Blunts' Hill

Or 'Hamburger Hill' as Neil termed it. High atop a ridge stood the Casa del Santa Rodriguez. Both sides needed to secure the high ground to outflank the enemy in the upcoming battle. Blunt found himself against a highly professional cadre for French Light Infantry, but lumbered himself with the 'Scum of the Earth' mere line infantry. Would he be able to act in time with a handful of Chosen men to stop the French?


The intention of the scenario was to throw another curve ball into the simple condition of seizing the house to win the game, the size of the hill meant that both sides used counters to represent the movement of their units until such a time as units crested the hill and could see one another. This way we could not be sure what the opponent had or where. As it was my riflemen won the race to the top of the hill and spotted the enemy commander first, as it turned out leading elite Leger up the hill behind him.

He made a dash for the house, whilst the troops behind him withdrew from deadly rifle fire. Unbeknown to him though , British light troops were just arriving at the rear of the house!

Fortunately, in doing so, other French Leger spotted them and were able to drive them off with musketry. In their stead a platoon of the line moved to the crest of the hill. Unfazed, the French charged and forced them to withdraw too. But they rallied and unleashed a massed volley up the hill, which whilst not very accurate, did enough in volume to force their withdrawal too.

Under the cover of this Blunt advanced on the house, unaware the French commander was already there. The Frenchman leaped from a first floor window, sword in hand; and landed in a heap in front of Blunt. Blunt struck him a devastating blow, but some how the Frenchman rose to his feet, and so a long duel began, both drawing further blood.

Elsewhere a steady exchange of fire continued as both sides tried to reach the top of the hill in force.

The Leger succeeded, getting a handful of men into the building whilst the British dithered below it. However many of their number had been diverted by a pair of riflemen giving enfilading fire from a nearby copse. Suddenly melees were breaking out left and right.

But as time ran out the French commander finally buckled and withdrew, wounded too many times. Blunt looked at the prize of the house, he could feel its warm hard walls, but he had no comfort in the thought of support. His Chosen men were being outnumbered and driven off, whilst the Line infantry stood impassive halfway up the hill.

What a great game, back and forth, with plenty of uncertainty and lots of tactics. In the end we agreed it a draw. As to the rules, well they are on the last revision now, and really I only need to add a clarification appendix and some more notes to the points system and they will be published via the blog.

It was a good night for games in the club overall, with Necromunda, Blood Bowl, Warmachine and others being played. Of note to the camera though were two items, firstly some beautiful models for a game called Infinity, using the nice new near future buildings:

And a game of Battlefield Evolution; by Mongoose Publishing. Ultra modern at a platoon/company scale, played around some classic Warhammer card buildings belonging to Mark. By eck, they still look the business!

Expect more on Battlefield Evolution next week, when my WW2 Americans get a trot out with them...