Another Thirty Years War skirmish...

[Patrice]

Another Thirty Years War skirmish we played three weeks ago.
Ruleset: « Argad ! »

Background and characters: 1630, village of Pannekow (Mecklemburg). Six players:
The organiser, who ran the villagers, village garrison and local NPCs;
"Bavoz" a protestant nobleman from Savoy, former companion to Count von Mansfeld;
"Von Hopfkorb" a local German protestant nobleman;
"Otto Flammekueche" a catholic Imperial officer;
two groups of thieves and brigands led by female leaders "Berta Messerschmidt and Isa Schufterle" (whose players were two 14-years old young ladies who were really interested by these non-military roles in the game; one of them is the daughter of the organiser and is already familiar with miniature games).

Missions:
— Bavoz wants to find a treasure that Mansfeld (killed since) had hidden in the chapel of the Village in 1626. Only three men in Bavoz's troop also know the secret. He comes from the north-west.
— Von Hopfkorb wants revenge because the lands of his family have been confiscated and given to the Catholic Church (Edict of Restitution 1629). He will join the Swedish army (in the east), but before that he wants to kill a priest responsible for his dispossession: Father Linderoth. He comes from the south-west.
— Otto Flammekueche has been ordered by the bishop of Hildesheim to bring back the head of Bavoz, because Bavoz damaged the botanic gardens of the bishop during his march; and he also wants to do better than his brother Johann in a previous game http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=63915.msg770370#msg770370 He comes from the north-west in pursuit of Bavoz.
— The two thieves ladies have heard about the treasure in the chapel (an old drunken soldier told them about it some times ago in a inn in Hamburg; he is now learning to swim in the harbour of Hamburg with an anvil tied to his neck). They come from the east.

The surprise: because of the Restitutions to the Church, the old chapel has been destroyed and a nice modern new church (= an ugly baroque building!) is under construction at the same place. The companions crafstmen have found the treasure; according to their laws they share it between their guilds.  About half of the treasure has already been carried to other towns in small ammounts; a part of what remains is in the inn (the female innkeeper is the "Mother" of the local guild); the rest is hidden in the workers' shed.

The new church under construction:



Map of the table (sorry it's in French):


The game begins (Um, the young ladies had decided that the game table would be nicer with some real flowers from the garden! Not to scale, but we did not dare to refuse).



The thieves enter the table ...and run to steal the sheep flock.





A troop with a wagon has appeared in the north, it is captain De Bavoz:





Behind Bavoz, Imperial troops have appeared: infantry on the right, and four heavy cavalrymen who ride fast on the left:



The four Imperial cavalrymen try to arrive to the village faster than Bavoz; the Imperial infantry is some distance behind.





Father Linderoth, with his escort and Father Florian the parish priest, is talking with the workers, telling them that he would like the church to be finished for Xmas. He begins to be worried about all the faraway noises.



Three mounted men come from the south; they don't wear any political scarf or sign:





They say they have a message for Father Linderoth; he sends a sergeant to them, but they insist to see him. They give him a message from the Imperial HQ (a forgery) which tells that the village must be evacuated because a protestant army is coming. Then they ride away, and they wave their hats as for a signal. The priest finds all this very strange; he tells two cavalrymen of his escort to ride west and tell this to the Imperial camp (off table).

[Patrice]

On the other side of the river, two town guards on a bastion shoot at the brigands, without effect; the thieves return fire and kill them (well done girls!)
One group of thieves cross the river on the small wooden bridge, while the other group take the sheep. In the background we can see some peasants runnings away with their cows:





A troop of cavalry appears in the south-west. One of them holds a blue banner, not Imperial. Von Hopfkorb arrives!
(the three mounted men who we have seen earlier are amongst them: it was a cunning idea of the player, he had sent these three men just to know where Father Linderoth was!)



Father Linderoth and Father Florian run towards the village, while their escort prepares to fight.
The two mounted messengers sent by Father Linderoth are met by some of Von Hopfkorb's troop, they defend themselves and inflict some casualties to the attackers but they are killed.



The footmen of the priest's escort shoot their arquebus at the attackers and kill one; however, they have no time to reload their weapons and they are surrounded.
They decide to surrender and they throw down their weapons...
Then Von Hopfkorb shouts "No prisoners!"
The cavalrymen kill them.



in the village, Bavoz has stopped his wagon to protect his troop from the Imperial cavalry. A  garrison officer arrives but does not understand what is happening. Two of the Imperial cavalrymen engage the driver with their pistols (he has got one too), while the two others ride further; a big mistake, because Bavoz comes to support his wagon driver and after a few shots one of the cavalrymen is hit.



And the second one too: the Imperial cavalry banner falls to the ground!
But behind the wagon, the troop of Bavoz recoils slowly.  A discharge from the Imperial arquebusiers kills two protestants arquebusiers and two beasts of burden (a donkey and an old woman   ).
Otto Flammekueche happily orders his four musketeers to advance at close range to face the five enemy musketeers…



…who will shoot first…
…and kill the four imperial musketeers with five shots!!!  

In the east, some of the brigands take the sheep off table:



The others cross the stream on the small wooden bridge, in search of the chapel (and of the treasure) and of anything they could steal.



In the village, the two heavy imperial cavalrymen who wanted to surround Bavoz's troop meet Von Hopfkorb's cavalry!
The two Imperials quickly decide to make a tactical retreat:



Father Linderoth tries to get away, but Von Hopfkorb comes to him near the drapers' house!



(behind this house we can see two riderless horses: a few remaining men of the garrison have managed to shoot down two dragoons of Von Hopfkorb who had advanced too far inside the village).

Von Hopfkorb tells the priest to give his lands back to him; the priest answers it is not in his power to give Church property to heretics.
Then Von Hopfkorb asks the priest to surrender, otherwise he will destroy the village.
The priest says yes, if he his treated honourably.

Von Hopfkorb brings the priest to the church and cuts his head on a large stone (an honourable death that we can see on the pic below).
At the same moment, Bavoz arrives with his wagon (leaving his soldiers fighting the Imperials behind him).

[Patrice]

North of the village, the Imperials have managed to recover their banner; but Flammekueche their commander is wounded at the hand (not practical to reload his pistol).
Deprived of the firepower of his musketeers, he decides to recoil slowly to the hill.
Von Hopfkorb's men follow at a distance…



…and come closer:





(the above picture is held by the Imperial player as a proof that his conduct has saved the village from destruction: the nice kitchen that we can see far in the south, above the horizon, is still intact!   )

In the village, Bavoz roughly talks to the craftsmen, but they do not seem afraid. He asks them about the treasure and their leader explains that most of it has been taken away to guilds in other towns. To save their lives and the village, the guild leader also tells Bavoz about the part of the treasure which is in the shed. Bavoz takes it but leaves a tiny part to the guild (probably in case he could need them, you never know what could happen in the future!) (but he does not know about the last part which is hidden in the inn).

Meanwhile, some of the brigands are fighting a few remaining village guards on the stone bridge; but Bavoz orders his pikemen to advance to the bridge:



Near the white house we can see Father Florian (the parish priest) still trying to find some shelter, an on the other side of the street, a kneeling arquebusier of the garrison who has been quite successful to defend this part of the village.



The brigands and the guards who were fighting on the bridge must both run away from the pikemen of Bavoz.
In the background, on the river, we can see a brigand lady and two of her men who have taken a rowing boat to get away: they have understood that they cannot reach the treasure.



(the light and shades effects on these pictures are not voluntary it was the late afternoon sun entering the window - but quite surprising).

In the north, Von Hofkorb's cavalry has not attacked the remains of the Imperial troop, but instead steal pigs from some peasants who were trying to run away.



The Imperials shout victory when their foes seem to run away in fear! (in fact Von Hopfkorb has seen that the troop of Otto Flammekueche cannot do any harm now).



Some events still happen on the eastern bank of the river.

On a faraway bastion, a gun of the garrison had not seen much action (being too far from events, just a missing shot at some passing brigands some time ago).
However, when the pikemen of Bavoz appear on the stone bridge, the gunners decide to explode their gun.
Bad luck: two of them explode with it:



On this panoramic pic we see some remaining guards and brigands who run away near the bastions; on the stone bridge, the pikemen of Bavoz; far on the river, a brigand lady rowing away; right of the little wooden bridge, Father Florian trying to run away too; behind him, near the watermill, Bavoz himself coming at full speed:



Bavoz takes his pistol and shoots at the priest (the player said he did not want to stain his own clothes), but he misses, so he draws his sword and he kills the priest.



Then Bavoz talks with the village chief (without consideration for his garden, as you can see):



The villagers tell that they are protestant, that they will give food to the soldiers and will also give everything valuable they can find in the priest's house. Bavoz and Von Hopfkorb say they won't pillage the village (but they keep what they have already taken).

THE END.

[commissarmoody]

Seems like a very enjoyable game. 

[Phil Robinson]

Jolly nice pics and narrative.

[Burnin Coal]

Thanks for your game report...I really enjoyed reading it and enjoyed all the photos....some great looking scenery on an excellent looking table

[Captain Blood]

Bravo Patrice et amis 
That looks like my kind of game - a real adventure story with many twists and turns.
You and your friends have some very nice looking buildings too. I particularly like the corporations des drapiers and the church under construction.

[Galloping Major]

A very nicely presented report 



www.gallopingmajorwargames.com

[Patrice]

Thanks guys 

Yes it's nearly as much role-playing game than wargame, and our friend who organized this game loves this historical period.

We are slowly trying to improve our tables and scenery since some of my friends launched a (lobbying campaign?) to ban my old "green-cloth plain" and "blue-card rivers"   There is still much work to do but it's already looking better than before.

Hey they actually forbade me to bring the green cloth I had been playing on since at least 20 years...!

[Captain Blood]

We are slowly trying to improve our tables and scenery since some of my friends launched a (lobbying campaign?) to ban my old "green-cloth plain" and "blue-card rivers"   There is still much work to do but it's already looking better than before.

Well done to your friends, Patrice! It does indeed look better already. Noticeably so 

[Slorm]

Sorry for the necromancy... but when will be released the THW and ECW QRF for the ruleset???

[Ignatieff]

Splendid Mon Brave!  Splendid!

Who did the wagon?

cheers

Steve

[Golgotha]

Seeing this I definitely want to give Argad a go. Great looking game. I take it your happy with the way the rules plyed out and handled the scenario?

[M.P.]

Awesome game Patrice!

Argad is a great set of rules:)

[mikeland]

Fantastic report and table!