Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Massacre at Boggy Marsh- Road to Orleans Campaign

After taking the village of Orchard Farm, British forces moved toward a vital bridge crossing into the toxic marshlands that exist beneath many of the sky cities.  The area below Orleans and its out lying villages must be captured and cleared in preparation for the primary siege.  French forces rallied on the opposite side of the river and bridge from the British advance to deny them the least dangerous crossing to Orleans.

Participating Forces.

French
Professor Vesuvias, in his monsterous creation "Songbird Mk1." he is the inventor of all French air machines.


2nd Royal Guardian Corps.-2 support teams, and 2 rifle teams 
Led by Col. Bosch- rival of captian Teage.


1st Royal Air- 2 flights of "Straw" type biplanes. 


The Armstrong


19th Steamlords 


British
1st Great Army Repatriated Regiment
- Captain Matthews commanding


3rd Foot 
-Captain Teague commanding


12th Armored


45th Air Cav, Detachment -1 


5th Steamknights 




Primary Objective of French is to deny the British any troops crossing the river, the British are trying to get as many troops across as possible in 5 turns.

We decided that the deployment would be diagonal across the length of the table, with the bridge at the center.


The first turn sees both armies trading a few long range shots to no ill effect for either side, and a lot of movement into the center.

Second turn sees an incredible turn in the favor of the British as the tanks of the 12th Armor get several lucky damage flips of the giant French mech "Songbird" and blow it to kingdom come, vitrually ruining the chance of a french attack on that half of the board.

The Great army swarm forward to the bridge taking shots from the circling "Straws"

The 19th Steamlords, just after the destruction of "The Songbird"

We pull the first successful event card and a hideous giant mutant crawls from the river, (this one under French control for the turn) and charges into a squad of Great Army, killing 75% before finally being hacked down by the survivors.

An overall view of the fight at the end of turn 3, great army has finally made it to the bridge, but is taking incredible amounts of firepower from all corners. The 3rd foot is spread out across the entire table and is in no position to move to assist as of yet.

A view from the "linebreakers" squad, the second on the bridge. The first squad was eradicated by the Armstrongs forward cannons. horrifyingly another Mutant crawls out of the smoke to confront the onrushing British, but is unable to make the charge.

The Great Army pushes across the bridge through, mortar fire, maxim guns and rifle shots to engage the enemy on their own ground.

The French mount their first (and only) counter assault across the river with the 19th Steamlords, the combat ties up 2 squads of 3rd foot  for 2 turns, before the clockwork horsemen are finally put down.

Much to the Dismay of Captian Teague, Captian Matthews earns the glory of not only being the first across the river but also defeats Col. Bosch, Teagues enemy since the opening days of orchard farm, in single combat.

Teague is given.  Rival- Matthews, which we decided would mean that no 3rd foot regiment would assist any Great Army unit in matters of shooting, or melee as long as the were within 10'' of Captian Teague.  Also, if Matthews is ever to "kill" as in remove from campaign  Col. Bosch, Teague will challenge him to a duel to the death after aforementioned game.

In his anger at seeing this Teague pushes all his men recklessly forward into the guns of the french forces.


The Great Army in the thick of fighting.

Teagues men finally reach the river and the overall field begins to look like an outstanding example of "fog of war" it was at this time that we had a discussion of how realistic it was, since neither side had any real control over its infantry commanders at this point. with Teague charging mad,  Bosch, critically wounded. Professor Vesuvias, dancing around the backfield after escaping his mech (he's quite insane), and Matthews recently wounded by a volley of French rifles.

A devestating volley from the Armstrong and the Mortar Support team of the RGC kill many members of the 3rd foot, and also forced Teague to jump of the bridge to avoid death (ie. also critically wounded)

The fighting on the other side reaches its bloodiest yet.

A view from the Armstrongs mast as it leaves the battlefield.


Final Result: Costly British Victory.


Total Casualties on Both Sides:

54 Infantry,
1 Straw downed, another crippled
1 Titanic Mech
4 Characters (all the ones in game)

earning this fight the title of "Bloodies one in the campaign so far!"

It was a great game and really moved the story forward, hoped you enjoyed reading it !

-Your Favorite Madman-

3 comments:

  1. Great battle, though I often can't tell who's who, uniforms might help, but war is often confusing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that's due mostly to the fact that the 3rd foot are actually french old gaurd minis whose plastic was base blue, and that I haven't painted them. The great army guys are painted like vikings, but I could add in strips of red perhaps

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think once everything is painted it will be easier to distinguish. Basing everything the same helps with this too, if everyone looks like they are standing on the same battlefield they seem more like part of the same army.

    ReplyDelete

Please refrain from profanity and adult content. Thank You.