18th Century mini-campaign - Raid on Vestisle: Part 2 - Mainly about sailors

Two blog posts ago I gave the Introduction and first blood about our mini-campaign which culminated in a weekend of wargaming in mid August 2019. Please take a look at that post if you need a reminder, or have just arrived - welcome!

18th Century Special Forces or just an excuse for some fun?

You might recall that I said the British and Hanoverian Allies had a sort of wild card in an independent battalion sized unit of sailors which could be landed anywhere on the West, South or East coast of Vestisle Island and operate as light infantry. Ken chose to land them near the Chateau du Roi on the north-west tip of Vestisle and had given me the following instructions:

"..........initially tasked with locating and securing any prizes present around the Chateau du Roi. If circumstances permit, it may be possible to infiltrate them into Abrantes in the guise of Jacobite supporters. If successful, they should disable the battery pieces protecting the harbour (intelligence suggests that a magazine explosion would not come as a surprise to the residents). Volunteers to assist in this endeavour should be sought from the highland battalions with the expedition. – NOTE TO UMPIRE, just think Hornblower, Aubrey, Ramage or any of the other naval fiction from this era – you know you want to ☺."

Yes, indeed I did want to! Without me prompting him Ken had got the idea exactly that I saw these as a kind of 18th Century Special Boat Service and he had worked a background idea into the campaign for me to develop.

Guy had chosen not to have any of his characters nor troops at the Chateau yet both sides knew that this was the guest residence being used by Prince Charles Edward Stuart as his permanent HQ. Guy chose to have Charlie doing unseemly acts elsewhere on the island so I saw no reason not to allow the sailors a free hand. They landed at 5am in sea mist and took an hour (as per my rules) to sort themselves out on shore so by 6 a.m. I needed to roll a die to decide how long it would take them to work out there was nothing of strategic value at the Chateau or its neighbouring farm, and to loot what Royal valuables and farm livestock were worth taking. The answer was 3 hours and so they were stuck till 9 a.m when the next part of the plan could be enacted. Since there were only passive servants and a few farm hands present there was no need for any shots to be fired to alert anyone to trouble, so initially I gave Guy no clue there was a landing there.

What I did give to both sides, as I have said, is a series of situation report (sitrep) photo maps, and here is the one at the West side of Vestisle around 0900. The ones I gave to the players had key elements blurred when units were beyond their proper knowledge. Ken's sailors (B4) were blurred to both sides and under my GM control, but Guy was able to order the Abrantes Militia battalion (F3) to break camp on the Cime de Cassatte and march towards the Chateau to investigate that "mysterious red blurry blob" which I had tactfully made him aware of!

Ambush in Chateau Woods
Unwittingly this was falling into Ken's hands as this coincided with the time the sailors were free  to occupy the wood; they could see the Militia marching along the road and laid a trap. Time for a small solo game.... I had made them Superior quality though Standard Light Infantry for firing. The poor Militia were only Inferior quality. It was pretty predictable but nevertheless I wanted the dice to take their course and see what happened. Please follow the photo captions

I determined that the sailors were sufficiently disciplined not to spring the
 ambush early, so positioned the marching militia
where they were surrounded on both sides of the road

The Sailors were all still "under command" as the road was only 5cm wide

The Sailors are some of the superb new set from Crann Tara Miniatures sugar-islands-campaigns range
 (see more pics below)
The Militia are an eclectic mix from my days of French and Indian Wargaming - painted as Pennsylvania Provincials, now with an Imagi-nations flag

The first volley caused 3 hits. Not enough to stop the Militia but sufficient to
blunt their already poor performance ability

The Militia scored 6 for their Initiative, a Double Move!
Yes I could have retreated them but it served my campaign purpose better to fight on.
 So they formed line and attacked......

Not surprisingly, when the sailors had a chance for pre-melee fire they scored another 3 Hits and the Militia broke 

In the sailors' turn they were able to follow up with sufficient speed to catch every
fleeing base, which suited me. The resultant hacking resulted in 2 more Hits and
 nothing in return on the Sailors

Now with 8 hits, even under my Post Battle Attrition rules the Abrantes Militia could not survive, so it was an easy decision to say that by around 1030 they were about 50% killed and 50% captured with no one allowed to escape to tell the tale .....or so they thought.......

None of this was going to be known to Guy and Ken for some time so as GM, how best to convey the news, and when, so as not to unrealistically influence events?

This and the remainder of the photos are my Crann Tara 18th Century Sailors just photographed in my cabinet

Aftermath of the ambush(French)

As previously reported The Duc de Vestisle was busy in Abrantes Town Square organising the local Homeguard Citizens Militia and as its members had to come from far and wide I reckoned it would take till midday to fully assemble. But around 1000 am it was going to be obvious there was a lot of firing coming from Chateau Woods, so I told Guy and he asked for a volunteer to come forward from the citizens to ride to investigate and report back ASAP.

One Caporal Jeannes, an Abrantes Charcutier, stepped forward with a flourish. "I will go Sir! Just give me a fast horse and I will go sort out those rosbifs Your Honour! And if they give me any trouble I will use by bayonet and my sabre as they don't like it up 'em!   I was in the Navy in the War of the Spanish Succession y'know, Sir?"   So Caporal Jeannes was given a horse (all the fast ones had been commandeered already by officers) and set off through the North gate. 

Guy's response: His portly captain who is given to pomposity said something along the lines of ‘well done Jeannes, I was waiting to see who would spot that. Quiet Pyke or I’ll send you home to your mother’.

Fast forward a bit and Caporal Jeannes, using his hard earned scouting skills from the Boer War, took till about 11 a.m. to reach the battle site......
No more was heard from him till, back in Abrantes, a messenger found the Duc de Vestisle about 7 pm that evening, and said:

"Caporal Jeannes of the Abrantes Citizen Militia has appeared at the North gate badly wounded and much distressed. This is a verbatim account of what he told us.

“Your Honour, as I set off from Abrantes by horseback the firing in the Chateau woods died down. From the amount of smoke it was evident that the Abrantes Militia had met their match  in numbers.  Distressed figures emerged running from the smoke, Sir, then they were followed by men with  muskets, bayonets and cutlasses.  I knew that these were British sailors, your Honour, as I had fought them in the recent war for the Austrian Succession.

They slaughtered all the fleeing Abrantes men and I took shelter by a tree, or so I thought, Sir…but the devilish British had sneaked up on me Sir and shots rang out and killed my horse and wounded me. I crawled into a ditch and played dead.

They did not find me Sir and I peered up later only to see our brave fellows being marched off under guard towards the Chateau.

Don’t panic, Don’t panic! I said to myself! I did not panic, Sir, but had to wait till it got dusk and then crawled back in considerable pain to give you my report, Sir.”

Guy, (as the Duc) seemed rather unmoved by this dramatic account and carried on with his supper! I blame the rather good wine brought by a certain Mr Cummings :-)

Aftermath of the Ambush (British)
Meanwhile Captain Cochrane RN, in charge of the Naval contingent, had been very busy and wrote to his superiors with the result and intentions:

Message for the Duke of Marlborough’s Headquarters

From Captain Cochrane RN

(Delivered by Lieutenant Bradshaw RN)

Sir

Chateau du Roi 1100 10 Aug 1756

I am delighted to be able to tell you my battalion of the Royal Navy contingent has carried out its orders so far without a single loss.

We found the Chateau and farm undefended. The chateau was searched from top to bottom but no persons of Scottish royalty were found; there were merely servants and evidence of the Prince’s private quarters but no papers of any significance nor monies.

We lay in wait as instructed in the nearby woods and about 0930 a battalion of local militia approached by road. I had my men arranged either side of the road in ambush and their discipline was such that we did not open fire until the French were totally within our trap. Many were killed in the first volley but they attempted to charge us and so lost many more and the rest broke. But they were not able to get away as my sailors ran them all to ground and we captured probably 200 or so. As far as we know none got away to tell the tale.

I have had to allocate a company to guard them all in the chateau and farm.

My intention is to wait until dark and then approach Abrantes town with the remaining four companies and enough gunpowder to cause mischief if we can infiltrate during the night. Our French speaking Scots volunteers may be useful. My priority will be to silence the bastion battery and secure the harbour, beach and harbour gateway until relieved.

I base this partly on instructions and partly on intelligence gained from an “interview” held by Bosun “Bruiser” O’Halligan with a captain recently taken prisoner (see attached)

Any further instructions will be gratefully received and acted upon

Your Servant 

Charles Cochrane

Captain RN

(The Attachment to the letter) Following gleaned from “interview”:

• Abrantes is garrisoned by a battalion of the German Bentheim Regiment
• The church bells ringing at 0900 on a Saturday indicates that the citizens militia is gathering in the town square. This usually takes 2 to 3 hours as there are about 500 men from all around.
• Duke de Vestisle is likely to be there
• Prince Charles was last noted at Bellune the previous day and presumably night
• A senior official from the French treasury arrived on Wednesday said to be carrying a significant amount of gold for the Jacobite army. He did not know where it is stored but suggested some safe places are The Duke’s Residence, The Hotel de Ville,  the cellar of the Town Inn, or  the stone bastion casemates.
• A very prestigious force of French regulars, led by the Duc de Richelieu is due to arrive mainly in Abrantes in late afternoon with the aim of a joint exercise with the Jacobite Army on the morrow. However, plans might be changed due to the invasion!"

Lieutenant Bradshaw RN had a difficult journey - a fast boat from the Chateau landing stage to Cassatte harbour, which was by now well under guard from the German Jagers, then commandeering a horse to ride across country where the sounds of battle (see next part) indicated much action on the East of the Cime d'Abrantes where he eventually found the Commander in Chief about 3 pm. I asked Ken to write some instructions in reply and he was to make good use of this information for the next day's action.........but I'm getting ahead of myself.....

Our weekend of gaming had arrived and there was a big battle to fight!

NB These CT Miniatures are very slightly smaller than other 28mm figures in the range so be careful how you mix them. As you may see later on they got juxtaposed with big "28mm" Redoubt Miniatures" and it was not a happy union visually. But super figures in their own right and I will be using them for my next "pirate adventure" at Christmas.

Super scenario book for smaller scale SYW "colonial" games

Long awaited, I now have my copy of Stuart Insch's first self published wargaming book "Wargaming the Sugar Islands Campaign", subtitled "A Guide to the British Expedition to Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1759".

The book "does what it says on the tin", and very well too. Most of us know about the Seven Years War and the French and Indian War and have more books on them than we can ever read so why buy another? Well this one is an ideal adjunct for the experienced 18th Century wargamer with ready armies and a batch of armed civilians to call on, or for the newcomer who wants to start very small and build up. By taking little known contemporary accounts, analysing them as only a wargamer can, and giving you what you need to know but not too much, Stuart is making some new wargaming material available at a very affordable price. Oh! I forgot to say it is only £8.00, and apart from the history and a guide to making and painting the various units and regiments involved, contains 6 very user friendly wargame scenarios.

These are all a bit different and include varying techniques and some special rules too. They cover  the use of French and British regulars of various kinds, marines, sailors, artillery, militia, armed civilians and slaves and even a few plantation womenfolk. Better still Stuart has included a simple but effective way to link the battles as a small campaign.

There are no photographs (apart from the small front cover one) of Stuart's games in action, which is a shame as they are colourful and beautiful, but you can see some on his blog, such as this post sugar-islands-on-tour. The blog is also where you can order the book, via the message facility on the right hand side, and this post explains further now-available-wargaming-sugar-islands.

Each scenario has a lovely computer drawn map, using an approx 6 x 4 table format but Stuart points out that he is not prescriptive about scale or rules and he uses historical companies or similar sized groups which offers the player the choice of using just a few handfuls of figures per side or hundreds, depending on your taste and resources.

There are a few near contemporary illustrations and maps which are of moderate use, depending on your eyesight, but do add some atmospheric "colour". Among the latter I count my own humble contribution which came about like this.........

I'd been reading Stuart's posts on the "A Military Gentleman" Forum in early 2017 about these "sugar islands" and it seemed quite fascinating though I had plenty of other distractions at the time so thought not too deeply about it. That is until I exhibited my military artwork at the AMG Kenilworth meeting that June and Stuart and I found ourselves together facing hoards of Highlanders led by "Bonnie Prince" Purky at Falkirk.

Above and below: Stuart guards the British left flank and Jim Purky keeps right
on charging  till all his Highlanders are exhausted

Beautiful terrain by Graham Cummings. Wonderful Crann Tara figures by
Graham, and Guy Barlow.

As one does, the occasional lull in the game prompted conversation and Stuart broached the subject of me doing some drawings for his planned book. He piqued my interest by pointing out that it featured one Madame Ducharmey, a plantation owner, who armed her slaves and followers and led by example in the front rank!

Guided by Stuart I got to work with Mr Google and found a number of original references to the campaign and Madame Ducharmey although no description or age. It turned out Stuart and I both had in mind Delacroix's "Liberty leading the People, 1830" as a guide to what we were after, only fully clothed! So this is where we started:

It just happened that I was doing an informal art photoshoot with a friend who is a beautiful "mature" woman of Southern European heritage and I thought she would be ideal as the plantation matriarch yet still young enough, and fit enough, to (wo)man the barricades. I always protect the identity of my female models, so we called her Marianne, and I've promised not to use her face recognisably in my art.  She was excited by the prospect of dressing up and using many of my reproduction weapons to recreate various women in the plantation entourage - both pale and dark skinned. My research had shown several references to women in the plural in the fighting so we created about 4 or five different characters and dozens of poses with clothing, weapons, hairstyles etc and in the end poor Stuart had to rein in my enthusiasm and just four made it to the final barricade.

Marianne, in suitably sanitised photo for the blog,
takes up on my "barricade" one of the many
 differently costumed poses we tried.

I needed lots of men of course, especially as the other drawing was to be of French Marines and local 

militia ambushing a column of British regulars on a jungle path. I have a very gifted artist friend called Andy, who is a fine figure of a man with a neat moustache and goatee beard, who could pass for a Frenchman. and is slim a bit like a campaign-hardened 18th Century soldier. He was up for the challenge of taking on all the characters I needed, including the British, and sundry shots for other military projects, over several hours of photoshoot. Here are just a couple as examples. A plantation civilian with a pistol and a British regular on the receiving end of something nasty. 

With these and other paintings in mind I had acquired some authentic leather belt and shoulder worn cartridge boxes, infantry sword and belt, and a Charleville musket and bayonet. The waistcoat and water canteen are from my American Civil War re-enacting days. I also acquired a few large sized ladies coats very cheaply on Ebay and converted the cut to resemble 18th Century military wear. As I've said before, accuracy of clothing is less important since I can paint it how I like.

My method is to choose a suitable background and modify it in Photoshop and then cut and paste all the suitable figures I need from my photoshoot archives onto the background, placing and re-sizing each one till I get a satisfying composition. A print of the design is made and the whole transferred to the size of art I'm making. In this case quite small - about 7 inches x 5 inches since they were intended for publication in a small book. I then work the pencil drawing up in fine liner pen and shade with Indian ink wash by brush.  A rubber can come in handy and some "white" Indian ink too, and in combination you can fade out some areas and build up the smoke etc. It's stupidly painstaking but I wanted to do my best for a fellow wargamer who was working so hard for our pleasure.  I got paid for the originals but was still hoping the result would bring something special to the book.

While apologising that he's not a professional publisher Stuart has done his best to present the illustrations, but something has got lost in translation and in the printed book they have got squashed by the title. I'm disappointed and want to ensure purchasers can have a decent version so I'm publishing them here too.

Madame Ducharmey leads the defence of her plantation against the British, Guadeloupe 1759

French Ambush, Martinique 1759

I'm giving permission for those who have the book and wish a better copy to download them and print at a size to suit you. Others I hope you enjoy them, but the copyright remains with me so please do not repost etc without correct attribution to me as the artist and Stuart Insch for his patronage, and a link back to this post.

I've got lots of useful archive materials from these two photoshoots so if they inspire anyone to commission some drawings, or an acrylic or oil painting just email me to discuss without obligation. 

Buy the book - it's a good read and useful resource.