An expedition from Brie sur la Mer

[OSHIROmodels]

On the Island of Afduka there are riches ripe for plundering although the natives might have a thing or two to say about it.

It was a quiet day in the small French colony of Brie sur la Mer. The local governor, The Comte de Ma la Mute had orders to move some supplies further inland to a new settlement being established in the hinterlands. Little did he know that the 'locals' weren't too happy with the French intervention...

The Chief of the local Bibbelaze tribe, Jimboto, had roused his doughty warriors and set off for Brie sur la Mer to teach the French a lesson...





The French start to move their column but get bogged down in numbers.


They soon become the target for Afduka's best tribal bowmen...


The bowmen (in superb formation   ) quite speedily take almost two full units of French regulars and the wagons start to loose wheels left right and centre.


And although the French finally stat to give as good as they get there are reinforcements approaching.


On the left flank some of the tribesmen try one of their new tactics, 'The Horns of the Goat'


The ploy soon works and the French (with minimal help from some Koshindens) get drawn in to a desperate melee. Chief Jimboto himself lends a hand whilst sitting on his portable kamode...




Meanwhile, in the centre, it all goes horribly wrong for the French as the Comte gets shot from his horse (to fight another day) and the main French contingent is whittled down to almost nothing and Colonel Le Vache Froid kills the Shaman Bumbagoo only to get the full force of remaining tribes men in his face...



So, victory for the locals and a resounding defeat for the French but the Comte de Ma la Mute will return and teach these men of the jungle that the French don't just make love with their faces...


The table was set up according to the 'Convoy' mission from the Donnybrook rules with the French arriving on the turn of the cards halfway along on side of the table. They had to get as many wagons off the opposite corners as possible and the tribesmen had to stop them.

I must say that we didn't have as good a game as expected. Maybe some of that was due to the anticipation but it felt a bit clunky.

Possibly using the scenario of 'The Convoy' didn't help either as it took an age for the bad guys to get all on the field; bottlenecked, as it were.

Also the characters didn't really do much in the game and mostly when their respective card was turned over nothing happened (except for Nicks drummer and sergeant).

Anyway, we still had fun and will play it a few more time to familiarise ourselves with the rules a bit more. The basic mechanism is quite appealing  

cheers

James

[Michi]

The Comte de Ma la Mute ...
The Chief of the local Bibbelaze tribe, Jimboto...

Muhahahaha! 

[Furt]

A nice surprise this gents and a lovely setup. 

I love how you have thrown all these different elements from existing collections together!

Pity about the rules - there is always Sharp Practice 2! 

[Malamute]

Much amusement was had.

Agree with James we are not yet quite sure about Donnybrook. As you can see from the photos the French found it extremely difficult to bring their force along with the wagons onto the table due to the randomness of the card activation and the use of the Tiffin/Stop card(Everybody's favourite card except Richard). They just couldn't seem to move forward.

We were puzzled with how to use the Hero characters as they don't appear to add much to the game when they are activated. If they are attached to a unit the drummer can add extra dice to movement etc and the Sergeant can order a reload, but if they are not attached what benefit do they have?

Perhaps it was just a difficult scenario for the convoy, has anyone played it and found a better conclusion?

[gamer Mac]

As expected a lovely looking game.
I thought with these rules it was supposed to be all about the characters, hopefully we will try them out soon for ourselves

[Malamute]

As expected a lovely looking game.
I thought with these rules it was supposed to be all about the characters, hopefully we will try them out soon for ourselves

I think it is, maybe drummers shouldn't be chosen as characters/heroes

Maybe we were doing something wrong, but I am not certain how it could have worked differently

Maybe someone with lots of Donnybrook experience could add something

I really want to like these rules, but somehow they are not doing it for us at present.

Edit: Just read Theoldschool's Donnybrook thread and he says heroes don't seem to do much. Maybe its a common thing.

[theoldschool]

The Army faction isn't one of the strongest when it comes to colourful characters, and tends to play more like a straight up military force. The characters in other factions such as the Covenanters, Outlaws and Cultists, tend to have more impact on the game.

Heroes are good when you need to check morale and they can really swing a melee in your favour, especially if you play vanilla with no saving rolls for rank and file, but not much apart from that, which is why I let them activate units. Same with officers.

I agree on standard bearers and drummers. I tend to leave their cards out.

Of course heroes and officers can play a greater role depending on the scenario.

[Mitchelxen]

Great looking game and table. Good report and am appreciative of the discussion of the rules. Good thread read, thanks.

[Romark]

Love the table and the miniatures,great looking game 

[dijit]

Lovely looking table!

Though with the french side suffering a resounding defeat, shouldn't it be Incompte De La Mute?

Shame about Donnybrook not really doing it for you guys.

[Patrice]

  Very nice and unusual game!

[Silent Invader]

Thanks for the game report and Donnybrook review 

The game looks great.   

[OSHIROmodels]

Thanks for the comments chaps 

As always, much fun was had and we will be giving the rules another couple of goes with some smaller groups with a few more heros to see how it works that way.

Also, the convoy mission is apparently a rather difficult one for the convoy.

cheers

James

[Lord Borjado]

Gorgeus scenery, minis and AAR 
And very unusual theme 

[Dr DeAth]

It was an enjoyable little game, there are some good mechanisms and character traits in the game so we're going to persevere but maybe tweak them a bit.

The scenario would have suffered under any card driven activation system, if the unit at the front doesn't move (with the rest of the cards coming out in order) it's going to bog down.  A simple  mechanism would be to declare which units are in the column and then move them all when the card for the unit at the head of the column is drawn.

We'll see how they work for the next episode of the Bibbilaze Uprising