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   









 

Villiage Sweep 1939

Sorry for the long break--  real life got in the way.  
The good news is that with this final playtest of Villiage Sweep my asymetrical suplement for Platoon Forward, Middle of NoWhere is done.  It contains a new Table A and B as well as a new table for meeting NPCs (you have a higher chance of meeting interesting folks now.  While a symetric line unit has a chance of meeting a black marketeer or a man from the ministry, a unit involved in "peacekeeping operations" is going to have a better chance of meeting someone like that.  ) as well as 5 new scenarios.  The scenarios are :   Villiage Sweep, One of are planes is missing, Hammer Dawn, Ambuscale, and Ft Apache. 

The whole project has been held up because I could get the right feel of a villiage sweep.  It always either ended up a villiage fight or a delaying action.  I think I have it now where the player has to move through the villiage fast to search it while brushing aside light resistance.  However there is always a threat that the enemy might be stronger than anticipated and it could devolve into a villiage fight.   My latest playtest...

Sgt Bustamanti listened as Lt Chianti went over the plan.  Intelegence had pinpointed this villiage as a storage area for weapons for the rebels in Ethiopia.  The mosque was actually the local headquarters and three other sites identified as probable caches.   The Lt would lead one squad to attack two buildings and support Busamanti's attack on the mosque from the oppostie side of the villiage.   After that they would quickly search the rest of the villiage.    Speed was critical as the locals would rapidly move supplies out once the Italians entered. 

Lt Chianti         Romantic/  the arts                     Gr II
Sgt Bustamanti  Confident/  family                     Gr III    1st sq
Pvt Pinchela                                                         Gr I      acting ASL
Sgt Polti   obnoxious/  skirts                                Gr I      2nd sq
Cpl Petracela    cultured/ wealth                          Gr II     ASL

A tip off (pre battle event) told the platoon that a squad of rebels were in the mosque.  The attack commence according to plan.   [  Sorry no pre battle picutures as I lost my camera!]  

Sgt Bustamanti attacking the mosque from the top of the picture.   Lt Chianti takes the mobile element of the squad and attacks buildings south of the river while the LMGs and "autocar" support the attack on the mosque.

5 rebels fighters keep the Italians at bay.  [ the green marker means it is a location that has to be searched.]

Finally the Italians gain the courtyard!  Lt Chianti looks on. 

Pvt Pinchela closes in on the Mosque.

Close quarter fighting leaves dead on both sides but the rebels flee. 
After a 5 minute search an arms cache is found in the trees behind the mosque!

Lt Chianti's men find food as others race across the bridge harried by a lone sniper. 

The Italians move north of the river looking for an eluisive sniper.   5 additional rebels arrive along a field (left) but disappear rapidly once all the additional equipment in the villiage has been relocated. 

Lt Chianti arrives to rally his men.  They then enter the building to flush the sniper and search it.   But the rebels have done their job.  Both the sniper and any items have vanished into the desert.  


Great game.   Technically the Italians lost as you have to search 3 locations to win but both of the locations the Italians searched revealed good stuff so I called it a minor win.  Pvt Pinchella has been acting ASL since Cpl Fan was invalided home so both Bustamanti and Lt Chianti ask Capt Butro to promote him.   Suprisingly the Captain refuses.  Cpl Stanza is brought in instead.  The squad is not happy but Stanza is a gr II leader and is a likable guy so things will probably work out.  Also Sgt Bustamanti meets and befriends a local priest, Fr Franco.   Could set up some interesting stories there!  Finally Lt Stinna of the armor pledges his support in the next mission. 

So I am happy with Villiage sweep and I am happy with Middle of NoWhere.  Don't think there is enough to publish it as a stand alone supplement  (6-7 pages) so it will probably be a magazine article.   Will start to work on that.  

Cheers

Joe