The Boucharde Raid as not fought at Snapcase Hall
Well it’s only 8 months since we convened at Snapcase Hall for 3 and a half days of wargamming, drinking and eating, not necessarily in that order and I’ve finally got my finger out and produced a game report.
Although even that statement isn’t really true because we never got round to playing this particular game. I blame Silent Invader for the fact, for although I don’t know him and we’ve never met, he sold some terrain boards to the Mad Lord Snapcase, a sort of grassy board, a sort of desert board and a sort of snowy board.
The problem was I wanted to play a game of Wings of War, no scenery, fast set up and very limited scenario requirements, that sounded perfect for my game contribution, I knew the Mad Lord was making Wallmington on Sea, without the sea and DougEM4 was setting his game in a Cluedo Mansion and no one was going to use these boards, so I had to.
Originally we had decided we would have 1 day each to lay on a game, in my wisdom I thought I could fit in 2 games in a day, after all we could start at 9:00am and finish at 01:00am the following morning so there was plenty of time, that and the fact that I was desperate to see the green and yellow boards in action.
It was 19:00 hours on the last day before I had the green board set up for the game to start, we called a halt for a bite to eat and some more to drink and then just got to talking, until about 22:00 hours at which time I decided to photograph the game.
This is the table, basically I was using a scenario written and played by Steve Hezzelwood in the 1983 Battle for Wargamers Manual or some thing like that. I have played the game a few times and it’s always been great fun, it’s called the Boucharde Raid and is a small fictitious raid by Roberts Rangers on a French supply depot during the French Indian Wars, mid 1700’s or so.
The large building in the centre left is the Powder Store that has to be destroyed and as you can see the green board was perfect for the area around Lake George, north of Albany which is where I set the game.
This was to be a 2 pronged attack so that the Mad Lord and Sir Douglas could have independent but supportive commands of Rangers and I would play the French, more as a GM rather than opponent.
All the building except one are my home made efforts some were build for this game, others are old but had been reworked and repainted for this outing. I tried putting moss on the roof of the small cabin in the middle but don’t like the effect too much, any suggestions to improve it would be gratefully received. I did wonder about scrubbing it a bit to avoid the distinct edge.
The cliffs, hills and river that S.I. did are exceptional in my opinion, the only thing I don’t like is the join along each board edge, to some extent he has disguised this by using static grass to blur it, but it’s the price you have to pay for storable sculptured terrain and I believe the attic at Snapcase Hall is full of boxes.
These 2 buildings are the main barracks, with the Powder Store in the distance.
Sorry this is going to be a bit picture heavy, the tarpaulin covers are old boxer shorts, glued over waste bits of foam board, crudely painted but cost nothing.
I also tried to disguise the edge of terrain pieces with lichen and other stuff, another problem using sculpted terrain boards.
I’ve had these Lego boats kicking about for years and finally got to converting them for this game, the idea was that the Rangers arrived by boat and could escape onto Lake George in them.
Just a moody picture, mind you that’s more down to the subdued lighting in the Games Room at Snapcase Hall.
You can see I had a lot of trouble culling the photo’s, but it’s a better shot of the boxer shorts.
This is how buildings should look on a sculptured board, built into it, this is one of S.I.’s builds and the inside is even better, unfortunately I don’t have a shot of it.
And the final moody shot, I forget what those tree trunks with spikes in are called but the plan was to be able to drag them across the road forming a barricade.
This is how the game would have started, there were 4 French Sentries doing the rounds, random direction and random distance for each.
By the way – that’s not a sentry box behind him.
The alarm is given – the attackers have been discovered and troops start to emerge from the buildings, random time to emerge and form up, you know the drill.
These are Canadian Militia in the red wool hats.
French Marine Infantry, no button counting please.
Part of the Ranger force, supported by Native Canadians, these chaps were to provide covering fire for the Engineers and Rangers who would enter the Powder Store and set the fuses before leaving hurriedly.
Most of the French troops are now awake, maybe wiping the sleep from their eyes but prepared to defend themselves their village and their honour. Well at least their lives.
The chaps by the bridge are looking a little outnumbered.
An eagles eye view of the conflict. To the right some of the Militia are trying to break into the Powder store, there is a door at ground level and by the parapet both on this side of the building.
It’s a 2 story building and I’ve removed the 1st floor to show the action, you can see the Rangers defending the 2 doors and in the central room the Engineering officer is setting the fuses, powder barrels seem in short supply!
French Regulars fire a well timed volley.
Unfortunately it's not well aimed and as the smoke clears they can see it has had very little effect and the bridge is still well guarded.
Overwhelming numbers push back the Rangers defending the doorway’s, the men in the central Powder Room are trapped. A rather ragged line of Regulars is pushing forward towards the bridge.
The stout defence of Boucharde is progressing well, the Rangers will soon be thrown back from their defensive river line.
Sir Douglas D’Emfore with his normal saintly halo, was worried by the activity in the Games Room, or maybe the fact that his glass was empty and needed refilling, but he bounded in and started snapping pictures like the brave soul he is, enquiring “am I winning - again?”
The Mad Lord Snapcase looks on with some surprise, it is 23:00 hours and he was wondering why I was moving troops about and shouting FIRE, now RELOAD, fast as you like boys, FIX BAYONETES – CHARGE.
I don’t think that’s normal practice at 11:00 at night in Much Piddling in the March where the Snapcase family reside.
The table behind him is covered in aeroplanes from the first nights Wings of War game that we never finished, I think we had about 30 planes on the table for that one.
Notice too the clever use of a wine glass as a spirit level, so he can see if he’s sat upright or not.
Back to the action, the Militia have ejected the Rangers from the two outer rooms and a desperate fight is going on in the central one, will they get the fuses set and can they possibly escape?
Err – yes and err no.
The French are over the river and pushing the British Allies back.
It’s all over, the explosion has blown down a tree, just visible in the background and the Rangers are in full flight, will they make it back to the boats before they are over run?
Well that’s how it might have gone if we had time to play the game.
I did play out a trial game to see if the randomness of the timing would give a reasonable game and I’ve just posted it on my blog, it gives a slightly different ending and is a bit more of a game report than this has been. I also did a post describing the background to my story for the Mad Lord and Sir Doug to read to get some grasp of what I was trying to portray with the game.
The Background story is here,
https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-boucharde-raid-10th-of-may-1758.htmlAnd my recent write up of the trial game is here
https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-boucharde-raid-1750s-french-indian.htmlThe last post also shows the original inspirational article by Steve Hezzzlewood and that is worth a read even if my post isn’t.
As they say down in Much Piddling – Pip Pip.