Another installment of my Cangames experience last weekend. I was commenting earlier on the great looking tables at the con this year and nothing will show this better than the Bombard and Bayonets game that I had the opportunity to play in this year. THE TABLE WAS F'ING OUTSTANDING!!!
Made by the same hand as last years Fort Beausejour (scroll down to midpost) and Fortress Louisburg (again, scroll down to midpost) from 2 years ago, my buddy Ed this time constructed Fort William Henry for our besieged entertainment. Again, another outstanding model and table put together for the game.
I'll let the pictures do the bulk of the talking...
Please enjoy the pics below...
Overview of the battlefield from the French lines...fort in the distance, trenchworks at the right, river on the left...
The French trenchworks facing the fort and gunline waiting to bring doom...
The French mainguns and their view over the battlefield...battered woods between them and the fort...
Overhead shot of Fort William Henry, looking towards the French lines...not suitable for sustaining a French barrage, the gun ports, pits, and citadel like structure made it a very good anti-infantry structure...
another view towards the French lines...
French allied forces prepared to go in by canoe if they have to...
another view of the French lines looking across their line with the fort to the left of the pic...
river view of the fort and battlefield...I couldn't get enough pictures of the table...very impressed.
Ever the striver of historical accuracy...Ed left a diagram of the fort to compare against his model...looks pretty convincing to me...
The British man their positions...guns up front facing the French
The French engineers confer over tea and tables...I'm sure they're discussing the latest Parisian fashions and geometry...
The French regiments march into position masked by the treeline from the British defenders
The Regiment takes to the trenchline...
The British man the ramparts on their left
The French engineers...engineer another section of trenchline and move the tabletalk to trapezoids and angles...
The French artillery puts some hurt to the fort...
The diggers continue ignorant of the cracks of artillery or sight of smoke and fires in the fort...
This was just a really cool shot of the battlefield...
The French engineers scream, "creuse les bâtards"...a second line of trench is dug and the earthworks are in place for the much anticipated French heavy mortars...putting the Bombards into...well you know...
The damned British!! Easily their best roll of the game...they destroyed the mortar emplacements before any damage could be rained down upon the fort...I guess this means we're in an infantry heavy fight...
The engineers, unphased, dig another length of trench...the French artillery succeeds in breaching the front of the fort...unfortunately only one section is breached...
The Regiment moves up...infanteers in the lead, grenadiers in the follow...
looking towards the fort...
The Regiment charges...the first company of infanteers is blunted by the fire of the defenders...this opens up the space for the grenadiers (the elite of the Regiment) to take the fight into the fort
The British defend heartily, costing many French heroes...
The Native/Indigenous allies tried to intercept messengers on their way to Albany...the British secured the maximum number of reinforcements...this would prove costly and definitely tipped the balance. Getting restless, the allies push a water assault on the fort flank...
The Regiment makes it into the fort, pushing hard past the casualties...French artillery continues to fire on the interior of the fort destroying an infantry blockhouse that was full of Rangers...
The Regiment command is taken prisoner, my Regiment has assaulted and laid the groundwork for further French victory...aka died gloriously to the last man...
Substantial damage was done to the fort...the front was breached, the gunline was destroyed, many defenders were killed...BUT the fort held...the bulk of the French combat power was spent...the lose of the mortars and the arrival of British reinforcements was impossible to overcome.
A well fought game, a great looking table...much fun was had.
2 comments:
Superb, thanks for sharing!
You're welcome Phil...I always enjoy sharing the pics, you know, when I remember to take them.
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