A Walk in the Green.,

Started by Steeleye, 18 February 2021, 10:15:29 AM

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Steeleye

A WALK IN THE GREEN.

Unfortunately at present I've no way of taking images let alone posting them, so I'm going to have to describe things the best I can.

I recently bought a digital camera, although it was supposedly designed for use by 'first time buyers' I found it way too complicated to use. I have subsequently been informed that the camera on a 'Smart Phone' should do the trick and be a lot easier to use. As smart phones are something I feel I shouldn't buy 'sight unseen' I'll have to wait until lockdown is over before I can go out and by one.

THE FIGURES.

The Biharan Confederacy.
Apart from some command figures which I bought mainly from one of the Wargames Foundry companies, I used 'Maiden Guard' figures from Essex's ancient ranges. I drilled out the figure's sword and replaced it with either a wire spear or musket (also from Essex). There were also some 'African' types (made by Wargames Foundry) who had their spears and shields replaced with bows and quivers (again supplied by Essex).

https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/collections/25mm-ancient-macedonian-punic-wars/products/mp68

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/darkest-africa-african-tribal-warriors/products/da066-sleek-warrior-women

Leader; General Phoolan Nambisan, magic sword...that's it! The General's figure does come on a base with her own personnel standard bearer but she's there to command not get into a fight! By the Goddess (Mother of All), she's not some kind of barbarian!!

Spears; Two units of regular infantry (which gives them some 'organisational' advantages) armed with long thrusting spears, short swords and shields. The spears are almost pike length so I suspect the spear-women shift their shields onto their backs and use their spears two handed when they come into contact.

Musketeers; Three units of regular infantry armed with muskets and short swords. As a musket ball will go through and kill more or less anything these can be very powerful units...if they have their muskets loaded and its not raining.

UmBongon Levies; One unit of irregular archers armed with bows and hand weapons. These troops are used as scouts by the regular Biharan forces.

The Islanders.

The Islander leader is from a range of 'South Sea Islanders' made by 'Pulp Figures'.

https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=7444

Archers and villagers, made from Copplestone Castings, Ngoni Female Archers. I drilled out the coat hangers they were using as bows and replaced them with bows from Essex and quivers also from Essex, villagers I left mostly unarmed.

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=103

Mercenaries; made from one of the figures from the Bodyguards in Bikinis pack from Copplestone Castings (the girl holding the katana). I added a shield with some javelins to beef up their fighting capabilities.

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/prod.php?prod=228

Terror Birds! Made from Pendraken's own fantasy ranges. In 28mm they are about human sized.

Leader; a young woman wearing feathers, silver necklaces and not a lot else, I never caught her name. She's armed with a heavy stone club and is accompanied by two expert archers and a solid silver totem.

Archers, three units of irregular archers. These are good shots with their bows and on the day they were shooting poisoned arrows.

Mercenaries, one unit of good light infantry capable of fighting hand-to-hand as well as skirmishing. They've been employed by the Islanders for quite some time so are fairly loyal to their employers.

Terror Birds, unit of six, large, flightless, carnivorous birds armed with big claws and an even bigger beak. They are lead by their human handler who uses a high pitched whistle to control her charges.

Unless otherwise stated all units are twelve figures strong and represent about a dozen real people. Named characters are single figure units.

Rules: My adaptation of Osprey's 'Dragon Rampant' rule set.

THE TERRAIN.
The battle was fought east to west across my 'War-board'.
In the North-west corner of the battlefield is a low, mud brick pyramid surrounded by jungle on three sides. Atop of this pyramid stands a life size silver statue of one of the local goddesses.
The northern half of the battlefield is covered with almost impenetrable jungle.
In the South-west corner of the battlefield is covered by dense scrubland next to which is a small stockaded village, south of this (and off board) is a wide, carnivore infested river.
To the east of the village is an open area which eventually gives way to an area of more dense scrub.
Running from the North-east corner to the North-west corner (and the pyramid) in a wide loop is an area of open ground wide enough for two or three regular Biharan units to deploy side by side.
The weather is hot and humid but it isn't expected to rain.

THE BACKGROUND.
The Island (the natives have their own name for it which the Biharans haven't bothered to find out), lies in the middle of the Inner Sea. It is fairly large, covered with jungle and has a tall, semi-active volcano rising from the middle of the Island. The Island is inhabited by ferocious tribes-women who shoot poisoned arrows from their bows. The Island is also home for several species of Terror Bird and small dinosaurs (about pig or cow sized).
The Island's main claim to fame are all the silver mines that are scattered across the island. The locals mine the silver, refine it and then make coins, which they use to pay for whatever they want from the outside world. Or they make it into fine jewellery and statues that they then use to placate the Goddess (Mother of All) who, according to legend, lives in the volcano.
The Island is the main source of silver in The Crater.
The Islanders mostly live in small, stockaded villages where they raise crops, small dinosaurs and children. When they're not doing any of these things the villagers take turns digging for silver.

Bihara is a well ordered country two days sailing to the North-east of The Island. Always strapped for cash due to their interminable wars with Great umBongo, the Biharan leadership have long cast envious eyes at the wealth of The Island. After a particularly expensive campaign against Great umBongo the Biharan government decided to send General Phoolan Nambisan and a small expeditionary force to see how practical it would be to forcibly annex the Island...and thus control the silver trade in all the Crater. So, about half way through the summer, General Nambisan landed with her troops and started to march inland towards a temple known to contain large amounts of silver trinkets and ingots.

After several stiff actions in which the Biharans soundly beat the locals, they came to their goal. This consisted of one of the Islander's low pyramids and a heavily stockaded village. It was here that the Biharan's luck ran out. No sooner had General Nambisan started her assault that it began to rain making all her muskets and the canon, that had been laboriously dragged through the jungle, useless. After a rather peace-meal assault the Biharans retreated to their camp on the coast there to wait out the rainy season.

This left the Islanders in possession of most of their silver and congratulating themselves on their glorious victory.

Everyone has a right to their own opinions.

THE BATTLE.

The Biharan column marched along the 'track' towards the temple and its silver treasure. The column was led by the umBongo archers who were a few paces ahead of a unit of musketeers who were themselves followed by a spear unit. Next came General Nambisan herself at the head of two more units of musketeers and the other spear unit.

The Islander leader had deployed her archers either side of the track and in the village by the river in ambush positions. The Mercs and the Terror Birds blocked the direct route to the temple. Everything was going to pan for the Islanders until the umBongon archers came into view of the Islanders hidden in the village.

Instead of waiting until the umBongons were close and unleashing a hail of poisoned arrows at the dark skinned scouts. The Islanders rushed out to confront the invaders with a great shout of...

"Susu mai teine, tatou tuu atu ia i latou se kiki lelei!" which translates as 'Come on girls, let us give them a good kicking!'

Seeing the Islanders rushing towards them the umBongon scouts formed themselves into a bow line and prepared to exchange shafts with the Islanders. Arrows flew in both directions killing Islanders and umBongons alike. Seeing how the Islander arrows were having a particularly deadly effect the umBongons fell back towards the rear of the Biharan column.

Seeing the umBongons fall back the Islanders advanced and ran into a volley fired by the leading Biharan musketeer unit. Heavy, lead musket balls punched through bodies making a loud, wet, thwacking sound as Islander warriors fell in a welter of blood and smashed bone. However, the Islanders kept calm and answered with their own volley that cut down several musketeers.

Seeing their sisters rush towards the unseen enemy, the rest of the Islander archers burst from their ambush positions and ran to join the fray. The only troops that didn't loose control of themselves were the mercenaries who advanced slowly and cautiously towards the fighting (after all you can't pick up your pay if you're dead!).

As the Islanders rushed towards their foes, General Nambisan organised her troops into a firing line while sending her lead spear unit to drive off the first group of Islander archers. After receiving several hits from poisoned arrows the spear-women shifted their shields on to their backs, lowered their spears and charged!

The clash between the archers and the spear-women was a forgone conclusion. Failing to either shoot or evade the archers were trampled underfoot by the spear-woman. Having wiped out the opposition the spear-women became disorganised by their victory. Seeing what appeared to be hordes of Islanders shrieking war-cries as they ran towards them the spear-women all remembered important appointments at the hairdressers and headed for the rear of the column. Meeting up with the umBongons the spear-women came to a halt and deciding that their hair could wait awhile longer started to reform their ranks.

The first fresh Islander unit around the bend in the track were the Terror Birds. Seeing what appeared to be lunch laid out for them they charged the Biharans. Unfortunately for the Terror Birds General Nambisan had formed two musketeer units and her unengaged spear unit into a line with the third musketeer unit starting to fall in on the line's left flank.

The Terror Birds gave blood thirsty squawks as they rushed towards the Biharan line. Unfortunately the birds didn't quite make it into contact. Calmly the Biharans cocked their flintlocks, raised them to their shoulders, levelled their barrels and gave fire. Scoring eleven hits out of twelve (it was the first volley of the day for this unit) they wiped out the terror bird unit.

"Biharan fried terror bird for supper tonight ladies!" congratulated General Nambisan as her musketeers reloaded.

However the battle wasn't over yet as another Islander bow unit came around the corner to confront the Biharans. Surprised not to find piles of Biharan corpses lying on the ground, the Islanders did manage to halt, form a line and loose off a volley of arrows. Few of the arrows found targets but those that did caused their victims to fall to the ground and jerk about in their death throws. The musketeers having remembered to reload, raised their muskets and let fly with a crushing volley that killed half the Islanders where they stood.

Deciding that this was no place for a good Islander to be, the surviving archers took to their heels and headed off back into the jungle (where they should have been anyway). However once they'd gained the safety of the jungle the archers just kept on running.

The nameless young woman commanding the Islander forces now found herself with one archer unit (who were nervously looking to the rear and thinking that they should really be somewhere else) and the mercenaries who all had a smug, 'I told you so' look on their collective faces. Turning towards the Biharans she saw their general leading her troops forward at a brisk pace.

Coming to a snap decision the Islander leader ran over to where the mercenaries were standing and bravely lead them to the rear and out of range of those deadly Biharan muskets.

CONCLUSION.

Having lead her troops to victory General Nambisan had all the silver at the pyramid collected before escorting it back to her base on the coast. The Biharan government would be well-pleased with what she'd be sending them and would hopefully send her more troops to complete the annexation of the Island.

Deep in the jungle the Islander leader was grabbed from behind by a couple of burly priestesses; who held her down so the head priestess could plunge a silver dagger into her heart. Oh, dear, how sad, never mind. War leaders are ten for a silver splonder.

A Note on Muskets.
The Biharans are the only ones to use firearms (muskets and light canon) and you might think that this gives them an unfair advantage. When they work they're devastating, but they don't always work. A musketeer unit has to roll twice before it can even fire. Once to see whether they will fire instead of deciding to do something else and again to see if they've reloaded in time to fire again with about a 40% chance that they won't.

Today the Biharans were lucky, on other days, not so much. I can also feel a sort of Vietnam style campaign coming on!

 




Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

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