Blunts' Gold

After a long break, me and Neil got the Napoleonics out again for another little skirmish, in the ongoing tale of Lt Blunt of the 60^th Loyal Americans and his battle against the French.

The scenario this time was a simple one, and I decided to avoid formed units, as they wouldn’t really have made sense. This would be an easy one and to be fair a oft attempted one to replicate.

Blunt found himself with three small sections of men, scavenging a farm for treasure lost in an earlier battle; against him was fencing master Louis Pappilon with around twenty men. According to the scenario we each placed treasure markers, without knowing their value (from 1 to 5) across the board, no marker being allowed to be less than 6 inches from any other; ten all told.

Initial dispositions, Blunt and his Chosen Men are off camera, stage right.

Using the latest modification of my skirmish rules the two sides manoeuvred towards one another, the rules now present the possibility that the commander (as in DBA) will have less commands than units in a turn; however personalities are now more characterised, Lt Blunt for example was ‘Rugged’; he could take two wounds! An addition of a quick play sheet to the rules sped things up no end despite some additions to the turn sequence.

Anyway, both sides advanced on one another and started grabbing treasure. The units had to hold onto it to the end of the game or leave the board bearing it for it to be worth anything. As it was the only person to lose treasure was my, when Lt Blunt charged the enemy only to be wounded, in his retreat he dumped his booty.

The French advance through the fields unopposed

The untidy melee in the centre saw the French try to eliminate Blunt whilst being shot up from all directions. On my left Louis Pappilon fenced his was through a unit of light infantry, though their last survivor managed to escape with his gold.

Blunt and his chosen men use the farm as cover whilst scooping up more treasure, under the noses of a French patrol

I began to withdraw, whilst the French hoovered up the remaining treasure, as they had six markers to my one, I assumed I’d lost, but it turned out I’d bagged most of the high value ones, and so won by a single point.

A great fun little game, which saw only five models removed from play, and a handful of wounds inflicted. The scenario played out well and, barring a few small tweaks still to make, the rules work well.

All in all, most satisfying, though Blunts’ reputation was somewhat tarnished by his poor judgement in charging the enemy.