron.
Dead Man's Chest 