The 75 in TMWWBKs

The battlfield 

The aim of the this game, aside from having fun, was to test out a random force generator for my  Burning Sands campaign.  The idea being to create a ragtag force of Tuareg consisting for tribal and irregular units. Being an app I can hit go and create hundreds of list to see is there risk of creating broken or boring lists.  Anyway after two clicks both forces for game were created.  The tribal force looks good with an even spread of neutral, good and bad points. The field piece (75mm cannon) is a special case, in the campaign it will only be available if things go well for the Tuareg eg the legion lose games or a powerful tribe gets involved in the action.  The legion force looks more like a farce than force it is a proper list it just consist of awful units. Calling them bad maybe generous it looks like bottom of the barrel types rather than a crack force. For the narrative, I decide the Tuareg 75 plus the irregulars are guarding the munition store for the tribe. The legion force would like to destroy the supply to prevent them being used for mischief. The remaining Tuareg units were the relief force. So in summary a weak force would be attacking a strong force on the defensive. Not ideal for the attacker but C’est la vie.

the legion arrives

The legion attack started out well, despite being poor shots, the legionnaires managed to hit the unenthusiastic irregulars who demonstrate how unhappy they were by being promptly pinned. But the presence of the field peice forced a blunder in the legion advance instead of concentrating the two cavalry units, arguable the best part of the force, they were split on the both flanks to avoid being grouped for the 75.  While the infantry was deployed in the centre trying to put as much terrain as possible between them and the 75.

Irregulars are pinned under fire I (really must paint up that pin marker)

In response the Tuareg irregulars refused to get back into the fight while more Tuareg arrived on the battlefield. Their cavalry deployed on their left flank while the tribal warriors concentrated on their right.  The legion infantry in the centre was looking at risk of the being encircled.

Camelry on the move

The battle broke down into two distinct skirmishes on the legion left flank the legion infantry with a troop of cavalry faced off against the tribal warriors support by the irregulars and the 75.  The Legion’s right the tirailleurs with cavalry support faced off against irregular and tribal cavalry units.

The Legion infantry and cavalry faced a fought fight.  They had problems hitting a barn on the inside and they had to score a lot of hits since there was a lot of tribals warriors coming their way. The presence of the 75 stopped the infantry from forming close order to give volley fire and improve their chances of repelling an attack.  As the warriors closed the firing increased and one unit got pinned. Sensing it was now or never the cavalry charged and pushed back the pinned unit. But things quickly turned. The 75 founds it range and quickly started to cut down the legion infantry. The warriors rallied and between the two units quickly showered the cavalry in spears decimating it. To add to misery the 75 finished off the legion infantry.

While the legion’s left flank was getting overrun the right flank was a more cagey affair. The french cavalry outnumbered two to one pluckley moved forward and skirmish with their counterparts trying to stay out of charge range while staying in carbine range. The results knocked a couple of tuaregs from the their saddles and pinned the irregular cavalry. Frustrated with the exchange the tribal cavalry charged the tirailleurs who had until this point be trying to move forward to somehow silence the 75.  The first unit of  tirailleurs was hit hard with half their number cut down and the remainder falling back pinned. The french cavalry charge the tribal cavalry and forced them back. The tribal cavalry quickly regrouped and charged the second tirailleur unit, again hitting it hard and forcing it backed pinned. To add to the pain the touareg irregular cavalry finally unpinned and moved to support.

Tuareg cavalry (camlery?) overrun the Trialleurs

The French attack was quickly descending into a French massacre.  The remaining French cavalry dug in their spurs and charged the approaching irregular cavalry, over a series of charges and countercharges they broke the unit.  The pinned tirailleurs rallied and desperately poured fire into the rampaging tribal cavalry who were conveniently pinned.  The tirailleurs kept shooting until the unit was destroyed.

With both sides holding a flank each the action pivoted to the centre. But the legion luck ran out. The cavalry charged a band of tribal warriors but was repulsed leaving them in the open. The 75 fired and destroyed the unit. With the cavalry gone the remain tirailleurs retreated

Overall it was a good game the legion were in trouble from the beginning and had a difficult task nonetheless it was still a tense fight.  The random force generate works but needs some fine tuning mostly when upgrades over write unit stats

That is all for now, thanks for stopping.