It been a while, but I've been a busy lad over the last couple of weeks with an enormous amount of work to get done! However, to make up for this here is a guest post by Huw Williams, with details on how his game, No Quarter, went on our last all dayer less than a week ago. Enjoy!
Saturday saw the biggest and for my money, most successful play-test of the "No Quarter!" ruleset, yet staged.
The
scenario was chosen to accomodate as many players as possible, from
various factions, working towards the same objective. This was a
terror-raid organised by the British against one of the largest towns
of the Spanish Main; 'Portocabino' Portocabino,
'the jewel of the Yucatan', is a Spanish colonial town which has become
rich in the rum, raisin and chocolate trade, it is also a major
exporter of silver from the mines inland in which British prisoners are
worked to death. It has a deep water harbour which is approached through a narrow channel
among treacherous sandbars. This approach is guarded by a stone built
fort mounting massively heavy artillery.
The town itself is a charming example of colonial architecture famous
for its many fine taverns eateries and brothels. The cathedral of St
ignacious The Flatulent houses fabulous treasures wrought in Peruvian
silver, gold and emeralds, while the Governor himself is rightly famous
for his extensive collection of modern money.
At the waters edge is the rowdy dockside district with warehouses
crammed with the produce of the indies and to the South is the Creole
quarter a charming tangle of slum-housing peopled by casual labourers
and their sultry dark-eyed women.
This then is the place upon which proud Britannia would unleash bloody murder.
To get a fleet together to do this kind of shit aint easy.
You
need a lot of boats mounting a lot of artillery, you need rough men
willing to do bloody murder for the price of an egg and cress sandwich
and you need a convenient patsy to take the fall when it all goes
tits-up.
As luck would have it we got all three hanging round the docks in
jamaica. A motley fleet of French and ex-Spanish pirates, privateers
under government contract and Captain Carl and his Royal Navy frigate,
who had already failed his last three missions and could be quietly
blamed for everything and hanged if it all went wrong
Carl had a pig of a job ahead of him, not only was the port defended by
the fortress but there was a garrison of infantry in the town and two
40 gun Spanish men-o-war anchored ready to defend the channel into the
harbour. Add to this the fact that none of his fleet were inclined to
obey his orders or take him seriously and you can see that it weren't
going to be an office picnic.
I
never thought for one minute this game was going to get any further than
the entrance to the channel. I kinda assumed the two well-armed,
heavily manned Spanish men o war would blow them to bits, or Carls ship
at least. Shows what I know.
Before the game started any players with the gold or gems could 'buy'
improvements to their ships, extra hull, rigging or speed points, I also
gave those who had serious money an opportunity to buy information
about the town. Lou did this and got a map showing him where the major
stashes of cash were and the information that the fort had less than
half its guns and garrison in place.
One major arse-pain during the set-up was the no-show of the second
umpire. under the informal rule of 'Don't Got, Can't Have' it was
decided that his man o war would not come into play until it had cleared
for action, loaded guns and weighed anchor, a process that wuld take
fifteen moves!
"Kick-off" came at about 11 am with the British 'fleet' entering the
board line abreast, Carl in the HMS Obvious taking the narrow channel to
the South, the others heading down the main roadstead or set risk
crossing the sandbanks.
The Spanish flagship, guns double-loaded with chainshot turned slightly
and headed boldly out to meet them. The red flag at her mast-head
indicated 'No Quarter' given or expected, the sun flashing off the
gilded works on her stern she advanced along the narrow channel
directly into a storm of shite.
Accurate long-range gunnery from one of the privateers splintered her
mainmast which crashed down anchoring her to a sand bar. In her struggle
to get free the HMS obvious got the drop on her, come alongside and
lashed her with a full broadside of grapeshot which killed or maimed
half the crew.
Shocked silence among the Spanish and the pirates: Carl had done something right.
As
the Spaniard limped further into the channel to reorganise and return,
Carl turned North into the harbour to protect the fleet from the guns
of the fort.
As my old great granma said "Never get into a head to head pissing
contest with a spanish fort, me gosson". And so Carl found a good third
of his rigging points shot off by the wicked long heavy guns of fort
Santa Monica Di Verjazzel. Turning back out to sea, he came up on the
second Spanish man o war as she got under way and shielded the pirate
fleet as it either crashed ashore or turned like jackals on the shipping
in the bay.
Captain De La Haye's brutal band o' buckos were first to bring their bad
attitudes and general surly demeanours to bear on the port and in a rampage
of several hours they looted the dock-side warehouses and stores and
sent a party to rob the Central Bank of The Indies before heading back
out to sea.
Then the
first of the privateers unloaded his cargo of mayhem. in a bold move
Cap'n Aaron beached his sloop in a landing-craft stylee, allowing his
band of hardened salts and marines to stor ashore.
The
Juan Carlos's ('Juankers' for short) hadnt been idle, tho the garrison
was strck' with the yellow jack, some brave officers gathered
together such men in the taverns and bawdy houses who could still raise
a blade to build barricades and face the on-rush. They
clashed among the chandlers shops and stores East of the main square
and a deadly duel began: Spanish pluck 'gainst English steel and lead!
Out upon the bay the city's fate was sealed. Captain Carl Parfitt
turned his frigate to the East, pulled along of the second Spanish
warship. and give them the same medicine already dispensed to their
sister ship. The decks were littered with blood brains and broken
bodies; They had never even had time or leisure to load or run out a
single gun.
The surviving Spanishers struck colours and handed their swords over to
the prize crew come over from the obvious. Part at least of the British
armada was struggling; Alun had wedged his
boat against a sand-bar and was in danger of a good bombing from the
fort, while Mikes crew had yielded to the several blandishments of
Spanish gold and betrayed the British plan to the enemy!
Back in the town looting and terror and the clash of steel held sway,
one stranded Spanish sea-captain and his officers held off the marines
and privateers of Capn' Aaron but more were arriving and might soon
overwhelm them. It wasn't looking good for Spanish interests in the town
so it was that with a heavy head and a couple of heavy iron bound
chests the town governor bravely ordered his butler to prepare his coach
for a quick escape.
Back out in
the harbour things were changing rapidly, Captain Owain, he of the
long-lie-in, finally rocked up in his brig of many leaks straight into
an artillery duel with
the damaged Spanish flagship. In the event it was an inconclusive
exchange and the Spanisher manouvered hard to shake him off and head
towards Carl to cut off his escape with the other captured man o war.
Pretty much all resistance was over in the town now, the last of the
spanish sailors and civilians were starting to leg it into the forests
and swamps, only three bastions remained: The garrison of the artillery
fort whose shot were now landing uncomfortably close to the ships
anchored at the docks and the bishop and his retinue who had shuttered
and barred themselves inside the cathedral...... Oh and the governors entourage who had set off in his coach for the
safety of nearby Cartagena, but first had to get through the town...
BANG! 64 pound of iron shot and chain tore through captain De La hay's
rigging convincing him that his work in Portocabino was finally done,
before another could land he decided to cut his cables and scarper. his
place was taken by Owain who came in for a perfect landing to back up
his partner in sea-crime, Aaron in sacking the town. The heavy guns at
the fort reloaded slowly so most of the time could only gaze upon the
horrors of the sacking helplessly. Time was on their side though, sooner
or later they would smash any ship anchored in the bay.... unless they
were silenced.
There was one last desperate chance open to the spaniards; The flagship
was heading back, her starboard guns loaded and skeleton crewed with a
will, she bore down on HMS Obvious. once more these adversaries drew
board and board and....
Carl aced it again with a combination of grapeshot and musketry he
killed her captain, slaughtered her crew and in no time siezed her with a
boarding party and was sailing back to Jamaica at the had of a captured
flotilla, looking forward to tea and medals with the governor and all
the buns and well-born ladies his tongue could cope with.
With the spanish navy dealt with the majority of the pirates now headed
back out to sea, seeing no profit in braving the forts guns any longer.
Only the privateers of captains Owain and aaron remained. They were wicked and set on looting
the rest of the town and the cathedral in particular which had gotten
away with it till now. A peach fell into their lap as the roving gangs
of liquored up old salts captured the Governr in his coach not once but
twice, forcing him to pay a ransom both times.
Finally they let the coach and most of its occupants go but kept a hold of him for bargaining purposes. unfortunately with the departure of the fleet, the forts guns were now
playing their two sloops with iron and it was only a matter of time
before they would fine themselves stranded in the town. They made a plan: Owain would dismount one of his cannons onto a cart to
blow in the cathedral doors and Aaron would take the great stone fort. Now I was reasonably confident that the fort would hold, it was well provisioned and armed and nigh on impregnable.
It took him four moves.
With the garrison conquered, the cathedral opened and looted, it only remained to burn down the whole town. After that they made off into the gathering night, with the flames of
the burning hospital and orphanage of Santiago dabbling their sails a
soothing crimson. It had been a profitable venture, even if the 'governor' turned out to
be just some random wino in a nice suit the real governor had used as a
diversion, they were both well-pleased with their haul.
The End
And there we have it, another truly epic game of No Quarter brought to you by Huw, if you'd like to know more and see and even purchase some of the models, you can go here to
Scurvy Dog 25mm Pirate Miniatures on facebook. I'll have more from the all dayer concerning the games of 40k played, but we from the Tredegar Reavers hope you enjoyed this post!
