1746 plus a wee bit (battle report added, P.24)

[Malamute]

The game looked specatacular, everything about it was spot on.

 Sorry I missed the opportunity to play though

[Hu Rhu]

The game looked specatacular, everything about it was spot on.
 Sorry I missed the opportunity to play though

It was spectacular and a great game as well.  Well done.

[Overlord]

A great table that I was lucky enough to play on.  The tower and buildings were excellent and the whole feel of the table was autumnal, very different from the usual 'green and pleasant land' that we all have a tendency to depict on the table-top

Sadly my luck didn't extend to the actual game.  My Sergeant fleeing the field before I had even moved was a sign of things to come.  James didn't fare any better.
The historical participants had the right idea....Don't get off the boat. 

[Mason]

James didn't fare any better.

Nothing new there then....
 


(To be fair, I think James gets the worst luck where dice are concerned that I have ever seen....)

[Andym]

Sadly my luck didn't extend to the actual game.  My Sergeant fleeing the field before I had even moved was a sign of things to come.  James didn't fare any better.
The historical participants had the right idea....Don't get off the boat. 

I'm afraid the Scottish Targe was a pain the arse. I think if it was an open battlefield, with your muskets firing at range, clan Maclachlan would have been gunned down. But the closeness of the buildings and trees, and the fact that the targe used an ability check to save as opposed to a normal save made them too good!

I seem to remember James' rolls being that bad, one of his guys blew himself up!

[Mason]

I seem to remember James' rolls being that bad, one of his guys blew himself up!

 

[Captain Blood]

Has anyone got any other good photos.

Yep. I'll try to do a blow by blow photo report of the first game, but time is short this week. Might get a chance tonight. Plenty of photos, so I'll add it to this thread if that's okay? 

[gamer Mac]

Yep. I'll try to do a blow by blow photo report of the first game, but time is short this week. Might get a chance tonight. Plenty of photos, so I'll add it to this thread if that's okay? 

Yes please

[Galloping Major]

The game looked specatacular, everything about it was spot on.

 Sorry I missed the opportunity to play though

That goes for me too, though enjoyed watching some of it 

www.gallopingmajorwargames.com

[NurgleHH]

I missed to play the game, but I saw it when Grimm did. Great Table, great game. Hopefully next year again, Collin?

[Jeff965]

Congrats to you and Andy on a cracking little game Colin with spectacular terrain. Loved playing it even if Niall's Highlanders made short work of my Brits and Hessians, I just cannot believe how crap my dice rolling was, I mean six goes at rolling a six to blow the flipping castle up and failing every time
Ah well at least I knocked out the Chieftain, even if he was outnumbered 12-1 .

[Captain Blood]

Okay, here you go...

1745. After Culloden.

Castle Lachlan, ancestral seat of Clan MacLachlan, on the bonny bonny banks of Loch Fyne.
The remnants of the clan, battered but unbowed, have gathered to defend their castle from the vengeful, despoiling English, intent on ‘slighting’ the stately pile by packing it with gunpowder and blowing the top off.
An English Man O’War loaded with powder has sailed up the loch for precisely this purpose. And English redcoats and their Hessian lapdogs are marching down from the hills to secure the shoreline and neigbouring village…

Having watched and admired this thread from start to finish, it was a huge pleasure to play in Colin and Andy’s game, to snap a few piccies, and be able to write up a battle report.
The attention to detail on the tabletop was well up to the usual painstaking Clan MacLachlan standard - the pictures really don’t do it justice. It was even better in the flesh. A wonderful creative undertaking, handmade from scratch.

The rules were Donnybrook – a set I had long wanted to play, because I’d heard so many good things about them.

This was the first of three games on the day. Each game was for four players and took around two hours to play through. On this occasion, Dr De’ath and I played the perfidious English, while the Scots were played by Dr the Viking and Dr Zombie, AKA the Danish Doctors. (According to them, because Scotland is really part of Scandinavia…  )

Anyway, on with the batrep.  (Or what I believe is now compulsorily termed by the cool kids an ‘AAR’ – pause for vomiting).

Behold the sleepy shores of fair Strathlachlan along the Eastern bank of beautiful Loch Fyne, home to the best kippers in the North.




But wait, what is this? The unwelcome tramp of tyrannical Hanoverian boots splashing through the ford across the rushing burn, marching on Castle Lachlan, hellbent on murder and destruction…




The MacLachlan captain hastily sends out half his force – a small body of renegade Campbells who have somehow attached to the Jacobite cause – to outflank the English as they march down the dusty road to Castle Lachlan…





Meanwhile, hard by the castle, the MacLachlans rally under their battle standard...





Then set out for the hills – ready to greet the English with shot and steel as they approach down the road…





The first elements of the Hanoverian force are already across the ford. The MacLachlans had better hurry…





But rather than marching down the road into the teeth of the MacLachlan reception committee waiting for them beneath the hill, the perfidious English veer off and attempt to outflank their outflankers by marching around the village… Meanwhile, the English Man O’War stands off the shoreline and lowers a boat…





Blithely disregarding the looming threat out on the loch, Clan MacLachlan continue to march resolutely in the opposite direction – to face an English force which is clealry not coming. Or at least not arriving by the appointed route!  The English and Hessian captains exchange a knowing glance, and give silent thanks for Danish-Scotsmen…





Meanwhile, the Campbells settle in behind a dry stone wall to lie in wait for the advancing redcoats.





The ship’s boat, laden with casks of powder puts out for the shore…





Spotting it, some of the Campbells turn and discharge a few hopeful long-distance musket balls towards the boat out on the loch. At this point a random event (presumably a spark from a flintlock) sets the thatched roof of one of the crofts on fire… Black smoke begins to billow ominously…





Peppered by whizzing musket balls, the gallant bluejackets pull bravely for the beach.





Unwilling to walk into an ambush, the redcoats rush around the burning croft in the opposite direction, their Hessian allies pressing in close behind them.





The English summon their tough Hessian grenadiers to the fore - and the Campbells rush forward to meet them. The Germans get stuck in, inflicting immediate casualties on the Scots.





The Hessian captain is stunned in the melee however – a basket-hilted broadsword to the face, perhaps. Down he goes, and the Hessian grenadiers – not so tough after all, when up against Highlanders with targes – are variously wounded, killed and thrown back. Forcing the redcoats to rush in and encircle the Campbells... (Note the McLachlans still waiting behind their wall, vainly hoping the English are going to march down the road to be shot to pieces...





Now a small wrinkle in the otherwise admirable rules becomes apparent… Targes make it very hard to kill a character so armed. Six redcoats with fixed bayonets gang up on just two clansmen, with a three to one advantage in each case - and not a scratch is inflicted. The targe defence appears invulnerable.  (Or maybe it was just rubbish dice-throwing on the part of the English…) Anyway, back to the game…





The English boat, despite having lost a couple of sailors to musket fire, has made the beach… The powder is offloaded and hauled up towards the castle.





Just in the nick of time, like Nazgul wheeling to fly screaming back to Mordor, the MacLachlans perceive their peril and come racing back from the lee of the hill to drive off the invaders. But will they make it in time?





Meanwhile, on the other side of the village - upstream from a very fetching waterfall - English reinforcements begin crossing the burn…





...Whilst their compatriots, tiring of trying to bayonet their way through titanium targes, step back from the fight and discharge their muskets into the clansmen at point blank range.





This cowardly but frankly effective tactic greatly reduces the resistance. The English captain steps in and bayonets the Campell captain as he lies stunned on the ground. He has to do this twice to make sure of him. Undeterred by this grievous loss, the last few ferocious highlanders charge the redcoats and fling them back. Unfortunately this just means the Hessians can step in and polish off the remaining Scots.






Meanwhile, the navy has decided discretion is the better part of valour. They hastily reload their casks of powder onto the boat, and push off from the shore. The MacLachlan captain stands atop the cliff and roars furiously at the departing English sailors, discharging his pistol, and offering to jump into the boat tweny feet below and several yards offshore – a would-be glorious act of rank stupidity that the umpire wisely rules out of court.






But what is this? Around the corner of Castle Lachlan, a seething herd of highland cattle is driven.  What cunning Caledonian ploy is this? Are they to be launched at the boat, like hairy, horned cruise missiles?





The MacLachlans urge their chief to leave the jack tars be, and come back to defend the front door of the castle.





Because the Hanoverians have finally polished off the last of the valiant (and surprisingly resilient) Campbells, and are about to turn their attentions to the defenders of Castle Lachlan…





The last defenders of Castle Lachlan with scenic highland cattle…





While the Hessians reform a firing line to begin the frontal assault on the castle, the 33rd Foot are despatched along the road to open a second front…





The wily Scots drive the highland cattle herd towards the Hessian line…





Unfortunately, this simply results in a couple of volleys of musketry and a huge pile of dead cows…
However, with the Hessians now unloaded, the MacLachlans seize their chance and surge out from behind their defensive wall, determined to come to grips with the hateful German mercenaries before they can reload…





Meanwhile, the redcoats march on the now undefended castle…





Closer they come and closer... The crunch of approaching tyranny...





And suddenly it’s all over.
The last heroic charge of the MacLachlans is thwarted by the fall of the cards. Turns get stopped suddenly (yes, it's another bloody set of rules with a stupid bloody 'Tiffin' card).
The Hessians get to reload. The dice go their way. The cards go their way. The Scots are decimated by efficient German musketry, and the last of the clan flee ingominiously from the field in an unrecoverable rout…





As the ship’s boat turns lazily upon the loch and noses back towards the shore, the Hessians are left facing one solitary cow and a couple of drovers.





A solitary piper plays a lament. Castle Lachlan has fallen and will be destroyed.

And it was, in history – and is still there today, as romantic a set of ruins as any in Scandinavia Scotland





Pretty fucking incredible, eh?

A brilliantly devised and wonderfully realised setting, story and game. Thanks to the gallant brothers MacLachlan.
These Jacobites got all the way to Derby and kept on going to Surbiton!

Didn’t see the other two games I’m afraid, as I was busy playing other tables, but I understand they all turned out quite differently. Which is nice, I think  

[Mason]

Brilliant report and piccies, sir!
 

Sounds like a great game (gutted I did not get a chance to play, but you cant pley 'em all, can ya?).
The table was amazing to gawp at, though, as many of us did, even if we did not get a game in.
That castle being one of my favourite builds on here this year, it is so nice.
 




Bloody 'Tiffin' again, eh....

[Malamute]

Wonderfully stuff,  a perfect game.

[jambo1]

Superb!! Looks like it was a brilliant game, and a great report too!!