Dispatches from the Front: The relief of fort Beaujolais with TMWWBK

intro

Thursday, August 10, 2017

The relief of fort Beaujolais with TMWWBK

Some where in the Sahara

Intro:

Tonio was recently volunteered for his first game of men who would be kings (TMWWBK). The original idea was to do some form a town assault with buildings and artillery but neither were ready in time. Instead I turned to probably the best scenario generator I know in the form of the one hour wargames book by Neil Thomas. 2D6 later I rolled up the escape scenario which was adjusted to become the relief of fort Beaujolais scenario below. I simplified some things by not rolling for leader traits and having a single rollo for leadership by unit type eg one roll determines the leadership of all regular infantry. Then I complicated things by using card activation for units since it adds a nice level of uncertainty which I like in skirmish style games . Plus ça change

Tuaregs block the road

Background:

Fort Beaujolais is under siege by tuaregs. A french relief column has been dispatched to lift the siege but the tuaregs would rather this did not happen. A road block has been established and more reinforcements are on the way. Can the legion break through and save the day or will the tuareg continue their siege?

French relief column is on the way

The battlefeild:

Note: I like more terrain than might be necessary for TMWWBK. Modern rifle armed regulars might grumble there is too much cover for native types to sneak around in but I like the visual aspect of the table rather than the game balance.

The forces:

The french relief column consists of three units of twelve legionnaires and three units of twelve zouves (irregulars).

The touaregs are broken down into two groups.

The first group is the blocking force consisting of one unit of twelve irregulars and a unit of sixteen tribal infantry.

The second group is reinforcements consisting of two units of eight irregulars cavalry, two units of twelve irregulars and two unit of sixteen tribal infantry

Tuareg cavalry hit the relief column

The deployment:

The Tuareg blocking force starts deployed at A

The French units arrive from the western table edge.

The Tuareg reinforcements arrive as per the special rules at point of the number points one to six.

Unit entering the table either french units of tuareg reinforcement count as passing an advance order for their first turn.

More Tuaregs come in from the South

Special rules:

Unit activation

Units activate on a card draw. Each unit type is assigned a card type below when the card type is drawn a single unit of that type may activate as normal.

Each unit can activate once per turn.

French regulars-> any diamond

French irregulars-> any heart

Tuareg irregulars-> any odd spade

Tuareg tribal-> any even spade

Tuareg irregular cavalry-> any coloured spade

While the tribal warriors seek shelter while covering the road

Each unit add one card to the deck. If a unit is destroyed its card type is removed from the deck. In addition, there is a joker added to the deck. When the joker is drawn it triggers Tuareg reinforcement

The French start to break through

Tuareg reinforcements

When the joker card is pulled roll a D6 on a 3+ Tuareg reinforcements appear. Make a separate deck consisting of cards for all tuareg units currently is reserve. Randomly select a card to determine which unit arrives. The unit activates immediately and its card is add to the main deck for the rest of the game.

To determine where the unit arrives it must take a leadership test. Roll 2D6 if it pass the tuareg player can choose one of the two dice rolled to determine the enter point on the unit. The test is failed the french player can choose one of the two dice rolled to determine the enter point on the unit.

But their losses are mounting

Victory conditions:

The French win if they get at least two units of the eastern table edge before the end of turn twenty. Any other results in a Tuareg win.

Tuareg pressure mounts

Epilogue

We played the game once. Tonio opted to command the Tuaregs while I took la legion. The initial advance of the legion went smoothly with the tuaregs reacting aggressively with the blocking force moving forward to engage the left column. Disastrously, for me, Tuaregs cavalry promptly appeared to the north uncomfortably close to the relief column. A legion unit and a zouave unit peeled of to counter the threat reducing the column four units to push on. The pain continued when a tribal unit appears from the south again uncomfortable close the column diverting two more units to cover the flank. In the north the Tuaregs cavalry hit the zoues and forced them back but combined fire power from the zouaves and the accompanying legion units wiped out out the cavalry unit. To the South the legion was harder press as more units appeared. Still they remained calm and blazed away at the new comers. The relief column was now reduced to two effective units and had to force passage past the two blocking units.

The Cavalry ties down two french units

The initial advance well but then the Tuareg showed some native cunning instead of charging forward heroically into the french gunsight the tribal warriors took cover in a near bushes overlooking the road. The warriors had bad weapons and were bad shots but they had numbers and in cover those numbers were telling. Twice the french tried to break the roadblock and twice their were pushed back. To the South Tuareg numbers began to tell and the southern force forces were pushed back and eventually routed. The Southern Tuaregs were able to exploit their gains quicker than the Northern french force. And they promptly overran the french force trying to break through the roadblock. Substantially outnumbered and outgun the remaining french called it a day and retreated leaving the fort to the mercy of the Tuareg.