"Firing into the Brown" #94 - Christmas Dickens, “The Noon Stagecoach Wagon Job” setup, and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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That time of the year again, and my regular reader will know that as Christmas approaches it is my want to read a Charles Dickens, so it's Dickens time again! 

Here's the 'Christmas Dickens' timeline to date...

• 2013 - "David Copperfield" (9/10)
• 2014 - "Nicholas Nickleby" (exceptional)
• 2015 - "Oliver Twist" (8/10)
• 2016 - "The Old Curiosity Shop" (7/10)
• 2017 - "A Tale of Two Cities" (7/10) and "A Christmas Carol" (9/10)
• 2018 - "Great Expectations" (10/10)
• 2019 - "Bleak House" (8/10)
• 2020 - "Little Dorrit" (retired hurt - no score 😏)
• 2021 - "Our Mutual Friend" (8/10)
• 2022 - "Pickwick Papers" - brilliant... (9/10)
• 2023 - "Dombey and Son" - hugely enjoyable.. (9/10)
• 2024 - "Barnaby Rudge" - very good.. (8.5/10)

My top four Dickens novels so far would be "David Copperfield", "Nicholas Nickleby", "Great Expectations" and 2022's absolute joy, "Pickwick Papers" - "worst" (it's Dickens for goodness sake, how can there be a worse?), so 'least enjoyed', was without a doubt "Little Dorrit" which was mawkish beyond extreme, but of which my opinion seems to be at odds with most other people - I may have to have another go at some point, as Dickens 'only' wrote 16 major novels (there were a few books of short stories etc), and I've now read 11 (and a bit) of them...

This years Dickens, however, will be "Martin Chuzzlewit"

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“The Noon Wagon Job”

The peaceful (😏) town of Cedar Gulch is just one stop on a stage coach route that wends it's way almost 200 hundred miles from Nogales on the Mexican border at Sonora in the south, to Phoenix in the north. 

Usually a stagecoach journey of three to four days depending on conditions en route, it's also used by other goods traffic of course, both private and 'government', wheeled or otherwise - if you've got the money or the authorisation, it's possible for non-stagecoach traffic to also enjoy the benefits of horse changes at the regular staging stops along the way.

So it was that one hot and dusty Tuesday saw a wagon with four tired looking horses halted outside the livery, office, cantina, come general store in the flyblown frontier staging post of Cactus Wells (plenty of the former, the latter, singular, now largely dried up 😁) located just twenty miles south of Cedar Gulch.

Closer observation reveals that the wagon is carrying a strong box in the wagon bed, with "government" seals on it, and that it's guarded by a US Marshall and his deputy.

The wagon has stopped in order to allow the men to eat, change horses, but more importantly make some running repairs..  the driver, Jim Mullin (known by everyone as 'Shotgun'), had spotted some pulled threads in the reins and had taken them off to repair while getting his food. Having eaten and completed the repair, the three are just leaving the cantina to return to the wagon to change the horses, reattach the reins and then resume their journey, when they are rudely interrupted...

Dramatis Personae:

Objective(s): 

• The outlaws need to steal the strongbox from the wagon and escape with it off the table (doesn't matter how many of them get off the table providing the strongbox does).
• The good guys need to stop them from doing that for 8 turns, or stop all the outlaws (dead or alive). We can assume that reinforcements will arrive on turn 9 and the outlaws will automatically disengage
• If both sides fail their goals, the fight ends in a draw

Scenario specific rules:

• The wagon cannot be steered as the reins have been removed for the repair.. the horses could be lead if required.

• The strongbox:
• It takes two actions to pick up the strongbox from the wagon
• Anyone carrying the strongbox must move towards the table edge and do nothing else
• If anyone carrying the strongbox is knocked unconscious or killed the strongbox drops where they fall.
• Anyone carrying the strongbox moves at half speed and cannot run.

• The Wagon Horse Spook - whenever someone fires within 3" of the horses, roll a die:
• 1 :  Horses panic: the coach jerks forward 2", possibly spilling the strongbox or knocking a figure down.
• 2–6 : No effect.

• The Outlaws start the game 8–12" from the wagon, the good guys start between the wagon and the cantina.

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say... 

"Firing into the Brown" #93 - Foot Guards, Bastion No. 1 and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..  apologies for the intermission dear reader - too busy elsewhere, and not enough to blog on...

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Look at those battle honours.. including all the big
four in the War of the Spanish Succession..

Another in the occasional "regiments of renown" series featuring the histories of various regiments painted in haste at the beginning of a project but which were not documented here for posterity.. so we come to British infantry regiment "1st Foot Guards" - the creme de la creme of the British infantry..

They were first raised in 1656 in Bruges as a bodyguard for Charles II whilst in exile. Initially under the command of the Earl of Rochester, on his death (1658) the command then passed to the regiments original founder, who was Thomas, Lord Wentworth 

Initially known as the 'Royal Regiment of Guards' it comprised 400 of the King's most loyal supporters - they were all officers in the earlier Royalist army of Charles I and who had gone into exile at the end of the war.

Following the Restoration (and in the interim, service at the Battle of the Dunes - where they were badly handled), they returned to England in 1660. In 1665 they were amalgamated with 'John Russell's Regiment of Guards' to form the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards - they remain the most senior regiment of the British Army to this day.

There is no point in repeating the excellent Kronoskaf regimental history of their service in the War of the Spanish Succession (see link below), but my reader will know that I am endlessly fascinated by the characters and personalities, so by way of providing some rabbit holes to disappear down, the Colonel-commanders during the War of the Spanish Succession were:

• from 16 March 1689: Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney - described by Jonathan Swift (he of Gulliver's Travels fame) as 'an idle, drunken, ignorant rake, without sense or honour' - but given Sidney's politics, and that Swift was notably anti-Whig, other views may definitely differ! 😁 He died of smallpox at his house in London on 8 April 1704..
  
  

  

  Painting attributed to John Baptist Medina

  
  
• from 24 April 1704: John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough - arguably (not arguably in my eyes) Britain's greatest general...  he lost the Colonelcy after his fall from grace with (Queen) Anne - "I am sorry for your own sake the reasons have become so public which makes it necessary for me to let you know you have rendered it impracticable for you to continue yet longer in my service".
  
  

  

  Painting attributed to Michael Dahl

  
  
• from 1 January 1712: James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormond - boo hiss 😏- a noted Tory, and the tool the British government tasked with getting the British army out of the war - the British government gave him secret orders to take no active part in supporting their allies under Prince Eugene. Happily - he was also a Jacobite as well as a Tory, and when George I (who was neither Jacobite or Tory!) came to power a mere two years later, he was stripped of  his posts as Captain-General, and as colonel of the regiment - both of which positions were given back to Marlborough.. yay!😁
  
  

  

  "A fine soldier, as a statesman ‘he often followed the advice of those who had a smaller share of sense than himself (and)... was as irresolute and timorous in affairs as he was brave in person’" Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723)

Important men one and all, but the regiments battle field commander would have been the Lieutenant Colonel, and from what I can tell - this would have been these men throughout the period of interest:

• Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Withers - he was Lieutenant-Colonel when the regiment was first sent to Flanders in 1701  - just the one battalion, of the four (!) the regiment comprised at that time. Withers was made Brigadier-General in March 1702, and Major General in 1704 shortly after Marlborough was made Colonel of the regiment. He eventually died at a good old age.. his grave stone says..
  
  "Henry Withers Lieutenant General descended from a military stock and bred in arms in Britain, Dunkirk and Tangier; thro' the whole course of the two last wars of England with France. He served in Ireland, in the Low Countries and in Germany, was present at every battle and at every siege and distinguished in all by an activity, a valour and zeal which nature gave and honour improved. A love of glory and his country animated and raised him above that spirit which the trade of war inspires; a desire of acquiring riches and honouse by the miseries of manking. His temper was humane, his benevolence universal, and among all those ancient virtues, which he preserved in practice, and in credit, none was more remarkable than his hospitality. He dyed at the age of LXXVIII years, on the XI of November MDCCXXIX. To whom his monument is erected by his companion in the wars, and his friend thro. life, Henry Desney".
  
  Not a bad epitaph at all.. 😊
• At the Schellenberg, Kronoskaf shows them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Primrose (perhaps Captain? Maybe promoted as a result of his efforts?), who was wounded in the assault while leading the grenadier company, which had been detached to make up a composite force of grenadiers from multiple regiments. He recovered from his wounds, made Colonel, and was later given command of the 24th Foot - he ended up a Major General
• Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Dorner assumed temporary command but was subsequently killed at Blenheim where the regiment was part of Fergusson's Brigade (that attacked the village of Blenheim).
• Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Gorsuch then assumed command - he died in December 1708 at the Siege of Ghent after commanding them for five campaigns. When reinforcements for the Guards in the form of an extra Battalion was sent, Marlborough specifically asked that they not be sent with any officer senior to Gorsuch, so that Gorsuch would remain in overall command, he was that well regarded.
• Lieutenant Colonel Cholmondeley is mentioned as being in command in 1711, but in the interim the most active battlefield command seems to have been by Withers (above)..

These are Minifig's and painted and based by me some time pre-2006 from the batch of unpainted figures that DG passed me when he decided not to proceed with the project. Probably one of the first regiments I painted..  flag is from the old Warflag site

Further reading:

• The First Regiment of Foot Guards
• 1st Foot Guards - Project WSS (Kronoskaf)
• The Origin and History of the 1st Foot Guards (four volumes!)

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Time to get my Dora the Explorer hat on - I was reading some stuff [clicky] on the Interweb the other day and mention of this one caught my eye..

Bastion No.1 from an 1890 WD Plan

Bastion No. 1 is in Gosport (just the other side of the harbour from Portsmouth), and over the years I must have crossed that moat via the modern footbridge any number of times without seeing the greater significance..  I sense a little winter project coming on - the Gosport Lines! 😏

Other reading sources:

Trinity Bastion - Gosports History

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #92 - bot madness relief, the Immortal Memory and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..  just a short one this week...  busy elsewhere...

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The Bots have buggered off and my page view counts are back to normal - how will I survive the lack of attention? 😏

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Portrait of Nelson by L. F. Abbott (1799)

To the immortal memory.. 🍻

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 ...and while we're on the subject of anniversaries...  it was the anniversary of the Battle of Edgehill this week as well (Thursday), and we all know where that ended up [clicky]

..those little men are long over due a re-visit to the table top!

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"One Hour Wargames" - Scenario 28 - "Botched Relief" - Game

Time for another update.. and time for the little metal men to march again...  

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So as per the last update a Confederate force of four units is attacking a Union held town. 

The Union force comprises six units, but they are commanded by a bit of a McLellan who is loath to commit his entire force, so only three of them are ever active at one time, two of them are positioned close to, or in, the town which is the objective for the game. 

The other active Union unit, and the rest of the inactive Union force are positioned on a hill to the south west of the town - the kicker being that, only one Union unit from the group on the hill can be active at any time - the moment the active unit is removed from play for any reason, only then can the next one can come in to action..

This gives a surprising number of tactical conundrums for both sides - I will be using my variant of the One Hour Wargame rules (but in which the key elements of the books rules are still present) - 

• Interestingly this is the first period where Thomas doesn't allow Hand to Hand combat. His view - probably rightly - was that it was so rare as to not need representing, since in most cases the two lines of infantry just closed to musket range and blasted away at each other until the other side ran away. I modified this in my rules to allow it (how can we not have the "Rebel Yell"?? 😁), but only when one side has a significant advantage over the other.
• Thomas also penalises units shooting at units in a town - half casualties. I adopted this as well - but for a scenario where the objective is to capture the town, you know the attackers are going to have a hard time!

So here we are - start of game... as Union player I chose to put my two strongest (in terms of firepower) units in the town - the Zouaves and the artillery. The other active Union unit is the one to the fore on the hill top left..

The Confederates started with their artillery deployed, but other than a decision whether to put their zouaves centre or right flank, the only other decision was to leave one of the two 'bread and butter' infantry units to cover the left flank and that damned hill.

...and so we start with the two artillery pieces exchanging counter battery fire - but with the Confederate artillery doing considerably less damage because of the cover. The Confederate infantry advances on the town with the left flank regiment (the 33rd Virginian) moving to cover the advancing Union infantry (14th Indiana) from the hill.

The 33rd continues to pour fire in on the 14th Indiana, but clearly with three more units ready to take their place there is a sense that these are just pinpricks - and, regrettably, they are blocking line of sight for their own artillery.

As the Confederate infantry nears the town, the Union artillery switches targets to the now much closer Louisiana Tigers - the Confederate artillery continues to fire, but is doing little damage because of the cover bonuses. They are within musket range and the two sides start to exchange fire..

On the flank the 'Mexican stand off' continues..

In the town the artillery is loading grape and tearing great swathes out of the Tigers - they're almost done - high water mark of the Confederacy? Worse still, in order to close the gap, they have now blocked line of sight for their artillery who now have no targets..

With the Union infantry and artillery in the town continuing to tear chunks out of the Confederate attackers, and a battle of attrition on the left flank they couldn't hope to win, the Confederate commanders orders the withdrawal..

End of game.. Union victory

Post match analysis:

• First the butchers bill...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ...clearly a bloodbath for the Confederates though the 33rd were holding their end - well until the next regiment turned up!


• Well - not sure what else I could have done differently to be honest - you can manoeuvre so as to attack a different edge of the town - or even split your forces so as to attack two sides and split the Union, but they'll still be effectively dealing double casualties and units in towns have a 360' arc of fire anyway - there are no flanks


• In the Thomas rules, you either move or fire, so to advance on the town requires you to give up the right to fire in order to advance - an additional penalty when one side already holds the objective of the game


• I am not sure that the artillery should have been allowed in the town but I played it that it could - specifically the rules say that in this period only infantry and skirmishers can end their turn in a town - but the scenario states that units can set up anywhere within 12" of the baseline so the artillery actually start the game there - they never moved...

Bottom line - this is a very difficult scenario for the attacker to win given their paucity of numbers, even with McLellan in charge of the defenders!

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #91 - bot madness, dust, "Botched Relief" and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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It's no secret that the bloggerati are seeing some wondrous traffic patterns across their blogs - so I thought I'd have a look at what's going on here, in my little sunny corner of the web...

...the first three of my 'top 5 posts' in 14 years of blogging were all written in the last month..  amaze-balls.. 😏

..thought this one was interesting - these are page/post views over the entire life of the blog.. 

..so those bots, in one single month, have accounted for almost 7% of all the views in 14 years of blogging...  what utter nonsense...😁

..."top of the world, ma"

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Oh yes...👏

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Time for another game - and I thought it would be nice to the get the American Civil War guys out. It was either them or the English Civil War guys, but they haven't marched in an age, so Gerard's will have to wait a while - next time, I promise... 😀

The next in my oh so enjoyable ramble through Neil Thomas's "One-Hour Wargames" is #28, "Botched Relief", an interesting sounding scenario if ever there was one.

In summary - a Blue force (got to be the Confederate) of four units is attacking a Union held town. The Union force comprises six units but they are commanded by a bit of a McLellan who is loath to commit his entire force, so only two of them garrison the town and the other forces are positioned some way away and only released piecemeal.

I'm giving both sides one Zouave regiment and one artillery piece, the rest will be standard strength infantry regiments..

So - orders of battle will be:

Table as follows:

Two Union units occupy the town, four units occupy the hill/ridge (one of which is noted in advance as "first responder"), the Rebel force attacks along the road from the bottom of the picture..

Just need some time now to fight it!

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...