Le Duc on the road - Part 1 - Carrickfergus Castle

Not much gaming in recent weeks, though I have been out on the road a bit, so here’s some (relevant…no really) pics from recent visits.

Carrickfergus Castle is one of the last remaining (if not pre-eminent) Norman castles in the UK and Northern Ireland. It has a long history from the days of Norman expansion, and was originally constructed (well the keep and a bit more after a motte & bailey concept) by John de Coucry in 1177, as a base when he conquered the rest of Ulster. He built it on a rocky 'crag' - and the area became 'crag-fergus' or 'castle of crag', now Carrickfergus.

It sits on a strategic position on the northern arm of Belfast Lough, and has been besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French over the years.

It was besieged by Schomberg in 1689 when held by Jacobites, is the landing point of William III in Ireland in 1690, and was attacked by Thurot’s French in 1760 in a little known seven years war escapade.

Oh yes…and in 1778, John Paul Jones of AWI fame lured a RN ship from its moorings nearby on Belfast Lough, before winning an hour long sea battle.

Later, the castle was used as a garrison in WWI and a magazine/armoury in WWII (the secret tunnels and stores areas still exist - stretching out well into the lough).

 There is also a Churchill tank and a 25 pounder not far from the castle (see pics below). The Churchill (an earlier version - perhaps named after Churchill himself or his 17th century ancestor Marlborough-John Churchill, in line with the historical designation of the Cromwell etc.?) was originally conceived and prototyped by Harland & Wolff in Belfast (which still exists...just, after decades of shipbuilding, to provide  heavy fabrication & wind farm structures), and there was some local manufacture afterwards.

My father actually remembers an area of H&W called the 'tank shop' right into the 1960s - yet he could never work out why, so I'm surmising that the prototypes were built there before being transferred to Vauxhall.

Bronze statue of William III, who landed near the castle in 1690.

 View looking east along the coastline from the battlements. If you squint, you can see a tank and a 25 pounder.

 View south toward the opposite arm of Belfast Lough - Bangor direction.

View of the town, looking to the north-west.

Clearly some Frenchie has stolen the business end of his Brown Bess.

 

 ...and his mate is pointing his firelock in entirely the wrong direction...unless the buggers have got in already...

 Classic 1970s horror film view of the 'The Keep'

A nice replica of the castle during the 1689 siege, with some lovely 54mm minis inside.

 So they explain the different painting schemes away through outlining how the Jacobite defenders were a bit of a 'motley' crew in terms of uniformity. I think either (1) the painter got bored and wanted to change his/her colour scheme or (2) there were originally supposed to be a lot more figures...and the painter got bored or (3) the budget ran out.

 Nice sketches of period uniform though.

 

 King John on the pot. Apparently the only authentically medieval crapper in the castle.

 The great hall at the top of the keep. This work was done in the last 20-30 years, as this area used to house arms and armour from across the years.

 ...and these stairs used to allow access to the top of the keep, until the Health & Safety guys said 'nope'.

 D&D anyone?

 It's a trap!

1970s horror...part 2.

Yep. I thought her bum would be a bit cold sitting there too.

 Cuthbert the crossbowman. No really, that's what it said on the bloomin' sign.

 ...and in case you couldn't see the Churchill earlier...

Looking west. The castle in all its glory.

 Close up of the 25 pounder at 'Marine Gardens'.

 And the Churchill. It really is in very good condition, and as with many WWII tanks I've seen, contains hatches which most blokes of today would find increasingly hard to get out of.  (ah, the perils of chocolate and fast food).

Game 39 - FAD, PMC, and other TLAs

Haven't tried Crossfire yet (after my Squad Leader rant), though the decision to try one or the other is becoming more reinforced, and reading through Crossfire is making me feel that it's the game to go for.

That said, I needed a quick game for our next session, so developed a rapid PMC scenario in the troubled country of Redbullistan, using Ivan Sorenson's old (and free) 'Fast and Dirty' rules (these are pre-5core).

Some nice concepts in a game which saw the worst quality troops in good numbers vs the elite/outnumbered...

The old get to the embassy and hold it scenario.

Alternate activation and best of two six siders etc. for mechanisms.
We did have a lot of discussion of how rules should work in this 'period' in order to maintain focus and exciting gameplay.

 View from the UAV. Looks quiet...the teams have to get to the surrounded embassy building.

 Insurgent sniper, looking for trophies.

Ah wait, the 'company' has a few of those too...

Using cover for fire and movement (don't get caught in the open in these rules).

 'Get me some fire discipline on the multi storey Dave!'

Alpha (with casualties) makes it to the embassy building.

Reinforced later with a 'Gimpy' from Charlie.

While Bravo fights off insurgent assaults...(with a little top cover from a nearby roof).

The enemy assault becomes a Target Rich Environment for the operators that have reached the embassy.

Not much left after that.

A nice game, but post game discussion made very interesting through potential Crossfire Crossover for this genre.


In other news, picked these up, they read much better than I thought they might. (Fantasy version of Lion Rampant by Osprey).

 And can't wait for this set. C17th version. Some playtesting online as we speak.

Steiner & le Duc...and Blucher

I've been trying to get a Blucher game sorted out, so Sgt. Steiner kindly organised one in order to show me the ropes. I've been itching to try this, hoping that Sam's Napoleonic rules are as good as Maurice. I wasn't disappointed.

So the scale is grand tactical, in similar fashion to Volley & Bayonet, and there are some similarities with V&B and Maurice, though I'm guessing that some remnants of Grande Armee might also be in there.

Highlights included:

•  Watch your deployment! If you don't have room to swing or pivot that brigade footprint, you're out of luck. The scale make brigade deployment and movement a delicate thing.

• Nice reduction of artillery effectiveness, and of course army morale effects.
• Everything is quite straightforward re. fighting and melee. The masterstroke is learning when/how to commit reserves.I mentioned epic defence in my last game of Maurice...I kind of got carried away and tried to carry the attack from a defensive position here (unsuccessfully I might add)...en avant mes amis!!!...pour la Gloire?
• The momentum rules work beautifully. The opposing player knows how many 'moves' you have left, as he has rolled them. You don't...so you never know just how much further you can push.
• This game is difficult in the right way! Rules are straightforward, but mastering the battlefield is difficult. You start to think like a Napoleonic commander in effect. It's less resource management, as in Maurice, and more attrition management - so knowing when and where to commit the reserve is critical.

There's a lot of flexibility in terms of basing convention. Something for me to think about for my 20mm perhaps.

Forces arrayed, with cards for unspotted units. This works well, though there weren't many surprises as the game went on.

Strong Prussian left and decent French centre.

 La Garde Imperiale goes nuts in the centre...what was I thinking?

The cavalry action on the French right became more desperate as the battle went on; well, there was an objective to defend!

Near the end, the French centre is crumbling, though the left is secure (since they were effectively held in reserve, but for too long) - yet those French troops are too far away to do anything on the crumbling right.

 Dodgy little move on the French left with light cavalry  stumbling through the woods to the Prussian rear...well, almost.

 The battlefield at game end. Too many French attacks, when they should have stayed put perhaps.

Blucher is a great system. Just the right level of detail, friction, chaos and still retaining the 'big battle' feel. The Scharnhorst campaign system probably adds to that chaos, and allows you to march to the 'sound of the guns' (then arrive at the wrong time). Great stuff here.


We also had some discussion on Crossfire for WWII. It's been gathering dust on my shelf for 20 years. Perhaps worth looking at in order to solve my WWII concerns for lower level games (see SLiM discussion last time)...and then I started looking at the Crossfire yahoo group, with its modern and Vietnam variants, and files started to get copied and...well, another set of rules won't make any difference now, will it ?...sigh...