Battle of Fort Charlotte

Time for this year's Independence Day battle.

Background

Stymied at Fort New Richmond (Baton Rouge, LA), Bernardo de Galvez decides to cut off the supply lines to the British garrison.

He sails his force to Fort Charlotte (Mobile, AL)

 

Opposing Forces

• Spanish - Galvez (white) - 3 Spanish line infantry, 2 batteries of artillery, 1 unit of unreliable militia
• British - Capt. Elias Durnford (red) - 2 line infantry, 2 militia (1 mounted), 1 artillery

The Battle

Galvez begins the battle with a bombardment in the center. It is ineffectual. The British mounted militia drive off the Spanish militia (left).

The bombardment continues in the center. Meanwhile, a British sortie wipes out some artillery (left).

The bombardment succeeds!

Militia takes up the defense in the center.

Oops, I should have removed the wall.

Spanish infantry drives off the mounted militia (left).

But the British militia and line crush the Spanish center and right.

Fort Charlotte remains in British hands. 😡

But Wait

We have received word from Galvez. He made a second attempt that succeeded!

Here is his map of the siege. Numbers indicate turns.

I actually played this scenario twice. The first time was actually on my PowerPoint battle board. Galvez actually won this one. But I wanted to play the scenario using physical counters, so I did it again. That's the initial report in this post.

Happy Birthday America!

GOOOOOOOAAAL!

Watching the World Cup has got me interested in some soccer action.

This happened before in 2014. Someone posted a free, quick-play soccer game on TMP. I tweaked it to fit my needs then went on a binge. I eventually changed the game to grav ball. 

I formed a league and played several seasons. Alas, the rules and season results are mostly lost. Perhaps I can reboot.

Rules

One night, I jotted down some simple rules. I play 5 possessions per half.

For each possession, I take these steps:

• Determine who gains possession
• Determine if attacker can get a shot
• Determine if the shot scores

If the attacker can't get a shot or doesn't score, then the possession ends and I start the process over. I determine results using opposed dice rolls. I rate each team for offense, defense, and goalie; ratings modify the dice rolls.

That's the basics so far.

Test Game

I played a couple of test games, using Excel to keep track of results.

Here is the tracker for one game.

In the other game, team B won 3-1.

R20BL - Season 1 Part 2

I'm being a little lazy today. Instead of full write-ups, I'm just posting a couple of pictures from my Excel tracker.

Here are the games for the week.

A lot of close games. Here are some highlights of the week:

• Lefty Grove (PHA) and Jim Bagby (CLE) pitch gems. But Grove gets the win when Mule Haas knocks in 2 runs in the 9th.
• Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth both hit home runs
• George Grantham (PIT) knocks in 4 runs in 2 games.
• Taylor Douthit (SLC), an F-rated player, continues to shine. This week, he gets a game winning home run

Here are the standings at the end of the week

The Yankees and Pirates are in control of their leagues. Both teams are undefeated.

Player of the Week

While Taylor Douthit shined again, the spotlight of the week belongs to George Grantham (PIT) for his 4 RBIs.

George Grantham

Bellicosus vs Gaul

The Twelve Foes of Rome Campaign

The next chapter of the campaign.

NOTE; Today's battle was played using downsized Horde of the Things. Explanation later

Battle for Gaul

After the debacle of Bellicosus the Least, another Bellicosus steps to the forefront.

He beats Julius Caesar to the punch and invades Gaul

As the armies begin to form up, storm clouds delay the battle.

My cat Onyx sat on the board. Time for plan B. I played the game on a virtual battlefield.

Leaving his archers on a hill, Bellicosus advances against the Gauls. He has success in the middle and right, but loses a legion on the left.

Bellicosus leads a legion against some Gallic cavalry. They destroy the barbarians.

But another legion is lost on the left.

The archers swing into action. A warband charges them, but a hail of arrows cut them down.

The Gauls panic and flee. Bellicosus then mops up the remnants and adds Gaul to Rome's possessions!

GAME NOTES

• As mentioned, I used Horde of the Things (HotT) for today's battle. I am debating introducing it to some friends and wanted to test using smaller armies.
• The experiment worked well enough, I may look into it further.
• Because HotT takes longer than DotS, I chose to do a single battle.
• The Bellicosus family is back on top. They are now 4-2 in the campaign.

Crazy Thoughts Continued

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a couple crazy thoughts. Here's a follow-up post.

Space Campaign

My plan was to start a campaign with the scenarios in Voidfighter. I lamented that I did not have any spaceship counters.

I rectified that last issue with a purchase from Wargame Vault.

What I really like is this set has 3 levels of craft for each faction - scouts, fighters, and corvettes. That fits nicely into the Voidfighter classifications of snubfighters, gunships, and corvettes.

I just need to get around to printing and mounting them.

Fantasy Wargame

I did a trial game of Horde of the Things, using half-sized armies. Battle report is coming this weekend. It worked well enough. However, I think that a gridded game might work best. To that end, I should experiment with the Portable Wargame.

I'm also experimenting with counters. I could not find any for sale that I particularly liked. I decided to try using the counters I made for my arena game, but putting them on 1.5" wide bases.

Here are my first attempts - goblin horde, archers (shooters), shaman (magician), and rats (beasts)

R20BL Season 1 - Part 1

Results for the 1st week of the Roaring 20s Baseball League season 1.

Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

CLE    0-0-0-0    0

NYY   2-0-1-x    3

WP - Waite Hoyt, LP - Jim Bagby

NYY   0-0-1-0    1

CLE    0-0-0-0    0

WP - Herb Pennock, LP - Stan Coveleski

Tony Lazzerri knocks in the sole run.

Philadelphia Athletics vs. Washington Senators

PHA    2-1-0-1-1    5

WAS   2-0-2-0-0    4

WP - Lefty Grove, LP - Stan Coveleski

Yes, Stan Coveleski is pitching for two different teams - the 1920 Indians and the 1925 Senators

Mule Haas knocks in the tying run in the 9th. Utility man Sammy Hale surprises the crowd with a game-winning single!

I started using the cards from Fast Inning Baseball, which created an unexpected hero.

WAS    2-0-0-2    4

PHA    1-1-0-0    2

WP - Walter Johnson, LP - Rube Walberg

Roger Pekinpaugh hits a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th to put the Senators ahead.

Chicago Cubs vs. New York Giants

CHC    1-0-1-0-1-2    5

NYG    1-1-0-0-1-1    4

WP - CHC bullpen, LP - NYG bullpen

Hack Wilson drives in 2 runs in the top of the 11th inning.

NYG    2-0-4-2    8

CHC    0-0-1-0    1

WP - Jack Scott, LP - Pat Malone

George Kelly hits a grand slam in the late innings.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St Louis Cardinals

PIT    1-2-1-0    4

SLC   0-0-0-1    1

WP - Lea Meadows, LP -  Bill Sherdel

Meadows pitches a gem and Eddie Moore knocks in 2 runs in the mid innings to secure the win.

SLC    0-0-1-2-0    3

PIT     2-1-0-0-1    4

WP - PIT bullpen, LP - SLC bullpen. Grover Alexander and Ray Kremer no decision

The Pirates race off to an early lead. Taylor Douthit slams a 2-run homer to tie the game in the 9th. Then Clyde Barnhart knocks in the winning run in extra innings.

STANDINGS

American League

New York Yankees        2-0

Philadelphia Athletics   1-1

Washington Senators    1-1

Cleveland Indians         0-2

National League

Pittsburgh Pirates        2-0

Chicago Cubs             1-1

New York Giants        1-1

St. Louis Cardinals     0-2

Player of the Week

Many good candidates - Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock pitched shutout games. Tony Lazzerri, Roger Pekinpaugh, Sammy Hale, Hack Wilson, and Clyde Barnhart had game-winning hits. But this week, we honor George Kelly and his grand slam.

George Kelly