Welcome to Platoon Forward!

Welcome to the site where the story of the battle is as important as the battle itself. Here we will focus on men thrust into extraordinary situations of life and death. They must lead other men with duty and honor to meet their countries objectives. Some will be blessed with great skill, some will carry great shortcomings. No matter what nation, no matter what war, no matter what theater, they are all called to move their Platoon or Squadron forward!

These are their individual stories as played out using my various campaign rules . Hopefully these stories will entertain and inspire you to use your own troops, airmen and sailors to accomplish your own great heroics.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Jose the Pig

Still tweaking Beat to Quarters for sailing ships and Sharp Practice for boarding actions while I continue the career of Lt Ron Ronald in "For King and Country".   After Lt Ronald's last mission delivering messages and event occured; Capt Lemmon of the HMS Bulldog, who is friendly to Lt Ronald, requested a favor.   What to do? Thought of a neat sceanario; it couldn't be too easy as that would be "grant a favor" but had to be cool.   See what you think.

Lt Ronald hurried through the door of the building to meet Capt Lemmon.  The Capt had an urgent matter to discuss.  Ron didn't know what it was about but counted the Captain as a supporter.  Capt Lemmon had but in a good word for him in describing the action they had both taken against the Spanish ships.  The Admiral had been pleased with the result and Lt Ronald.

Mr Ronald, I have tracked the notorious pirate, Jose the pig, to a cove nearby and mean to capture him tomorrow.  The cove is too shallow for my frigate but not for your sloop.  I would like you to accompany me to the cove and if Jose doesn't come out you will go in and get him.  I will place 20 marines and a Sergeant under your command.  I don't care if he is dead or alive but I want his ship as a prize.  Will you accompany me and rid the sea of this scoundrel?

Lt Ron Ronald   Scholarly/  skirt chaser      Gr I       Str 5     Avg swordsman
Jeff Fishback     Pessimistic/ glutton            Gr II     Str 5     Avg  swordsman   Bo'sun
HMS seawitch     10 gun  sloop    Avg crew

Capt Lemmon  Scholarly/ family                   Gr III     military family
HMS Bulldog    32 gun frigate    Elite crew

Sgt  Kilmer     Gr III     marine Sgt

Jose the Pig     Cheap/  Glutton            Gr II           Str 6  Avg swordsman
Trusted sidekick                                   Gr II           Str 5  Avg swordsman
Taco Time     10 gun sloop   poor crew for firering   Elite for fisticuffs

Miguel the Fox                                  Gr II
Prize ship     4 gun sloop     poor for firering    Elite for fisticuffs

Jose in the cove.      Which ship was the Taco Time would be determined randomly. 

Capt Lemmon approached the cove upwind and sailed as close as he dare where he turned to starboard and let loose with successive broadsides.  Lt Ronald hung back to see what Jose would do. 
The pirates upanchored and returned fire.   Then a mast came crashing down on the nearest pirate ship.  ( The Bulldog gunners were good!).  Ronald set out after this ship!

HMS Seawitch approaching the damaged pirate vessel. 

On board the Taco Time Jose the Pig swears at his crew to cut away the rigging that is obscuring his guns!

The Seawitch move up on the pirate vessel, firering as she goes; inflicting significant damage. 
Jose tries to tack and ends up "in chains" as the wind deserts him and his evil soul. 

HMS Seawitch moves up to grapple, firering grapeshot and inflicting horrible casualties on the evil men inside. 

Meanwhile, the prize ship makes a run for it and loses it's steering to a ball from the Bulldog.  Clearly God's will is to be done today!

Miguel the Fox surrender's only at the last moment as his ship is sinking.  There will be no prize here. 

Meanwhile, back at the Taco...
Lt Ronald will have the marines board at the stern and he and Fishback will board at the waist.  He can already see many pirate dead on the deck. 

Mr Fishback leads the Tars onboard!!!

Our hero enters the fray!!


The battle is one sided given the Brits advantage in numbers that the pirates clearly see.

Finally...

Jose (center) has had enough and surrenders.


Great game that played fast.    Each part took about 40 minutes.  Clearly a resounding success for Lt Ronald.  He gets a +1 from Capt Lemmon and a " Good Show" from the Admiral.   The Admiral now has an interest in him as well.  With his two events he seeks female companionship and invites both the Capt and Admiral to dine with him aboard the Seawitch.  The dinner turns into a disaster however when he picks the wrong cabernet to serve!  He looses the +1 from Lemmon and a glory point from the Admiral. ( He hangs onto his interest though.)   Such is life for King and Country!

Enjoy

Joe   









 

6 comments:

  1. I would play any game that would let me get out my Pirates! collection. That looks really fun.

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  2. James,

    Download "Beat to Quarters". Google it, it is free. For movement I play you pick 1 d4to move unless at full sail then it is 2. I have modified the combat a bit but too hard to explain here. All ships take 4 "hits" to sink. Not the most realistic but better than Pirates and plays fast, you don't keep track of hull hits and it is fun!

    Joe

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  3. Very nice. I like the ship template for the boarding action. Where did you get it? Is that from beat to Quarters as well?

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    Replies
    1. Chris

      It is actually from Captain miniatures. They had it as a download for a while until they released some rules for gunboat actions. The british figures are actually Captain figs.

      Joe

      Delete
  4. This is nice. What was your previous blog for the campaign?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jon,
    Both posts in May of this year.
    Cheers
    Joe

    ReplyDelete